At Zalando, our vision is to be the Starting Point for Fashion that is welcoming to everyone. Our Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) commitments are summarized in our D&I strategy, do.BETTER. One of these commitments is to create an inclusive workplace for our talents.
One of the ways colleagues come together to build a sense of belonging is through Employee Resource Groups (ERGs); voluntary employee-driven groups, created on the basis of shared identity or experience. ERGs help to amplify their members’ voices to inform leadership about the needs of their communities.
Currently, we have 11 active ERGs and, in this article, we take a look at the Black Employee Connection (BEC) by talking with Cassandra Pope, Principal Portfolio Manager, who has worked at Zalando since 2015. Cassandra is the founder and a core member of the BEC and walks us through the history and vision of the group and what it means to be a member.
Emo Rugene, who is also a BEC core member and an Assistant Buyer, also contributed to this article.
How would you describe the BEC?
The BEC is one of the ERGs, a safe space for Zalando employees who identify as Black. At Zalando, we define different types of ERGs, so initially, the BEC was more of a private space for Black employees to connect and share experiences from the corporate world, and now it is more of a public ERG that also contributes to the business by providing insights and driving initiatives.
The shift from being private to more public, occurred as a result of the murder of George Floyd in the US. After the death, we realized that we needed to drive collaboration on how to introduce racial and Black topics into the conversations in and about the workspace.
How did the idea of the BEC come about?
Well, officially, it started when I walked down the hallway and saw another Black woman. Working in a tech-adjacent role, this was my first realization at just how much of a minority I was within the field. I was so happy to see someone else who looked like me.
We connected and started meeting up with other Black women in the company on a monthly basis to discuss and connect on topics relevant to living and working as Black women in Berlin. We soon realized a similar community of Black men at Zalando existed, so we merged the communities and had our first collective outing in 2019 before applying to become an official ERG.
What does it mean to be a member?
In the BEC, we have a core team and a broader community. The core team is on average 8–10 community members who volunteer 10–15% of their time to drive BEC strategy and collaborations together with our senior leadership and members of the Diversity & Inclusion teams. We established the core team to specifically manage the shift towards connecting with senior leadership and driving initiatives in the workplace, in the summer of 2020.
For the broader community, the intent is to have a safe space. Within that community we focus on internal engagement by hosting quarterly BEC all-hands, sharing volunteering opportunities, mentorship opportunities, and other internal events. We also created smaller affinity groups based on interests like books, film, cooking, or sports.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s even more important for us to come together and be joyful to address burnout. In the next year, we want to create workshops about our overall goals, how we can get more recognition for our work, and align with other ERGs.
How do non-Black employees collaborate with you and practice allyship?
We have an executive sponsor in our Chief Business and Product Officer, Jim Freeman. In the past year, the core team met quarterly with him about progress, mutual feedback, and which topics he can help unblock or clarify for us.
We have a page on zLife, our internal social intranet, where anyone can follow the page and engage with the BEC on initiatives and opportunities we share, without being an ERG member. As a follower, you’ll be notified about updates on our work, communication and, in general, stay connected.
What advice would you give to other Black-centered ERGs in Europe?
Getting executive sponsorship and defining the intent of the ERG are key first steps. Even if it isn’t official yet, it helps to have a leader who can drive conversations and support initiatives at a senior level.
With regards to defining your ERGs purpose, do you want it to be a private safe space or a public-facing group that interacts with your company’s leadership? All directions are valid, but the latter would need a structure more similar to a program seeking official company recognition, which is what our core team does.
What is the most exciting project you’ve worked on?
An important milestone was publishing our Call to Action on our internal social intranet in 2020. This addressed what was happening in the world when it comes to Black people and proposed action points to bring those topics into Zalando. It was an important document that allowed us to engage with the wider company and several exciting projects were developed from the list of suggestions.
One of the projects I’m excited to see the long-term effects of, is our collaboration with the Afro-German Academic Network (ADAN e.V). This is an inclusive network connecting students, professionals, and companies for personal and professional development and influences topics affecting Black people of color and the African diaspora in Germany. The Zalando x ADAN partnership launched in March 2021 to promote the careers of Black and People of Color in Germany by offering them the opportunity to start their career at Zalando. The partnership highlighted how few Black and employees of color are in the company and connected with the wider German community to make Black and talent of color aware of the opportunities within Zalando — and what value an internship can provide. It’s especially important to raise awareness about the diversity of the roles in a tech company like ours.
Another initiative led to Zalando investing in and empowering Black-owned brands, especially when it comes to supporting them with marketing strategy and being onboarded onto the Zalando platform. Now it’s a company commitment to have 70 Black-owned brands onboard by the end of 2022 to contribute to our D&I commitment to ensuring a diverse partner portfolio.
You might also be interested in #BlackHistoryMonth: 6 questions with Dechase.
Where do you see your work having an impact on our colleagues?
My favorite part is seeing and hearing the impact that the community has on members. We tend to think about the sense of belonging as a small aspect, but I think it is really important that we can connect and empower each other in a company as big as Zalando.
I hope that what we’ve done inspires other ERGs to take similar steps to influence leadership and inspire new ERGs to be created.
There are so many benefits of being an inclusive workplace, both internally and externally. Zalando has the potential to bring change to the broader industry by being a key player in positively influencing our partners, brands, and other e-commerce businesses on the topic of diversity, inclusion, and equity.
How do we recognize contributions by Black people beyond Black History Month?
If you work at Zalando and identify as Black, come and join us. Don’t be scared to let your voice be heard. Let’s celebrate our joy and continue to build lasting connections.
If you’d like to know more about other ERGs and how we organize D&I initiatives, then please visit our Diversity and Inclusion hub here.
If you might be interested in joining a team at Zalando, then check out the open positions on our career site here.
