Joonko is Helping Local Businesses Embrace Diversity Solutions
Since 2020 has been an overwhelming year for diversity, Joonko is on a mission to enable as many local business leaders to embrace their solution and make a difference before the year ends.
Joonko’s founder, Ilit Raz, may live in Tel-Aviv, Israel, but the heart of her business is fully in Birmingham. Joonko is a software that helps companies improve the diversity of their talent pipelines, disrupt recruiting norms, and eliminate bias in hiring processes to transform office cultures. They relocated to Birmingham from San Francisco at the beginning of 2019 after receiving an investment from Alabama Futures Fund, and they haven’t looked back.
According to Raz, doing business in Birmingham has been incomparably better than in the Bay Area. She’s discovered that “Talent is easier to hire and work with in the Southeast, and the support of the community is incredible because everyone tries to help you and make introductions for you.”
Since June of this year, Joonko has seen a spike of interest from companies interested in using Joonko’s service. The urgency for companies to improve their diversity efforts helped Joonko secure many partnerships, including a major financial institution based in Birmingham.
It is a priority for Raz that Joonko continues to partner with more Birmingham-based companies, and they plan to roll out a Birmingham company discount for future partnerships. “It doesn’t matter what sector or size company wants to improve their diversity efforts, we believe we can help any and all types of companies in Birmingham,” Raz added.
How does Joonko plan to grow over the next few years? They want to expand their product offerings beyond hiring diverse candidates to completely alter how people interact with one another at the office and ensure that each employee is not only welcomed but celebrated by their workplace. Raz believes companies need help making these changes to make the most out of the talent they’ve hired even if they have diverse recruiting practices in place.
We’re looking forward to seeing how Birmingham and Joonko can continue helping each grow for the better.
