'There’s no stigma around having a life.' — The how (and why) of getting a job at MacroHealth

14 years ago, Sahar Kanani was pregnant and working at a large corporation. She had just joined a new team and was scheduled to fly from Vancouver to Boston for a business trip. Tragedy struck two days before her flight in the form of a miscarriage, an affliction that is not always discussed openly but impacts an estimated one in five pregnancies. At the time, her doctor gave her two options. “He said, ‘You can just do nothing and let your body process the whole thing or you can get an operation,’” Kanani recalled. Because of her upcoming business trip, she opted for the latter.

After it, she remembers going home, packing and then heading to the airport. “I was not in a mental or physical state to walk up the block,” she told me in a recent conversation. So why did she go on the trip? Although she told her boss what happened, in a response that showed a shocking lack of empathy or sensitivity, he basically said, “I understand, but you still have to do this trip because it’s important.”

“So I went to Boston,” Kanani shared. “It was a hell of a trip. I did my job. I came back and my body was still recovering, and I really needed to rest in bed, but it didn't happen. I thought to myself, ‘You know, no other person, no other woman has to go through this. It doesn't have to be this way.’ If I had the flu, the company probably would have said, ‘Yeah, you’re sick, stay at home.’ But the fact is I was not offered that.”

Last year, New Zealand passed legislation to give mothers and their partners bereavement leave after a miscarriage or stillbirth. When Kanani, now senior director of program management at Vancouver-based MacroHealth, heard this news, she had a flashback—and an idea. She went to MacroHealth’s HR department with questions. Why don't we do this? What would it take? Who should we talk to?

“I'm almost 50,” the mother of two notes. “So it's not for me, but I don't want any other person to go through that. Sam [Crumley, MacroHealth’s chief human resources officer] was very open and receptive to it. We talked, and we made it a part of our [HR] policy. We now have two weeks of paid time off if any person goes through the loss of pregnancy. I hope nobody has to go through it. But if they do have to go through it, they shouldn't feel obliged to come to work while they’re emotionally and physically going through all of that.”

This policy and the culture that empowered Kanani to implement the program is one of the reasons she’s excited to work at MacroHealth, a firm that’s working to make buying and selling healthcare services simple. It’s also why she welcomed the opportunity to take part in Vancouver Tech Journal’s and VanHack’s new article series on getting hired at B.C.’s most innovative and growing tech firms.

For the how and why of getting a job at MacroHealth, here are highlights from our conversation with Kanani.

What do you do at MacroHealth?

I am now running the technical program management office at MacroHealth. My team and I oversee every technical solution that MacroHealth delivers internally and externally to our customers.

We have to make sure everything runs on track. We have to try to bring awareness to all the risks as far as we can see them and mitigate them before they become an issue. We work with every single team—engineering, product management, data science team, and more. We have to make sure everything gets delivered on time and our processes are as predictable as possible.

What factors impacted your decision to join MacroHealth?

For most of my career, I had worked in big organizations. I had startup experience prior to those big organizations. But when you're in a startup, you're always worried about finances. When you're with a big corporation, everything is slow, but you don't have those financial worries, right? What makes MacroHealth unique is that it's the combination of two already multi-decade profitable, established businesses merged together and they already had customers and revenue.

So in that sense, you have the security of the financials of a big established multi-decade profitable corporation, but it's very startup-minded. So that's what makes this company unique, and that was one of the factors that was a positive thing for me.

What is the MacroHealth interview process?

You apply and then you get this initial screening call by a person. Then we usually schedule two-panel interviews back-to-back on the same day. The reason back-to-back on the same day is we want to be mindful of the applicant's time so they don't have to prepare multiple days or schedule their life around multiple days. They're usually between 45 minutes to one hour or so depending on the position.

One of the panel interviews is purely technical, depending on what the role is. If it's a development job, it’s going to be development-focused; if it’s for my team, project management, it’s going to be project management-focused.

The other panel is for culture. How are they a fit for our existing culture and not just a fit—how can they add to our culture? So we're looking for culture-add qualities, as well as culture fit. And our bar for culture is very high. I personally believe that all it takes is one bad apple to kind of spread around and impact the culture negatively. So our bar is pretty high. And yes, at the end of those two panels, everyone who was in the panel gets together. We evaluate. We do a vote. If the person has made it to the top list, we'll keep them in the queue. If they haven't made it again, we contact them and let them know.

The next step for the successful candidate is a verbal offer by the hiring manager. They discuss that. Then once they're happy, there’s a written offer and so on.

How do people work? Remote or in the office?

Before the COVID pandemic started, we were all in the office 100 percent of the time. Then when the lockdown happened, we all moved to our homes. Right now, since more and more people are vaccinated, we have the freedom to come to the office. I don't think we will ever go to 100 percent every single day. I think it's going to remain a hybrid because during the pandemic we grew more than our office holds, so I don't think it will all fit there anymore.

Mac or PCs?

It’s the employee's choice. Most are Mac but there are a few of us who are faithful to Windows.

And what are hours like?

It's very flexible. I call myself a village-less immigrant working mother. I say village-less because it takes a village to raise kids and I don't have my village here. Plus, both my children have special needs and I work in a tech startup.

In this company, I get the flexibility and the autonomy that I need to excel both at work and at home, and I believe I'm very well supported to grow my skills and strength at the same time. There is no ‘Oh, sorry, I have to take my kid to the doctor's,’ there is no such thing. Instead, it’s Hey team, I'll be away, kids have an appointment. I'll be back. If there's anything, let me know.’ Or when my team does it, it’s, ‘Okay, fine. Who's going to be away? Let's make sure we can cover for each other.’ It's that kind of a mindset. There’s no stigma around having a life.