Extended voting time off and awareness campaigns are just a few ways RingCentral practices being a responsible corporate citizen. Community affairs are not superfluous for business—tech giants or small startups alike. At RingCentral, we foster a purpose-led company culture where we empower our communities, customers, and employees holistically. We’re all in this together.
Fostering civic equality
The ways we’ve stepped up to own our civic responsibility address more issues than one. Many inequalities have become abundantly clear in the past few months, and we won’t let them go ignored.
Studies show individuals in majority-Black neighborhoods wait 29% longer to vote compared to all voters on average and are 74% more likely to spend more than half an hour at their polling place. As such, we’ve decided to give all RingCentral employees four hours off to vote—double the California legal requirement. We recognize the power of voting time off in empowering all people in our civic process.
RingCentral also hosted an exclusive screening of the documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble, presented in partnership with the employee resource group, Black Employees @RingCentral (BE@R). The documentary uses interviews and rare archival footage to chronicle the US congressman’s 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on civil rights.
Pioneering purpose-led company cultures for ourselves and others
We’re “walking the walk” with being a purpose-led company and encouraging other businesses to do the same—from our very own customers to esteemed peers. We’re a proud member of the Time To Vote coalition, a group of more than 1,400 companies that guarantee their employees the right to vote. You know where to find us if you have any questions on how using RingCentral products—enabling remote work and team collaboration—can further support your own employees to find ease in taking time off to vote seamlessly with flexible, remote teamwork.
On voting
The documentary’s accompanying Good Trouble Handbook helps anyone outline their voting plan and know their rights as a voter.
First-time voter? VOTE411 has a checklist to walk you through it.
Already registered and prepared to vote? RingCentral encourages everyone to get involved and help others exercise their civic right to vote. Here are some easy, nonpartisan ways to help.
Volunteer
We’re encouraging RingCentral employees to get involved with Rock the Vote, the nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to building young people’s political power. Employees can help through an app that enables Relational Organizing, which is based on the simple idea that a volunteer reaching out to someone familiar is more effective than a volunteer reaching out to a stranger. Rock the Vote’s app offers preloaded calls to action and shareable resources. It also helps volunteers track their progress and increase involvement.
Another organization benefiting from RingCentral’s volunteerism is When We All Vote, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization on a mission to increase participation in every election. It aims to close the race and age voting gap by changing the culture around voting, harnessing grassroots energy, and creating strategic partnerships to reach every American.
Donate
We encourage people everywhere to donate to VOTE411, created by the League of Women Voters, which is committed to ensuring voters have accurate and unbiased information so they can successfully participate in every election.
Also check out Rock the Vote, an organization dedicated to uplifting and empowering the largest, most diverse generation in US history to vote.
Originally published Oct 21, 2020