Creating and Shaping Community & Belonging With Cultural Moments
At Spotify, the Equity, Diversity and Impact (EDI) team uses Cultural Moments as one of the many tools that shape and create a culture of inclusion that fosters community and belonging. Cultural Moments are a time for employees to convene in rememberance or celebration of a community or significant cultural event. These moments also include heritage months and cultural holidays and are an opportunity to amplify the experiences, accomplishments and contributions of a particular group. By amplifying Cultural Moments, we can drive connectedness among employees with similar backgrounds or interests, helping them to feel seen and celebrated.
We encourage our Belonging Groups (BGs) – traditionally known as Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) – to gather all year round to create ongoing opportunities for continuous connection. In addition we provide resources, support and guidelines to help the BGs recognize and celebrate their communities during their respective Cultural Moment that span anywhere between a day, week or month.
Our Cultural Moment acknowledgements are often focussed on communities that have historically been underrepresented or marginalized in our industry, and society as a whole. We choose to do this as we know that by amplifying these moments we’ll be working toward a more inclusive Spotify for all and creating an opportunity to sharpen allyship, visibility, and awareness. The EDI team is also focused on delivering learning opportunities for allies during these moments – we aim to take the burden off of the BGs, to educate the general Spotify community about the nuances of their culture and heritage, by making learning and allyship opportunities accessible for everyone.
We will often bring in dynamic speakers who are industry leaders or cultural experts to share insights and stories from their research or their lived experiences and even give guidance on what great allyship looks like. For example, during Pride, we scheduled Transgender activist and author Raquel Willis for a virtual global fireside chat. Raquel was able to discuss her own experience as a young, Black, Transgender, woman, her current journey as an author, and she gave guidance to leaders at Spotify on what they can do to ensure queer employees can feel safe and supported while at work.
What Cultural Moments does Spotify Celebrate and how are they selected?
When selecting the Cultural Moments we recognize as a company, we ensure each of our Belonging Groups has the opportunity to celebrate their unique identity, culture, or heritage. For Cultural Moments that may only be recognized in one location (i.e. Arab Heritage Month, Asian Pacific Islander Month, etc.) we ensure they are recognized and celebrated globally, to honor the rich cultural heritage and contributions of each community’s diaspora. We also find opportunities to evolve and expand our list of Cultural Moments – and did recently when we hosted the inaugural Afro Swedish History Week – to help our community learn and reflect on historical events they may not know about.
Spotify currently amplifies and celebrates 10 Cultural Moments that are a mixture of globally recognized and country-specific heritage months and cultural holidays. These moments are:
- Black History Month U.S. (February)
- International Women’s Day/Women’s History Month (March)
- Arab Heritage Month (April)
- Asian Pacific Islander Month (May)
- Pride (June & August)
- Latinx Heritage Month (September)
- Afro-Swedish Week (October)
- Black History Month U.K. (October)
- World Mental Health Day (October)
- Veterans Day/Armistice Day (November)
The Cultural Moments Toolkit
The EDI team provides our BGs with a Cultural Moments toolkit to guide their planning. It’s important for the BGs to take the lead on shaping the theme and programmatic focus of the Cultural Moment, in order for them to have ownership over how their culture is reflected, shared, and celebrated.
The toolkit consists of programmatic guidance and a planning checklist. The BG is also given a separate budget for their Cultural Moment to support their planning and to ensure they are able to deliver an exciting calendar of global and local events. Local events are typically only programmed for a specific office like Los Angeles or Stockholm and activities may include dance classes or cultural game nights where employees can learn how to play spades or mahjong. For example, during Asian and Pacific Islander (API) month, SPACE (our Belonging Group for those who identify with and support the Asian & Pacific Islander community) hosted a local API-owned night market at the Spotify New York office featuring food, clothing, and jewelry vendors.
Global events, such as fireside chats, games, or employee-only artist performances, are streamed internally so no matter where in the world a Spotifier is, they are welcome to join and be part of the community event. For example, during Pride, Spectrum, (Spotify’s LGBTQIA+ community) hosted virtual Drag Bingo led by Drag Queen extraordinaire, Charlie Hides and dozens of Spotifiers logged on to play from around the globe.
The Importance of Cultural Moments
Marking Cultural Moments within your organization can be a powerful way to shape a more inclusive and engaged employee community beyond BG membership. In our experience, we see employees connecting and collaborating through the planning of Cultural Moment events and programs, which then go on to become company traditions and cultural markers. For those brave employees who have raised their hand to lead the charge in vision setting and planning, they have gone on to develop new skills as leaders, connect more deeply to their cultural origins, and even help their colleagues cope during difficult moments.
We’re a better and more inclusive Spotify because we create space for our employees to celebrate themselves, their history, their vision for a better future, how far they’ve come, what they’ve created and the community they’ve done it with.
