Are you an AMA Professional Certified Marketer®️? This training is worth 1.5 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to maintain your PCM®️ certification.

Meet Your Instructors

John Samuel

Co-Founder & CEO, Ablr

John focuses on helping organizations be more inclusive by removing the barriers that have hindered people with disabilities from accessing education, retail, entertainment and employment. John’s passion for his work is very personal, as he is blind and wants to ensure the obstacles he has faced are removed for others. Over the past 15 years, John has held leadership roles domestically and internationally. While launching and serving as the CEO for Aster Cameroon, a global telecom infrastructure Joint Venture, he built a $45 million business bringing internet access across Africa. Afterward, he became an early member of Homestrings, a USAID-backed crowdfunding platform, where he helped raise capital for startups in emerging markets.

John holds his MBA from George Washington University, BS in Accounting from North Carolina State University. John is a former Triangle Business Journal’s 40 under 40 award recipient and was selected to the Business Journal’s Influencers: Rising Stars, a national list of 100 young influential business leaders. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Aravind Eye Foundation, the world’s largest eye care provider, and the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County.

Kim Casey

Director of Accessibility, Ablr

Kim joins the Ablr team after 19 years with Sendero Group, a company dedicated to finding accessible solutions for independent wayfinding. Kim has authored and participated in several federally funded grants totaling over $4 million since 2001 to develop accessible wayfinding tools. Her previous experience with creating accessible products has translated seamlessly into her new role as a digital accessibility consultant at Ablr. Kim has earned the DHS Trusted Tester Certification. Kim holds a BA in Economics and Spanish from the University of California, Davis.

AMA Members Get the Best Pricing

Not only do members get discounts on training like this, but they also receive exclusive content, downloadable tools, unlimited access to AMA Journals, membership in networking communities and more.

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The post Beyond the Checkbox – Inclusive Marketing appeared first on American Marketing Association.

Are you an AMA Professional Certified Marketer®️? This training is worth 1 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to maintain your PCM®️ certification.

Meet Your Instructor

Misty Wilson

Misty’s career represents many years of leadership, digital marketing and PR, data science, and diversity, equity and inclusion. In April 2021, she was honored as one of the “Top 50 Black Marketers on the Rise” for her influence and innovation.

As the first Black President of AMA Triangle, she not only navigated our organization through a global pandemic and civil unrest but also forged new paths leading the Triangle chapter to become the 4th largest of an international, 70-chapter organization.

AMA Members Get the Best Pricing

Not only do members get discounts on training like this, but they also receive exclusive content, downloadable tools, unlimited access to AMA Journals, membership in networking communities and more.

Join & SAVE

The post DEI Basics for Marketers appeared first on American Marketing Association.

DE&I Investments Decrease Rapidly Year-Over-Year

Flash forward to the present day. Economic and political uncertainty have eroded market conditions this past year, buffeting businesses globally. As a result, we find that investment in—and growth of—DE&I initiatives are rapidly decelerating. In the most recent edition of The CMO Survey, marketing leaders report growth in DE&I spend has slowed to 2.3%–a drop of 79% from one year ago. Likewise, only 41% of marketers expect DE&I to be a marketing priority over the next five years, down from 59% in 2021.

One reason for this sharp and sudden decline may be leaders’ view that DE&I is not delivering the desired results. As the chart below indicates, the return on DE&I investments appears to have weakened across employee, customer, and financial outcomes. As a result, leaders who want to use DE&I as a lever to drive business outcomes are likely disappointed and experiencing challenges gaining new budget for these initiatives.

How DE&I Investments in Marketing Have Paid Off

Generating Returns on DE&I Investments

Various factors could be causing leaders and teams to deprioritize DE&I in marketing decision making, including growing political polarization, economic uncertainty, legal challenges from recent Supreme Court rulings, and even the war for talent. Although this topic is worthy of discussion, we thought it was more instructive to focus on the question of which companies are getting stronger returns from DE&I investments.

