 And welcome everyone for the last talk of the Mozilla room And this one is about community and what makes them come what makes them stay Gloria the show is yours Hello, everyone. Welcome to my talk. What makes people come and what makes them stay? My name is Gloria Jumeau. I'm a computer systems systems engineer, and I'm also a Mozilla tech speaker and I've been volunteering with a lot of communities with people all around the world and as I've been doing that I've been seeing different challenges and various interesting things Which pushed me to want to improve on various skills so that I can be able to be more effective in Communicating with people that are different than me or have a different background So in doing that I've been curious about what makes people come and leave because sometimes Especially when I started my first Job while I was happy to begin my first job Some people were happy to be leaving and some people were happy to be coming. So that made me feel kind of weird like okay While I'm happy to start someone is announcing that they are leaving and I've been wondering that what makes people leave and I realized that sometimes it's out of our control sometimes Reorganizations happen sometimes layoff happens so that one you can't control it But we can control what makes people leave when they decide to leave So that is what we are going to focus on today, and I'm also going to share a short use case on how Mozilla utilize some of the things that are specified to do that effectively so one thing to know is that the tech industry is one of the Interest with the highest attrition so a lot of people leave the tech industry and The tenor for a lot of tech companies is about two to three years people join a top company for two to three years and usually after that they leave the companies that people stay at for like five years or seven years are Not that many and so that raises a question like what makes people stay longer at certain companies And what makes them leave and also as I show here the turnover rate was estimated to be 23% between 2013 and 2018 With 192 million people leaving their employers So that was something that was forecasted by a group called haze a group and Before we see what makes people stay It's important to see what attracts people to certain organizations certain communities and certain companies So usually what attracts them is their needs and their wants usually they have certain needs they need a job They need money They have various needs that they need to meet and joining an organization a community or company It's the logical thing to do but also so people join because of their wants So if you have privileges, you don't necessarily need to join a company because you need to but maybe You are at an age where you You no more need to work, but you just want to stay active. So you just do it because you want to So when you have certain privileges is easy to join organizations because of your wants more than your needs But the question is are people's needs met and That is very related to the demographic of people you want to attract because different type of people have different needs So whenever you want to think of what people are want to attract to my company You have to think about their background and what type of demographic they are coming from But the thing that is important here is that specific demographics have key Similar needs so for example if you want to hire more Mothers in your company's a lot of them would be very happy if you have parental support Or you give parental leave or different type of benefits that cater to their needs so having that in mind is very important because if you don't have things that That cater to the needs of the people you be wondering why don't say that people come to your company And the question is you don't meet their needs So here's some few examples for a marginalized group for example one thing that might be they might be looking for is acceptance So if someone that is usually marginalized comes to your company Organization and they feel that you are not accepting of them or you are judging them That's one reason why they won't stay there for very long Another thing is people with disabilities. They might be looking for accessibility that being in your Organization premises or maybe the products that you are that you are creating And if they are not accessible enough Certain people that you might want them to use your products won't use them So it's important to keep those things in mind The needs usually are more important than people's wants because that is like the key reason why people Joint companies and those two things are very key to the satisfaction that someone has when their needs and wants are being met You get more satisfied people So now the question is let's dive deeper into this like what exactly makes people leave You must first address the barriers of entry because Before someone can leave we have to see what are reasons that stop them before they even enter So the barrier to the access I have like six things that I'll specify now, but they are more than this One of them is bad feet that goes both ways bad feet for the organization or the company or bad feet for the Person that is joining the company the history of the company some organizations have a bad history So some people don't really want to have anything to do with them and other things that are We control as humans like poor performance or a posture syndrome could be reasons why we stop ourselves from entering said certain organization and then another thing that is important is weak network Some people don't have the network that will lead them or guide them to your organization and a lot of organizations Pay a lot of attention to people that are referred into the company So if someone has if the demographic you're trying to attract usually has a weak network Then it's less likely for them to land a job at your company If it's based on if it's heavily based on referrals So another thing is red flags a lot of people check red