At Alley, we believe that diverse perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds fuel our best work and are essential for our future. Our team members are based all over the world — and cultivating an environment of diverse, talented professionals starts with building a team that reflects the broader demographic makeup of the communities where we work.

What does hiring have to do with DEIA?

Attracting the best talent is a vital part of any growing organization. To this end, it’s important to create intentional processes for mitigating bias and maximizing equity at all stages of the hiring process. That’s why hiring is one of five key areas where we focus our diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) efforts.

Taking actionable steps

Setting equity-minded goals and taking clear, actionable steps helps us uphold our values of quality, transparency, and accountability and create company-wide change. To that end, we’ve outlined some specific goals and action items we’ve set around building a more equitable hiring process.

Our Goals

Expand our applicant pool to reach a wider range of people — including women, BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+ people, and people with disabilities.
Design a web-developer education curriculum to train early-career developers and programming learners, a group that is inherently (and increasingly) more diverse than those already established in the tech sector.

Steps we’ve taken

Implemented mandatory unconscious bias training for everyone involved in the hiring process. (Q4 2020)
Implemented an ongoing review process for job descriptions and internal hiring processes for potential bias and non-inclusive language. (Q1 2021)
Identified job boards curated for diverse and underrepresented communities where our job postings can reach a wider range of candidates moving forward. (Q1 2021)
Ensured we are prepared to make accessibility accommodations for job candidates, including the use of audio captioning devices, interpreters, or interviewing via written communication. (Q2 2021)
Updated our hiring FAQ and interview invitation email to outline our available resources and encourage applicants to ask for accommodations for their interview. (Q2 2021)
Established long-term partnerships with organizations like InHerSight (Q3 2022) and Out in Tech (Q3 2020) to support the advancement of underrepresented communities in tech.
Design Alley’s External Developer Education Program for training early-career developers and teach the specific technical skills needed to contribute code for enterprise-level WordPress, building developer skills at Alley.

What the future holds

As Alley’s team continues to expand, we will work toward an increasingly accessible and equitable process backed by research and metrics around how we’ve sourced candidates for various roles and how our applicant pool has changed over time. We also look forward to the expansion of Alley’s External Developer Education Program which will not only allow us to hire a more diverse team of developers, but also model a program that can expand the parameters that currently impede new groups from breaking into the tech sector.