Swiggy’s idea of inclusivity involves every diverse group getting their ‘me’ or rather ‘we’ time, where they can freely share and discuss matters specific to their community. Let’s get to know more about the Swig-‘stree’ community from one of its core members, Nancy Nayak.
What was the inspiration behind creating this community? What is the importance of having such a community in an organisation like Swiggy?
Swiggy’s diversity and inclusivity journey was just starting, and we felt the need to create a women-oriented community space at Swiggy. The idea was to create a safe and friendly sisterhood-like community where women could share their experiences, queries, challenges, learnings, insights, and joys with other women. And through our discussions with global D&I leaders, we realised that fostering diversity and inclusion involved creating an exclusive space for people to interact with members of the same community.
Since we were doing this for women, it made sense to ask them if they would want such a community in the first place. After receiving a positive response, we launched a survey asking them what topics they would like the community to address. Analysing the responses and creating a program out of it took us one month, and in October 2022, we launched Swigstree.
Who are the key members of this community?
My former manager and ex-Swiggy employee Ritu Raj and I were the initial members who came up with the idea and took the first steps. But since we took the approach of shared-building, we were soon joined by a bunch of spirited women. A few names off the top of my head are Chief of Staff to the CTO Vidhya Seetharaman, Internal Communications Manager Soumya Shetty, Muskan, Ashima, Tanya Gupta, and many more. Each one of us contributes in our own way, leading one or multiple aspects of the program.
We consciously avoided the usual route of forming a committee, launching sessions, and roping people in. Taking a reverse approach, we first interacted with people, understood what they wanted, then launched a few simple activities, and then formed a community.
How has the Swigstree community evolved since its inception one year ago?
There are three pillars which guide the activities of the Swigstree community. Connect & Collaborate, Learn & Grow, and Influence & Impact.
In Connect & Collaborate, we’ve created a Slack channel where we conduct regular interactive activities. It mainly involves questions, polls, recommendations, thematic experiences, thoughts on a topic, and other such things to which community members respond with their answer.
In Learning & Growth, we have the peer-to-peer knowledge sharing program called Ubuntu, where one woman volunteers to conduct a session on a topic related to our work at Swiggy or something profession-related in general. Then there’s our mentoring session Mint, where Swiggy leaders, female as well as male, mentor grade eight and nine employees on career and work-related matters.
In Influence & Impact, we invite external speakers to take a session on chosen topics. We have Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions with the leaders. Then we have in person catch ups and activities during our quarterly Jamboree meets.
What challenges did you face in building and sustaining Swigstree, and how did you overcome them?
Since we didn’t have a set plan and were building the community on the go, we often found ourselves wondering what to do next. This challenge turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it encouraged members to come forth with ideas and lead initiatives. This made the community grow organically rather than following a predefined path.
Then another challenge was to quantify the impact and represent it in numbers. The purpose of the group was to create a space for open, useful, and meaningful conversations that facilitate individual and professional growth. We counted the number of sessions conducted, the number of participants who attended, and the number of interactions between the members. But what we actually wanted to know was how many members were being benefited and to what level. This metric showed itself in the form of stories rather than numbers. Like how people expressed their thanks to the group, what they shared in their interactions, how it made them feel, and other such intangible parameters.
What will Swigstree’s focus be going ahead into its second year?
We will continue with what has worked well and will look for new ways to add more value. The connection rituals and the mentoring program will continue, so will the Jamboree meet ups and Cookie Jar interactions. In the second year, we plan to increase the focus on solving real workplace problems faced by women, add a more practical angle to our activities, and develop more effective solutions that can be scaled across the organisation. We are also thinking of ways to launch initiatives outside the community.