Our view was that for companies to commit to and sustain high-ROI DE&I actions, they require more than strong goals and hyped spending. Instead, we theorized that these leaders would need to develop a process or set of processes for making decisions using DE&I criteria and goals.

To test our theory, we asked marketing leaders to “rate the degree to which your company has developed an inclusive approach to marketing decision making, meaning you have established steps to review and/or evaluate marketing decisions from a DE&I perspective.” Leaders assessed their approach to inclusive decision making on a seven-point scale, where 1 = “not at all,” and 7= “very highly.” The average score was around the scale’s midpoint (3.3), consistent since 2021. However, our interest was not in assessing whether the average score for this metric was increasing. Instead, we wanted to know if companies that scored higher on this metric also achieved stronger employee, customer, and financial returns than those that reported low scores.

To do so, we rank-ordered the 316 companies that participated in The CMO Survey and created two groups: one that is above the median on the DE&I process measure (“strong”), and another that is below the median (“weak”). Using these two groups, we calculated the average payoff of DE&I marketing investments on six performance outcomes. The table below shows the mean performance level for each outcome for companies with strong and weak DE&I decision-making processes. Importantly, our analysis of these differences indicates a statistical difference in performance for these two different types of companies. Consistent with these findings, when asked to rate the top barriers to bringing DE&I into the firm’s strategy, 50% of leaders included “lack of good DE&I decision making processes to drive strategy.”

ROI Differences for Companies With Strong and Weak DE&I Processes

Critical readers will ask about other drivers. Why not include DE&I investments? We ran the same analysis and included the company’s DE&I marketing spending level (percent of marketing budget spend on DE&I). Results indicate that spending is not predictive of DE&I business outcomes while our DE&I process remains a strong significant predictor even accounting for this spending level. Process trumps spending when it comes to the business impact of DE&I spending in marketing.

Six Ways Companies Architect Inclusive Decisions          

So, what does an inclusive approach to marketing decision making look like at companies today—in other words, how can companies ensure they are reviewing and evaluating marketing decisions from a DE&I perspective? We offer several options, pointing to their pluses and minuses.

1. Infusing a DE&I review into standard decision-making processes: This approach is efficient as teams simply add a new step to a well-established process. However, it has less objectivity, especially when the decision makers have convinced themselves that the strategy is a good idea.
   
   
2. Having an independent group perform the DE&I review: This group operates independently of the strategy group, acting as a safeguard to ensure that decisions meet the DE&I standards of the company. Walmart established a DE&I review board of 100 volunteer marketing associates who use this approach to make decisions. Board members review marketing strategy, campaigns, and creative work before decisions are made.
   
   The value of an independent body is objectivity. This group sits outside of the strategy group and has an impartial view of the DE&I of a strategy. The downside is that they may work in strategy fantasyland—meaning they are focused on DE&I principles without considering corporate strategy goals, constraints, and nuances.
   
   
3. Train on using the DE&I perspective to make decisions: Companies can train their entire marketing organization on adopting a DE&I lens to make decisions to solve common problems. This bottom-up, practical approach seeds knowledge in individuals, so that they can increase their use of DE&I criteria in decision making. The challenge with this approach is that this may not occur—especially at the beginning when decision makers are learning the DE&I ropes. Companies can boost use of criteria by adopting a final process step that asks decision-makers to evaluate the DE&I impact of their decisions.
   
   
4. Embracing DEI-relevant feedback: Cultivating a culture of feedback regarding DEI strategy from both internal and external stakeholders of the firm to recognize areas of improvement. This ongoing “inflow” of information can reveal underlying obstacles that may be reducing DEI’s business impact.
   
   
5. Selecting and cultivating leaders who care about DE&I: Leaders who prioritize DE&I can steer their teams to use these criteria in decision making. This top-down approach puts more emphasis on the individual. As a result, it succeeds or fails depending on that leader’s strengths and weaknesses.
   
