In the past, GoDaddy was known for racy advertising showcasing scantily clad women, a tactic that was targeted toward what was perceived as a male-dominated online world. In the past few years, however, the company has worked hard at creating a fully inclusive work environment, as well as overhauling its advertising to target an increasingly diverse customer base.

Auguste Goldman, chief people officer at GoDaddy Operating Company LLC, and Irana Wasti, VP of Product Management at GoDaddy, spoke to Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick) and Rebecca Knight (@knightrm), co-hosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, live from Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Houston, TX, to talk about how the company has refocused to create an inclusive work environment and advertising campaign.

Identifying workplace inequality

When GoDaddy made the decision to create a more diverse work environment, it went straight to the source: The company implemented an employee survey to get feedback on where the issues were, what their staff thought about them and where they could be fixed. Based on that survey, GoDaddy began taking corrective measures in hiring practices to move the company toward wage equality and a much more inclusive work environment. The survey itself was only one part of a comprehensive plan the company put in place several years ago to promote gender equality and equality as a whole.

“GoDaddy has been on this journey of focusing on diversity, not just women diversity but diversity as a whole, for the last several years,” said Wasti. “So by the time we took the survey, it was actually one of the steps that GoDaddy has taken to ensure that there is focus on diversity, why we focus on diversity, and getting commitment across the company to focus on it.”

Creating gender salary parity

The infamous “glass ceiling” in regards to salary and promotion is something women have historically faced for many years. GoDaddy was no exception, but now a big part of its diversity campaign is addressing this disparity and making sure gender is not a factor when giving promotions and determining the salary for individual job functions. In addition, the company has changed the way employees are promoted, which, according to Goldman, has increased worker morale and productivity.

“There’s a lot of research that says if you promote, even the little promotions, more often rather than wait multiple years, your attrition and employee engaging sentiment skyrockets,” said Goldman. “So little tiny promotions [such as] level three to level 4, you get a little bit more equity, a little bit more money, a little more cash, expectations go up … you feel really good.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the Anita Borg Institute’s Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

Photo by SiliconANGLE