Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Cloudflare
“Diversity, inclusion, and equity are not things that are just nice to have; they are essential to the success of Cloudflare's business. The reason is simple. Diverse teams are more effective, innovative, and better positioned to drive growth, and without an equitable and inclusive working environment, our diverse teams won’t succeed.
Cloudflare's mission is to help build a better Internet, and in order to do this we need a range of perspectives and approaches. Since founding Cloudflare we set out to cultivate and maintain an inclusive workplace which empowers all employees to show up, as their full selves, and do their best work."
Matthew Prince Co-founder & CEO, Cloudflare
Michelle Zatlyn Co-founder, President & COO, Cloudflare
Cloudflare Capabilities
"Culture is defined by the behaviors you reward. We created the Cloudflare Capabilities so we could be open and clear about the behaviors that get rewarded at Cloudflare. They are the bedrock of our culture. We use them when making hiring decisions, evaluating performance or considering promotions. They are an important part of our DEI work as they provide the foundation to help build a more welcoming and inclusive culture where everyone can build the career of their dreams."
Janet Van Huysse, Head of People
Diversity at Cloudflare
Over the years, we've been working hard to better understand the makeup of our teams and increase our diversity. We are proud to have reached a point where we are ready to publish Cloudflare’s employee representation data and share how we are working to diversify our teams.
Below data is a snapshot taken on 15 November 2022
Overall Gender Identity
Agender, Bigender, Non-binary, Queer and Other
Feminine / Female
Masculine / Male
Leadership Gender Identity
Leadership: all director level and above positions.
Agender, Bigender, Non-binary, Queer and Other
Feminine / Female
Masculine / Male
Technical Staff Gender Identity
Technical Staff: all technical roles in engineering, network and information technology, all roles that require deep technical specialization and knowledge, as well as managers and leaders who oversee technical employees and the development and delivery of technical products.
Agender, Bigender, Non-binary, Queer and Other
Feminine / Female
Masculine / Male
US Overall Race/Ethnicity
American Indian or Alaska Native
Asian
Black or African American
Hispanic or Latino
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
Two or More Races
White
US Leadership Race/Ethnicity
Leadership: all director level and above positions.
Asian
Black or African American
Hispanic or Latino
Two or More Races
White
US Technical Staff Race/Ethnicity
Technical Staff: all technical roles in engineering, network and information technology, all roles that require deep technical specialization and knowledge, as well as managers and leaders who oversee technical employees and the development and delivery of technical products.
American Indian or Alaska Native
Asian
Black or African American
Hispanic or Latino
Two or More Races
White
Overall Age Group
Under 30
30-50
Over 50
Recruiting Programs and Initiatives
“We need to build winning teams. Winning teams are diverse teams.”
Scott Tomtania, Head of Recruiting
An important component of our DEI strategy is to grow a diverse talent pool for our opportunities. To do so, we have diversity Recruiting partnership programs with organizations to reach underrepresented groups, including the following and more:
Anita Borg for Grace Hopper Celebration
AfroTech
Pathway Oz: HBCU Smart Cities Challenge
We also support returnships through our partnerships to provide opportunities to mothers or people who have taken a career break to care for a loved one. Our partnerships include the following organizations:
Mums@work
Path Forward
In order to recruit employees of a broad variety of backgrounds, we must encourage inclusive recruiting practices. Cloudflare’s Recruiting team works closely with hiring managers to make job descriptions clear, detailed, welcoming, and inclusive. Hiring Managers also ensure that all candidates have the same experience and sets of questions asked/focus areas covered in their interviews so the process is fair and equitable for all.
To make sure candidates meet with a diverse group of employees, we always use interview panels within our hiring process. We recently developed an interview that focuses on the Cloudflare Capabilities, which pairs the candidate with a member from another team within Cloudflare and adds an even greater diverse perspective when it comes to hiring decisions.
Recruiting Education
Our interviewer training program provides a solid foundation in understanding the various topics which can impact inclusive hiring. This program is required for all new employees and will set them up for success when they begin interviewing for Cloudflare in the future.
We also have a robust training and coaching program for hiring managers that ensures they understand the full scope of our hiring process and what they can do to champion diversity and facilitate an inclusive hiring process.
Equity at Cloudflare
Our success also relies on a fair and equitable workplace.