   
6. Ensuring decision makers are diverse: Building a group of diverse decision-makers at all levels of authority assumes that this group possesses diverse viewpoints and will approach decisions with more inclusivity and equity.
   
   This approach was used at Salesforce. As founder and then-CEO Marc Benioff reported, “…less than 29% of Salesforce’s total employees were women, and they made up only 14% at the leadership level. To make sure talented female employees were being considered for leadership roles, I’d announced that going forward, at least 30% of the participants at any meeting, from a large management session to a small product review, should be women.”

Why Leaders Will Continue Prioritizing DE&I Investments

Many companies view DE&I through multiple lenses: as a corporate responsibility, to build diverse teams and serve communities more effectively; a talent strategy to recruit, retain, and develop diverse talent; and a new lever to drive business outcomes. To keep and win C-suite approval and secure the budgets they need, marketing teams need to demonstrate how DE&I criteria positively impact business results. And since funding is not infinite, these results need to be on par or outperform other strategy levers.

As our results indicate, marketing leaders and organizations that have a defined process for including DE&I criteria in decision making significantly outperform peers that don’t, providing results that the entire C-suite cares about. CHROs will value the ability to attract and develop diverse talent and create a great workforce culture. CMOs will appreciate how DE&I helps them win and retain top customers. And CEOs will closely measure the impact DE&I decision making has on revenue growth and stock prices.

Marketing teams can achieve better outcomes with DE&I-influenced decision making by adopting one or more of the five process steps outlined in this article. By so doing, they’ll find the right mix, bring greater consistency and discipline to their decision making, and achieve results that contribute to their companies’ outperformance in the marketplace.

The CMO Survey is sponsored by Deloitte LLP, the Fuqua School of Business, and the American Marketing Association. Reports from the Fall 2023 edition, which is based on responses from 316 U.S. marketing leaders at for-profit companies, can be found on https://cmosurvey.org/results/. You can also opt-in to participate in future surveys at https://cmosurvey.org/participate/ to participate.

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While some marketers have embraced the opportunity to enact real change by introducing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into their work, others stick to their established way of doing things. This is despite mounting evidence that consumers want to see themselves reflected by brands. A recent study by Adobe, for instance, found that 34% of global consumers have boycotted a brand because it did not represent their identity in its advertising, and more than a third of U.S. residents – up to 120 million people – do not see themselves portrayed accurately in ads. 

What could be the reason for this apparent disconnect between forward-thinking marketers and the needs and wants of their audience? Research by the Unstereotype Alliance may provide a few clues: a survey of marketers from 100 companies and agencies throughout the United Kingdom found that 64% didn’t include diversity in ads because they were “afraid of getting it wrong.” Another 47% said they lacked the experience to portray diverse communities.

Their fears are not without merit. Consumers are highly attuned to authenticity, and blowback can be swift when a company’s actions fail to align with its socially conscious messaging. The lightning speed of social media only serves to further complicate the situation. According to a recent study that appeared in the Journal of Marketing, “This branding dilemma has been further exacerbated by social media users who are quick to pounce upon (and denounce) ‘woke brands’ for any marketing missteps that seem to affirm their skepticism.” 

One only needs to look around for real-world examples of this. While brands such as Proctor & Gamble (P&G) have moved forward with authentic purpose, others have failed due to a lack of genuine effort or because they tried to capitalize on current events. Recently DC Comics was criticized for a line of comic book covers, intended to honor Hispanic Heritage Month, that featured superheroes holding Latin American foods and flags that read “Viva Mexico!” In another DEI marketing misstep, luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana saw its sales revenue in China plummet after the company’s ads disrespected Chinese norms and culture.

One reason why some companies succeed where others stumble could be because successful companies amplify DEI at all levels. For its “Widen the Screen Campaign,” for instance, P&G not only featured a variety of Black voices, but included Black actors, directors, filmmakers, writers, producers, and more on the campaign. 

