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How Zayo Strengthened Company Culture in 2022

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From celebrating 15 years in business to seeing our leaders and organization honored with well-deserved recognition and awards, 2022 was an exciting year at Zayo. In addition, we increased our commitment to creating a great company culture for our employees, stakeholders, customers, and community. We’ve highlighted four of our proudest cultural accomplishments from 2022.

“At Zayo, we believe that diverse perspectives drive innovative ideas and fuel our growth. We foster a culture where every Zayoite feels seen, valued, respected and empowered to be their most authentic self. We strive to work with partners that also demonstrate core values around diversity and sustainability.”

Built In Names Zayo a “Best Places to Work” Recipient

For the second consecutive year, Zayo was named one of the best large companies to work for according to Built In Colorado.

For Zayo’s Chief People and Culture Officer, Julie Tschida Brown, the work that comes with this level of recognition doesn’t end with the award. She says, “While we are very proud of and excited for the award, we never rest on our accomplishments. We have much momentum carrying us into 2023, and we will continue to engage employees, create an inclusive environment where they can do their best work and offer the resources, tools, and benefits that are most valuable to them.”

We’re committed to continuing to make Zayo a great place to work by listening to employees. We do so by conducting quarterly surveys, keeping our doors and inboxes open to feedback, and hosting regular “zChats” with executives which provide an open format for communication around important company initiatives. We incorporate this feedback into decisions that impact our culture and our people.

One of the ways we incorporate this feedback is through our benefits offerings. Tschida Brown notes, “Each year, Zayo continues to strengthen its foundation and offer benefits that will provide the most value to employees, and we know this because they tell us. In 2022, using employee feedback as our guide, we introduced two new health and wellness benefits: zWell, through Limeade, and Modern Health.”

Zayo Introduces a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Statement

In 2022, Zayo proudly unveiled our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging statement.

Through our Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, Belonging (DEIB) initiatives, Zayo is able to connect what’s next for our employees, customers, partners, and communities.

Diverse perspectives help drive the innovative ideas that fuel our company’s growth and DEIB is foundational to our success. We encourage potential employees from all backgrounds to apply at Zayo. Once we bring these diverse perspectives into the discussion, we aim to do everything we can to ensure our programs, policies and environment are equitable and conducive to employees feeling involved, respected, and heard.

DEI statements are common, but the important distinction with a DEIB statement is the inclusion of “belonging.” While we think the D, E, and I portions of the statement are equally important, belonging means that Zayo strives to create an environment where employees feel psychologically safe, like they can be their authentic selves, and bring their ideas to the table. We want Zayo to continue to be a place our employees want to come to work and we all have a role to play!

The effort to focus on belonging historically has paid off for companies. In fact, survey data proves this final “belonging” piece to be especially critical – a high sense of belonging has been linked to a 56% increase in job performance and a 50% reduction in employee turnover.

Zayo Establishes a North Star Statement Centered Around the Community

2022 was also the year we shared our North Star statement:

“At Zayo, we connect what’s next. We are committed to making a positive impact through investing in the next generation of technology leaders by creating development and professional advancement opportunities for historically marginalized and underrepresented communities.”

The North Star statement, released at the end of 2022, outlines our continued commitment to the advancement of the communities we live and work in. We plan to use this statement as a guide to help us focus our community efforts in 2023 and beyond. Aside from building engagement and momentum within the organization and retaining diverse talent, we seek to enrich the communities around us. We plan to partner with local universities and workforce development agencies to provide opportunities for students and local workers to become involved at Zayo.

The Denver Business Journal Names Zayo CEO Steve Smith a “Most Admired CEO”

Finally, great companies are spearheaded by great leaders. We are fortunate to have an admirable leader at our helm. In 2022, the Denver Business Journal agreed, naming Zayo CEO Steve Smith one of their Most Admired CEOs of the year. 

In his interview with the Denver Business Journal, Steve discusses his background and how he made his way from an “ordinary background and family” to an award-winning CEO with “hard work, dedication, and building relationships based on trust, humility, and authenticity.” 

When asked about his five-year plan for Zayo, Smith envisions Zayo being “the leading independent communications infrastructure partner that has helped enable the digital transformation agenda across the world.” 

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