Our workforce at Ally is very diverse. We’re committed to diversity and inclusion, not only because it's great for business, but because it's the right thing to do. We strive for a work environment where all backgrounds, experiences, interests and skills are respected, appreciated and encouraged. This focus is essential to our culture – by leveraging unique perspectives and ideas, we can better approach challenges, discover opportunities and drive innovation. We offer eight open membership (identify in community and allies to the community) Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) at Ally which were launched in July 2017. The eight ERGs are:

• Asian/Middle Eastern ALLYs
• Black/African American ALLYs
• Diverse Abilities ALLYs
• Generational ALLYs
• Hispanic ALLYs
• Pride ALLYs
• Veteran ALLYs
• Women ALLYs

These ERGs celebrate and embrace our differences, with the goal of making Ally a stronger and more unified company, and they helped with shaping our benefits. Nearly one-third of Ally employees participate in an ERG. Ally employees have asked for programs that support their diverse and unique needs. We listened and worked to reshape our benefit offerings.

In 2019 we’re introducing several new benefit offerings that support even more health care needs for our employees and their families including broadening fertility and adoption benefits, hearing aid coverage and no dollar limit on Applied Behavioral Analysis Therapy for Autism treatment.

Our workforce is more diverse than ever and through our ERGs we’ve expanded our definition of diversity to better support our employees.

As of November 2015 we already offered strong parental leave benefits (12 weeks at full salary for both moms and dads) and two weeks of caregiver leave at full pay. And, earlier this year, we began paying for nursing moms to ship breast milk home while traveling on company business. 

We revamped our beneficially flourish well-being program a year ago and the response has been incredible. This program offers total well-being to help employees stay physically, emotionally, socially, and financially healthy. Employees engage in well-being challenges throughout the year to earn points towards financial rewards. From personal coaching to (sometimes very competitive) team challenges, there really is something for everyone. We recently introduced a new Platinum Reward Level to provide employees even more support as they work towards well-being goals. Spouses/domestic partners enrolled in an Ally medical plan will now be eligible for a biometric screening, as well as our Weight Watchers program. 

Financial health is an important part of overall well-being and that’s why, starting in October 2018, we introduced more resources like financial well-being assessments, challenges and unlimited access to Certified Financial Planners. In early 2019, we’ll be rolling out a retirement-readiness tool to help employees plan for the long-term. This is at no cost to employees.

In 2019, we’re also introducing several new benefit offerings that support even more health care needs for our employees and their families. Undoubtedly, keeping employee costs down is important, so even with these important adds, premiums will only go up slightly.

• We are changing from an infertility benefit to a fertility benefit to more fully support employees who want to build a family regardless if they are single or partnered, a female couple or have a medical diagnosis.  We are moving from a traditional approach where the focus is on providing coverage to those with a medical diagnosis to one that includes “social infertility” to be more inclusive.  We also recognize that the medical plan doesn’t address all the challenges that our diverse employee population faces, and that families are formed in many ways. So we are increasing our adoption benefit  and adding surrogacy benefits to support more people who want to build a family.
• Hearing aid coverage for anyone enrolled in an Ally medical plan every three years.
• No dollar limit on Applied Behavioral Analysis Therapy for Autism treatment.
• We continue to provide coverage for gender reassignment under all medical plans and support all family constructs by extending benefits eligibility to same and opposite gender domestic partners and spouses.

At Ally, it’s important that we create a company where employees feel supported and connected, both personally and professionally. This in turn makes Ally a place where people want to work. And that’s woven into everything we do, from career development to compensation and even well-being and benefit offerings.  We’ve built a strong culture around doing it right for our employees.

While most of the enhancements listed above start in January 2019, we have already seen a positive response from employees after the announcement of these new benefit offerings.  Employees continue to be excited about the changes and some are reaching out to share their personal stories about how particular benefits impacted themselves and their families.  And, they’ve raised great questions and suggestions about other benefits that would be of value to them.  This open dialogue is exciting will help us continue to shape and evolve the programs going forward.        

We launched the new financial learning center on October 11, 2018 and saw great success almost immediately. Within three weeks of the launch, 2,268 employees visited the site, including 2,027 who completed the financial wellness assessment and 54 who reached out to have their first call with a Certified Financial Planner.  We’re proud to offer these benefits to our employee base and help to support their diverse lives.

Sari Jensen