Stephanie Mehta: Welcome, Anjali. I’m so glad you’re here with today.
Anjali Sud: Thank you, it is great to be here.
SM: Vimeo, you lead a workforce of 1,300 people worldwide — you have creatives, you finance people, you have technologists. So I’m going to start with a really question: what was it like to manage this diverse workforce through a global pandemic, racial reckoning and a very fraught return to office?
AS: Oh, was a breeze, Stephanie. No, it was really challenging. You know, I think the constant has been change. And as a leader, you — you have a workforce that’s looking for certainty, and they’re looking to control what’s around them. And I think what we all found, as leaders, no matter what company you … responsible for, was that you couldn’t offer certainty, you couldn’t always control the environment and the things you. And so, you know, for me, it was really agility. How do we stay flexible as a team? do we communicate in real time and keep people informed we try and move through things? And then, also just how do we with more humanity? You know, for Vimeo, one of the things I’ve learned over the last few years is we each the world so differently. We have employees who are remote. have an incredible team in Ukraine … employees who are on front lines, who are literally at war. On the other hand, you people in different parts of the world who are experiencing mental-health challenges or burnout, and so think it was really just — the hardest part was not being to give everyone certainty, not being able to just apply a one-size-fits-all rule for everyone. I ultimately think it forced us, as a company, build more trust, because to be agile and flexible, and to lead with humanity, have to trust each other. And so, I’m sort optimistic that actually we’re emerging from this time with culture that is more flexible and nimble, and also, hopefully, more trust.
SM: Can you give an example of that you put into place, perhaps during the pandemic, to enhance communications or build trust create a greater sense of community or even to communicate that there no certainty, that is a muscle that you think you’ll continue to use in the far into the future?
AS: There’s a couple of things that we did. One — and we are video platform, so I obviously have to talk about video, but mean this sincerely — one of the hardest parts, when you’re all sort of disparate, is lose context and you lose nuance when you communicate. And we did make a concerted effort to away from email and chat, text-based communication, as much possible, and actually try, particularly for our leadership team, when were communicating, to do it with your face, and your and your body and your emotions. And we did that through streaming a lot of communications, recording a lot of videos. We sent asynchronous video messages. I send … I record my screen and just send note out to people. Every new hire does a video welcome and introduce themselves. A lot of our meetings we’ve actually replaced with quick video presentations. And actually, what that really did allow the humanity and the context to come through I think that helped us a lot to, kind of, stay close. So that was one, think, really important thing.
Another important thing is, I think, just creating to make it easier to talk about when things aren’t working, because a critical of being agile is recognizing we have an area that isn’t working. so one of the things that we do at is we try — I do this in all my town halls, we do it in a lot meetings — is always talk about what’s working, what are top three things, and what isn’t working — yet. And we’ve kind of created, think, a framework that sort of takes the stigma from talking about what’s not working. And when you that normalized and comfortable for people, I feel like it’s allowed us to be more open, an organization, about what do we need to change, what do we need to pivot. both of those, being more video-first in our communication and being transparent and normalizing what’s not working, I think has been really helpful, certainly something we’re carrying forward.
SM: I love that about being video-first. So many of our members of workforce live in a video world. They’re used to video a means of communication. Which brings me to my next question. You’ve about how the organization has changed. How do you see the workforce changing? What is different with the millennials, and even, now, the first wave of Gen Z coming into the workplace?
AS: think it’s incredibly different. And, you know, one of things that we think about at Vimeo a lot a lot of the mechanisms and communication modes that we use today, they’re really antiquated. They were designed for a totally different environment and a totally generation. But I see a lot of differences. One of them, I think, is line between your personal life and work life is definitely blending. … If you think about personal life — look at TikTok. This generation is used to consuming content, learning, engaging, in a very way. And if they then have to come to work and to be trained on a job, a 300-page manual? Like, it’s not going to happen, right? if you miss the meeting, and you have to watch Zoom recording of a three-hour meeting — that’s just not going to happen. so I think that there is definitely sort of this — know, we talk about the “consumerization of enterprise.” Those just fancy words for saying the way … we communicate and interact in our personal is going to translate to work. And so I definitely that’s an area of opportunity.
The other thing I see from sort of the generation, the generation coming into the workforce, is sort of, of mission-driven, but I think there’s a desire to really understand “why” behind things. And one of our communication mantras is never talk about the “what” without the “why.” And I think there’s desire to — the idea that, well, there’s a hierarchy, or “My boss me that this is what we’re going to do” or — that, I think, increasingly moving away, and people, they don’t just want to something because someone with formal authority told them to do it. They want to it because they understand why it matters, why it to the mission. And I think that that forces to really bring more of the “why” into how we communicate motivate people.
So those are two of the things I see, and then, you know, third I think is just flexibility. I think — and this is true of all us, but particularly the younger generation — I think they’re looking flexibility and they want options and choices. And it’s not easy and feasible to provide ultimate flexibility, but this is where I try and orient it more agility. How can we have approaches and principles and be to things, but also know when to question, and to actually pivot?
