We promise
to become part of – equal justice and anti-racism efforts in America. That said, we believe our actions to increase diversity, equity and inclusion in our own company will speak far louder than any declaration of words. Here are some of the actions we are taking as part of this just and rightful cause.
We have
- Aggressively changed our hiring practices. As you’ll see in the graphs below, over the past 9-months we have grown BIPOC representation on our team from 6% to 17%. We still have a long way to go to fully reflect our Minneapolis community, but we are already stronger and better as a result of this progress.
- Used our marketing powers for good. In partnership with the YMCA’s UnitedHealth Group Equity Innovation Center, we have invested hundreds of team hours and created a new bias-busting website from scratch (breakyourbias.org) to catalyze real change and educate as many people as possible.
- Committed to intensive team sessions and follow-up one-to-one equity and inclusion training, for each of our employees with Jesse Ross, Executive Director of Still Kickin, and a nationally recognized diversity, equity and inclusion consultant and executive coach.
- Continued to support our team’s community volunteer and protest efforts with paid vacation days.
- Made financial and/or volunteer contributions to organizations with a proven impact in racial equality, cultural awakening and progress:
Where we are today
As a key step toward improving our diversity for good, and living our Openness value, we are following #CommitToChange and posting our current race/ethnicity/gender employment statistics. We also post them to our social media channels bi-annually. We do this so that we can measure our progress and hold ourselves publicly accountable in the years to come.
Updated, May 2021
Only the first steps
We recognize these are only first steps, not solutions. But our outsized voice as a creative communications company inspires us with the optimistic belief that we can begin to overcome our own biases, change our practices, and even help evolve our community’s racist behaviors. If we listen to and join those who have been actively and passionately fighting this fight for years, we can do our part in helping to accelerate this change … for good.