Uber’s workplace culture: What do you do when it all goes really, really wrong?
The Wired Sussex Talent Skills Summit has become well established over the last few years in sharing best practice between businesses in how to attract, retain and grow the talent that our sector needs to succeed.
We have had some great (and useful) stories from companies including Propellernet, Clearleft, Miggle and others talking about how a positive and nurturing workplace culture is key.
Uber clearly have well-publicised issues in that area. Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler’s blog detailed workplace discrimination and sexual harassment as commonplace, and that led to others sharing their experience of Uber’s “aggressive and unrestrained” culture. In June last year Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick was forced to step down as a consequence.
So why did we invite Uber to give the keynote at this year’s Skills Summit?
We called the keynote 'what do you do when it all goes really, really wrong' as we felt that we all might be able to learn a lesson or two from the Uber experience. Sometimes it feels hard enough to improve a business culture by just a few degrees, so how are Uber attempting to shift it by a full 180? How do you make sure you can spot the signs early on that your company culture is broken? Have Uber analysed and understood why what went wrong did? And what might we learn from that?
Of course, It goes without saying that inviting Uber to speak in no way means that Wired Sussex condones them or the things that have happened in their organisation.
If you are interested in attending the Skills Summit and hearing the Uber keynote and joining in a day of discussing how we can make our city the best place in the Uk to support and future digital talent, details of how to get a ticket are here: http://talentfestival.co.uk/skills-summit/