Kasasa?s Stance On Racial Injustice ? And What We Plan To Do About It

Kasasa stands with the Black community. While we recognize that ours is not an authoritative voice at this moment, we wanted to let you know how we are handling the issue of racial injustice internally. Here’s a note we shared with our Spartans (which is what we call our employees)...

Spartans,

This email is late in coming – we on the Patch Committee and Executive Team apologize to each of you for that. The societal discussion around Black Lives Matter, racial justice, and the addressing of systemic police brutality is fraught with conflict and emotion. It is a difficult problem to solve but the determination of right and wrong is quite easy. The systematic racism that exists is simply wrong in every way and we as Spartans oppose it with every ounce of our being. That said, we also know that we don’t know everything so we have tried to take time to listen, learn, and plan a suggested roadmap to ensure every Kasasa employee and team member feels heard, seen, and supported. We intended to avoid a knee-jerk reaction or publicity stunt — you deserve sincerity and meaningful action, nothing less. We’ve been developing a plan of action, and we should have notified you all as soon as that started.

Let us be clear. Systemic Racism is real and Kasasa is committed to being a force of opposition to this wrong-headed way of thinking that should have been purged from our society centuries ago. We are an anti-racist, inclusive, diverse company that is striving to equity.

If you take nothing else away from the rest of this communication, please remember this: Kasasa is committed to the emotional and physical safety of all employees, to sustaining a workplace that creates value because of its diversity and parity, to being a leader in the support and promotion of employees who are Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color, and to dismantling any obstacles that obstruct a just and honorable corporate culture.

We want you to send us your input on how Kasasa can do better.

We know that many of our employees are hurting right now in ways that are virtually impossible for other employees to imagine, so we’d like to hear your suggestions about the steps we can take to honor and better leverage the diversity of our company. That’s why we’re asking you to submit those suggestions in writing. Every email will receive a “yes+when” or a “no+why” response.

Additionally, we will be holding a Reverse Town Hall with a Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) moderator – invite forthcoming.

We’re bringing in a D&I expert to facilitate thoughtful, respectful conversation around this difficult topic to help identify areas where meaningful change may be needed. It’s not just support of Black and POC employees that’s needed - white employees, particularly people leaders, will be provided with opportunities to educate themselves so that they can be good allies; to hold space, be led, and to make sure we are not acting, but instead listening.

Based on your suggestions and the Reverse Town Hall, we will develop a long-term D&I plan, and will publish that publicly after we have ironed out the details.

We have always been a culture of transparency. Aside from sharing our plans within Kasasa, we will make a public statement with our commitments toward making Kasasa a safe, equitable culture where any traces of racism are actively replaced with honor, respect, and the Patch Value of Love.

If you have concerns about this process and don’t feel comfortable voicing them to the Patch Committee, feel free to reach out to an HR representative, and they’ll relay the message.

Patch Love,

Your Patch Committee (Kasasa’s employee-led group that, with executive support, is the bearer of company culture.)

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