flags in job descriptions And if you have certain specific Words that they're looking for they won't consider your organization Another one is how much people know about the company some companies are for example both for highly technical people and For non-technical people but because the market themselves very heavily on the technical side some non-technical people think that They have no place there So they won't even think to apply at those companies So the way you market yourself and what people know about you and what you do is very important And also another thing is lack of diversity some people don't want to join Not diverse companies and one thing that is interesting to notice is if you check in Silicon Valley a lot of the companies the top ones at least the Highest demographic is usually related to where the CEO is from or the race the CEO has So if you see a lot of top companies the highest demographic is Let's say if the CEO is Caucasian it will be Caucasian and if you check deeper into that you might see that the second Highest demographic is sometimes the spouse of that CEO. So if the CEO is Caucasian and your spouse is Asian You might see those as being the highest demographics But that doesn't mean that changing the CEO will also change like the demographics of your company But that just shows that how the people you put to lead sometimes affect like the people that feel comfortable entering your company or not entering your company and Another thing that might be a barrier for people is the bias that exists in recruiting practices like the the applicant tracking system and the people that built the AI behind That's for at least who will get hired or who will get interview or not if they have Uncautious or cautious bias that could be a reason why it's a barrier for people to join that company For example, someone was saying that in his company a lot of women were unable to pass the interviews So they did like a research to figure out why aren't women passing the interviews and they realize that a Specific interviewer in the company usually plays harder questions for women engineers So at the end of the day is like they couldn't pass those interviews because they got harder questions than they are male counterparts counterparts, so that is how this one was a conscious Bias it wasn't unconscious and that is how some ways people affect who gets in or who doesn't So now we have spoke about what makes people leave And these are some other reasons of why people leave so we'll break those down as well lack of opportunities for Advancement this applies to anyone no matter where you're coming from If you don't have opportunities to advance like what's the point of being in the company a lot of people want to be in an Organization where they see a future where they start from a and they can go ahead and get to a point Let's say be but if there's no opportunity to do that it's like They feel that they are stagnant. So That is one reason why they'll leave another key one is unsatisfied with the senior Managements the decisions that the senior management does also they might not trust the leaders anymore Due to different decisions that they have made. So that is one reason why they will leave Another one is the work environment and the culture Some places let's be honest. They are very depressive to work at so if someone gets there They won't stay for that long and the culture The culture how much welcoming your culture is or not and how much you welcome cultural ads instead of cultural fits Because cultural ads means you allow people to bring more of themselves into your company But cultural fit means more that people have to fit what you want them to portray in your company So that might make someone feel That they can't stay there anymore So another thing is people won't challenge in work They want to feel that what they are doing is having an impact and the more challenges that they overcome the more likely they are to stay and then other things like compensation and benefits and Rewards to their contributions Some people don't feel rewarded for their hard work Even if they work hard hard enough, so that is one reason why they might leave So now seeing all that I thought I'd be interesting to look into women in tech because a lot of companies and Organization want to attract more of them So one thing is being pushed to the management track a lot of women in tech feel that okay I started as an engineer, but somehow the HR or people want to Put me into a managerial role and I don't want to leave my engineering role So that is one reason why someone might leave if they feel that you are not supporting them in their engineering journey And you are driving them into more non-technical roles Another one is being the only While that might be seen as a positive thing for some people for some others They don't feel comfortable in being the only one at the company so they try to drive efforts to bring more people in order to not be the only one but if that is also a met by Make a negative stance that will make them probably leave at a latter time So another one is feeling the pressure to overcompensate For your competence usually Sometimes when you're a woman in tech some people feel that you are not a good programmer Or they feel that you are diversity higher So it's like you always have to prove to those people that no I'm competitive enough You don't really have to prove but there's this pressure That some people feel that I have to keep proving myself. I have to keep proving myself and this is some a personal thing But sometimes the environment is what makes people feel this way as well And there's a research that was done by top tal where it said that just 5.4 percent of github users When there's over 10 millions of contributors from random samples are female. So even at places like open source communities sometimes other females feel that they need to hide and Their identity or they just don't participate So now let's look into other groups like underrepresented and marginalized group. They