At Alto, we’re obsessed with our mission to improve quality of life for everyone who needs the help of medicine. Our mission guides us in all we do and every decision we make.
Our mission and diversity work are tied together with one word from our mission -- everyone. Too often, only those with significant resources access the best and benefit from innovation in healthcare. We see it everyday in the data. Too many among us continue to struggle with solvable challenges, in our own wellbeing and in the larger healthcare system. These statements and environments have existed in the workplace as well, influencing the products, services, and policies that steer how the organization works for all of us. Our work is to make Alto different. Our work is to build and sustain an inclusive culture. Our work is to attract, develop, reward and retain talent from all the communities we serve as patients and build a product that supports everyone.
Today marks another step in our diversity, equity, and inclusion journey as we release our first annual diversity report. We share it because this work is central to our mission and in doing so, we use transparency to hold ourselves accountable, as well as hopefully play a part in raising expectations and norms throughout the healthcare and technology industries.
Year in Review by the Numbers
In 2020, across the company we saw a 13ppt increase in women and 7ppt increase in underrepresented groups (Black, Hispanic/LatinX and Native professionals).
As for women in leadership, we saw increases of 3ppts in Women Managers and 1ppt in Product, Engineering and Design driven by both hiring and promotion. At the leadership level, 32% of leaders identify as women.
In 2020, we saw 10ppt increase across our underrepresented managers to 13% Black, 16% Hispanic/LatinX, 2% Native/Indigenious. In the leadership group, we saw an 8ppt increase to 15% Black and 2% Hispanic/LatinX.
Alto Advisory Board
In 2020, we also established our Alto Advisory Board and our first two anchor members, who will help guide Alto towards our mission, advise on key decisions, and support strategic initiatives. We’ve formed the Advisory Board to support our leadership as we navigate the regulatory landscape, launch new features to modernize the pharmacy experience, and adhere to the highest standards of operational excellence and patient care.
Dr. Hildreth is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Meharry Medical College, one of the nation’s oldest and largest private historically Black academic health sciences centers. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, his Ph.D. in immunology from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and his medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He was the first Black American in the 125-year history of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to earn full professorship with tenure and is internationally known for his influential HIV research.
Jennifer Kent served as the Director for the California Department of Health Care Services, where she led the second largest public healthcare system in the nation, with an annual budget of over $100B and serving over 13 million Californians. She oversaw the administration of 24 managed care plans as well as 56 county behavioral health plans. She has also held leadership roles in the Health & Human Services Agency, Governor's Office and has experience in the private sector as a lobbyist, consultant, and association executive. She has more than 15 years of health administration and policy experience in California.
Alto Program Accomplishments
Alto created our DEI strategy with our team aligned to four pillars – Hire, Include, Develop, and Invest. Each pillar's actions tie to our people and our business. This means the return on investment is clear and goals are aligned to business outcomes.
Medical Health Care Premiums and Part Time Health Care Benefits in SF:
In order to increase access and affordability to critical health-care services, we asked our broker to offer a special mid-year open enrollment 2020, reducing premiums for most plans by 5%. We reduced out-of-pocket maximums and speciality office visits by an average of 37%. We reduced co-insurance as well as costs for labs, x-Rays, and emergency room visits for our Cigna plan by 50%. Finally, prescriptions copays were reduced by 25% for Brand medications and 75% for Generic prescriptions. This benefits the employee with direct access to care and a better employee experience as compared to direct contribution to the city fund.
Parental Leave & Support:
We increased our paid parental leave across all US locations to 8 weeks (up from 6 in 2020) for all parents requesting leave as of January 1st. Throughout 2020 parents and other caregivers were impacted significantly as schools, daycare, and caregivers were closed, isolated, or unable to rely on pre-covid support. We offered laptops to parents who couldn’t afford them for each child to participate in remote learning. We offered expanded benefits above and beyond FFCRA. Finally, we offered paid sessions for remote learning, tutoring, and experiences for parents and caregivers.
Finally, in December we launched Modern Health with 6 paid coach/therapy sessions and access to a digital wellbeing library and resources to all Altoids.
Employee Resource Groups (ERG):
We launched six ERGs in 2020. Formalizing the work of our original Diversity Committee into six groups: Umoja (Black), Auténtico (LatinX/Hispanic), Women, Proud (LGBTQIA+), Asian/Pacific Islander, and Working Parents. These groups are focused on building community with both those who identify and allies. They support our education, development and investment in our communities. Each has been given a budget, an executive sponsor, and access to other company resources.
Awareness & Education for Leaders:
We recognized as a leadership team that we needed to educate ourselves. We were not going to rely on those from underrepresented communities to educate us. We embarked on four three-hour sessions focused on learning about diversity and inclusive language, naming our privilege, and starting the work each of us wanted to do. It was only after these sessions, with clear self-awareness and awakening; that began the work of empowering other leaders -- managers and other Altoids on this journey. There is more work to be done, as Neil Frye, Chief People Officer, mentioned in his blog post in late 2020 -- this is not a sprint, nor is it a marathon; it is life-long work.
Our Goals for 2021
Focus on Latinx Senior Manager to VP talent; with targeted outreach, activation and networking for opportunistic and open hiring
Expand employee resource group events throughout the year supporting inclusive environment, educating and investing in our communities
Get to full participation in DEI Workshops and launch additional sessions like What’s My Privilege and Moving to Action across the company
Explore new partnerships with Community & Higher Ed Institutions (i.e. Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, etc.)
