It’s been nearly 2 years since we shared the beginnings of our Anti-Racism journey as a company. We knew at the beginning that it would not have an end, but instead, key milestones along the way to mark our learning, progress and evolution as an organization.
And now, we’re excited to share some of those milestones and metrics in this update. We recognize that this is an important step for helping those who do not work at Mainstay best understand who we are as a Company for our partners, investors and future employees.
When we last published a blog on our Anti-Racism journey we shared our commitments for 2021. At a high level, our commitments remained the same for 2022 and 2023.
- Learning:
- We will invest in and offer ongoing education and open dialogue opportunities around all topics related to diversity, inclusion, and equity.
- Culture of Belonging:
- We will build an inclusive culture where all employees can see and are given equitable access to success.
- Hiring:
- We will build an employer brand that is recognizable as being committed to being an anti-racist organization.
- We will continue to only source historically underrepresented candidates for all roles.
- Products and Services:
- We will ensure we are building products and services that are inclusive.
So, where are we now?
From a commitments perspective we made progress in some areas, and also uncovered challenges with sustained momentum in others.
- Learning:
- We invested in the following educational opportunities:
- We hosted additional Unconscious Bias sessions with Visions, Inc in early 2021 for new hires
- We partnered with Electives and Jeff Rodgers to offer both a Micro Aggressions 101 and then a Practice Gym session to go deeper on understanding MicroAggressions and practicing interrupting them when they occur. We saw 90% attendance.
- We sent managers to Hack Diversity management training on managing employees from historically resilient backgrounds. Managers have already shared back impact from the sessions on building stronger feedback loops.
- Culture of Belonging:
- In 2021 we launched PAYE – Pride All Year ERG. Though we support two ERGs internally we recognize that making time and space for engagement in those spaces can be a challenge for those employees.
- We continued our partnership with Crescendo and added a specific new hire onboarding module to introduce and engage with Crescendo. We saw richer engagement with the platform with 64% more DEI Learning Journals recorded, meaning employees weren’t just clicking on articles, they were documenting learnings from their reading or viewing.
- We continued to monitor pay equity and make corrective actions, or ensure any compensation action was applied equitably throughout the year.
- In 2021 we noted a disparity in representation of women and people of color in leadership positions, specifically at the Director level. At the end of 2021 we had 10 directors – 50% were women and 30% were people of color. At the end of 2022 we had 90% women in Director level roles and 43% people of color.
- We transparently shared data quarterly – we look at applicants, hires, census, terminations and promotions
- Hiring:
- We paused our external employer branding and community building efforts in 2022 as a result of a company downsizing and reduction in hiring.
- We began a path to compensation for candidates performing any work during the interview process by donating to an organization of their choice.
- We maintained our sourcing commitment and though our overall hiring was lower year over year we maintained a consistent spread of representation in both racial and gender identity.
- Products and Services:
- We continued to expand upon our external partnerships that allow us to work directly with communities of historically resilient student populations where our product can make an impact. Specifically, we partnered with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and Norfolk State University to ensure we create messaging and communications that will impact and resonate with students of color.
- We created a partnership strategy in 2022 to grow our relationships with institutions that have shown to partner and best support historically resilient student populations.
- We did not do any internal product audits or work to ensure the language and conversations within our product are inclusive and free of bias. Nevertheless, we are still committed to finding resources for this.
What we're measuring
What the data tells us is that since our commitment in 2020, we have been able to continue to hold steady in diversifying our team in our three key focus areas: women, people of color, and people who are LGBTQIA+. While we did not see overwhelming growth in these areas, we recognize that this is an ongoing effort and that change takes time. We also see that our terminations did not outwardly target people from resilient backgrounds.
We know there is always more work to be done to continue to hire and elevate people from resilient backgrounds as those are the populations of students and employees we serve, and it is directly connected to our vision to ignite social mobility.
December 31 2022 | |
Total FTE | 71 |
Asian | 8.45% |
Black | 15.49% |
Hispanic | 12.68% |
Two or More | 4.23% |
White | 57.75% |
DND | 1.41% |
|
|
Female | 47.89% |
Male | 50.70% |
Non-Binary | 1.41% |
|
|
LGBTQIA+ | 14.08% |
DND | 14.08% |
Heterosexual | 71.83% |
December 31 2022 | |
Total Hires | 32 |
Asian | 9.38% |
Black | 12.50% |
Hispanic | 15.63% |
Two or More | 0.00% |
White | 62.50% |
DND | 0.00% |
Female | 53.13% |
Male | 43.75% |
Non-Binary | 3.13% |
LGBTQIA+ | 12.50% |
DND | 3.13% |
Heterosexual | 84.38% |
Terminations since January 2022 | ||
Total Departures 19 Voluntary, 2 Other, 21 Involuntary | 44 | |
| % Asian | 11% |
| % Black | 5% |
| % DND | 7% |
| % Latinx | 5% |
| % Two or More | 7% |
| % White | 61% |
|
|
|
Male | Female |
|
48% | 47.73% |
|
LGBTQIA+ | Heterosexual | DND |
20.45% | 52.27% | 22.73% |
We’re encouraged by our progress, and recognize that there is more work to be done. As we reach new milestones, we’ll continue to share updates on our antiracism commitment – to keep our community informed, and to hold ourselves accountable.
