At Pinwheel, DEI Doesn’t Stop With the Talent Search

For Pinwheel People Operations Lead Hale Ahangi, the goal of diversity, equity and inclusion isn’t just reflected in the company’s hiring practices. Rather, that’s just the first touchpoint in the organization’s commitment to DEI. 

According to Ahangi, the payroll connectivity API provider doesn’t simply focus on inclusion out of a feeling of social responsibility. That’s because she said the organization understands that creating engaged and innovative teams requires establishing equitable and inclusive systems that act as a guide both internally and externally. 

“How we do our work and what we accomplish at Pinwheel not only impacts those who work here, but it also sends a strong message to our customers, external partners and the world at large about our values and how we’re choosing to show up,” Ahangi said. 

For Ahangi, building out a more inclusive environment at Pinwheel begins with finding diverse individuals to join its ranks. Yet, that doesn’t mean the effort ends with the talent search. Ahangi said inclusion is reflected in the organization’s onboarding process, cultural activities, and even meetings and 360 reviews. 

In Ahangi’s mind, Pinwheel’s aim to amplify its DEI efforts hearkens back to the company’s core mission, which is to build a fairer financial system. That’s why she considers it her goal to cultivate a workplace that encourages talented individuals to be their true selves and make an impact. 

“I know that what we’re doing at Pinwheel — and how we’re doing it — is larger than ourselves,” Ahangi said. “Our work matters and influences the threads of our societal systems, and I feel lucky to be a part of shaping that journey.” 

Built In NYC caught up with Ahangi to learn how the company is diving headfirst into DEI. 

Hale Ahangi

People Operations Lead • Pinwheel

Tell me more about the company’s decision to focus more heavily on DEI. What impact will a more inclusive and diverse workforce have on the company’s future success?

Pinwheel is in a unique position to define the type of workplace that we would like to contribute to the world. We have a massive opportunity to challenge what culture looks like in startups and the fintech space as a whole. DEI has unlocked conversations for companies to be completely honest about how they cultivate work environments that actually help employees accomplish their best work, share who they are and intentionally create systems that mitigate bias. 

How is DEI reflected in the company’s recruitment process?

We can’t successfully build a fairer financial future if we don’t meaningfully strive for DEI in our own team. Likewise, we can’t recruit and retain the best talent if we don’t draw upon and support a broad, diverse talent pool. That’s why our hiring teams align on the candidate profile before kicking off a search. All of our interviewers are trained on how to administer and assess questions.

Furthermore, we strive to evaluate a candidate’s ability to perform and excel at the work they would undertake in a given role. We do this by incorporating “demonstration of work” assessments, including case studies and portfolio presentations, in each of our interview processes. We recognize that candidates have busy lives, so we do our best to limit the scope of this assessment and ensure that they’re learning more about the company during this process as well. For example, we understood how valuable it was to have the right chief of staff for our CEO. That’s why our recruitment process included scheduling working sessions for the candidate and CEO so they could collaborate and gauge how well they would work with each other. This also gave the candidate an opportunity to dive into our CEO’s vision and strategy and assess whether it was something they were excited to pursue.

Describe the company’s onboarding process. What steps are taken to make remote employees feel connected and included in the culture?

Pinwheel is a hybrid-first workspace, which means we hire talent from everywhere. Both remote and in-office employees take responsibility to ensure we are being inclusive of all employees, regardless of their location, working styles and preferences. We want everyone to work where they feel most comfortable and efficient, so we make an effort to normalize remote working and support those who pursue that option. Additionally, we design our tools to be accessible online, enabling employees to be autonomous, fully connected and well-informed. We prioritize sharing and transparency whenever possible and do so in the appropriate communication channels for optimizing maximum engagement and reach. It’s important that we respect each other’s time and situations and are transparent with each other about our working styles and preferences while making an effort to accommodate them. 

There are a lot of opportunities to connect at Pinwheel. We have virtual coffee chats, biweekly happy hours and online lunch events. For team on-sites or full company off-sites, we help remote employees make a trip to NYC. We also enable remote employees to visit the office once a quarter if they choose to do so. 

What events does the company offer to help new hires get acquainted with the organization and its culture?

As part of our self-guided onboarding process, new hires have access to reading materials related to our core values and the fintech space as well as our operational processes, policies, objectives and strategy. We know what we provide customers is unique, so we spend a lot of time sharing the details of our product, including how it works and why it matters in the world. We’re so passionate about what we do.

Our team is warm and welcoming, and I often see them scheduling lunches or intro chats with new hires to get to know them better. Managers also create functional onboarding documents, which outline clear objectives regarding new hires’ first 30, 60 and 90 days on the job. These documents also cover the specifics of what they should know about their team. We try to make it as easy as possible for new hires to get ramped up as quickly as they can, yet at their own pace. 

Pinwheel offers a strong and fun culture. We have exciting events happening every week and there are so many different ways for everyone to connect. For example, we start every week with a companywide event called “Monday Kick-Off,” in which we share what’s happening that week, celebrate team members, share gratitude and learn about our peers. During these kick-offs, each department presents their team’s current tactical focus. It’s a fantastic way to jumpstart the week and get a pulse on everything happening at Pinwheel.

How is DEI reflected in employee reviews?

Performance reviews enable us to build DEI. We create a fair performance review process by training reviewers on bias; establishing specific criteria for rating systems; and hosting a leadership calibration to mitigate bias between levels, departments and managers. All written materials are reviewed by the people team, and we work directly with managers to intervene when there are opportunities to further define identified performance skills. 

How is the company cultivating a more inclusive culture?

We help our teams engage in more effective, deeper conversations with each other through user manuals. These manuals ask employees to describe themselves, their working and feedback preferences, their communication styles, and misperceptions others might have about them. We recently held an onsite meeting in which teams came together to review each other’s manuals and talk about how they feel most valued and what they might find challenging at work. Teams then developed creative ways to understand their differences and similarities. By creating spaces for employees to be honest and vocal, we help everyone learn about each other in a comfortable and meaningful way. 

We also host “Pages of Pinwheel” events each week, which enable employees to talk about their lives with their peers. These presentations create genuine moments of connection and understanding, allowing team members to see each other as humans with lives as vivid and complex as their own. Through these events, employees can recognize that their differences are not only accepted, but valued and celebrated by the team. We have so many great team members with interesting stories to tell.

Describe how the culture of “challenging directly and caring personally” encourages employees to offer feedback and share their opinions. What role does DEI play in this process?

This is one of our most important core values and speaks to the idea that we are invested in feedback because we deeply care about each other’s growth. We understand that team members need to grow and be challenged so that the company itself can grow and be challenged. We do this by providing specific and actionable feedback that helps us reinforce what is working well and tackle areas that need improvement. 

We can only be as equitable and inclusive as we are lovingly honest about ways in which we fail in this regard.”

Feedback cannot be dictated simply by performance reviews. In fact, anything shared during performance reviews shouldn’t be surprising, as it should be a part of ongoing developmental conversations that managers have with their team members. In order to build a strong culture focused on feedback, we continuously train ourselves to give and ask for feedback. The leadership team models this well, offering structured monthly opportunities to provide feedback while remaining transparent about their findings and how we should act on them.

Building a feedback-focused culture requires creating a foundation where every team member trusts that we are equally invested in each other and the company’s success. Choosing to provide feedback demonstrates how willing you are to grow and help the company grow as well. We’re all equally responsible for creating the culture that we would like to have, which is why we set the standard for our own work environment. Honesty and love is at the core of DEI. We invest in each other because we can only be as equitable and inclusive as we are lovingly honest about ways in which we fail in this regard.