have the same feeling of pressure To prove themselves that they are not diversity hires. They are skills that have they have the skills that are needed for their job and They also sometimes feel the pressure to participate in Organizational diversity efforts like to be in all of those diversity videos to be in all of those photographs To show that they are their company is diverse when sometimes it's the opposite and That constant pressure of being like the only person in the company that is somehow Visually different because a lot of people like using visually different people in their PRs and photographs Can bring a lot of pressure that will make them feel that they have to leave So now let's look into open source communities In open source communities, one of the reason why people Will leave most likely is low or no appreciation of Contributions to projects in the beginning people start because they want to contribute to something But the more they see that you don't appreciate what they do Especially when they aren't getting paid for that as well. It makes them feel that what they are doing is important So then they are more likely to leave another reason why it's they get burned out And this is more important for volunteers because when you don't get compensated It's even more harder when people continuously ping you like can you fix this bug? Why haven't you fixed this yet? And it's like, okay, I'm doing this on my free time Why are people not being able to understand that I need time to rest and you constantly push yourself? And that eventually leads to burnout and you have to leave Then another one is miscommunication That happens usually due to the diverse nature of contributing to open source people are from different countries most of the times different time zones and Also a lot of the communications happen virtually So that allows a lot of miscommunication to happen and that might cause some people to leave YouTube arguments at some point and then another one is losing interest in the project or conflict of interest When you don't believe The mission of that project anymore or the organization that is behind that project So you decide to leave and These issues are like a waterfall and the cascade they begin somewhere and if you don't take Charge of the situation before you know it it takes over So as I said again when you don't meet people's needs and their wants They're less likely to end up being satisfied and all these things with needs and wants somehow reminds us of Maslow's pyramid of needs where there are certain needs that have to be met for people to be happy and some of those needs are feeding into this pyramid And as I said it takes more than great job benefits it takes more than Getting a lot of money or stocks or having game rooms happy hours one third of new hires quit their jobs after six months and Employees knew that they will leave after one week That makes you wonder like why would someone join a company and leave after six months or How why didn't they know before the join that they will leave and they knew it after one week and That is happens for various reasons One thing is Expectations vs. Reality we go to a job with certain Expectations and sometimes that isn't met and then reality strikes us Usually on their boarding session And we realize okay things look very disorganized here. It looks like I don't exist. I don't get a lot of work I'm told to study and it's two months into my job, and I'm still studying when will I get work to do? You can't communicate with your managers that well a lot of things happen And then when you go to HR everything gets put under the rug So you're wondering like is this really what I was thinking it is it's not so You're waiting for the right time to leave, but you can't leave that early So usually six months feel somehow okay for a lot of people to leave and then they leave Which is why it's very important to put a lot of effort in your boarding session because usually in that first week It's when people know that okay. I'm going to stay here for a long time I can sense that or I'm going to leave pretty soon So okay, we have seen what makes people leave and now you want to see what makes them stay We have seen a lot of like corporate statistics from corporate Environments now we will check a bit of the academic side. What does academia says makes people stay? And I'll look into a research done by a friend of mine called Anne Barcom a PhD Where she analyzed what makes Volunteers be more consistent in their contributions into open source communities So one thing is their motives why they joined the project That is very important because if people join for example just to enrich their resume They might give like one or two contributions to the project and then leave but when they join more because they see the bigger picture of it and They want to see that project grow or because they are using that tool and they want to see it improve They are more likely to stay for longer One thing is societal norms How society view open source in the country the person is from so in if So if open source is viewed negatively in a society people are less likely to join and stay Into open source communities Another one is the psychological sense of community when I joined the project to people welcome me or It's like I don't exist and I don't get any help and there's no documentation And there's a lot of confusion happening all of those things are being taken into consideration And as I said in the previous time like when the needs are met and When their expectation matches reality and they feel satisfied they are more likely to stay and also another thing that makes them stay in open source projects is The organizational commitment how much committed the field to the project the product or the organization So one question to think about is how effectively do we meet the common needs of the demographic? We're trying to attract and I'll use a specific use case of Mozilla So Mozilla has a lot of volunteers from all around the world and a lot of