SM: Yeah. Anjali, can you share few examples of ways that you at Vimeo have tried really be proactive when it comes to addressing or understanding what your next of employees are going to want, either in terms of purpose or in terms of benefits in terms of flexibility? Are there programs or processes you’ve put in that really speak to this big sea change we’re seeing in of values from the workforce?
AS: Firstly, of course, it’s all about listening, right? I think, like many organizations, the way we’ve tried listen and understand our workforce is very similar: it’s and As and engagement surveys, and things like that. And of the things that we’ve done, we have a people and culture NPS, net score, the same way we have for our users, for our teams. But I would say one of the things that we’ve really tried to do is appreciate when we get inputs from our employees, 1,300 employees … you can’t at the averages. You can’t look at it all totality and try and pull out an obvious “Oh, is how everybody’s feeling.” Because what you actually — when really dig into it and truly listen and do focus groups and talk people — what you’ll find is actually there’s very different experiences and among your employees. And so, I think for us, we’ve really just tried to do is have a bunch of different listening mechanisms and then resist the to conveniently pull, like, “Oh, this is what everyone’s feeling, let’s just do this thing the action.” And it’s hard, and we’re still kind of it out, but I will tell you, some of the things we’ve heard from employees have changed our approach to hybrid work travel or even things like our approach to compensation or our approach to DE and I. I think it’s more just like I said, that agile listening, constantly really understanding what’s happening, but treating everything as, like, an average or the same. And for us, it’s been stark because we have offices and teams in so many countries and the differences, they’re substantial. They’re really substantial, about the way we different things. And we used to have a very, of, “One Vimeo” global approach in the name of consistency fairness, and what we found is we have to more localized. We really do. We have to design mechanisms support our teams in a very different way, because their and the world around them is quite different.
So think that’s definitely been one, and I will tell you, it has involved a lot — as an executive team and leadership team — it’s a lot of trying things, it not working, and them. And a great example is our Q and A. feel like every leader I know has a perspective on whether they do open Q and A or Q and A, or real-time Q and A. We’ve changed our approach there times, and I know we will again, because we’re still figuring out the right way to listen and a dialogue with a very diverse workforce.
SM: I want to stay on to the workplace for just another moment, because another I hear from CEOs of my generation and older is a concern about making that we are not just providing our youngest employees with flexibility and the purpose that they need, but also the training and wisdom that comes, oftentimes, from being in close proximity to a mentor or to who’s done the job for many more years. What your philosophy and take on making sure that knowledge transfer is happening?
AS: think it’s a major challenge that I don’t know that will sort of have a solution for. I think about all the time. We have a very distributed workforce at Vimeo. We have people in eight countries. My executive team is entirely distributed. So I’ve really realized the benefits being able to have a distributed workforce and being able to attract talent and be more inclusive. On the flip side, there’s definitely, I think, a lack of same kinds of learning opportunities and mentorship, particularly for the youngest folks that are the workforce. So I think it’s a challenge. One of the approaches that we’ve taking, and what’s sort of nice, is we’re modeling it at the top. So my entire executive team is distributed, that means I have learn how to provide real-time feedback, mentorship and development for a whole set of new executives have just joined. We have sort of changed up executive team almost entirely in the last twelve months. So I’ve had to with the same challenges. And we’ve had to literally — we call our operating system — we’ve had to design an operating system, as executive team, for how we’re going to work together in environment. How do we share real-time feedback? How do we create right communication loops? And so I think, from my perspective, it’s more we have to be to do it ourselves and model it and then, I think it’s a more proven mechanism young people. I will say, like many companies … I do that in-person collaboration is really important for learning. We do have — we people into an office. If you’re remote, we ask folks come in and spend time in a room with their team, do social activities, all those things. I don’t think they will go away, nor I think they should. But, you know, candidly, it’s an area I don’t think we’ve really figured out perfectly and I think it’s really critical that as leaders, we that, so that this next generation is able to get the same growth that we all had.
SM: Well, and it’s interesting — tools that you mentioned at the very beginning of our conversation, around video, can be really there. I’ve heard of a number of organizations that have encouraged their young people to present, as a way of having to go and find the information they need. And then, because have video tools available to us now, you know, they have an opportunity share their ideas with a large group of people, first, kind of going through the fact-finding and the research, and then sharing ideas. In an earlier comment, you talked a little bit about mental illness the different things that people are bringing to work, whether it is, you know, exhaustion, burnout. During Black Lives Matter protests, we had a lot of people coming to office feeling trauma, and feeling really personal issues bubble to surface. I’m wondering if you can share a little bit about how you deal with increasing personal — you know, when people bring their selves to the office, which we encourage, sometimes, they things, parts of themselves that are challenging.
