Sauce Labs proudly embraces the values and actions of an inclusive workplace. We do it from an authentic place that aligns with our core values of Continuous Improvement and Respect Individuality, and because it is simply the right thing to do! As a global company with a workforce distributed over five continents, we know that inclusion is the key to enabling people of diverse identities, cultures, and beliefs to thrive and bring their full potential to work everyday. In this culture, respect, equity, and positive recognition of differences are cultivated, diverse voices are heard, and everyone feels valued.
Testing for Good
Inclusion is a Key Ingredient at Sauce Labs
Bringing this to Life at Sauce
Our Office of Inclusion & Sustainability has been created in order to make Sauce Labs a more inclusive, valuable, and sustainable business over time. In order to accomplish these positive changes to our business, our focus is on the creation, implementation, improvement, and scaling of activities in four foundational pillars. Each pillar aligns with Global Diversity Equity Inclusion Benchmarks which are widely used throughout the world to assist organizations in forming their Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Sustainability (DEIS) efforts and improving upon them over time.
CEO Action Pledge Signatory
How We Hold Ourselves Accountable
When our CEO, Aled Miles, became a signatory of the CEO Action Pledge in June 2021, we made a public commitment to do these four things:
- We will continue to make our workplaces trusting places to have complex, and sometimes difficult, conversations about diversity and inclusion.
- We will implement and expand unconscious bias education.
- We will share best—and unsuccessful—practices. We will commit to helping other companies evolve and enhance their current diversity strategies and encourage them, in turn, to share their successes and challenges with others.
- We will create and share strategic inclusion and diversity plans with our board of directors.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact
At Sauce Labs, our commitment to corporate social responsibility, Testing for Good, is built on three foundational principles that guide how we interact with our employees, our customers and partners, and the communities in which we operate.
Principle One
Approach to Corporate Giving
We think of our corporate giving responsibility as one of the ways that we can be a good corporate citizen of the world. We also work with our employees to enable them to donate to global nonprofits that align with their values. As a small but mighty global company, we take a very strategic approach to our giving efforts and choose to give in three ways: Topical, Situational, and Strategic.
With the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, Sauce Labs wanted to do our part. We have donated $20K USD total to the International Committee of the Red Cross Humanitarian Crisis in Ukraine Fund and to nonprofit organizations in Germany and Poland working on the ground to support evacuees. As the war continues, we’ve looked for additional ways we can provide support and funds to those in need. Our People Operations team updated the “redemptions” feature on our internal Employee Recognition system to include three new-to-us nonprofits where Saucers can use their accrued points to donate to support Ukraine.
Principle Two
Environmental Responsibility
We think of our environmental responsibility as another way we can contribute to both the sustainability of our business and the sustainability of the Earth on which we all depend. We put this belief into action by ensuring that all of our North American buildings are Green/LEED Certified either Silver, Gold, or Platinum.
For the first time in 2021, all employees were offered a choice: rather than receiving an end-of-year gift, they could choose to reduce their carbon footprint and have the gift’s monetary value donated to a vetted nonprofit that aligns with our corporate values and commitment to sustainability and positive social impact. We are proud that 34 percent of our employees opted to donate to 22 organizations! In addition, we seek to utilize fair trade certified vendors as suppliers where possible and to reduce the number of branded items that we purchase that are disposable, opting instead for reusable branded items, with a smaller carbon footprint.
Two of our Employee Resource Groups, Sauce Good Humans and OneEarth Environmental Action, focus their efforts on environmental concerns. While Sauce Good Humans works primarily on employee volunteering, one of their 2022-2023 main focus areas is Environmental Sustainability. So far, the group has organized three beach clean-ups, one in the UK and two in the US. OneEarth, for its part, created a Brighter Future Challenge for the month of April which encouraged Saucers to track and reduce their negative personal environmental impacts and culminated in participants sharing their results on Earth Day.
Principle Three
Ethical Responsibility
Sauce Labs’ ethical responsibility compels us to engage in fair business practices across the board—including treating all employees, stakeholders, and customers ethically and with respect. We believe strongly that we each have a responsibility to give back and make positive contributions to the world in which we live. We encourage Saucers to volunteer for the causes that are most important to them, and our open paid time off (PTO) policy enables this. We also believe in mitigating the negative impacts of bias throughout our organization to ensure that every Saucer has an equitable opportunity to succeed and reach their professional goals.
