Here’s how we think about DEI in a nutshell

<aside> 🌈 We want to build a diverse company that shares common values. Flixed should be a place where people of all genders, sexualities, ethnicities and races can belong and thrive.

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More about how we think about DEI

There are three main reasons to support DEI:

  1. The moral case - As a company, we want to support systemic change for underrepresented groups. We don’t believe in a world where your immutable attributes (gender, race, ethnticity, sexuality) prevent you from accessing opportunities that you are qualified for.
  2. The performance case - Studies from McKinsey, the University of Michigan and other institutions support the argument that diverse teams perform better. Our immutable attributes play a significant role in how we think and approach problems. We believe that having diversity across these attributes, while maintaining a common set of values is how we build an exceptionally high performing team.
  3. The hiring case - Unfortunately startups pay little-to-no attention to diversity at the early stages. Ingraining DEI into the foundation of Flixed will give us an advantage in reaching, hiring, and integrating talented but underrepresented individuals.

In summary, a diverse pool of candidates is the result of having a generally strong people culture.

If all members of our team look the same and come from similar backgrounds, it indicates that our hiring system is ineffective in reaching a large audience of candidates who are likely qualified and align with our values, but come from different backgrounds.

If this is the case, it means we’ve largely failed in supporting our goal of maintaining a diverse company that shares common values. It means that people are unable to participate in our company because of their immutable attributes, which is unacceptable.

How we implement this view in practice

👩🏽‍🏫 Recruiting & DEI training from the best

Any person that is responsible for recruiting new employees will be required to participate in Startup Recruiting Bootcamp. This 4-week course is headed by Jennifer Kim, former Head of People at Lever. She’s one of the most original thinkers on recruiting and DEI in tech, and an awesome human being in general! This course provides an A → Z primer on recruiting as a startup, with a special focus on DEI. This course is normally $5,000 per person, but we will pay 100% of the tuition to put any new hiring manager through it. New hiring managers will also go through separate Flixed Recruitment Bootcamp.

🛠️ Tools to support diverse sourcing

We’ve signed up for subscriptions to Fetcher.ai and Textio.com. Fetcher produces assistance with sourcing diverse profiles for outbound outreach, while Textio screens any job description for implicit bias. Training for these tools will be provided during the Flixed Recruitment Bootcamp.

📝 Policies to support diverse sourcing

For any new job that we recruit for, the following policies must be adhered to: