Diversity and inclusion (D&I) programs aren’t always paired with learning and development (L&D) — but maybe they should be. 

While CarGurus has always tried to be an inclusive company, it doubled down on its efforts two years ago. A big part of leadership’s plans revolved around educating employees, encouraging open dialogue and thinking critically about implicit bias. 

Because those are all skills that could be learned and strengthened, CarGurus decided to lean on their established learning and development framework for D&I learnings, too.

“When we were thinking of the strategy for learning and engagement, we wanted to be intentional about how we foster learning and inclusion across a multicultural workplace,” Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Manager Stephanie Lajoie said.

“People need those seeds to be planted in order to continue growing in their work, whether that means in themselves, on their teams or what they do at CarGurus,” Senior Recruiter Colleen Magee said. “We want to give people the tools they need to have those conversations so we can foster an inclusive environment.”
 

We want to give people the tools they need to have those conversations so we can foster an inclusive environment.”

To some, combining D&I and L&D while all employees work remotely due to a pandemic would seem like a herculean task. But Lajoie and Magee have seen firsthand that it’s been worth the effort: Employee engagement has risen in response to D&I programming, new friendships have formed because of team and company-wide discussions, and there’s a renewed sense of belonging across the workplace.

“There’s been an increase in the appetite for learning more about D&I,” Magee said. “That’s only going to continue.” 

What does learning and development have to do with diversity and inclusion?

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Program Manager Stephanie Lajoie: At CarGurus, the way we think about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging is really about creating an opportunity for folks to enter the work from where they are in their journey. Different folks enter differently, depending upon their personal and professional experiences, how they grew up, how they were raised, their culture and their values. Pairing diversity and inclusion with learning and development allows us the opportunity to ensure we’re meeting every individual where they’re at and creating opportunities for folks to engage, ask critical questions, and learn and unlearn. 

Giving employees the opportunity to do this kind of work through L&D allows us to collectively strengthen our understanding of core concepts related to D&I, and gives folks tools to be better leaders, advocates and allies to fully understand the work that we’re trying to drive forward. When we say we’re fostering inclusion, we’re driving forward equity and trying to be a place that’s culturally competent and relevant.

Why did CarGurus decide to pair these two areas?

Senior Recruiter Colleen Magee: It creates a foundation where people can talk to one another about what they’re learning in these programs. People need those seeds to be planted in order to continue growing in their work, whether that means in themselves, on their teams or what they do at CarGurus. We want to give people the tools they need to have those conversations so we can foster an inclusive environment. 

Lajoie: When we were thinking of the strategy for learning and engagement, we wanted to be intentional about how we foster learning and inclusion across a multicultural workplace. It’s worked really well for our goals in terms of structure, team capacity, engagement and the ability to evolve over time. In starting from a place of learning, we’re able to engage with employees and figure out what we want to develop. This will lead to real organizational changes.

So, what does this all look like in practice?

Lajoie: We have a speaker series, “DIBS Dialogues,” where someone comes in quarterly to give a talk to the company as a collective. We also have monthly team trainings and have external leaders come in to run sessions on topics like allyship. Recently, we did a panel — Amplifying Black Voice — on the Black experience in tech.

By bringing in outside speakers, we deepen our understanding of different perspectives and experiences. The more we bring in thought leaders and experts, the more we can strategically drive home all of the issues incorporated under DEI and create space to amplify and center voices that are not traditionally represented across our company. 

There’s a notion that you don’t know what you don’t know. Everyone loves when folks can come in and talk to us because you hear things differently from other people. It helps expand our perspectives. 
 

There’s a notion that you don’t know what you don’t know.”

Magee: The biggest thing for us is knowledge-sharing. Everyone here, in every role, is running at 100 miles per hour. Sometimes, it takes an external name on an event to get people curious about who that person is, what they do and why we’re having them come in. 

We just had Gretchen Soren, the author of “Driving While Black” come in, which was very well-received by our employees. Even though we all weren’t engaging one-on-one, it still felt like everyone was in the same room, even though we were all watching from our kitchens and living rooms on our laptops.

How do you ensure these D&I learnings are accessible?

Magee: We’ve increased our on-demand learning quite a bit. We’re leveraging our learning management system (LMS), which makes our offerings flexible and accessible at any time. Our goal is to meet our employees where they are in their journeys, and that includes meeting them at their capacity. Even in a remote space, not everyone is going to be able to carve out a two-hour block of time to listen to a speaker — but they might be able to do it early one morning while they make their kids breakfast.
 

Our goal is to meet our employees where they are in their journeys, and that includes meeting them at their capacity.”

We offer recordings of our DIBS Dialogues, documentaries, articles we’ve written internally or that we’ve found. It’s really a variety pack of resources. We try to switch it up as much as possible because everyone is fighting Zoom fatigue, tight timelines and overall capacity. And everyone has different learning abilities. Personally, I’m not an article reader, but I love documentaries; that’s how I learn best. We get to be creative in what we’re providing, because some people prefer to read, and some people want to listen or watch instead.

What will D&I at CarGurus look like when you’re back in the office?

Lajoie: In some ways, I don’t think it will be so different from before we went remote. Our employee resource groups have done a great job of holding space and building community, and I think that will continue to be the case. 

But now, we do have a heightened awareness of how to run programming that’s truly inclusive. We have offices in places like California, Detroit and Dublin and in all these different time zones. In being remote, we’ve really had to take stock of those virtual spaces and incorporate everyone into these conversations. I’m looking forward to being able to continue engaging our team globally. 
 

People have found new relationships with coworkers over the programs we’ve offered, which has resulted in a more inclusive atmosphere.”

Magee: There’s been an increase in the appetite for learning more about D&I. That’s only going to continue. We have Slack channels that are focused on talking about diversity and inclusion, where people will send along resources or news that will spark full-blown discussions. People have found new relationships with coworkers over the programs we’ve offered, which has resulted in a more inclusive atmosphere. Employees are now friends with people on the other side of the world, or in other offices they don’t go to, simply because of a conversation they had in a DIBS Dialogue. 

That’s not going to slow down, no matter what happens with in-person work.