PostHog is proud to be an international group of misfits. You can't disrupt an industry by thinking the same way as everyone else. At PostHog, everyone is committed to building a culture of diversity, inclusivity, and belonging.
Diversity & inclusion
Diversity refers to the traits and characteristics that make people unique. While there are an infinite number of differences in humans, most people subconsciously define diversity by categories such as gender, race, age, and background.
Inclusion refers to the behaviours and social norms that make people feel welcome. This includes everyone being treated fairly and with respect, and ensuring that everyone has equal access to opportunities and is able to contribute fully to the company’s success.
We are aware that diversity & inclusion efforts are ongoing, and that we will never have it all figured out and ‘done’. This means we need to constantly learn and iterate. We will also make mistakes, but the important thing is that we learn from them and act with positive intent.
How diversity helps us
At PostHog, we view diversity as a tactic, like generous and transparent compensation, or communicating company goals to set context for our team. There is plenty of research into the link between highly diverse teams and increased performance and innovation.
The Rooney rule
We focus on diversifying the top of the recruitment funnel.
One tool we use is the Rooney rule. Originally implemented by the National Football League (NFL) but increasingly used by companies, the basic Rooney rule requires at least one person of an underrepresented minority to be considered for every open position.
At PostHog, the categories of people who we consider to be underrepresented are:
- People of color
- Women
- Members of the LGBTQ+ community
- Those with a disability, whether visible or not
We are committed to bringing at least one person in one of the above groups into the final stage of the interview process before making an offer to any candidate.
We are iterating on our use of the Rooney rule to make it as effective as possible, and some challenges remain:
- While some characteristics of underrepresentation will be visible in the recruitment process, others are not, which we need to be mindful of.
- For some roles (e.g. Full-Stack Engineer), we hire ongoingly. This makes the Rooney rule a little harder to make meaningful, but we also want to make sure to keep the pipeline as diverse as possible. Our rule of thumb is that we need to have had an underrepresented candidate at final stage in the previous 3 months for any role that is opening ongoingly.
- We need to work out how to be fast, deliver a great candidate experience, and also increase diversity in our hiring. This means that occasionally we should be open to not following the Rooney rule if the alternative is not hire at all for a critical role. If we decide to make an exception for a particular hire, we will transparently communicate to the team why the exception was made.
An inclusive place to work
We are always keen to find ways to make the culture at PostHog as inclusive as possible. We are by no means perfect, but we are committed to acting with positive intent and pushing ourselves to improve.
These are some of the things we've implemented so far:
- All remote - so we can hire people from any country in the world. We have people in ~10 countries, with no office. We also provide everyone with $200/month to use on a coworking space of their choice, and $250/month to meet up with other team members.
- Asynchronous and transparent communication - so people can get the context they need to work effectively across multiple time zones and on schedules that suit them.
- Unlimited vacation policy with mandatory minimum time off - so you can fit work around your life.
- Flexible hours - so you can do the daily school run, or schedule a dentist appointment.
- Generous parental leave - so those raising families can do so while still working for us. We also extended our bereavement leave to cover pregnancy loss, as sometimes live doesn't work as we plan it.
- Very generous and transparent pay - to reduce the financial stress that often comes with working for startups, or prevents many from even applying.
- Proactive recruitment to encourage underrepresented groups of people to apply - so we are meeting with a balanced group of applicants for every role.
- Anyone can contribute to our handbook - so if we miss something, others can ask for a change in our policy!
- Paid SuperDay as part of the hiring process - to allow you to see what it's really like working on the team, before starting.
- Training budget for those in roles where we don't have lots of existing experience as a company.
- Life story Fridays (when we have a new team member, we'll ask them to present their life story for an hour on a Friday) - so you have more context on the points of views of others in the team.
- Sponsored visas for those who need them.
- Health insurance for those from countries that do not provide this freely.
- Mental health counseling provided via our partner Spill.
Are you a potential candidate reading this? Let us know how we can do a better job!
Thinking about working here?
Check out our careers page to see if there could be a fit, or drop us an email.