Company Culture
Racial Equity in Tech Month 2022 / Technical.ly Company Builder Monthly Prompts

These 6 tech hiring orgs are striving to advance racial equity with resources and support for employees

For Racial Equity in Tech Month, we asked our Technical.ly Talent companies how they prioritize DEI.

Spotify team members sharing ideas. (Courtesy photo)

While the technological advancement of the past few decades has yielded tremendous growth and progress, those gains have not been shared equally — especially in terms of race.

After the wave of racial justice protests in 2020, many companies have made commitments and instituted new policies aimed at reducing the equity gap, but there is still much to be done. Each organization is on its own journey and making its own strides, but jobseekers are increasingly evaluating how a company is walking the walk. In turn, showing a commitment to equity not only benefits diverse workers and their communities, but also strengthens a company’s culture as a whole. And in the extremely competitive modern talent market, this is now a necessity, beyond just being the right thing to do.

For the month of June, Technical.ly’s reporting has explored the theme of Racial Equity in Tech for our editorial calendar. For some additional perspectives, we asked our Technical.ly Talent companies the following question:

How does your organization prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion for all employees? 

This could include specific resources like ERGs, a focus on diversity in hiring, partnerships with community organizations or any other programs and initiatives related to racial equity.

Here are some replies from their hiring teams, and if you like what you see, follow the links to companies’ Culture Pages to learn more and explore open roles.

Inspire

“The desire to be a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace in which everyone can thrive has been a guiding force in Inspire’s journey. Our diversity mission statement is as follows: ‘The best Inspire is a diverse Inspire. We’re passionately building a culture of belonging and empowerment to create a better world for all.’

We have three employee resource groups to build support and community for our women, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ employees and allies. Our ERGs host monthly meetings focused on bonding, connection, learning and action and regularly meet with our leadership team to help build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace. Some examples of our ERG programming in the last year include hosting virtual wine nights, AV Club discussions, an AAPI-themed cooking class, and town hall meetings to create an open space for those in our Inspire community impacted by current events to share their thoughts.” — Melanie Vargas, senior manager of talent acquisition

Kleer

“Kleer is committed to building a culture that promotes, supports and celebrates the diverse backgrounds of our employees. This starts with our inclusive hiring practices and is reinforced in our overarching DE&I strategy which includes training, access to resources and groups that provide support, equitable career advancement opportunities and more. We know there is still more work to be done as we are just getting started.” — Melissa Richardson, VP of team success

PNC Financial Services

“Our focus continues to be centered on our greatest asset, our employees, while intentionally building diverse, high-performing teams. We’re committed to fostering a culture where every employee is respected, valued and has a sense of belonging, where they can confidently bring their authentic selves to work and pursue equitable opportunities for growth. Our employee business resource groups align with this commitment by offering opportunities to engage across the spectrum of diversity. Likewise, PNC’s D&I-focused thought leadership programs further our culture of inclusion and allow us to build better market, customer and cultural acumen. Ultimately, PNC’s investment in inclusion shapes how we lead, how we interact with our colleagues, how we deliver on our business objectives and how we serve all PNC stakeholders.” — Gina Coleman, chief diversity officer

ReturnLogic

“At ReturnLogic, we believe diversity drives creativity — our hiring practices and diverse workforce reflect the values we prioritize as a company. By filtering job descriptions through bias detectors and limiting educational requirements, we remove barriers to entry in the hiring process. We’ve expanded our recruitment strategies through new job boards and leverage current employee networks with referral bonuses.” — Alex Leone, talent manager

Spotify

“Our platform is for everyone, and so is our workplace. The more diverse voices we have represented and amplified in our business, the more we will create, thrive and be brilliant. For us it’s about actions, not just words. To foster a diverse, and inclusive culture, we’ve put a dedicated global diversity, inclusion and belonging strategy into action rooted in accelerating intersectional belonging and advocating for mental health. We engage and educate our leaders, increase efforts to attract and hire diverse talent and through our many employee resource groups, we ensure the voices of our communities aren’t just heard but amplified.

Through all of our work on belonging, we seek to reduce the barriers that prevent everyone from moving ahead and being their best. We recognize that a one-size-fits-all approach does not, in reality, create a fairer system and that nuanced tactics are sometimes needed to support different groups. And that regardless of what role we do, we all play a part in creating sustained equity for all.” — Kristin Jarrett, lead for equity and impact

The Tactile Group

“We know that the intrinsic power of a diverse team can only be realized within an inclusive company culture. We’ve been intentional in operationalizing empathy in our HR policies, making sure they are equitable and repeatable. We are always evaluating our employee value proposition in the light of societal disparities to ensure we are walking the walk. We’ve been very intentional in maintaining reasonably similar access to resources and professional development opportunities for our entire team.” — Marc Coleman, president and CEO

###

Passionate about advancing racial equity in the workplace? Check out all the Technical.ly Talent companies here, and learn more about their cultures and open positions.

P.S. If you’re curious about Technical.ly Talent for your own org, find more info here and connect with us.

Explore Technical.ly Talent companies

This sponsored content is a part of Racial Equity in Tech Month of Technical.ly's editorial calendar. The companies appearing in this article are Technical.ly Talent clients.

Companies: Spotify / ReturnLogic / Kleer and Membersy / PNC Financial Services / Inspire / The Tactile Group

Before you go...

Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.

Our services Preferred partners The journalism fund
Engagement

Join our growing Slack community

Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!

Trending

Penn dean is a startup founder and ‘engineer at heart’ who loves the connection between education and business

Empowering independence for Pittsburgh’s elderly and disabled community with tech

DelawareBio and UDel make joint hire to boost biotech innovation

Every startup community wants ‘storytelling.’ Too few are doing anything about it.

Technically Media