We have an ethical responsibility to work within our sphere of influence to leave the world better than we found it. In 2021, Sauce Labs partnered with IREX to support the Global Solutions STEM Challenge. Relevant STEM curriculum was utilized in the challenge to inspire students, including BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) as well as women and girls across both BIPoC and non-BIPoC communities. IREX concluded the first cohort of this challenge with its Virtual Science Fair, where bi-state teams of high school students from Maryland, District of Columbia, South Carolina, and Illinois pitched their innovative STEM prototypes. Over the course of ten weeks, students and teachers were paired across classrooms throughout the United States in a Virtual Exchange where they identified a community problem through community empathy interviews, ideated a solution, and created an innovative STEM prototype. Through this human-centered design process and virtual collaboration, the students both developed their innovation skills and increased their global competences and technical understanding of STEM. We are proud to have worked with IREX on this meaningful project to further the cause of digital equity & access for all.
To that end, we offer our technology free-of-charge to Code.org, and have been doing so for over seven years! We do this because encouraging STEM education and closing the equity gap in STEM is essential to the long-term health and success of technology companies like ours. We recognize that they are heroes already in the field doing the work to bridge the digital divide and contribute to digital equity, and we are proud to be a partner to them with the tools and capabilities that we can provide.
Our Employees are Empowered through Employee Resource Groups
Our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are voluntary, employee-led groups that serve as a resource for our employees and our enterprise as a whole by fostering a diverse, inclusive workplace aligned with Sauce Labs organizational mission, values, goals, business practices, and objectives. We recognize the efforts of ERG co-leads as being valuable to our enterprise and we demonstrate this by granting each co-lead additional stock options. Over HALF of our company has participated in ERG events over the past year (June 2021-June 2022) and/or is a member of at least one ERG.
SauceAbilities
Our mission is to support and foster a sense of belonging among Saucers of differing abilities. We aim to demystify and destigmatize disabilities through education and involvement, which will create a workplace that values individuality and embraces our differences.
Black and Bold
Black and Bold’s mission is to be a channel that promotes Black diversity, culture, inclusion, and belonging for all Saucers. We exist to give everyone the power to create, share ideas and information without barriers.
Sauce Good Humans
Sauce Good Humans is all about engagement in our communities through volunteerism. Our goal is to provide ideas and support for Saucers who are willing to give of their time and talents to benefit others, both locally and globally.
OneEarth
The Environmental ERG arose out of a common desire to find ways to help Sauce Labs grow as a sustainability leader, bridging strategic corporate goals with socially responsible environmental goals.
QPlus
We’re here. We’re queer. We’re Saucers! QPlus is committed to creating a workplace where queer Saucers belong everyday, allowing us to be unapologetically authentic (and queer) as we share our skills and talents with the world. Allies welcome!
Salsa Del Mundo
Salsa is a safe space to openly share our experience as members and allies of the Hispanic and Latinx communities. Salsa celebrates cultural appreciation and welcomes all who strive to create a world full of acceptance and inclusivity.
Synergy
We’ve created Sauce Labs newest ERG to provide opportunities for cross-cultural communication, understanding and inclusion with the mission to further strengthen environments where Saucers respect one another as individuals. Synergy is an historical and cross-cultural Global group of Saucers who aim to provide cross-cultural dialogue and storytelling through events, educational opportunities, and other workshops.
Womxn in Tech
WITS (Womxn in Tech at Sauce) is a group that supports and advocates for Women/Womxn-identified Saucers. Our programming includes events highlighting the achievements and impact of Womxn in Technology, skills training and mentoring programs to help our members level up in our organization and beyond.
Recent ERG Events & Activities
Black & Bold ERG holds a Juneteenth Trivia event on June 16. The competition was fierce!
106 Saucers attended our virtual session of the Power of Persuasion-Public Speaking Workshop with Deborah Shames & David Booth, hosted by Womxn in Tech at Sauce (WITS) Employee Resource Group
Black and Bold ERG Members meet up for first time ever at one of our hubs in Spring 2022 in Austin, TX
