BetterUnidos: A place for the Latinx community to thrive

By: J.R. Guzmán, SHRM-SCP , HR Business Partner

J.R. Guzmán is our HR Business Partner for the Business and G&A Teams, and has been with BetterUp for over 2 years. He is a founding member of BetterUnidos, and this year he once again served as the Planning Committee Lead for the 2023 Latinx Heritage Month Committee. Celebrating his Mexican American pride while simultaneously creating a welcoming space for others to share their heritage is one of J.R.’s Cultural Superpowers. J.R. makes it his mission to inspire all employees to bring their full authentic selves to work so that they may thrive and feel a stronger sense of belonging in the workplace.

Having worked in the HR space for over 10 years, it brings me joy to interact with employees throughout the organization. Whether presenting to New Hires or developing company feedback programs, I always enjoy making employees feel included and recognized. Starting at BetterUp in June 2021, I knew I was about to join a workplace where employee experience and individual authenticity was core to the work we do. So I was surprised to learn there wasn’t a Latinx Employee Resource Group yet. I literally said: “¿Dónde está mi gente? Where are my fellow Latinos?” 

The value of hard work has always been ingrained in me, and I believe that my drive to achieve, personally and professionally, comes from my Mexican American ancestry. When I see an opportunity to create a new program or process that speaks to a core business need, I have to act on it. That is why it was so memorable when I onboarded to have fellow mexicanos Rosie Ceja and Jeremy Landrum as my HR coworker and my assigned New Hire Buddy, respectively. When they told me that BetterUnidos was in the early stages of being formed, I knew I had to be involved!  

I feel privileged to be a founding member of this ever-expanding comunidad at BetterUp. Just like our name implies, when we work together to create a space where others can share their cultura authentically at work, we truly prove why we are always Better unidos.

BetterUnidos: Our purpose 

BetterUnidos serves to further the mission and values of BetterUp, to represent the interests of the Latinx community, and to support BetterUp’s overall diversity and inclusion goals through our three pillars: comunidad, awareness, and growth. 

• Communidad represents our desire to be a place where the Latinx community can come together and feel a sense of familia. We create comunidad through meetings and through our recruiting efforts to attract more Latinx professionals to join our mission.

“I remember this important moment of connection where we were able to share our stories from home. Stories that someone who didn’t grow up in a Latinx home might not understand; we were able to connect without having to go deep into the details to explain our culture. That feeling of having a shared lived experience was so important for me. I think we knew at that point that we needed to continue the conversation. BetterUnidos gave us the space to expand that feeling of family and warmth across the organization.”

 - Laura Lomeli, Area Vice President, People Insights 

• Awareness represents our commitment to amplify Latinx voices through internal and external channels by demonstrating the rich culture and diverse perspectives of our community. We build awareness through planning events that celebrate our culture and by partnering with Brand Marketing to share Latinx voices via engaging posts throughout the year. 

“I will never forget the day I met HR Operations Associate Rosie Ceja, another founding member of BetterUnidos. It was my first week at BetterUp in 2019, when Rosie introduced herself to me and said, ‘Welcome Elizabeth, I didn’t know you were Latina. Me too!’ I felt so seen. Little did I know we would go on to create a community at BetterUp where that experience would be replicated again and again. The first time we all got together felt momentous. I was inspired by how we all brought a unique perspective and shared purpose to our work.” 

- Elizabeth Perry, Coach Community Manager  

• Growth is a byproduct of our goal to be a resource for Latinx professionals who aspire to grow in their careers at BetterUp and beyond. We support our comunidad and ourselves in our professional development by organizing networking opportunities and service events that increase our influence and visibility. 

“We learned so much in our first year of building BetterUnidos. When we sponsored our inaugural 2021 Latinx Heritage Month events at BetterUp, the real super powers came out.  From practicing suave Samba moves in a virtual dance class, to learning how to make Papa a la Huancaína from a cooking class, to hosting a thought leadership conversation with Latinx leaders... building BetterUnidos reminded me of why I joined BetterUp in the first place — the amazingly talented people.” 

