2024 Inclusion at Hudl Report

Sep 04, 2024

12 Min Read

This annual report reflects our 2023 employee demographic data, our commitment to curiosity, experimentation and growth on our DEIAB journey, and our path ahead.

Our Journey

Inclusion is at the very core of Hudl’s mission to give every athlete the shot they deserve. We believe that every athlete, regardless of their background, deserves the opportunity to succeed—and achieving that goal starts with our team. That's why we're committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome, respected and empowered to reach their full potential. Whether it's through our innovative technology that levels the playing field, our diverse and inclusive workplace culture, or our efforts to support underrepresented communities in sports, we're dedicated to giving every athlete their shot. Because we know that when everyone has the opportunity to thrive, we all win.

Hudl’s diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility and belonging (DEIAB) journey is one that has been marked by wins and misses, as documented in previous reports (2021, 2022 and 2023). But our end goal remains the same: to build a culture of inclusion at Hudl.

Our Values

Hudl’s core values serve as a guiding philosophy for all of our actions, including those related to inclusion:

We play to win by being disruptors and pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone. We strive for growth that’s socially responsible and leaves the world better than we found it.

Our intentional habits help us to win together as we break down barriers to participation and belonging. All Hudlies enter a workplace that’s welcoming, and has a strong foundation of trust.

When we thrive on the front lines, we consider the lived experiences of others to build better products for our customers and better experiences for our Hudlies.

When we listen intentionally, we ensure diverse voices are represented in the products we build and the decisions we make.

When we're respectfully blunt, we lead by example and we can generate critical conversations that build each other up in the process.

Our Demographics

Overall, there were no significant changes in our demographic data year over year. In 2023, overall employee growth slowed, and all-time low turnover rates resulted in very few changes to our demographic data.

We continue to face demographic data collection challenges outside of the U.S., so it’s noted where data is from a U.S. perspective. Despite these challenges, we remain committed to gathering as much data as possible. Analyzing it helps us be more aware of our current makeup, our progress toward demographic aspirations, and allows us to make the most informed decisions possible.

Gender

This section summarizes Hudlies’ gender identities with pivots focusing on general role/job family (technical, operations and go to market) and 2023 hiring activity. In 2023, we saw an increase in the number of women at Hudl, but not in the overall percentage. Hudlies identifying as women represent 28% of Hudl’s overall workforce.

The total number of employees identifying as women has remained predominantly flat since 2020. However, the technical space continues to make incremental annual progress. Operations continues to have the highest percentage of roles filled by women.
Women's representation at the managerial level in 2023 stayed consistent with the patterns from 2022. Women at the VP and individual contributor levels match Hudl’s overall representation, while women at the manager and director levels are slightly below Hudl overall.
In 2023, we hired more women than our current population. However, more women exited the company, particularly in Sales and Support, slowing our overall progress. 32% of all 2023 product hires were women, up from 23% in 2022. Sales saw a similar increase, with 22% of hires being women, up from 19% in 2022.

U.S. Race and Ethnicity

Due to data collection challenges, this section focuses on the ethnicity of U.S.-based employees. The pivots in this section focus on general role/job family, percentage of total U.S. population and 2023 hiring activity. In 2023, we saw modest growth in most racial and ethnic populations, with percentage representation remaining similar to 2022. Despite this, we remain proud of the positive trends.

In 2023, the total Hudl population saw an overall increase in racial/ethnic diversity. Year over year, we saw 6.7% growth in those who have been historically underrepresented. Some of our incremental progress toward greater representation from underrepresented populations in the U.S. was due to hiring activity in 2023—the percentage of new hires from underrepresented populations outpaced those leaving the company.
While we notice a drop in representation between individual contributors at 12.8% and middle managerial levels (9% of managers and 8.9% of directors), Hudl has seen a meaningful increase in representation at all levels. A major positive can be seen in the continued growth of underrepresented people in leadership positions.
Of all 2023 hires in product, 27% were from underrepresented populations, up from 20% in 2022. Sales saw a notable increase, with 23% of underrepresented hires in 2023, versus just 12% in 2022.

