Inclusive workplaces in tech are still rare enough to be newsworthy, which says something about how far the industry still has to go. Janet Van Huysse, SVP and Chief People Officer at Cloudflare, has spent more than two decades building HR functions inside tech companies, including almost seven years at Twitter as their first VP of HR and later VP of Diversity and Inclusion. She is also the co-founder of TendLab, a venture focused on the science of parenthood in the workplace.
On the AllVoices podcast Reimagining Company Culture, Janet talked about what it actually takes to commit to inclusion at the operating level. The conversation is grounded in her work at Cloudflare, including a partnership with Path Forward to help people return to work after caregiving breaks. Her perspective is practical and focused on the systems that have to change before the brand can claim the values.
Why a Commitment to Inclusion Has to Be Operational
A commitment to inclusion that lives only in a values statement is not really a commitment. Janet emphasizes that the test is what happens in the operating model: who gets recruited, who gets retained, who gets promoted, and who gets the support to come back after life takes them out for a stretch. Without measurable, operational change, the language stops mattering.
The data on caregivers makes the stakes clear. According to Harvard Business Review research, 38 percent of professionals identify as caregivers, and the skills they build at home translate into stronger team contribution at work. Yet most companies still design policies as if every employee were unencumbered, then wonder why their senior pipelines lose women, parents, and people caring for aging family members.
HR teams that want to act on this often start by treating diversity, equity, and inclusion as a year-round operating discipline rather than a quarterly campaign. The work shows up in hiring, calibration, leave usage data, and the way concerns get raised and resolved.
What Tech Companies Get Wrong About Inclusion
Why does tech keep missing the mark on parents and caregivers?
Because the default schedule and culture were built around an idealized worker with no outside obligations. According to McKinsey research, working mothers face significant barriers when returning to office work, and parents in general are leaving roles in search of flexibility. Tech companies that fix this typically start by re-examining meeting culture, on-call expectations, and promotion criteria that quietly penalize anyone who took time off.
How does Cloudflare's Path Forward partnership work?
Path Forward returnships give experienced professionals a structured way back into the workforce after a caregiving break. The participants receive mentorship, clear scope, and a real chance at conversion. Janet treats the program as both a hiring channel and a culture signal: the company is publicly stating that career breaks are not disqualifying, and the operating model is built to back that up.
What Actually Works: Three Principles for Inclusive Workplace Building
Principle 1: Design parental leave as an inclusion lever
Parental leave policy reveals what a company actually values. Generous, gender-neutral leave with strong return-to-work support sends a different message than a thin policy combined with quiet penalties for taking it. Track who actually uses the leave and what happens to their next promotion. The pattern tells you whether the policy is real.
Principle 2: Build flexibility into the structure
Flexibility cannot be an exception granted by individual managers. It has to be built into the operating norms: documented hours of overlap, async-by-default expectations, and meeting practices that respect non-traditional schedules. Workplace flexibility at scale requires structural investment, not just permission.
Principle 3: Measure inclusion with behavioral data, not just sentiment
Engagement surveys are useful, but the truer signals show up in behavior. Look at who speaks up in meetings, who gets sponsored for stretch assignments, who uses the benefits, and who leaves. Pair the qualitative data from listening tools with the quantitative behavior data, and the picture of inclusion becomes much clearer than any single survey can offer.
Where Employee Relations Fits Into Inclusion Work
Inclusion is tested in moments of friction. When an employee raises a concern about bias, accommodation, or unfair treatment, the way HR responds becomes the operating definition of inclusion. The AllVoices anonymous reporting tool and investigations management system give HR a structured, low-friction way to receive those concerns and respond with consistency across the organization.
Why structured intake matters most for underrepresented employees
The employees most affected by inclusion gaps are often the ones least likely to use clunky reporting systems. They have learned that informal channels favor the people closest to power. A well-designed reporting tool removes that barrier, lets people choose their level of disclosure, and creates a defensible record that protects both the employee and the company. Without that infrastructure, inclusion data is missing the people it most needs to hear from.
Frequently Asked Questions About Building Inclusive Workplaces
How is diversity different from inclusion?
Diversity describes representation. Inclusion describes whether the organization actually adapts so that diverse people can contribute and grow. Companies often hit short-term diversity targets while losing the same people because the operating model never changed.
What does a real return-to-work program require?
A scoped role, a named manager and mentor, a clear evaluation framework, and a defined path to permanent conversion. Anything less risks treating returnees as a publicity exercise rather than a real talent pipeline. Janet emphasizes that the program design is what makes it credible.
How does HR sustain inclusion work through political and economic pressure?
By tying inclusion to business outcomes rather than ideology. Retention, engagement, and customer outcomes all improve in inclusive workplaces, and those metrics survive cycles of public debate. The HR teams that ground inclusion in operational data tend to keep it funded even when the conversation gets harder.
What role does manager training play in inclusive culture?
A central one. Managers control most of the daily decisions that shape inclusion experiences, including project assignments, meeting dynamics, feedback quality, and promotion advocacy. Training that focuses on these specific decisions is more effective than abstract awareness sessions.
How can listening tools support inclusion goals?
By giving employees safe, structured ways to share what is happening across teams and geographies. The data surfaces patterns the company would otherwise miss, and the response builds trust over time. AllVoices supports this work through integrated reporting, case management, and analytics that turn employee voice into measurable change.
The Bottom Line for HR Leaders
Janet Van Huysse models a useful posture for any HR leader serious about inclusion: treat it as an operating discipline, measure it with the same rigor as revenue, and build structural support for the people whose lives extend beyond the imagined typical worker. The work is concrete and ongoing, not declarative.
People teams that take this seriously will redesign parental leave as an inclusion lever, build flexibility into the operating norms instead of leaving it to individual manager grace, and measure inclusion through behavior as well as sentiment. Those choices compound over time into a company that retains the people it spends so much to recruit, and that earns the kind of trust that survives leadership transitions.
If your team is ready to put inclusion on a real operating footing, AllVoices can help you connect listening, reporting, and case management in one workflow. Request a demo to see how it can support your inclusion strategy.
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