If you follow our social accounts for Treehouse, or my personal social accounts, you may have heard the exciting news that Mailchimp is doing something incredible in Atlanta by starting their very first TalentPath group of apprentices!
With TalentPath, Treehouse helps companies hire and retain people from underrepresented groups. We seek out companies who have the desire to change the future of diversity and inclusion within tech. It was only natural for us to work with Mailchimp — they’re wholly committed to hiring a diverse staff and giving people in their own community the chance to change their career trajectory with free training and apprenticeship.
TalentPath has partnered with the Boys & Girls Club Atlanta to offer 10 young adults (can’t wait to share more about them personally in the future!) the opportunity to learn valuable tech skills at no cost and be placed in one of the top workplaces in the metro area to get real-life experience from others in their field. We were so happy to hear that over 100 people wanted to be part of the program with Mailchimp — it tells us that other companies in Atlanta would have no problem replicating the program!
As I say over and over, we all need to take an active role in creating training and job opportunities for underrepresented groups in our communities. Not only can you do great things for your local economy, you’re also fostering an inclusive work environment and showing people that as a company, you stand for more than simply profit. You believe in changing biased hiring policies and creating a company culture focused on equity, diversity and inclusion. Period.
With all that said, TalentPath actually helps companies remain competitive in hiring developers and retaining employees. Hiring costs go down, morale goes up, retention goes up. It’s a win across the board.
Take what we’ve done with Nike or InVision, for example. There was such success with their first experience with TalentPath that they’re working on more cohorts and funding training for more developers that will be actively contributing to their goals and company culture in a matter of a few short months.
We’ve been living and breathing TalentPath here at Treehouse for the last couple of years, and we’re are seeing it pay off with more lives being impacted by the free education and job opportunities. I’m happy to call Mailchimp, MINDBODY, Acquia, Nike and InVision (to mention just a few) partners who feel the same way we do about changing how we think about building diverse teams.
I encourage every VP of Engineering or CEO in the Atlanta metro area to consider tapping into this program that is taking place in your backyard. It’s up to us as founders and Executives to flip the script on hiring and retaining employees.