Age

This is the second year we’ve analyzed and reported on age demographics. In 2023, employees in their 30s remained the majority for Hudl, representing 49.6% of the workforce. We also saw an increase in our 40s and 50s population, indicating our employee population is growing alongside Hudl, as those increases came in conjunction with a decrease in our 20s population. We believe that the natural aging of our population and inclusive efforts (e.g., childcare facility at HQ and global-family forming benefits) are just a few of the reasons employees will join and remain at Hudl through different stages of life.

Interns

Our internship program in 2023 continued to be a key piece to our talent strategy. We remained committed to hiring interns across the organization and making their Hudl experience inclusive and valuable. As you’ll see in the charts below, our intern population includes more gender diversity and greater racial/ethnic diversity when compared to our current Hudl population. This is a signal that our interns continue to be an important source for diverse talent.

By continuing to cultivate an inclusive environment where all interns can grow and feel they belong, we’re better prepared to attract and retain exceptional, diverse talent for future internships and/or opportunities at Hudl.

Our Actions

While our demographic data didn’t see significant year-over-year changes, in 2023, we continued to make meaningful strides toward creating a more inclusive culture at Hudl.

Inclusive Leadership Program

As noted in last year’s report, inclusive leadership was a major focus in 2023. Senior leaders participated in a year-long inclusive leadership training program, which taught leaders the basic tenets of inclusive leadership, guided by Hudl’s five inclusive principles.

Disruptive Experiences

We push ourselves out of our comfort zones to interrupt our usual patterns, think globally and uncover unconscious biases. We inevitably make mistakes—but we learn and grow from them.

“Disruption is at the heart of Hudl’s mission—ensuring that every athlete gets the shot they deserve means experimenting and pushing beyond our comfort zone to create a world of sport that is as equitable and inclusive as possible. Inclusion starts with us.” -David Graff, CEO

Intentional Habits

We’re all responsible for breaking down any barriers to participation and belonging. We encourage everyone to be mindful about engaging in inclusive communication and processes.

"By embracing inclusivity, our product team can unlock a wealth of ideas and solutions, enhance our creativity, and ensure our products meet the needs of the coaches and athletes we serve.” -Michelle Henry, SVP, Product

Purposeful Culture

With people located all over the world, our culture is built on valuing differences. We know they only strengthen our ability to achieve our goals, which is why we support every Hudl employee being their true self at work.

“I’ve had the privilege of leading a multitalented team that spans the globe. The inclusive leadership program helped me apply our principles in my own way that feels personal, authentic and tailored to what our team needs. The work we’ve done on inclusion has shown up in our engagement surveys—our people see the investment we’re making in inclusion and the team has never felt more like they can be themselves at work.” -Anthony Galvan, VP Brand and Communications

Social Responsibility

We care about the wellbeing of our communities and society as a whole. We know sports have the power to unite and we’re dedicated to equal access to technology, regardless of race, gender or socioeconomic status.

“Our hardware team produces automated capture cameras and wearables, which help make the recruiting process more accessible and equitable for all players. To do this well, we need a diverse team of talented people representing the people we seek to serve. Our inclusive leadership program was thought-provoking and provided me with tools to ensure I was creating the right environment to create the best, most inclusive team.” -Deirdre Leid, VP Hardware

Leading by Example

Our leaders live these actions every day, but they’re not the only ones. Inclusion champions can be found at every level of our organization.

“Our people are our strength, and inclusion is embedded in our values. We’re at our best when we apply an inclusive lens to who we hire, how we work, and every decision we make. Hudl has a longstanding tradition of grassroots inclusion efforts. What I found most rewarding about the inclusive leadership program is how it equipped our leaders with a common set of tools, language and context to amplify the commitment to progress that Hudlies demonstrate every day.” -Jasmine Kingsley, Chief People and Legal Officer

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and Communities

Hudl currently has four ERGs—Hudl Black, Community Champions, Her Hudl, Pride@Hudl and Mental Wellness—plus Together@Hudl, a formal committee to help align and advise on the inclusion efforts happening across the company. In the past year, ERGs have organized volunteer activities, curated LinkedIn Learning pathways, sponsored external speakers, and facilitated in-person and remote activities for Hudlies to participate and learn more about ERGs.

