Our 2022 Commitment To Change
Since we first made a #committochange three years ago, a lot has changed. In the last 365 days, we have once again increased our efforts to address the issue of systemic racism facing Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in our industry. We as an agency have evolved, moving away from seeing DE&I as a task list and instead as a filter through which we evaluate all our decisions. This type of evolution is a journey – and we acknowledge that there is still more to do – but we are proud of our ongoing efforts to become a more inclusive place to work.
Let’s break down the data
As of 6/30/22
Ethnicity
Entire Agency
- 95% White
- 3% Asian
- 1% Native
- 1% Multi-Ethnic
- 0% Hispanic or Latinx
- 0% African American or Black
Director-Level Employees
- 99% White
- 0% Asian
- 0% Native
- 1% Multi-Ethnic
- 0% Hispanic or Latinx
- 0% African American or Black
Leadership-VP & Above
- 100% White
- 0% Asian
- 1% Native
- 0% Multi-Ethnic
- 0% Hispanic or Latinx
- 0% African American or Black
Gender
Entire Agency
- 63% Female Identifying
- 37% Male Identifying
Director Level Employees
- 65% Female Identifying
- 35% Male Identifying
Leadership-VP & Above
- 57% Female Identifying
- 42% Male Identifying
Looking back on three years
The data doesn’t lie: we know there is more work to be done. While changes have been made, we have more to do to make Collective Measures a better reflection of our community.
Reflection on our 2021 progress
- Our ongoing commitment to mentoring BIPOC advertising talent has manifested through hosting The BrandLab summer interns in both 2021 and 2022, as well as many instances of 1:1 mentorship to young talent through organizations including UpTurnships, MPLS MadWomen, and others.
- We’ve instituted and continued to maintain recruiting efforts designed to attract a more racially diverse pool of talent. This includes posting all open positions on Handshake (a national higher ed recruiting platform that allows us to target Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and offering new full-time remote positions to reach a more diverse set of applicants from outside the Twin Cities metro area.
- We’ve continued to prioritize formal DE&I training for our staff-at-large. This includes Fearless Training as part of our ongoing partnership with The BrandLab, as well as exploring additional training opportunities with the Penumbra Center for Racial Healing.
- We’ve consciously held space for employee-led discussions regarding race in our industry and our communities via our internal discussion group, Collective Allies.
- We’ve continued to forge partnerships with local organizations doing critical work in the DE&I space. As part of this, we’ve not only deepened our multi-year financial commitment to The BrandLab, but also kicked off a new partnership with the Penumbra Center for Racial Healing to help aid in their transition from renowned theater to center for racial healing.
- In alignment with our 2021 commitments, we recognized Juneteenth as an agency-wide holiday in 2022, and will continue to honor this commitment going forward.
- We will continue to track and publicly report Collective Measures’ workforce diversity data on an annual basis to create accountability for our agency and the industry as a whole as we have since 2020.
What we’ve learned in three years
- We have not yet made the kind of measurable progress we want to see. We will not and must not stop working on this.
- Meaningful DE&I progress requires more than a short-term task list. We will evaluate every situation and decision through a DE&I lens.
- Continued DE&I education is critical. We will prioritize authentic, mutual relationships with organizations and leaders within the BIPOC community to help guide our journey.
- We will make a very intentional effort to walk the walk. Change only happens when it’s an ongoing priority.
- We will continue to make time – and create safe spaces – to have the hard conversations.
- Collective Allies is an essential outlet for employees to have important discussions. We will continue to support it, fund it, and evolve it to maximize its power.
Our previous commitments to change.
We are on a journey to becoming a more inclusive place to work for all people. As we look back at previous years, it’s important to do so with a critical eye, evaluating what worked, what didn’t and what learnings can be brought forward to inform our future commitments.
