Building a Diverse & Inclusive Culture at Column Five Media
Company: Column Five Media
Function: Creative Agency
Industry: Marketing & Advertising
Fun Facts:
The company started when our co founders started doing marketing for their clothing brands—and realized they were better at marketing for other people than running their own fashion lines.
Our most popular Slack channel is dedicated to our pet pics.
TL;DR: To bring its DEI vision to life, Column Five partnered with LifeLabs Learning to teach employees at all levels instantly applicable behaviors, while improving its hiring and onboarding practices. The results were clear, company-wide norms and a significant increase in applicant diversity.
Challenge:
Column Five Media wanted to create a workplace where all employees felt they could belong, but the company struggled to find the right path forward. Despite everyone’s genuine desire for a more inclusive and just workplace, microaggressions popped up. And the DEI training offered in the past did more harm than good -- leaving employees with increased awareness but no tools to mitigate harm.
Solution:
Column Five and LifeLabs Learning worked together to develop a holistic DEI approach, including:
Core manager skills, taught through an inclusion lens (e.g., going beyond feedback skills to address how bias may play a role in the feedback that managers give).
Behaviors of inclusion taught to all current employees and all new employees as part of onboarding (e.g., how to achieve equal turn-taking in meetings, how to intervene well when a microaggression happens).
Inclusive interviewing skills taught to all employees involved in hiring (e.g., how to standardize interview questions and candidate assessments to mitigate bias).
Inclusive systems, equipping their executives and DEI taskforce with skills to design more equitable and inclusive hiring, promotion, compensation, and role competencies systems.
Results:
Column Five’s multi-pronged approach resulted in rapid, company-wide alignment around its inclusion norms. Employees at all levels now have shared language and tools to address and prevent bias, while creating a deliberately inclusive culture. Instead of watching in uncomfortable silence, everyone is empowered to take thoughtful action and to keep improving.
What’s more, Column Five has seen a significant increase of gender and race diversity in its employee candidate pipeline -- most notably a 40% increase in women applying for jobs.
Lessons learned:
Go beyond awareness: Simply acknowledging bias does little to change the workplace, especially for individuals with marginalized identities. Show people small and specific behaviors they can take instead.
Leverage the power of shared skills: While individual skills and actions matter, for faster org-wide impact, equip all employees with the same skills, tools, and vocabulary. This approach catalyzes a self-reinforcing cycle that keeps the skills sticky.
Combine systems + skills: To build a truly inclusive and equitable workplace, don’t just ask everyone to think and act differently. Make sure your systems (e.g., hiring, compensation, promotion, assessment) support the skills.
Leverage your leaders: Leaders cause ripple effects throughout an organization. Make sure they send good ripples by engaging them in learning and role modeling DEI skills.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Playbook
This playbook will help People Ops (POPs) & HR leaders take action and create a more comprehensive DEI strategy.
