If you’ve browsed through Belvo’s careers page, you’ll notice there are five fundamental values upon which we build our company culture. Valuing diversity, and, of course, LGBTQ+ diversity, is one of them.
Research backs up what is already common sense: teams work best when people feel their personal experiences are validated and welcomed in the workplace, and differences are powerful tools to improve decision-making, creativity, and innovation.
We are a team of over 150 employees of multicultural backgrounds, coming from over 25 countries and cultures, so we want to make sure our environment is one where everyone can feel safe to be themselves and thrive at what they do best.
To foster that, these are the main ideas that are part of our ‘Diversity matters’ value, that we share across our company:
- We are genuine, humble, open, and embrace diversity.
- We thrive when we welcome a diversity of identities, experiences, and perspectives into the team.
- We are adaptable and we proactively aim to foster and cultivate an inclusive environment.
- We are committed to building a culture of respect, dignity, fairness, and equity.
But how can we actually get this translated into our day-to-day? The first step is the most important: we never consider this to be a finished job and understand we will always need to improve as we learn and grow.
Building the culture we want will always be a work in progress, no company will ever have this fully done. The key is to remain mindful about the intention to be inclusive, build your action plan step by step, and keep doing more and more as time goes by
Maria, VP of People
Here are some of the actions we are taking in that direction.
Table of Contents
- Hiring and promoting without bias
- Creating safe and welcoming spaces
- Encouraging constant learning and open communication
Hiring and promoting without bias
Human beings are subject to unconscious bias, but there are some actions we can take to identify them, like standardizing processes and sharing decisions.
We begin with a very simple but powerful measure: passing all of our job descriptions into a gender decoder. Our recruiters also work proactively to include people from diverse gender, backgrounds, and geographies in all our hiring processes.
Making sure the process is standardized for everyone is also vital. Regardless of the area they are applying for, all our candidates will go through the same funnel.
This process goes, as it should, through several hands. All the people involved have had training on how to interview, what questions to ask and how to remain objective.
Read more about how we’ve designed our hiring process to avoid unconscious bias.
These same principles are applied to our career paths, and evaluations for promotions follow standardized topics and objective evaluations, where we analyze the expectations regarding soft and hard skills for each level.
Creating safe and welcoming spaces
Creating a truly safe space for our talent to thrive is part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion.
It’s also an intrinsic part of our work around Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices at Belvo. Specifically, it’s part of how we take care of how Belvo interacts with communities. As such, it’s included in our code of ethics and conduct, which covers the main principles that must guide the conduct of all Belvoers:
- We believe in and promote diversity because in our view people are better when they can be themselves and we thrive when we welcome a diversity of identities, experiences, and perspectives into the team.
- We’re committed to making everyone at Belvo feel welcomed and respected and have the same opportunities, with special attention to those in conditions of vulnerability.
- We expect everyone to respect other people’s identities and individualities and not discriminate based upon those.
This code also includes strong policies against harassment and aggression, which are part of our work environment ethics and aimed to create a welcoming workplace where everyone feels comfortable and safe. All Belvoers have access to reporting tools, including anonymously, in order to reach out if they see or experience discriminatory behavior.
At Belvo we also want to support and take care of the team’s needs at all times, including non-work-related concerns they might have, and provide them the tools they need to address them in a non-judgmental way. That’s why all Belvoers have access to Oliva, a mental wellness platform that provides tailored support to each individual from a team of qualified experts.
Encouraging constant learning and open communication
If diversity is truly a value for a company, it needs to be more than something that is accepted. We want all Belvoers to belong and feel empowered to do their work while feeling they can be themselves at all times.
This goes from simple things, like enabling the use of personal pronouns in our internal communication tools and directories, to promoting groups and activities related to diversity.
One example is our Belvo LGBTQ+ diversity group, which has recently hosted its first official event, where teammates gathered to share their experiences.
But these important discussions and learnings are not subscribed to one-time events. That’s why Belvo has also curated and shared a list of resources to help educate our team regarding LGBTQ+ diversity.
This content is available in the company’s internal training tool to offer specific learning tracks for Belvoers on the topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion, with a particular focus on things like fighting unconscious bias, learning about LGBTQ+ and gender awareness, and inclusive talent management.
As we evolve as individuals and as a team, we are constantly exposed to experiences and realities that are different from our own, and this helps us identify our unconscious biases. This is a process that never ends. That’s why it’s fundamental that we create spaces where we can constantly learn and communicate openly about the importance of diversity
Maria, VP of People
This is just a part of the work we do to create a company where people love to work, feel they belong, can be their true selves, and are empowered to do their best work while creating meaningful connections.
Learn more about our values and working at Belvo.