"Last year, I used almost all of my volunteer time off for the first time," said Elizabeth Cain, Lead Scrum Master and Together@Hudl co-chair. "Being able to give back to my community was a great feeling and rejuvenated me in ways I didn't expect. The activities put together by our ERGs got me active in new groups, and I am so grateful for the opportunity and support I received from Hudl."

In 2023, we also introduced communities, where Hudlies can build authentic relationships around a shared interest. Thus far, Hudlies have formed 18 communities, connecting around a wide variety of interests such as religion, cooking, parenting, remote work and neurodiversity. "Hudl recognizes any vibrant community requires intention from its members and encourages us to own our success—resulting in more genuine connections," said Brad Farley, Hudl Program Manager and Christians at Hudl community member. "Thankfully, Hudl's appreciably hands-off approach encourages everyone to find or create a community that speaks to them, without feeling worried or hamstrung by corporate-defined options. Inclusively letting its subpopulations of employees openly express their common identities helps Hudl be a better place to work."

Communities are proving to be an effective way for Hudlies to create relationships outside of their day-to-day teams and be able to show up as their authentic selves. "I’m not someone who joins clubs or 'mommy’s night out' events because they feel forced," said Brandi Arnold, Sr. Manager, Brand Design and Parentland community member. "But I love having a community of parents at Hudl that I can turn to any time—not only because they’re parents, but because I know they work here, and that (to me) means I can automatically trust their opinions and experiences."

Community Outreach and Service

We continue to make progress toward our strategic theme of giving back to the communities where we live and work. In 2023, we had yet another goal-smashing United Way corporate giving campaign. We surpassed our US$90K goal, raising $134K ($74K from Hudlies, with a $60K Hudl match). Office ambassadors also organized a variety of volunteer opportunities across the globe during the campaign, encouraging Hudlies to use their eight hours of quarterly volunteer time off (VTO).

The Hudl Foundation—which focuses on supporting not-for-profit organizations—continued to take shape, outlining a strategy based on the unique power of sports, education, and DEIAB in developing athletes and humans for a better world. We recently held the first foundation board meeting and are excited to start acting on this vision.

We know that as we continue to mature and grow globally, conscious social responsibility will ensure that we’re leveraging our strengths and empowering our team to create good in the world.

Talent Acquisition

Though hiring has slowed, our Talent Acquisition team continued to champion an equitable interview and recruitment processes that limits bias at all steps. In 2023, we made changes to emphasize our inclusion work earlier in the recruitment process, and we updated the language on our job postings to more clearly articulate job requirements and reduce imposter syndrome. In 2024 we’ll make greater strides toward pay transparency in our hiring practices.

Looking Ahead

Given current hiring projections and low turnover rates, we don’t anticipate any substantial change in our demographic makeup in the near-term. However, we still see meaningful opportunities to fine tune our strategy and build upon the foundation of inclusion work at Hudl.

In 2023, our focus was on inclusive leadership at all levels of management. Now, our focus turns to the teams they lead and serve. While inclusion should be modeled by leadership, we know there are leaders at every level of the organization. Ultimately, creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace isn’t one Hudlie's or team's job. Change won't come solely from programs and initiatives—it comes from collectively choosing to live out a culture of equity and inclusion.

Moving forward, we’ll continue to support our ERGs and communities, giving them the space and resources to thrive. We’ll find new, meaningful ways to give back through volunteerism, community giving and the Hudl Foundation. And we’ll continue to find ways to reduce bias at all levels of the hiring process to ensure that we’re giving every candidate the opportunity they deserve.

The success of our inclusion efforts hinges on the active participation and commitment from every employee. We invite every person to join us in this critical mission to embrace changes, participate in initiatives, and contribute your ideas, time and feedback. Together, we're building a workplace where everyone feels seen, valued, heard, respected and empowered to achieve their full potential.

We can’t do it without you. It’s everyone’s responsibility to create and foster an inclusive Hudl.