Netflix exec says she feels 'very encouraged' about the state of corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion

• Vernā Myers, Netflix's vice president of inclusion strategy, spoke with Insider's Marguerite Ward about the streaming service's diversity efforts.
• The conversation at Insider and Dell Technologies' Workplace Evolution event also touched on the broader push for corporate diversity.

Netflix's vice president of inclusion strategy, Vernā Myers, said 2020 was a year of reckoning with systemic racism and the problem is" not going to change overnight."

Myers spoke Wednesday at Insider's Workplace Evolution event, presented by Dell Technologies, and touched on the state of corporate diversity as well as Netflix's own diversity efforts. In a webcast interview with Marguerite Ward, a senior strategy reporter for diversity and inclusion at Insider, Myers discussed how her colleagues dealt with the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed by police, as well as recent political violence.

Myers also shared strategies to "create a welcoming community" in the workplace. She stressed that Netflix's employee resource group process is "bottom-up;" employees come to leadership, rather than the other way around.

Myers stressed the importance of understanding the systemic nature of racism and exclusion. When asked about the biggest shift in diversity and inclusion in the past year, she responded, "The biggest shift has been the concept of systemic racism, where people are starting to recognize … that there is an entire system in which we are all operating which is unfair."

"This is not going to change overnight because it wasn't created overnight," she said.

Ward and Myers also discussed the nuances of not just recruiting a diverse workforce but also making an effort to create an equitable workplace.

"If you are bringing in difference and you haven't learned how to positively impact the company through difference, then those people are not going to find a sense of belonging and they're not going to perform at their highest levels."

Netflix has "committed to the long game of cultural change," she said. The streaming giant currently has a 20-person inclusion team working on coaching, training, and resource creation.

Earlier in January, Netflix released its 2021 Inclusion Report. Netflix is focusing on recruiting more Latinx employees and executives, Myers told Davis.

The report found that 46% of Netflix's US workforce and 42% of the company's leadership were from underrepresented racial or ethnic backgrounds.