Adobe earns top accolade for its people-centric approach to business

We’re excited to announce that Forbes has named Adobe to its “America’s Best Employers” list. The rankings, put together annually by Forbes and Statista, are based on a survey of 38,000 Americans working for businesses with at least 1,000 employees. Adobe made it to the top 50 of the list, clocking in at No. 27.

So, what exactly is behind our award-winning company culture? It’s simple: Since its inception in 1982, Adobe has always taken a people-based approach to business, fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace environment that is committed to making employees feel happy, appreciated, comfortable and excited to bring their best selves to work.

We believe that people are our greatest asset and investing in their continued growth and wellbeing is vital to our future success. Below, we look at some of the ways in which Adobe’s has shown its commitment to its people through innovative and progressive programs that drive employee experience and truly make Adobe a great place to work.

1. A longstanding people-based culture committed to values

Adobe can only be as successful as its employees are happy to work here, and we recognize that our innovation and financial performance rests its laurels on the people who work here day in and day out.

When John Warnock and Chuck Geschke founded Adobe in 1982, the two were set on building an innovative company through a workplace based on honesty, trust and a belief in treating everyone equally and with respect. We believe that the individual and day-to-day efforts by people who embody Adobe’s core values (Genuine, Exceptional, Innovative and Involved) and beliefs are what has propelled our brand forward.

That’s why, every year since 2001, we recognize twelve employees with the Adobe Founders’ Award, an ode to our company’s history and to honor those who consistently live and breathe our values. This peer-to-peer recognition awards program allows teams all over the company to recognize the people, all over the world, who help make Adobe not just a great company, but a great place to work.

2. Progressive people policies

Even before the pandemic, Adobe has shown unwavering commitment to employees through investments in learning and development, a culture that fosters innovation and growth, and with industry-leading benefits. A good example is the wide variety of family-friendly leave policies that cater to the diverse scenarios employees may face when starting a family.

We’re a leader in pay parity across gender and also achieved ethnic pay parity between employees from underrepresented minority (URM) groups and non-URM employees in the U.S. We are now examining the fairness in our promotions and horizontal movement, a notion we’ve coined “opportunity parity.” In 2020 we disclosed opportunity parity data for promotions by region, job category and overall; and we unveiled horizontal movement metrics for the first time.

We’ve also updated our FY2020 employee metrics data to provide more detail–reporting to the tenths place for the first time. We intend to continue driving our parity and transparency efforts forward next year.

3. A thoughtful approach to COVID-19

When the pandemic began to spread throughout the United States in March 2020, Adobe made a commitment to first and foremost protect the health and wellbeing of its employees. In the face of tremendous uncertainty, we pledged no layoffs and underwent a companywide reprioritization exercise to ensure our employees and resources were supporting the initiatives that would drive the most long-term success for the company.

And when our regular employee pulse surveys uncovered that people were fatigued and not taking the time off they needed, we instituted regular company-wide days off every third Friday during the pandemic, providing employees with much-needed time off to unplug and recharge. We also offered well-being resources like 24/7 counseling and free meditation apps, as well as reimbursement funds for wellness and work-from-home expenses.

4. “Adobe For All” vision and taking action

Our vision for advancing diversity and inclusion is called “Adobe For All.” As part of it, we believe that everyone deserves respect and equal treatment, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, cultural background or religious beliefs.

In response to the events of the summer, with the death of George Floyd and other highly visible incidents of racial injustice, we developed the Taking Action Initiative (TAI), consisting of five task forces that each focus on:

Building community at Adobe: Educating employees to raise awareness of issues on race, inclusion and belonging and creating a platform for the Black experience to be heard.
Growth and advancement: Fostering greater opportunity, sponsorship, development and advancement.
Hiring and recruiting: Increasing investment in developing a robust talent pipeline.
Social responsibility and advocacy: Identifying key issues where we will direct Adobe’s resources and energy toward advancing equality through our ecosystem.
Transparency in progress: Enabling more insight, data and accountability to ensure that we are creating measurable progress.

Each task force consists of representatives from our Black Employee Network (BEN) as well as subject matter owners from across our employee experience, global marketing, procurement and other key teams. We have regular check-in meetings with our CEO and Chief People Officer on progress.

We believe when employees feel appreciated and included, they can be more creative, innovative, and successful. This is our “Adobe For All vision,” and in these unprecedented times, the health and well-being of our employees and communities will continue to be a top priority.