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