How Codility Celebrates LGBTQIA+ Pride All Year Long

Each June, many businesses post supportive statements on social media and launch rainbow-covered products to celebrate Pride Month. But what the LGBTQIA+ community needs from businesses is authentic support all year long. Employers need to lead the way to create a more inclusive world. At Codility, our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives demonstrate how we’re doing our part.

Our leadership understands the importance of this commitment well, in part because one-third of our executive team identifies as part of the LGBTQIA+ community. From the start, Codility has built a culture of inclusion and belonging, and we work to embody those ideals every single day. 

This year, Codility held an internal panel discussion to honor Pride Month, featuring our C-suite executives and members of our LGBTQIA+ employee resource group (ERG). The discussion helped educate people who are not members of the LGBTQIA+ community about the history of Pride and the experiences of their colleagues in life and at work.

These frank conversations are just one example of how Codility creates what Jason Medley, Chief People Officer at Codility, calls “culture crushes,” which we make “…by embodying a model of organizational culture that is so impactful, it empowers other companies and leaders to want to emulate it.”  

Why inclusivity matters in tech

While there has been progress in the diversity of tech organizations, we still have a long way to go before the tech industry reflects the rest of the population. White men continue to be overrepresented in tech, and this will not change without intentional action. 

The good news is that tech organizations are beginning to embrace diversity and inclusion initiatives, in part because there is a strong business case for doing so. Customers are increasingly demanding inclusive solutions created by diverse teams, and they are more likely to become repeat customers if they believe a brand is committed to diversity and inclusion. 

Working for a more inclusive tech industry isn’t just about the bottom line, however. It’s the right thing to do. Talking about diversity and inclusivity in your recruiting efforts helps diverse candidates envision themselves working at your organization, attracting more diverse candidates, and expanding your talent pool. Around two-thirds (67%) of job seekers say they seek out diverse companies.

This allows you to select the most capable hires based on their skills. Supporting an inclusive workplace culture also benefits your current employees by creating an environment where they feel valued for who they are and what they bring to the table. Prioritizing inclusivity can also improve employee retention and protect your hiring investments.  

Creating an inclusive, welcoming recruiting process

For job seekers, first impressions are everything. That’s why it’s essential to demonstrate your inclusive work culture when recruiting engineers. Codility makes inclusion a key goal in our recruiting process. We offer all candidates an opportunity for an informational meeting with any of our ERGs, including our LGBTQIA+ group. 

We’re also mindful of our language throughout our recruiting communications, from online postings to individual conversations. We realize that straight candidates in heterosexual relationships never think twice about speaking about their partners during interviews. 

For members of the LGBTQIA+ community, it can be a very different story. We have ongoing training with our recruiting teams to make sure we are inclusive with our language (i.e., using “partner” instead of gendered terms like “husband/wife”) and avoiding assumptions in all situations. 

Supporting the LGBTQIA+ community outside of work

What happens at work is important but, at Codility, we believe we have a greater responsibility to support diversity and inclusivity in the world. We leverage our social media presence to spread awareness about Pride Month with personal stories from employees of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Elevating these voices is a simple way to show support, provide visibility, and normalize diversity. Codility also believes it’s essential to support the LGBTQIA+ community in tangible ways. We do this through donations to organizations in the US and EMEA, such as The Trevor Project and Lambda Istanbul. 

Helping employers improve DEI hiring

Codility exists to increase the problem-solving capacity of the world and help employers make better technical hires, and we’ve designed our products to improve DEI outcomes as well. Our technology includes an Anti-Bias Workflow, which removes personal identifying information (PII) to ensure that hiring decisions are made for the right reasons.

When assessing a candidate’s technical skills, hiding PII mitigates bias from the recruiting process, resulting in more fair decisions about each candidate’s status. We’re also working hard to create a more DEI-friendly platform that further levels the playing field for engineering candidates.

In addition to supporting DEI hiring with our products, we also strive to educate tech hiring leaders with actionable advice and resources on our blog. We’ve shared tips on promoting diversity and inclusion in remote tech hiring, explained how remote hiring supports diversity in tech, and why an inclusive recruiting process relies on skills-based hiring.

The future of tech is inclusive

To remain competitive in the tech industry, employers need to make diversity and inclusion a priority all year long. It’s no longer enough to raise a rainbow flag in June and pretend it’s business as usual the rest of the year. 

At Codility, we value diversity, equity, and inclusion because those principles are at the heart of who we are and why we exist. We are a diverse organization, celebrating and learning from our differences every day and working together to inspire a more inclusive tech industry. 

Are you interested in joining our diverse, inclusive team? Check out our current career opportunities here. 

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