Being yourself at work: Inclusion and Diversity at TrueLayer

Yasmin: You’ve probably heard this from many companies: ‘We have diversity and inclusion at the forefront of our culture’. But how many companies have you joined that actually practice what they preach? We will do our best to outline how we strive to be inclusive and diverse at TrueLayer.

Chris: At TrueLayer, we choose to talk about Inclusion and Diversity [in that specific order] because we believe Diversity won’t be successful without Inclusion first. We value 🏆our people. We celebrate multiple approaches and points of view. And we feel comfortable voicing a contrary opinion. We build teams, cultivate leaders and create a company that’s the right fit for every person in it.

As we go global, we want our team to reflect the diverse and multicultural world we live in.

Yasmin: Throughout my personal life experiences and a full year studying for my MBA at a truly diverse program, I learned that diversity is also about having an open mind 🧠 that has the capacity to embrace the differences in opinions, it is about being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes without any judgement. It is about realising that just because someone’s experience is different from yours, it doesn’t make it less valid. Inclusion is also about being aware of people around you and understanding that your colleagues may be going through a tough period, or simply dealing with some personal problems, and being respectful of that.

This not to say that we’ve got it right — we’re constantly learning, and are striving to better ourselves. The actions taken to promote inclusion and diversity start from the recruitment process and continue throughout the company. Our superstar 🌟talent team (pictured below) uses neutral language on job specifications to speak to a broader range of candidates and target different sources including partnerships with online and offline diversity groups. Additionally, we offer company benefits that appeal to diverse candidates such as flexible work and hours as well as an enhanced Paternity/Maternity leave.

We are also very excited about our inclusion of people with mental illness and disabilities. The office is no longer a place where an employee must adapt to their environment or fail. Instead, the rise of initiatives to make workplaces fully accessible for people who have a mental illness or disabilities is challenging outdated stigmas, and putting in place new methods to ensure that employees can not just function, but thrive 🌿.

We have several current initiatives at TrueLayer to help our employees with their health and wellbeing, as well as a few more exciting initiatives being rolled out in the next few weeks. We just became a Disability Confident Committed employer which is very exciting and we are always looking for ways to improve and to be more inclusive!

Chris: Like at many other startups, TrueLayeristas gather together every Friday for our All Hands meeting. At All Hands, each team has the opportunity to contribute and present to their peers on rotation, and everyone in the company is encouraged to ask questions or provide feedback (with the option to remain anonymous for a frank discussion!).

Transparency here means that, not only do you have access to people’s communications or what they are working on, but we are also actively encouraged to have a say in how the company is being shaped. Everyone has the opportunity to add value and everyone is heard 👂. From interviews to regular feedback sessions, to our internal projects and documentation, we ensure that everyone has a touchpoint or access to these types of tasks or information.

Yasmin: We believe that diversity stems from both INSIDE and OUTSIDE, and a diverse workplace is not only a place that hires as many women as it does men but also hires people from different walks of life — diversity relates to a wider array of topics such as gender, age, socioeconomic background, religion, life experiences and many more.

When I first joined TrueLayer, the ratio of men to women wasn’t perfect but it is something that we have certainly been working on — it is something that is at the forefront of our recruitment process. As we are growing our headcount, several of our teams are now close to being gender-balanced ⚖️ and we have four women in key leadership roles which is exactly half of our leadership team.

Chris: Having worked in other startups as well as more established companies, TrueLayer really values me for me without caring about who I love. I genuinely feel I can be myself so much so that I was able to invite my boyfriend to our summer party. This was a very new but welcomed experience and made me feel valued.

Inclusion is at the forefront of our day to day, how we do business, how we sell and build our products, and how we hire. Diversity compliments this strategy by ensuring we have the right balance of people, of views and of backgrounds regardless of who they are, where they come from or who you love. As a result, we have a workforce of 31 nationalities, of many different backgrounds, experiences and of all colours of the rainbow 🌈. In essence, I really believe we value hard work in a safe and welcoming environment.

If this sounds like your kind of place, we’re always hiring new faces! Check out our job openings.