- Jeremy Landrum, Global Account Partner 

Celebrating Latinx Heritage Month together  

With BetterUnidos, we make it a priority to find opportunities for all of our Latino, Hispanic, and Latinx-identified cultures to be shared in educational, interactive, and diverse ways. This includes hosting engaging virtual events and building awareness through internal and external content highlighting our Latinx pride. 

We have found success internally by posting Slack posts that highlight multicultural touchstones throughout all of Latin America such as #MordidaMondays where we post Latin-inspired dishes & recipes, #TemaTuesdays where we share cultural facts, and #TuristaThursdays where we share country-specific posts to highlight amazing travel spots and important history. Employee engagement with these posts is always high, as evidenced by a lot of celebratory emoji reactions from employees across many different departments! 

We also plan a variety of virtual programs that highlight fun and relatable aspects of our culture. Many of our colleagues have joined us in a Brazilian Samba class, a Día de los Muertos history and arts and crafts event, and various cooking demonstration sessions where we shared how to cook traditional Latin dishes! 

The Latinx Heritage Month event with the biggest draw is our Leader Fireside Chats, affectionately called “Charlas de Fuego”, that we host every year with our Executives and other influential BetterUp leaders. We are fortunate to have a Co-Founder of Latino descent, with Eddie Medina having been born and raised in Peru. He and other executive leaders continue to be so open to joining Latinx-themed panels to speak to our employees in a candid and intimate setting about their experiences being Latinx in the tech industry and about their professional journey to get to where they are today. 

Every year during Latinx Heritage Month, I rediscover how creative and driven my fellow Latinos are when it comes to finding impactful ways to celebrate our comunidad with others. To know we have the support of our leadership who empower us to be bold and inventive to celebrate our heritage makes working here a validating and transformative experience. I can’t wait for what we will plan in the years to come! 

What BetterUnidos means to us  

“Being the Executive Sponsor of BetterUnidos provides me a sense of community as I am able to partner and advocate for amazing cross-functional team members that I may not typically work with on the day-to-day! Representation is so important as it is not something I’ve necessarily experienced throughout my career. I am in awe of the Latino leaders within BetterUp, and I am grateful that BetterUnidos celebrates the diversity of our Latino community during Latinx Heritage Month and all throughout the year.” 

- Estela Weinmann, Vice President of Communications & Public Relations 

“I am proud to be a founding member and co-leader of BetterUnidos. It is one of my favorite things about working here at BetterUp. As a Latina lawyer, it is important for me to be part of a workplace where I can show off how proud I am of being Latina. I appreciate how we collaborate effortlessly in celebrating each one of our cultures while also embracing our uniqueness too.” 

- Rosemary Tamayo, Associate Legal Counsel

“As a co-founder for BetterUnidos, I value hearing from other members about how their Latinx background helped shape who they are today. BetterUnidos allows all of us fellow Latinos from all different countries to come together in celebration of our shared orgullo we have for our cultura. Working at BetterUp, we are asked to be “Owners” and “Citizens”, which means achieving our mission while also being a cultural co-founder of BetterUp. An important part of this responsibility is being authentic and helping others feel safe and welcomed, and I love that I get to do that as a Co-Leader of BetterUnidos.” 

-Rosie Ceja, Human Resources Associate 

“Being a part of BetterUnidos has allowed me to connect with my community on a deeper level. I appreciate the honesty and vulnerability that is shared among my fellow Latinos, and I love how we can share our experiences, struggles, and successes with one another. It's amazing to feel such a strong sense of support and community, and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be a member of this diverse group.” 

- Nathalie Avila, Implementation Project Manager

We welcome you 

If you are reading this and you are interested in getting to know more about how to get involved with BetterUnidos or our personal experiences at BetterUp, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We would love to build comunidad with you and answer any questions you might have. Remember, we are always better unidos!