To truly commit to change, a company may need to re-evaluate how it does business. In a recent interview Philip Kotler, author of the widely recognized textbook Marketing Management, said “In the old days, a brand simply told you what the product is and does and how it’s priced. But today, a brand is the company’s promise to deliver a specific benefit that addresses a particular need of its customers. Moreover, the promise of many brands extends beyond functionality and reflects certain aspects of customers’ identity.” 

This has important implications for modern-day marketing. “An increasing number of companies include the creation of societal value in their mission statements,” he continued. “This is an important development that is likely to have long-term consequences on the way these companies act in the marketplace and the way they structure their business processes.”

Partnership Helps Marketers Navigate DEI Marketing Landscape

The American Marketing Association (AMA) and The Diversity Movement (TDM) recently renewed their partnership to help marketing professionals apply DEI principles to their day-to-day work. The partnership provides opportunities for synergy between two organizations that are dedicated to authentic, courageous, and value-driven conversations that solve real-world challenges. 

“Our chapter leaders have been vocal about the need for more DEI tools and training,” says Chad Wilson, Director of Learning at The American Marketing Association. “They are increasingly asked by their managers to incorporate DEI but don’t know how to go about doing that.”

The first thought leadership collaboration between the organizations was the “Best Practices Guide to Inclusive Marketing,” about the power of inclusion in the business world with an emphasis on marketing and communications. TDM also conducted DEI training for AMA chapter leadership, which led to a request for TDM to provide professional development and training for AMA members. 

The organizations share a 365-degree approach to DEI and DEI marketing. “Our guiding theme as we’ve designed these materials has been ‘Marketing Through a DEI Lens,’” Wilson says. “When DEI is part of your mindset, you naturally start to ask questions. Did I use inclusive language in that email I wrote? Is there unconscious bias in our survey methodology?”

Beginning in January, a white paper will be released every quarter in 2023 for AMA members and TDM clients. The four documents will provide detailed, actionable advice on how to align marketing practices with DEI principles. 

The white papers will expand on the four categories of the AMA Marketing Skills Framework, which organizes the essential knowledge needed by those in the many different areas of the marketing profession.  The four domains of the framework – Brand & Content Execution, Data & Analytics, Strategy & Planning, and Relationship Management – represent the entire life cycle of marketing activities, although some skills and activities will overlap between domains.

The framework will help guide the future training and educational offerings from the AMA in order to meet the needs of marketers in a variety of roles and levels of experience. It will also evolve to include related soft skills, tools and technologies related to each domain, and relevant application of DEI principles for each domain. By incorporating DEI into the professional skills framework, the intention is to help marketers think about how DEI influences the development of their professional skills. 

 “A lot of our individual and mid-level professionals struggle to make the connection in their day-to-day work when someone in leadership asks them to incorporate DEI,” Wilson says. “These materials will provide the soft skills to help our members accomplish their goals. Eventually we hope it will become routine to take a step back and apply a DEI lens to everything we do.”

These skills prioritize inclusive marketing practices, which look beyond conventional narratives about diverse groups and seek to highlight the experiences and perspectives we all share. Unlike “multicultural” or “ethnic” marketing, inclusive marketing is less about targeting a specific population. “It’s taking a step back to understand the unique needs, challenges and habits of a target market rather than tokenizing or exploiting a group of people.” Wilson says.

Donald Thompson, chief executive officer at The Diversity Movement, hopes marketing professionals will use this new suite of tools to move forward with confidence on their DEI marketing journey. “You don’t have to get everything perfect all at once, but it’s important that you commit to progress,” he says. “Marketing is more meaningful, human, and effective when DEI principles are woven throughout the process, from ideation to analysis.”

As the Preferred Diversity Resource Partner for the American Marketing Association, The Diversity Movement is providing marketers the tools and training to help them be more inclusive and genuinely engage with diverse customer groups to grow in the modern marketplace.

