Our Second Round of Goals for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
A bit over a year ago, we told you about our first round of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals as a company. We worked hard to achieve most of those, and we wanted to let you know what our second round of goals looked like as well. You’ll see some repetition; some things that we knew would take longer back in 2020 spilled over into 2021. Some are still being worked on. Some will be worked on in perpetuity; very few of our goals are of the one and done variety.
Please give a read on where we are on round one, what we’ve been working on with round two, and stay tuned for future dispatches as our committee grows and evolves. Undoubtedly, the problems we’re working to solve will be growing and evolving, as well.
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First, let’s check in on our 2020 Goals:
Form an internal DEI Committee ✔️
Survey our internal staff ✔️
Integrate DEI into our company values ✔️
Proactively increase the diversity of candidates in our network [this is an ongoing, never ending process, but data tells us we’ve improved]
Implement a company-wide diversity training [✔️ in 2020, 2021, with more training to come]
Make diversity and inclusion part of our onboarding process; repeat and reframe it at regular intervals; include it in performance conversations ✔️
Invest in structured interview process and hiring plan ✔️
Pivot to “value fit” or “culture add” language
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2021 Goals (and where we’re at with them)
Provide a forum to discuss D&I issues and find solutions that are specific to M+P
We want our staff to have a chance to discuss the issues that come up in their jobs in a safe space, with the opportunity to get advice from their colleagues who may have experienced a similar situation. Our jobs as recruiters and account managers bring us different challenges but also significant chances to make helpful changes for our clients and candidates.
Expand our candidate pool
M+P will continue forging new partnerships, finding new events, and looking for ways to connect ourselves with spaces and organizations that can help to build and widen our community.
Metrics – what are we measuring and how?
This is something we’re still working out; how do we compare internal (our staff) and external (those we place in jobs, etc.) numbers? What are we measuring to mark progress? We need to create benchmarks and track toward them. While these numbers will remain internal, we want to ensure that we can gauge our improvement around representation and inclusion.
Mentor/buddy program for new hires
This is another continuation of a 2020 goal, and we’re getting close to launching it. The idea here is to supplement our top-notch onboarding process with context around our company culture, our values, and what we expect of one another.
Create a program that identifies, mentors, and sponsors future leaders
This is the continuation of a goal we set in 2020, and has implications much larger than just around diversity, equity, and inclusion. That said, we want to make sure we’re starting it so that those principles are baked in from the beginning. This has begun and should wrap up in 2022, involving many stakeholders beyond the D&I Committee.
A formal D&I statement unique to M+P
This year, we’ll take the time to create a statement that reflects our values and describes what our company believes.
Develop an Employee Resource Group
At a larger company, these tend to be groups for people who self-identify as members of a historically excluded group. For us, it will look most like a book club: we will choose an article or a movie or a podcast and discuss it on company time. The idea is that training can continue, and it allows for DEI learning to happen for those not on our committee.
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