Posted on September 21, 2020 by Webfor At Webfor, our vision is “inspiring people and brands to grow, while creating positive ripple effects in our communities.” We believe in being the change we wish to see in the world, both within our office walls and in our community as a whole — locally, nationally, and even internationally. That’s why when the impacts of racism were highlighted across our country, we took a look at ourselves and how we’re combating racism in our company and community. While we posted a note in support of our community members of color on our social media profiles, we knew our support couldn’t end there. After a handful of teammates discussed what we thought next steps should be, we broke our goals down into attainable action items. What We’ve Done Donations We use an employee recognition platform called Bonusly that allows team members to give each other points for all their great work. These points can then be redeemed for numerous different gift cards (Amazon, Home Depot, Starbucks, and everything in between). The platform even has an option to donate to a charity instead of redeem a gift card. We were ecstatic to see several of our team members donate their points to NAACP. Our CEO, Kevin, took it a step further and issued everyone additional credits to donate to a charity of their choice. Between the whole team, we donated over $400 (and counting) to NAACP via Bonusly points! Internal Documentation Updates We also used the opportunity to take a look at all of our internal documentation and processes to ensure the use of inclusive language, making sure our non-discrimination policy is clear, and including diversity questions in our hiring process. While we were pleased to see our documents and processes were already rather inclusive, we weren’t satisfied. We implemented new questions in the hiring process to help us get a feel for potential employees’ openness to diverse backgrounds. The additions also allow us the opportunity to state our beliefs as a company. We made sure our non-discrimination policy makes it clear that as an organization we have a zero tolerance policy towards discrimination. We will not allow for discrimination against other team members, clients, or community members in any form. Kevin also recorded a video which was then transcribed into a blog post about unconscious bias that was sent to all current employees and will be included in onboarding new employees in the future. Volunteering We love seeing our team go out and help our community; in fact, we encourage it! All of our salaried employees are eligible to take up to 2 days paid time off to volunteer at any approved charity after they’ve been with us for a year. Further, our team members actively support a number of local charities including the Boys & Girls Club of Southwest Washington, Rocksolid Community Teen Center, and many more. This year, Kevin took his efforts a step further with the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce Board, and helped bring Lemonade Day to Southwest Washington. Lemonade Day will help our local youth develop leadership skills and financial literacy as they learn to start and run their own lemonade business. Kevin is also helping to rally leaders from all backgrounds in our community to come together to discuss how businesses can be better at promoting diversity, equity and inclusion as well do our part to end racism in our community. While these are some great first steps, we know there is more to be done. What Else We Plan To Do The 2020 Marketing Week Career and Salary Survey revealed that, in the marketing industry, only 11% of respondents identified as an ethnicity other than white. 2% identified as Black, 5% as Asian, and 4% as mixed race. That means 88% of the industry identifies as white. These numbers are staggering and highlight the diversity issue in our field. We have made it a priority to find out how to change this within our company. For example, we’re researching where we can post job listings to reach a more diverse pool of candidates. Our team is also investigating ways to include implicit bias training in our new employee onboarding process, as well as ways to provide that training to our current team members. We’re even reviewing our core values to ensure that diversity and inclusion are explicitly encompassed. Last but certainly not least, we will be continuing to listen to our peers and educate ourselves on our own implicit biases and how to work to positively change those. Resources For You We found a plethora of resources while doing our own research, and we thought it might be helpful to include some of the top resources we found. Project Implicit Project Implicit provides several tests that help individuals identify their implicit biases. There are many types of bias tests, too. The findings of these brief tests provide valuable information about your implicit biases. Google’s Unbiasing Training As you may know, Google has a robust diversity and inclusion program internally. They’ve shared several resources from their own training programs, including video recordings, slide decks, and more. Videos & Talks How to Outsmart Your Own Unconscious Bias | Valerie Alexander | TEDxPasadena We all have implicit biases. So what can we do about it? | Dushaw Hockett | TEDxMidAtlanticSalon ParadigmIQ ParadigmIQ provides diversity, equity, and inclusion training online. While their website doesn’t have pricing information, we believe this is a worthwhile resource especially for teams that aren’t sure where to start. Society For Human Resource Management (SHRM) SHRM has several resources companies can utilize for creating an equal workplace, addressing racism, developing a diversity and inclusion initiative, and more. Compiling and adjusting these resources to fit your organization’s needs is a great place to work towards an inclusive workplace. Edgepoint Learning Edgepoint Learning provides custom online training programs for companies. Now, maybe their service isn’t quite suited for your company, but they have a lot of information on their website, like this post: How To Develop Diversity Training That Is Actually Effective. You can gather multitudes of resources, tips and tricks from Edgepoint. So Much More We know there are plenty of additional resources out there that we either didn’t have room to include here, or haven’t found yet. If you have a resource that you think should be included in this list, feel free to leave us a comment down below or on our social media. We’d love to see our resources continue to grow!