people Usually joined with this flow they got they got the knowledge about Mozilla through I don't know a friend or online social media Then they got an initial opportunity to contribute to a project or join the organization And then they had a great experience while doing that they made a lot of people that they like or they like the culture of Mozilla and When proposed by others when proposed other sets of opportunity they decided to stay Pass on the knowledge and continue to go through this loop over and over again Anytime the experience that things are great anymore The culture changes to a negative Direction or they feel that there's lack of opportunity That might be a time that a volunteer might decide to leave But usually this is the flow that most people go through over and over again So I decided to give like a personal example of what attracted me to Mozilla and what made me stay I Joined Mozilla through a project through a program called Outreachie Which offers internships for people that are underrepresented in tech or marginalized and Prior to that I knew Mozilla you to Firefox and also because it's a tech company and I'm in the tech Industry so after I joined that internship and it ended I was thinking about how Can I continue to stay in the community is this the end of it and No, it wasn't the end of it. I was asked to write an article about my experience as web developer intern and then while an employee was reading it They thought oh we have these certain opportunities. Why don't you join them? So I was given an initial opportunity to continue being involved with Mozilla So that is what I showed here like initial opportunity and then after that because I had a great experience The people were great and also I had a great time In relation to the culture of Mozilla When proposed with other opportunities such as the Mozilla tech speakers program because it also matched with what I was interested in that made me stay and Continue being involved and going through this loop over and over again So that is one way by which you can retain people to your various communities you Always have to give them opportunities that they can grab on and stay if you don't give them Opportunity and the moment that the opportunity seems to exist. It's a moment when you begin losing a lot of valuable community members So I'll go through quickly few suggestions and approaches that you can follow To make people stay more on your organizations and projects So one thing is honesty is the best policy people's expectations need too much reality So you have to make sure that what you're portraying and what you're telling them before the journey your company is true Another thing is Research make research to set the right expectations as I said, who do you want to attract? What do they need? How can you offer that to them? Another thing is figure out ways to meet intangible needs as I said The perks that you give are not the only thing the salary that you give is not the only thing people have intangible needs that When met are more likely to keep them there because they have sentimental value for them So that is something that you want to add as well Another thing is Have this year Creates this year efforts to be inclusive. Don't just make it a PR team and then Consistently evaluate common practices and see what works. What doesn't work the things that don't work stop them the things that work do more of them try to understand why they work and Lastly people are very important a lot of people say that they are in a company Because they have great co-workers. So that just shows how people are very important to others. So you have to make it You have to make a point to hire good people and make that a priority Because when you do that, you have good vibes in your company and more people who want to join So here comes the end if you want to follow me you can find me on github LinkedIn my name is surname and you can contact me through my website if you want So that's it. I think I have a little bit time for some questions So do we have questions in the audience? Hi, glory interesting talk. Thanks. I run a small research team seven people and Sometimes people leave Sometimes that's okay because it is time for them to move on sometimes. I would have preferred that they stay Are there ways of? Finding out when this is likely to happen I normally find out at the annual evaluation where we sit down for two or three hours and we really think about things but sometimes once a year is not enough and They're key signs that you would look for that someone is unhappy Yes, so one thing you have to do is as I said communication is very important If you have like a meeting with them once a year, I don't know you won't be able to see the signs Because for example, let's use the natural world when someone is sick. They have some symptoms before Showing the full blown effect of the illness if you are not monitoring the person You won't see understand what the symptoms mean and you will know it when the illness has Run its course or things are really bad So you have to monitor people from before and people usually complain about what they don't like Whether to you or to co-workers if someone gives you a complaint about something over and over again Or even good goes to the extent to go to HR You have to understand that if this person complains long enough Eventually it will cause them a lot of grief and they'll think if I'm unhappy. Why am I here? Let me plan leaving so if you make people are happy in your organization and It doesn't have to be everyone sometimes specific things make some people unhappy But if that thing Goes with your mission, then I guess you can't do anything about it Maybe it's a conflict of interest as I said But if that thing is against your mission and what you want to portray You want to make sure that as I said you evaluate what you are doing and change that so you have to closely monitor people's complaints and if you do that You have better understanding of when someone is about to leave Any other question