Learn More about The diversity movement

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The Emerging Role of DEI Leaders in Corporate Leadership

Many companies in search of change are increasing their recruitment of DEI leaders. Many workplaces are pledging more investment and support into creating more diverse and equitable environments. Hiring for diversity, equity, and inclusion is not just a trend. It is a movement toward a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive workforce.

What is DEI?

DEI stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion. A wide range of ideas and experiences in any organization is the best way to achieve growth, innovation, and success. In fact, DEI efforts lead to better employee retention. Employees who are supported and comfortable at their companies will want to continue working for those companies.

What is a DEI Leader?

Typically, DEI officers sit in the People or Human Resources (HR) departments. Whether your title is technically “DEI Leader” or not, every business owner should be DEI-competent. This is important for creating spaces and opportunities for people from all different walks of life to be listened to and appreciated within their workplaces. There are several examples of amazing DEI leaders at companies across the country you can look to.

DEI Leader Responsibilities

• Understanding the systemic challenges of their employees and community
• Welcoming and creating diversity in the workplace
• Tackling issues around equity, including policies
• Making sure that those who are diverse are welcomed and feel welcomed

Characteristics of Effective DEI Leaders

The answer when searching for someone to lead your company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts is not to simply hire the nearest woman or BIPOC individual. You want to find someone with expertise in DEI and implementing these efforts.

Curiosity

Any good leader is also a learner. A DEI leader needs to be open-minded, curious, and respectful of others. They must be able to learn from the experiences and perspectives of other people who may lead very different lives from theirs. Curiosity means that DEI leaders are proactive, not just reactive. They are constantly looking for ways to improve and move beyond the status quo. They will ensure that the organization is considering the voices and opinions of as many different kinds of people as possible.

Empathy

An excellent DEI leader has the desire to not only understand other people’s points of view, but to empathize with them and understand their outlooks. DEI leaders are able to listen without judgment and imagine the world from other viewpoints.

Humility

There is no such thing as a DEI leader who will understand all perspectives. An excellent DEI leader will realize this. Self-awareness and humility are key characteristics for any DEI leader. DEI leaders should be aware of their unconscious biases and be able to admit their mistakes.

Courage

The job of a DEI leader can be uncomfortable at times. It can be awkward to question the status quo and to implement change. That is why a good DEI leader must be courageous. It will be their job to initiate uncomfortable conversations in order to instigate positive change.

What is a Chief Diversity Officer?

At your company, a DEI leader might have the title of Chief Diversity Officer. The Chief Diversity Officer is in charge of the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. According to a Russell Reynolds study, the demand for Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs) increased dramatically in the last three years. In fact, more than half (63%) of the S&P 500 appointed or promoted CDOs.

Tips for DEI Recruitment

Leadership is not the only place in your company where your commitment to DEI should be evident. Recruitment is one of the strongest paths to change for many companies. It is also important to increase representation on as many teams and departments as possible. The good news is that conversations surrounding DEI hiring are no longer taboo. This makes it easier for systems to evaluate and adjust in order to eliminate bias and open up opportunities for more people.

One of the common struggles of DEI recruitment is the desire to hire more diverse individuals, but an inability to find diverse candidates. Many companies rely on personal referrals from current employees, but if the current employees’ networks are not very diverse, then the hiring will not be diverse.

There are some approaches to DEI recruitment and hiring that you can take. For example, some companies mandate that for every position, at least one diverse candidate is hired. Others assemble a diverse panel of interviewers to share the responsibility of hiring. Other companies measure hiring managers based on the diversity of their hires and the overall workforce.

