7 New Ways Cloudera Is Investing in Our Culture from Cloudera Blog

As Cloudera offices around the world continue to cope with the impact of COVID-19, we have worked hard to ease stress and adapt to remote working. People are the heart of our company and we’re investing in creative, new ways to make every Clouderan feel valued and appreciated. Clouderans are superstars at work and at home, and burn-out is unhealthy for employees, their families, and the company. Our plan is to adapt the amazing workplace culture we have at Cloudera to our new remote workstyle. 

Here are some of our recent initiatives geared toward supporting employees and reducing burn-out:

We’re Pledging to Be Good Colleagues

Toward the start of our work-from-home tenure, we developed a Cloudera WFH Code. It was designed to help us all rally around a common set of guidelines and rules that would help set the tone for WFH moving forward. We’re family first and people first.

We’re Unplugging

Starting at the beginning of July, we designated certain days as “Unplug days,” when employees are given the day (or in some cases multiple days) off to step away from work and do something to make their lives easier. That might mean pursuing a hobby, volunteering, spending time with family, or simply lying in bed and watching movies all day. With studies showing employees are working longer hours during this pandemic period, we need to make sure that Clouderans know that not only is it okay to unplug, we want them to. 

To date, Clouderans took off 10 Unplugged days between July and September, with 22 more scheduled between now and Spring 2021. We’re making the most of our time. One of the more inspiring stories I heard was from one of our Singapore employees. Her office is participating in Mercy Relief’s Ground Zero virtual run challenge to raise money for local communities affected by natural disasters. Over our last Unplug weekend, the team covered 55 km collectively and garnered $3,000 to donate to the cause.

We’re Taking Time off to Vote

Cloudera pledged to #MakeTimeToVote, as part of the Time to Vote initiative. We are actively encouraging all employees around the world to take the time off needed to become informed voters and participate in their community elections.

We’re Investing More in Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Efforts

Given the world climate around racism and injustice, and the spotlight on inclusion shortcomings in tech, we’ve doubled down on our commitment to D&I initiatives. Our new Chief Diversity Officer, Sarah Shin, is making speedy progress implementing these initiatives and getting them out to Clouderans. (And if you’re interested in fostering D&I within the workplace, we happen to have six new and open roles on her team.)

One of Sarah’s first initiatives was implementing Bias Busters workshops for 379 managers. These sessions shared tools and best practices our managers can use to identify and interrupt unconscious biases. We also had the pleasure of meeting with Dr. Mary Frances Berry, acclaimed activist, writer, lawyer, and professor, to discuss diversity in tech and Cloudera’s role in leading the way toward a more inclusive workforce. Our Equality Committee had direct one-on-one time with Dr. Berry while our CEO, Rob Bearden, had a compelling discussion with her in our recent Cloudera Now virtual event as well as at a company Town Hall. 

We’re Reinvigorating Our Creativity

Whether it’s through the free virtual Medicine for the Soul Yoga memberships we’re providing, our new virtual cooking class program, or the meeting-free days we offer each week, we’re committed to helping Clouderans spark creativity. We each de-stress, find motivation, and thrive in different environments. The ability to choose is what’s most important. Plus, many of us will pick up a new hobby in the process.

We’re Communicating

This year, we launched a new weekly e-newsletter, Thriving Together, to keep our employees connected to the company and each other. Each issue features a Q&A with a Clouderan, highlights virtual events, links to employee (and world) news, shares work from home tips and articles and offers some levity for the workweek. My favorite section? Cool Things Clouderans Are Up To. I love learning about the creative ways our employees are connecting with each other while apart.

We also launched a monthly manager newsletter. It keeps our leaders up-to-date on company initiatives and shares ways to support their team – and themselves – while we all learn how to navigate this 100% remote work world.

Plus, we’re extraordinarily active on Slack. With channels for everything from dad jokes to pets to solo quarantining, we have something for everyone, and we’re seeing a high level of engagement across the board.

We’re Volunteering

While we traditionally have one Global Day of Service each year when employees have the day to volunteer and give back to their communities, this year we had three. The 2020 theme was Embracing Different Perspectives, and we provided Clouderans with multiple online opportunities to learn, volunteer, and give back. We were also able to participate in important conversations with leading nonprofits tackling the thorniest local and global issues.As we keep our fingers on the pulse of our company culture, we continue to roll out new initiatives to help meet our employees’ needs. We’ll continue to invest in emotional, mental, and physical well-being and keep our workplace culture at the forefront as we move forward, together.

To learn more about our commitment to diversity and inclusion, take a look at our CEO Rob Bearden’s blog post on the topic and stay tuned to hear from our new CDO Sarah Shin later this month.

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