Matter Accelerates Diversity + Inclusion Initiatives in 2020: Joins MassTLC’s Tech Compact

With so many racially divisive events and tragedies dominating the news cycle, taking over social media and transforming our conversations, it’s worth restating that diversity and inclusion is exceptionally important to us at Matter. As this summer marked two years since Matter’s D&I initiative and Diversity Committee kicked off, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we’ve accomplished and – more importantly – recognize that we still have work to do. 

In the continued execution of our D&I committee’s five-year strategic plan, we’ve made great strides toward our goals of recruiting a more diverse workforce, introducing more inclusive benefits for religious/cultural observances, expanding our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and ensuring we give real leadership opportunities to all employees equitably and responsibly – but we refuse to rest on our laurels. 

Back in February we talked about the importance of diversity and Black History Month, and the work our industry and our organization must do to close the gaps. Since then, like much of the world, we’ve taken a harder look at everything we’re doing to make progress and challenge ourselves to do more. In these first two years, we’ve seen a 250% increase in the number of employees disclosing they self-identify as something other than White/Caucasian. Continued representation and diverse voices are crucial in our ongoing commitment to ensuring a more inclusive workforce as Matter continues to grow. 

This summer, we kicked off a series of D&I training workshops to ensure we’re more mindful and deliberate about the language we use with each other, with our clients, in interviews and in marketing communications. And we made additional commitments to further expand upon our diversity efforts, including specific recruiting goals with built-in metrics, like a baseline objective of increasing our diverse workforce by at least 10% next year.  

As we’ve shared resources and anecdotes with colleagues and encouraged clients to implement programs like our own, we’ve also been inspired to make sure we’re not only holding ourselves to the existing goals we’ve established, but adding new ones along the way. 

This month, we joined MassTLC’s Tech Compact for Social Justice program. The Tech Compact was created as a way for the tech world to come together and create a more inclusive industry on a scale greater than any one company could enact. From startups to international conglomerates to rapidly growing disruptors, tech companies make up a huge part of our agency. That’s why we’re excited to be a partner in this program. As part of the pact, we’re focusing on three areas where we will take immediate action: 

• Introducing and/or expanding educational programs/opportunities for diversity, inclusion, racial inequality, unconscious bias, managing diverse teams and/or creating a judgement-free culture.
• Achieving greater racial diversity in hiring, leadership development and/or board composition.
• Attaining greater racial diversity in talent pipeline development programs, such as our internships.

It’s important to mention that although MassTLC is based in Massachusetts – where two of our offices are located – we’ve decided to make this an agency-wide commitment. It’s initiatives like this that make me proud to be a part of Matter, because it shows our leadership and our staff are taking on this cause the same way we do everything: going above and beyond, wherever and however we can.