How Marketing Professionals Can Support DEI Leaders

There are several ways that marketing leaders can support CDOs in implementing and expanding their efforts, including:

• Partnering with the DEI leader at your organization to demonstrate the impact and importance of DEI efforts
• Use KPIs to track the progress of your organization’s DEI efforts
• Tout the importance of your partnership both internally and externally and activate other teams in your organization to get on board

The AMA’s Commitment to DEI and DEI Leaders

The American Marketing Association is dedicated to spearheading the movement towards more diversity, equity, and inclusion in the marketing industry and beyond. We offer a variety of virtual trainings and events like “The DEI Imperative: Fundamentals for Marketers” and “Decoding DEI for Marketers” to spearhead the education and training of marketers in these important areas. Become an AMA member today!

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What Does Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace Mean?

It is no secret that the U.S. has struggled for a long time with adopting the core principles of DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion. But there are several reasons to pursue a more diverse and equal workplace. Beyond DEI’s altruistic principles, it is good for businesses financially.

However, all too often, these keywords are thrown around by companies in a performative way without backing them up with policies or considering what they mean. So let’s define these terms so you know how to implement them in your workplace:

Diversity in the Workplace

Diversity in the workplace might refer to race, ethnicity, age, citizenship status, education, income, skills, or beliefs.

Equity in the Workplace

Equity in the workplace, on the other hand, refers to fairness and equality in the workplace and leveling the playing field.

Inclusion in the Workplace

Inclusion in the workplace means providing everyone with equal access to opportunities and resources. It means giving traditionally marginalized groups based on gender, race, or disabilities a means to feel equal in your workplace.

Benefits of Promoting DEI in the Workplace

There are several benefits beyond the obvious to promoting DEI in any workplace:

Increase Your ROI

Some statistics prove that businesses that focus on diversifying their workforce make more money. McKinsey’s report from May 2020, “Diversity Wins: How Inclusion Matters” found that companies with more than 30% women were more likely to outperform companies with fewer women. Also, companies that ranked in the top-quartile with ethnic and cultural diversity outperformed those in the fourth quartile by 36%.

Appeal to More Candidates

A more equitable work environment that offers inclusive benefits, equal salaries, and comprehensive policies will appeal to more candidates.

New Perspectives

Every workplace can benefit from the fresh ideas that come from a more diverse group of employees working together. Diverse teams are also better at making decisions, according to a study from Cloverpop. 

How to Promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Many companies express a desire to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, but are unsure of the path to create a more diverse and equitable company. We have actionable ways to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in your workplace.

Promote DEI Through Funding

The best way to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace is simple: it’s with funding. Put your money where your mission statement is! One way to see if your workplace is really prioritizing diversity is via its budget. If you invest in DEI, you will see an improvement in your ROI.

Promote DEI Through Recruitment

Another excellent way to promote DEI is via recruitment. Recruitment is an excellent path to change. There are several ways to hire for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Unfortunately, personal referrals can be an issue if your company isn’t already diverse and can perpetuate the cycle of hiring the same types of people. It can help to have a diverse panel of interviewers and mandate that at least one diverse candidate is interviewed for each open position.

Tips for Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Be Aware of Unconscious Bias

Whether we like to admit it or not, everyone has some biases. It’s part of being human. Unconscious biases (sometimes also called implicit bias) are the attitudes we have subconsciously that affect the way we think and feel about others around us. The first step toward affecting change is understanding our unconscious biases and building awareness. One way to address unconscious bias is to ask employees to review, question, and analyze their personal biases and assumptions.

Promote Pay Equity

One of the most important ways to promote equity in the workplace is by paying employees the same for the same roles or responsibilities. If any pay gaps exist in your company, you should address them right away. According to Payscale, 66% of employers plan to address pay equity in 2022. If women or minorities are being underpaid in any area of your business, it is important to fix that immediately.

Create a Diversity Training Program

A diversity training program helps your company as a whole understand how our differences can affect how people work and interact at work. Diversity training can cover a wide range of topics, including communication styles, dealing with conflict, and more. Your own diversity training should be relevant to your own company.

