Q&A with Anika Balkan, Head of Diversity & Inclusion at KAYAK and OpenTable

Anika Balkan (She/Her/Hers) recently joined KAYAK and OpenTable as the Head of Diversity & Inclusion and has already made impressive strides in developing Diversity and Inclusion programs and empowering employees. We caught up with Anika to learn more about what inspired her to pursue a career in D&I, what she envisions for the future of the brands and how we can all continue to better ourselves as individuals and as part of a global community.

Can you tell us a little about your background and why you chose Diversity & Inclusion as a career path?

I was born and raised in Oakland, CA. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a real interest in social justice and equality and so much of that passion has been sparked by my community, family and friends.

Growing up, my parents made sure I knew about the contributions of civil rights leaders like Thurgood Marshall and John Lewis. My dad was a science teacher so he made sure to introduce me to important figures like astronauts Sally Ride and Ellen Ochoa. I actually got to meet Sally Ride when I was young and I remember feeling so inspired seeing her and knowing she was the first American woman in space.

I would say these heroes and my family and community are what sparked my interest in exploring a career in Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) work.

What experiences and learnings do you hope to bring to KAYAK and OpenTable from your previous positions?

I have been very lucky to have had experiences working with companies that were diligent about making their values come to life and were very good at clarifying their purpose as a company beyond driving the bottom line.

Part of this work is emphasizing a stakeholder model. That is to say, how do we make sure the services, experiences and products we provide to the world support our customers, consumers, employees, partners, shareholders and society.

I am excited to continue to challenge our teams to think about how we bring value and create impact for all of these stakeholders. How can we reimagine our company’s purpose of making it easier for everyone to experience the world through travel and dining through the lens of Diversity and Inclusion and further equality for all.

What are some of your main goals as the Head of Diversity & Inclusion at KAYAK and OpenTable?

I am a big believer in elevating the employee voice, so a cornerstone of our D&I strategy at KAYAK and OpenTable is to empower our Employee Resource Groups. To make a deep impact, we have to move D&I from extra curricular work to an important part of everyone’s job and everyday experiences in the workplace.

At KAYAK and OpenTable, we are looking inward on how our business can be more inclusive.

We are examining our marketing strategy and looking at who the heroes of our stories are, and taking a hard look at our recruiting strategies, asking questions like “Do we give everyone an equal opportunity to interview? Is there equity in our pay structures?” We are also spending time listening to our communities and looking for places where there are other systematic inequalities within our company that need changing.

This work requires a hard look at ourselves, but it has been my personal experience that transformative growth only comes by doing a continuous and rigorous evaluation of yourself and your values. There are no easy fixes, but I’m proud to work at a company where our employees are invested in doing this important work.

What have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve come across thus far in the D&I space? Some of the biggest surprises/wins?

In my view, D&I work is both some of the most challenging and rewarding work you can do. Many of the topics we deal with as D&I practitioners can be very personal, emotional, or upsetting. It’s tempting, in some cases, to jump into action or to react to a crisis situation as it’s unfolding.

The thing I find most challenging in this work is resisting the urge to react in the moment and taking the time to pause and make space for deep listening, self care and objectivity in decision making. When making big decisions or implementing policy change in D&I work it is critical to ask questions like:

• Do I have enough opinions collected from the community or stakeholders involved in this issue to make a good decision?
• Do I fully understand the challenges of a situation and what I am trying to solve for?
• Am I prioritizing my own self care and making a decision from a place of strength and objectivity?
• Am I leading with empathy and making space for learning and education?
• Am I seeing a problem with a long-term view? If I make a decision for an issue now what might be the outcomes of that decision in 5–10 years?

I am certainly still a work in progress, but I have learned that when you can clearly articulate answers to these types of questions, chances are you will be successful in making change.

What actions has our company taken to create a more diverse and inclusive work environment?

We are at the beginning of our journey, but I am very proud of some of the important work our team is leading to transform our business. Many of these D&I projects have been driven as a result of dialogue and feedback with our Employee Resource Groups.

Some of the highlights are:

• Creating and empowering our Global Employee Resource Groups for Women, People of Color, Persons with Disabilities, Veterans, and the LGBTQ Community.
• Hosting listening, feedback, and collaborative brainstorming sessions with our Employee Resource Groups and Sr. Leadership Team.
• Conducting an annual pay equity study and ensuring equal pay for all employees in our organization.
• Hosting an Inclusive Marketing Summit for our employees and rolling out a new framework and training for all content creators in our business.
• And soon we will be Hosting an Unconscious Bias training for all of our employees and a dedicating ½ day training for our Director and above level employees on Implicit Bias.

It is an important time for us all to reignite our passion for learning, reading, and thinking critically about the systems we participate in and how those systems need rewriting to be more equitable for all.

What upcoming projects are you most excited about?

We are currently working on overhauling our recruiting strategy to put D&I at the forefront of our business. A few months after I joined KAYAK and OpenTable, the recruiting team kicked off a massive audit of our processes and roles. We are looking at everything from how we write job postings, to creating more diverse candidate and interview panel slates, to how we diversify our talent pools. We are about halfway through the audit process and will be implementing new strategies based on our findings.

Can you share some advice on anyone looking to take the Diversity & Inclusion career path?

First, it’s an amazing field and I would encourage anyone who is passionate about these issues to consider a role in corporate D&I work.

If you can’t get directly involved with a D&I function right away, I would suggest getting involved with a company Employee Resource Group. If you don’t have them at your company, start one!

I would also say experience in human resources, legal fields, public affairs or public relations will serve you well in this space.

Do you have any thoughts on how we can create change as individuals?

Companies are an incredibly important vehicle for making change in society, but they certainly are not the end all be all.

I would challenge everyone to think about their personal sphere of influence, their community, and the power they have as an individual in society. To create a more equal world, we all need to take a look and conduct a rigorous inventory of ourselves and take time to reflect on our values. We should be asking ourselves things like:

• Do you know your neighbors? Is your circle of friends, family, community diverse? What opinions and perspectives might you be missing?
• Do you engage in conversations about equality with your circle? If not, why not?
• Are you registered to vote? Do you know who your representatives are?
• Are you clear on your personal values and purpose? Can you name these?
• What media or stories are you consuming? What perspectives might you be missing?
• Who are your personal heroes? Why?
• Are you voting with your dollars and supporting brands and companies who are committed to positive social change?
• Do you speak up for others when it matters?

The work at KAYAK and OpenTable is ongoing and with Anika leading the way, we look forward to a more inclusive future for both brands. We’ll continue to share our progress.