Working towards reducing and ultimately eliminating the gender pay gap is just a part of this mission to which we are committed. We also undertake pay parity analyses based on career level and job profile as part of our various bi-annual salary reviews and correct any identified inequities.
We are aware that there is still work to be done to eliminate any pay gaps at Cloudflare, as well as across the technology industry. We are committed to improving the situation, and place the utmost importance upon equality for women, and all under-represented groups, in terms of like-for-like pay, promotion and career development.
To further demonstrate our commitment and hold ourselves accountable for making Cloudflare more equitable, we have signed multiple diversity charters, which focus on employee equity.
EU Charter: The declaration focuses on creating concrete steps to help shape an inclusive culture, which specifically targets gender equality. We have committed to implementing and promoting five specific actions to achieve equality of opportunities for women at Cloudflare and in the digital sector at large:
Instil an inclusive, open, female-friendly company culture
Recruit and invest in diversity
Give women in tech their voice and visibility
Create the leaders of the future
Become an advocate for change
UK Tech Talent Charter: The charter is designed to increase diversity within the UK tech industry, with the aim of achieving equal opportunity and representation for all employees. By signing this charter, we work alongside other companies towards a collective goal and commit to improving diversity within our sector through collaboration, knowledge sharing and contributing employment diversity data.
Germany Diversity Charter: We are now signatories of the Germany Diversity charter, and by doing so we have committed to building an inclusive culture for all - irrespective of age, ethnic background and nationality, gender and gender identity, physical and mental abilities, religion and worldview, sexual orientation and social background.
Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index
We believe that all employees deserve the opportunity to live authentically and thrive at work. We are proud to be one of Human Rights Campaign’s Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality!
Inclusion at Cloudflare
Without inclusive teams and a collaborative culture, the positive impacts of diversity will not be attained. We have fostered an inclusive culture through the development of employee-led communities, inclusion educational offerings, incorporating behaviors into performance and the review of our processes and policies for fairness and inclusion.
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
Our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are employee-led and company-supported groups of team members from underrepresented and/or marginalized identities or backgrounds, who join together in the workplace based on shared characteristics, life experiences, or initiatives. ERGs are generally based on creating a community of support and belonging; enhancing career development of their members; focusing on key Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives; and contributing to the development of a more inclusive culture at Cloudflare.
Read more about our ERGs and their mission statements on our blog.
Afroflare
Asianflare
Cloudflarents
Desiflare
Flarability
Greencloud
Judeoflare
Latinflare
Mindflare
Nativeflare
Persianflare
Proudflare
Soberflare
Turkflare
Vetflare
Womenflare
Inclusion Education
To help build a more inclusive culture, we offer several educational programs to our employees:
How We Work Together
These workshops build an awareness of the types of behavior and language which can be harmful to inclusivity at Cloudflare, and teach simple, everyday ways to support people who are targets of systemic oppression. Using the Cloudflare Capabilities as a framework, our goal is to share strategies on how to act as allies and how to create a long-lasting, inclusive culture at Cloudflare.
Unconscious Bias Education
Through multiple workshops and resources, employees explore their own unconscious biases, learn how to help mitigate unconscious bias in the workplace, and make our company a more welcoming and inclusive place for everyone.
Manager Diversity & Inclusion Goal-Setting
Our managers are positioned to make an impact, and we’re counting on them to help make our teams and Cloudflare more inclusive and diverse. To support them in this endeavor, we offer workshops to guide them through setting and achieving diversity and inclusion goals for their teams.
Antiracism Education & Action
In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd and many other people of color, the world experienced a great awakening to the deep-seated issues of inequities and injustice, especially related to systemic racism. Thanks to the 2020 leaders of Afroflare, our Employee Resource Group for employees of the African Diaspora, Cloudflare holds an annual antiracism conference. Through keynote sessions, multiple workshops, and antiracism resources, our employees come together to help make Cloudflare an antiracist organization.
tEQuitable Ombuds platform
tEQuitable is a confidential, 3rd party platform that helps companies create safe, inclusive and equitable workplaces. Their mission is to help companies create a work culture that is going to work for everyone. They provide an independent sounding board where employees can confidentially raise a concern, access a just-in-time learning platform, and get advice from professional Ombuds. tEQuitable also helps companies identify systemic workplace issues and provide them with actionable recommendations for how to improve their workplace culture.