[Editor’s Note: We spoke with Crystal Cooper Mathis, director of marketing and communications, SignatureFD, and Toni Harrison, CEO of Etched Communication, about launching DE&I communication in the midst of the re-ignition of the Black Lives Matter movement. Answers were lightly edited.]
PRNEWS: What is the first thing a company needs to do to start its journey to a more diverse and inclusive organization?
Crystal Cooper Mathis: Look inward. There are a lot of organizations making announcements about million-dollar donations to diversity organizations, but when you look at their teams or leadership tables, they are predominately white.
The saying be the change you want to see is tried and true for a reason...How are you broadening your hiring pool to reach qualified candidates of all races and ethnicities? How are you removing unconscious bias from interview processes? Are you paying your diverse staff adequately based on its skills? How are you creating an environment that welcomes diversity? Are you offering proper diversity training to the whole team? What about inclusion? Are you nurturing and celebrating the advantage that diverse perspectives offer?
CEO
Etched Communication
Toni Harrison: Successful diversity and inclusion initiatives involve more than adding hires from disparate cultural backgrounds. The organization’s internal environment has to be structured to support and empower diverse perspectives at every level.
Cultivating an environment where employees are comfortable sharing openly is far from straightforward. Seek outside support to manage a neutral process for a greater chance of internal buy-in and external roll-out.
PRNEWS: How does an organization determine where, and how, to focus its effort?
Harrison: Given the severe lack of diversity throughout PR, one likely commonality in most agencies and PR business units is that employees who are in the minority haven’t felt empowered to speak up about their experiences with racial tension or cultural divisiveness.
Leadership must make a priority of obtaining unfiltered insight into the sentiments and experiences of employees who are underrepresented.
Evaluating nuances of internal culture is effective for determining where to focus initial diversity and inclusion effort.
Cooper Mathis: Take a look at the pool from which you pull candidates...Figure out how you can tap into a more diverse pool, whether through an organization, an internship program, executive firms or just scouring LinkedIn.
Be sure to hire candidates based on qualifications...Quotas perpetuate a notion that Black and Brown candidates should be hired for something other than their qualifications. They engender prejudice among current team members...Hire the best candidate.
Create an environment that is ripe for accepting all backgrounds. Welcome ideas from diverse backgrounds...Consider everything on the table for re-consideration.
Measure your efforts continually...Just as companies chase bottom line increases, so must they chase D&I. D&I is not something to be considered only when it’s convenient. It should be seen as a business imperative.
PRNEWS: How do you get buy-in from your executive team on DE&I programs, both internally and externally?
Cooper Mathis: This is easier now. Even the most conservative companies are touting their allyship for Black Lives Matter...Organizations must stop asking Black and Brown people to prove their disadvantages...Do the work. The data is there...Diverse organizations that cater to diverse audiences and hire diverse candidates are smart businesses. The Black dollar is powerful and strong.
PRNEWS: How do you help leaders get their DE&I messaging right, while also being a key part of the audience who needed to hear from the same leaders?
Cooper Mathis: I’m very lucky to be in a position where I work with the powers that be, so I have a seat at the table. That is not to say conversations aren’t hard. But as the head of marketing, it is my job to be an advocate and protector of the brand and its values.
As a Black woman, I know what should be said. I marry these personas to do my job...The world is demanding the right moves, so it’s about making sure you have someone on the team who can tell you what about those moves. It is my duty to use the influence I have to make the changes the world needs to see...I have no issue with saying, 'Hey, as the only Black person in this discussion, I think we should do X.'
Harrison: Collaboration and unity start with communication. In today’s movement, silence speaks volumes...The difference between making strides and mitigating a boycott often starts with the PR representation at the table. Brands and companies are being held to a higher standard, and even the most powerful messages will backfire without actionable follow-up.
Acknowledging the need to be more culturally conscious with internal initiatives and external messaging while also dedicating the necessary resources to advance efforts are necessary first steps on the path to meaningful change.
PRNEWS: How do you balance the need to 'get it right' while maintaining authenticity?
Harrison: Most boardrooms and established agencies don’t have many faces like mine in executive leadership. Feeling empowered to speak up and share ideas is no easy feat. It’s also never been more necessary.
So many Black Lives Matter statements meant for good were offensive or tone-deaf simply because there weren’t Black perspectives at the table. In many instances, prominent companies had an all-white team issue a Black Lives Matter statement.
Authenticity is the fine line between gaining market share and mitigating protests, and it often rests with the cultural voice and perspective that’s at the table. Hiring more Black and Brown faces to place in existing systems won’t do enough to advance the monolithic PR industry.
PRNEWS: If a company didn’t focus on DE&I, but now sees its importance, how can it communicate its new focus?
Cooper Mathis: To communicate authentically, it must be [of] authentic importance to the organization. Otherwise, once the spotlight is off, things will be business as usual.
Start building a team...that is passionate about DE&I. Hold diversity and unconscious bias training...Create values that are rooted in an inclusive organization. Hold every team member accountable to rooting their actions in those values.
PRNEWS: How do you acknowledge DEI issues without sounding as though you are jumping on a bandwagon?
Harrison: There’s a fine line between embracing the movement and exploiting it. The PR industry exists, in part, to sway news conversations and public sentiment. Our job involves influencing what audiences read, hear and see in the news so it can influence how they feel about an issue...and the behavior or action they will take as a result.
While this isn’t a time for a company to celebrate or boast about its efforts, acknowledging the issues, committing to being part of the change and sharing action plans and progress updates are table stakes.
Cooper Mathis: Donating to an organization is good. But, if that’s ALL you do, you’re riding a wave to avoid bad press.
And, avoid we stand with you statements without any notes of what you’re doing to change. At this point, if all you have to say is we stand with you, then better to say nothing until you’re ready to make changes.
PRNEWS: What type of data do you suggest using to make a case for the impact of communications on DE&I?
Cooper Mathis: Money talks...Targeting the Black and Brown dollar is smart. And, having team members who can speak authentically to that audience is smarter. According to a study by Nielsen, Black consumers spend more than $1 trillion a year, and they are 42 percent more likely than the rest of the country to respond to ads on mobile. Do. The. Math.
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