Diversity and Inclusion

People first

Where we stand

Let’s clear the air. When a business talks about diversity, it can feel forced. At Zendesk, we try to keep it simple. Diversity and inclusion are more than buzzwords, and bigger than the bottom line.

It’s about our people knowing that they’re valued where they work.

Open to all

Employees at Zendesk work hard to build a culture where everyone belongs. Employee Resource Groups play a vital role in creating communities that bring us together and ensure we feel supported at work. We’ll let them speak for themselves—here are their mission statements.

Global Veterans Network

The Global Veterans Network celebrates veterans in and out of Zendesk. Collectively, they guide veterans transitioning into the workforce with professional training and coaching opportunities.

Mosaic

Mosaic is a collective that encourages people of color at Zendesk to embrace and celebrate their differences. Mosaic works together to create a safe space to openly discuss personal experiences, build stronger networks, and provide professional growth opportunities for members and allies through mentorship and peer connections.

Pride

Pride ensures that all LGBTQ+ employees are valued, seen, and supported. Their mission is to invite awareness and inspire their coworkers to create space for the Zendesk LGBTQ+ community. Pride actively promotes diversity in events, and creates partner events, company policy initiatives, and educational opportunities.

The Village

The Village connects parents and caregivers at Zendesk. Their mission is to provide a support system to employees who juggle balancing work and parenting or caregiving. Whether an employee is transitioning back from parental leave, raising little humans, or caregiving for a loved one—this community is here to lend a hand.

Women at Zendesk

Women at Zendesk celebrates women at every level of their careers. WAZ builds a foundation to support women to achieve their personal and professional goals. Efforts include collaborating with recruitment to extend the pipeline to seek qualified women for roles across the company, and working with organizations that uplift women in each office.

Women in Engineering

Women in Engineering champion and create a space where women engineers can meet and build supportive relationships with each other across each office. Their mission is to develop a community where employees can collectively use their talents to improve, innovate, and contribute to their success as engineers.

Bridge

The Bridge supports and provides a space for employees over the age of 40 and their allies. Together, this community strengthens the connection between generations. The foundation of this group is built on four fundamental values: gather, learn, share, and give.

Whole Self

Whole Self brings employees together to learn, understand, and share their stories about mental health, neurodiversity (ADHD, OCD, ASD, etc), and physical disabilities. As a group, they offer helpful resources, and serve as the champions for inclusivity in our products, and employees in areas like design, experience, functionality, practices, and work environment.

Zendesk by the numbers

Our representation today

The reality is our whole industry struggles with representation, including us. This is our starting point to see where there’s room for improvement. We’re strengthening the talent pipeline and beginning to incorporate diversity and inclusion efforts with our Recruiting, Total Rewards, and People Development teams.

Global company numbers

% by gender identity

Male

60%
Female

37%

Global leadership numbers

% by gender identity

Male

58%
Female

40%

Global Tech Numbers

% by gender identity

Male

75%
Female

22%

年齢

% by age

0～29人

26.5%
30～39人

50.8%
40～49人

17.2%
50以上

5.1%

メモ：

All workforce data as of December 31st, 2020.
Ethnicity refers to EEO-1 categories.
Leadership includes director level or above.
Due to rounding, some figures don’t total 100%.

Zendesk classifies “tech” employees by job role. Technical roles are those that rely heavily on knowledge and skills in areas such as engineering and mathematics to support the business. Examples include roles in data science, software engineering, and product management.

We recognize that our current data is limited in that gender is presented as a binary. We know that gender identity isn't binary and will explore how to better reflect this moving forward.

Unconscious bias

We all have unconscious biases—and people we work with have them, too. At Zendesk, we’re taking steps to navigate and acknowledge them.

To make this happen, we launched learning labs in every office to offer in-person working sessions available to all employees. The sessions provide employees with the education and resources to be more aware of unconscious bias, and learn strategies to mitigate them in the workplace.

Mentorship

Getting a foot through the door is just the first step. To further advance the skills of our employees, several mentoring programs have launched to provide professional development and support career growth.

Everwise

provides career mentorship to protégés looking to achieve their professional goals. The program connects employees with external mentors, resources, and peer networks to help them be more productive in every stage of their career.

Illuminate

is a two-day leadership development program for early-career leaders. People Managers get together across our global offices to learn additional leadership skills and ways to put their new skills into practice at work in this collaborative community.

Women at Zendesk

launched an internal three-month mentorship program connecting women at Zendesk. The Women’s Mentorship Programs pairs mentors and mentees together to share their experiences, learn from each other, ask for advice, and inspire development in their career path.

Mosaic

hosts a speed mentoring event every quarter to provide employees with the opportunity to expand their professional networks, ask career development questions, and receive advice from people in leadership roles.

Our global impact

Where we work is a big part of how we work — we want to see positive change in our neighborhoods, too. To lend an extra set of hands, we partner up with organizations to help shape, educate, and drive progress beyond Zendesk. Here’s just a few.

Our partnerships and sponsorships