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Tally 2023: Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

We have also shared the demographic makeup of Tallizens, our people managers, leadership team and board of directors.

Tally

January 23, 2023

Tally is committed to being an actively anti-racist company, and as part of that commitment, we’re regularly re-evaluating how Tally operates to see where we can do better and how we can more effectively implement change. Our three core values—Change Shoes Often, Don’t Say Nothing, and Own the Outcome—have been important guiding principles.

  • Change Shoes Often is our commitment to having empathy for our peers in the workplace and Tally’s members. Empathy is the foundation of inclusion. We believe that empathy develops when we’re genuinely curious about another person’s life and have a desire to actively understand and invest in their experience without judgment.

  • Don’t Say Nothing is our commitment to creating an environment where everyone feels psychologically safe to speak up, to challenge, to cheer and to converse. When we see or hear negativity, regardless of how minor it may seem, we seek to understand and address the root cause. We believe having a culture where everyone feels empowered and capable of identifying and correcting toxic behavior is crucial to our growth as a company.

  • Own the Outcome is our commitment to being invested beyond our individual roles, our individual experiences or titles. This applies to the work we do to help millions of Americans pay off their credit card debt faster while saving money on interest. But we also committed to being a company where everyone feels welcome and can thrive. 

Here is an overview of our work-in-progress plans to improve and scale our efforts at making Tally a place that is inclusive, diverse and where everyone can feel a sense of belonging. 

Tally’s Plans to Improve and Scale Its Inclusion, Diversity and Belonging Efforts

Diversity & Inclusion in Hiring

At Tally, we believe that one of the biggest impacts we can have to remedy the inequities in the fintech industry is to hire individuals from underrepresented backgrounds and create an environment where those individuals can thrive doing amazing work, solving hard problems, with great teams.

An inclusive recruiting and hiring process is a cornerstone of our diversity and inclusion efforts. To create a robust, inclusive hiring process Tally: 

  • Actively works with Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to ensure recruitment processes are balanced and inclusive. 

  • Sources external partners and training to increase DE&I knowledge and skills across HR and Recruiting teams. 

  • Require all hiring managers and any Tallizens participating in an interview panel to take unconscious bias training, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training before meeting with candidates. 

  • Works with our recruiters and hiring managers to ensure a diverse pipeline of candidates is presented to hiring panels for all open roles. 

  • Require that each open role includes a diverse panel of interviewers.

Learning & Development Opportunities

As we are in an unprecedented time of social and employee-driven change, we are prioritizing our DEI initiatives in all we do. This past year, we put together a more structured program of education to help foster more discussion and understanding. 

  • Ethena:  Launched an internal DEI compliance training platform to help Tallizens understand, support, celebrate and Change Shoes Often with coworkers.  These monthly trainings cover diversity, equity, and inclusion as three (3) separate topics with clear definitions, to ensure everyone at Tally is on the same page. 

To keep DEI woven into the fabric of our company, we’ve hosted various learning opportunities in 2022:

  • Black History Month: Hosted a company wide trivia event and shared resources/perspectives about Black Health and Wellness.

  • Women’s History Month: Fireside chat with Women leaders at Tally about Breaking the Bias and by Learning Together. Lunch and Learn: Past, Present and Future of Trans Women in History. Women’s History Month Trivia Night. 

  • Asian Pacific Heritage Month:  Hosted Felicia Liang to share how a 100 Day illustration project exploring her Taiwanese American identity led to a career pivot to illuminating stories of the communities and cultures she is around. Art print giveaway to Tallizens.

  • Pride Month: Two (2) part Docu-series PRIDE watch party and trivia led by Tally’s newly formed PRIDE ERG.

  • Hispanic Heritage Month: Roundtable about various Latin American cultures led by Tally’s newly formed Latin American Employee Resource Group - SOMOS.

At Tally, we believe that one of the most meaningful things we can do is learn and grow together. In 2023, in addition to continued DEI educational training,  we plan to offer more learning and development opportunities that will help Tallizens grow professionally and personally.

Supporting Employee-Led Affinity Groups

At Tally, we are very supportive of employees who want to build community within the company and do good in the communities where we work and live. Employee Resource Groups (ERG) are voluntary, employee-led groups whose aim is to foster a diverse and inclusive workplace, aligned with the culture and values of Tally. ERG’s at Tally exist to create a safe space where employees can feel a sense of belonging, and gain support and help in personal or career development. The Women of Tally (WOT) ERG was established in 2018. Created by and led by all female-identifying Tallizens, this group has provided many community, professional development and charitable work opportunities for its members over the years.

Wanting to help foster more affinity groups at Tally, we rolled out clearer guidelines on how to set up, rally support and get funding. And this past year, Tallizens were inspired to form the following affinity groups: 

  • SOMOS embraces Tallizens of Latin American descent, the first of its kind at Tally. Aiming to foster pride and empower Latin Americans from underrepresented backgrounds, SOMOS' goal is to help the Latin American community thrive within the tech world.

  • PRIDE is dedicated to creating an inclusive environment for LGBTQAI+ identifying folks at Tally, where we can share resources and support each other at the challenging intersection of technology and finance.

  • SOURCE is an all inclusive community centered around the “black experience,” focused on raising awareness, increasing diversity in recruitment, celebrating the community, and creating a space of culture.

In 2023, we’ll strive to better integrate these employee-led affinity groups with DEI educational and development opportunities. Tallizens can actively direct DEI initiatives. 

Prioritizing Internal Data Collection  

We continue to double down on our bi-weekly Pulse Surveys as a forum for feedback and dialogue. After every Town Hall meeting, we ask Tallizens how they feel about Tally as an employer. To keep the feedback anonymous, we purposely do not ask any identifying questions. We then share out the results to the company, both the ratings and the open-ended commentary the following week. The frequency and simplicity of the Pulse Survey has allowed us to respond to address any questions, concerns and issues in real time, as they arise. 

Finding More Opportunities to Support Charitable Work 

In 2022, our plan was to empower more teams to take on projects that benefit the greater community and world. One example of a team that did just that was our IT team. In doing an inventory check of our laptops, we found laptops that were no longer in use, but still in working condition. Rather than discarding them as e-waste, our IT team took it upon themselves to find a charity that could put them to good use. We partnered with Restore Her Voice, an organization that’s working to help women survivors of conflict regain their voice. These devices went to women in journalism, activism, education who evacuated Afghanistan via holding facilities before arriving in the US.

Additionally, Tally sponsored employee led Volunteer Clubs that allowed Tallizens to organize community service projects like Books for Africa, PAWs, Chinatown Cleaning Campaign, My New Red Shoes, and others.

Tally’s Employee Demographic Data

Here’s a picture of the demographics of the Tally Team as of today (December 2022), with 183 full-time employees.

The demographic data below is collected using the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) questions and selections, plus some optional questions and selections (including but not limited to selections related to gender, race, and ethnicity) during an employee’s onboarding process.