At Maven Clinic, individuality is a superpower.
In celebrating the unique individuals that power its work in women’s and family health, Maven has nurtured a thriving company culture, said Senior Director of Talent Communications Alisha Sedor.
“Our culture evolves with our team,” she added. “It shows up in how our Mavens bring themselves to work every day.”
The secret to fostering a healthy company culture lies in intentionally implementing processes that can be repeated as the team grows.
“Developing culture is really about creating systems and structures that empower individual Mavens to showcase who they are and learn about each other,” said Sedor.
WHAT MAVEN DOES
Maven Clinic is the world’s largest virtual clinic for women and families on a mission to make healthcare work for all of us. From family building and fertility to pregnancy, parenting, and menopause, Maven Clinic members are supported with 24/7 care.
Sedor spoke with Built In NYC about Maven’s intentionally crafted infrastructure and how it’s enabled the team to connect on a deeper level — both with the company’s mission and to each other.
What’s your vision for leading your team?
My leadership philosophy is predicated on unlocking the superpowers of my direct reports while providing them leverage to do what they do best. For talent communications specifically, which includes employer brand, internal communications and support for the provider community, I see our team as core culture carriers for Maven Clinic.
This means taking ownership of ensuring our full Maven team is informed and understands what we’re working toward. Communication with current and potential employees plays a crucial role in supporting a thriving and well-connected company.
How do you build team culture at Maven Clinic?
Maven’s culture is strongest when we’re together – either in person or virtually. June of this year was a great showcase of just that via a series of events led by ERGs and a group of Mavens who joined together to create a volunteer committee to build out our volunteer program. We held our first formal volunteer days in partnership with Project Helping and the LGBTQ+ health center Callen-Lorde, hosting two live events on back-to-back days: one at our New York City headquarters and the other virtually. For both events, we packed care kits to be distributed to folks in need, shipping supplies to employees who weren’t in NYC so they could participate.
Two of our employee resource groups also hosted events that leaned into inclusion and belonging by creating spaces to learn and celebrate together.
Black at Maven hosted a Juneteenth event that was an incredible celebration of Black culture and really brought to life this holiday, which is a relatively new celebration for many Americans.
LQBTQtiez, our ERG for queer folks at Maven, hosted two events that brought Pride Month to life: a celebratory happy hour featuring one of NYC’s top drag performers and a panel discussion featuring some of our own Mavens on how to support queer coworkers all year long.
MAVEN’S VALUES
- Keep healthcare human
- Walk through walls
- Embrace a service mindset
- Lead with data
- Continuously learn, including about ourselves
- Move fast — better care can’t wait
How do you help your team grow their careers?
Our People Team really drives the work here, from building bespoke job architectures for each department to continually iterating on our talent development processes. That said, one of our company values is to “continuously learn, including about ourselves.”
Learning is the responsibility of every Maven. We support this on the communications side of the house through a few key initiatives. My personal favorite is our monthly speaker series featuring industry leaders that alternates between two focus areas: scaling companies for growth and health equity. Both of these are crucial to our work and mission, so this series helps Mavens learn about our industry from experts in the field.
What is something exciting that you are currently working on with your team?
I’m most excited about a big project to improve our intranet. Regardless of the size or stage of a company, the ability to share information is absolutely critical, and a common challenge to that is ensuring a single source of truth exists that’s accessible to everyone, has the information people need to do their jobs, and is user-friendly.
I’ve worked with leaders from across the company to understand how they access and organize knowledge that is critical to their work. Our Creative Team has lent their expertise to design something beautiful that shows Maven’s personality.
My direct reports on the Talent Communications Team have been incredible partners in helping to both brainstorm and design this new information hub along with taking on the heavy lifting of its actual implementation. This project will allow us all to work more seamlessly together, help individuals access what they need to work effectively and contribute to building community and culture by making our culture more tangible.
What is the employee value proposition for those thinking about joining Maven?
We believe that better care can’t wait, and together we’re building the company that ensures it doesn’t have to. When you join us on our mission, you’re empowered to deliver some of the best work of your career surrounded by some of the most incredible people you’ll ever work with. You’re helping deliver a product that truly changes lives by delivering improved health outcomes for people around the world.