Acknowledge Holidays for All Cultures

To make all employees and customers feel included and welcome, it is important to acknowledge holidays of all cultures and religions as much as possible. This is an excellent way to foster inclusivity and build awareness. Ask people their plans for celebrating upcoming holidays, use your intranet to track various religious and cultural celebrations, and be respectful of employees’ holiday time when scheduling meetings and other events. It is also crucial to acknowledge these holidays externally. For example, posting about the holidays on your company’s social media platforms or website.

Assess Your Company Policies

Take a look over your company policies and ensure that they adhere to, if not promote, the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Older policies can be problematic.

Track Progress Over Time

Diversity, equity, and inclusion go beyond just Black History Month and International Women’s Day. Major DEI changes don’t occur in any workplace overnight. Track your benchmarks to assess how your efforts are working to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in your workplace.

Examples of Equity in the Workplace

Here are just a few great examples of equity in the workplace. How many of these is your workplace already doing? Which would be easy to implement?

Accessible Job Descriptions

Don’t expect a wide range of diverse candidates to go out and find you on their own. Make sure your jobs are promoted widely and that your application materials are accessible to all. (This means including non-web-based ways to apply.)

Be Real About Wages

Accessible job descriptions also mean having transparency around the wages offered in order to make it fair. That’s why salary ranges should always be listed on job descriptions.

Skills-Based Hiring

Education-based hiring is difficult because not everyone has access to higher education. This shouldn’t necessarily bar them from access to work if they still have the necessary skills to do the job. If possible in your industry, emphasize skills and work experience over education. Or even better, consider adding a workforce education program to your workplace, if you don’t already have one. This allows your employees to earn a degree while still working for you.

Inclusive Incentives

Not all incentives offered by companies (i.e., alcohol-based and formal events) appeal to all employees. It is important to design your events around diversity and inclusion. Make sure your incentives offered are something that can be enjoyed by anyone. (Hint: most people like financial incentives most!)

Equitable Access for All Employees

Many companies provide excellent resources and opportunities for their employees, but it is also key to ensure that access to those resources and opportunities is available to all. For example, is your office wheelchair-friendly? Do you offer closed captions on your video presentations? Does your office have adequate accommodations for employees with sensory sensitivities?

Empowering Your Employees

If you want to be truly equitable, it’s not about just offering certain resources and benefits to employees, but also encouraging employees to take advantage of these advantages. Make sure they know about the resources and how to access them. 

Ensure Equitable Benefits

Benefits like health insurance should not just be available to straight spouses, but also same-sex couples and non-traditional families.

Diversity Groups at Work

One way to increase diversity at your company is to form a diversity group, or Employee Resource Group, to allow them to dive deeper into DEI throughout the organization. Your employees are your best assets. A diversity group is usually organized to create belonging among underrepresented employees.

Importance of Prioritizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at All Workplaces

The American Marketing Association is committed to prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are hosting the inaugural Diversity Leadership Institute this June to help participants meet and interact with marketing students from historically underrepresented communities in the marketing field, among other DEI efforts.

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June 1, 2021 from 12 Noon – 4:45 PM U.S. Eastern Standard Time

What are the challenges? What are the most common concerns against DEI?

The goal of this virtual event is to increase the Marketing Scholar’s sensitivity to and understanding of the questions that arise from the lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in our profession. For this purpose, we have assembled another distinguished set of speakers, including business school deans and marketing academics. The workshop will consist of four hour-long sessions; each session (3-4 panelists) will focus on a topic and a set of related questions. Targeted for faculty, administrators and students. Chair: Norris Bruce, UT Dallas. DEI Conference Committee: Raji Srinivasan, UT Austin; Jacquelyn Thomas, SMU; Connie Porter, Rice University; Kalinda Ukanwa, USC; Carlos Bauer, U. Alabama.

Co‐sponsored by: USC Marshall School of Business , Academy of Marketing Science (AMS). Association for Consumer Research (ACR) and the American Marketing Association (AMA). Please register at the link below (no fee):

https://uscmarshall.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_D6Njmh2FTVuhUIQAKnlbmA

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