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Women of Tally: Creating Community and New Opportunities While Working From Home

In 2021 and beyond, Women of Tally maintains a supportive community and helps Tallizens who identify as women achieve their professional and personal goals.

Tally

March 8, 2021

Tally’s mission to make people less stressed and better off financially is about inclusion. By automating peoples’ financial lives — starting with helping them pay off their credit card debt faster — we want to make the products and services that have been traditionally only available to those above a certain income bracket accessible to all.

This focus on inclusion doesn’t stop at the product and financial services industry. It extends to the way we work and how we work with each other. The Women of Tally is one of the company’s affinity groups that’s working to cultivate a safe community for Tallizens who identify as women, while providing resources and opportunities for them to grow personally and professionally.

Founded in 2018, the group was created by women for women in response to a growing demand for more professional development opportunities. Within its first year, the group was able to create a series of panels and workshops that addressed the specific challenges that women face in the workplace, often throughout their careers. It also became a supportive space where women could advocate and support each other.

Like many companies across the country, Tally became a fully-remote workforce in response to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and continues to work from home today. Though Tallizens could not meet in person, the Women of Tally continued to foster a strong sense of community and create opportunities for philanthropy, learning and development, and personal growth throughout the year.

Creating a Supportive Community

Women make up nearly half of the company today. While Tally is fully remote, creating opportunities to connect outside day-to-day work is more important than ever. Women of Tally started by hosting regular welcome lunches over Zoom to get to know new Tallizens.

Many members are avid book readers, and this commonality evolved into a monthly book club.

“Last year, one of my personal New Year’s resolutions was to read at least 10 books! I was never an avid reader but wanted to pick it up. When Women of Tally started the WoT Book Club, it was the perfect way for me to connect with other strong and smart women at the company, while encouraging a new reader like myself to pick up a fun hobby,” said Melanie Ouyang, User Success Associate at Tally.

There is no agenda other than to collectively pick books to read and discuss them within the group.

“Reading books is so much more fun with friends, and I have found myself finishing and enjoying every single book so far. Everyone is so open in discussions, and it brings me joy to connect with my coworkers outside of work this way,” said Henny Durate, User Success Specialist at Tally.

For Women’s History Month, Women of Tally are opening up the WoT Book Club to the whole company and will be reading "Girls Burn Brighter," by Shobha Rao. Another great discussion is anticipated.

Learning and Development

Even though the company has been fully remote for the past year, Women of Tally continued to support the career growth of its members. Tally conducts two formal reviews a year, where Tallizens are asked to write a self-assessment of their work during the preceding six months. Research shows that women are often less inclined to self-promote than men. To counter this, the Women of Tally hosted a lunch and learn before each assessment cycle to coach our members on how to best position themselves for a promotion and raise — and how to start and continuously have this conversation with their managers. An outside coach also hosted a virtual workshop on how to speak more confidently.

Supporting Women Outside of Tally

What sets Women of Tally apart from other work groups is that it not only builds up the women inside the organization, but also those in surrounding communities. Women of Tally partnered with La Casa de Las Madres, a nonprofit in San Francisco that responds to calls for help from domestic violence victims 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. La Casa is an exceptional charitable organization located right in the SF Mission District that provides emergency shelters, legal assistance, career help and crisis hotlines in order to empower women and children affected by domestic violence to transform their lives. Over the holidays, Women of Tally organized a companywide charity drive to purchase 50 holiday gift boxes that would include toiletries and gift cards for groceries and other essential items. These gift boxes were critical to La Casa's ability to provide a meaningful holiday experience for survivors in their community.

Women of Tally's partnership with La Casa began in 2018, and inspired the group to focus efforts on supporting women in Tally's direct community. As our company has grown, incredible women from all over the US and Canada have been added to the team. In 2021, the group plans to extend support to other women-based charitable organizations while continuing to grow the partnership with La Casa.

In 2021 and beyond, Women of Tally plans to keep on encouraging and empowering Tallizens who identify as women, by maintaining a supportive community and helping our members achieve their professional and personal goals.