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