AS: Yeah … I’ve thought the responsibility of a leader is to empower people to do best work and the responsibility of a company is to empower people to do their best work. And so, of course, we have a real role to in supporting things like mental-health issues or burnout. And, you know, the way I think, like companies, the way we initially probably sought to do that more, you know, you’re seeing a problem and you’re reacting by trying to provide mental-health resources support or time off. And, I think — and empathy, just empathy. think that’s really important. And I always say, to so of our managers … just care. If we just care, a lot of things get easier. You don’t have design a hundred mechanisms if you just have the right people in place who care. the same time, I will say what we’re realizing now, in sort of this phase, is that that’s a reactive approach and actually the root cause — we can control at Vimeo — the root cause of a lot of stress burnout is sometimes people either don’t have enough … focus, we’re asking people to do too things or they don’t feel like they’re supported in doing those things. that, I think, is actually where we should be spending more time — how do we actually set the right prioritization and focus. There’s some issue there, right? There’s a cause there that’s a “Oh, I feel like I’m because there’s too much going on. I don’t feel equipped to solve it.” Then, we should get into “What is the detail there, and do we need to do differently?” And, you know, one of our themes at this year was “Do less, better.”
SM: As the economy to, maybe, move sideways, do you think that there are going to be who say, you know, “Out with all of this touchy-feely, the workplace-as-a-family stuff. are my results?”
AS: Absolutely. I think the pendulum has already swung clearly. I mean, I work in SAS, software as a service, so we already went from “growth at cost” to “profitability,” you know, pendulum swing. My perspective on — and it hasn’t changed — I think the best leaders cultures deliver results and treat people well. And I think, if you treat people well, with kindness and empathy, will get better results. And so, you know, for me, I think what I observed the last few years is — that part, I think, hasn’t changed shouldn’t change. There were, I think, a lot of times when companies, we did things because maybe was lip service or we felt pressured. And that’s not going to sustainable. But that’s not what — ultimately, that’s not what people need, any case. So, you know, I sort of see it as — the way channel how you are caring towards your employees and you are empathetic, always should be in service of helping people do their best work, which deliver results, which will be good for the bottom line. And you have believe that. You have to be committed to that and if you use that consistently in your decision-making, should not be a trade-off. These are not mutually things.
SM: Anjali, how have you been taking care of yourself during this period of tremendous and change, but also growth? You mentioned you just had a baby. There’s a on your shoulders. How, as a leader, do you practice some self-care or do you make sure that you’re getting the balance you need to be the most effective leader can be?
AS: I think — recently, the phrase use a lot to myself is “two things can be true, both can true.” I say this a lot. And for me, think of it as, like, “This job is hard, and it’s gotten harder.” We went public the height of the pandemic and last year, market has been tremendous. You know, we’re obviously going through a ton with post-pandemic, we a team in Ukraine going through a war — these things that have happened. And so, it’s a job, and it’s an incredibly privileged job. It’s a gift, right? And so, I think for me, it’s of acknowledging both of those things has helped me a lot. The way I’ve tried to kind lead, has been — it’s always been this way, which is, me, it’s I have to have passion. I have to have passion. I have to believe so that what Vimeo is doing is important and matters for world. And if I have passion, I have energy and I will — I can kind of move through anything. I have to find joy in my team. I like, especially in hard times, I look back at my career and actually, some of my fulfilling times in work were when — in the hardest business situations. it’s because it brought a group of people together all on one team, and so I that’s been, you know, a really big part of it. then, yeah, like, you have to be a little sometimes, and take care of yourself. And I am fortunate. I think I have a great support network me and I do … My husband and I a deal, where on Sundays, I disappear for a couple of hours. I just disappear I walk around the city and I listen to my music and do whatever I to do, and that’s really important.
SM: So you about how hybrid work is going to look very different in the future than how we it today. It’s basically in office a couple of days, work from home a couple of other days. Tell a little bit more about what you could potentially see that evolving into.
AS: I think idea of an office as a time and place completely goes away. I think it’s really going to be people are to want to work from anywhere, anywhere in the world. the concept of where you’re located is going to change. And then idea of like “I’m going to work on this time zone” “I’m going to attend this meeting that’s scheduled on this date” — I that’s going to go away. And I think what you’re going to find is more and more work, particularly knowledge workers, is going to be done anywhere, anytime. Communication and collaboration happen asynchronously and we will be using tools and technology — it’s video, whether it’s AI — to basically enable that at among many people, anywhere in the world. And then think leadership, leaders are going to look different. Because I it’s going to require — if you think about the skill set to be a global 30 years ago versus what that will require now — I think in the future … skill set is going to be like, “How do you communicate with diverse, audiences and employees across time zones in a way that is effective, that provides and alignment at scale? How do you organize programs, whether it’s compensation, whether it’s, know, training?” All of that is going to look very different. But think the ultimate thing you’ll see is just … there were these that we’ve lived with, whether it was time or place or budget, some cases. And I think those constraints are going go away. And the promise is that if we are flexible and smart and we use in the right way, that we’ll actually come away a more evolved and efficient workforce.
SM: Well, I think just showed us some of the passion that you’ve talked about as being the that gives you energy to lead that organization of 1,300 people worldwide. Anjali, thank you so much for being today.
AS: Thank you. This was great.