Impact Report Deep Dive: DE&I Efforts, Contingent Workforce Progress, and More

At Magnit our mission is to drive the evolution of work forward through Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), environmental stewardship, community prosperity and sound corporate governance. Our 2022 Impact Report demonstrates our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) commitments, achievements and goals. In this blog post we are going to delve into why ESG is so critical, how it ties into our people-first philosophy, and take a deeper dive into what we are doing to reach our DE&I goals and move DE&I for the contingent workforce forward. 

What Is ESG And Why Is It Important?

Environmental, Social and Governance encompasses three main components. The environmental portion covers everything from measuring our greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint, also known as a carbon footprint, to determining how we dispose of waste. One of Magnit’s major milestones from last year is our carbon-neutral status, as well as running on 100% renewable energy. In the future, we also aim to achieve Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2030.

The social aspect of ESG traditionally has an external focus that includes things like charitable donation programs and volunteering. And while that is part of it, at Magnit our ESG program also encompasses the DE&I aspect of social, including our internal and external programs. We also recognize that our duty to society is inextricably linked to an environmental commitment, and we understand that low-income and traditionally marginalized groups are disproportionately affected by climate change. That is one of the reasons we include our environmental effort as part of our social responsibility.

Finally, the governance portion of ESG is a bit broader, which covers everything from cybersecurity to regulatory compliance, hiring practices, labor rights and more.

Since the social aspect of ESG is such a big focus for Magnit because of our DE&I initiatives, we’ll take a deeper look into some of our findings from our 2022 Impact Report. 

A Deeper Dive Into Our Internal DE&I 

In our ESG report, we revealed our workforce diversity goals. This includes our commitments to increase people of color representation by 10% across the company and achieve 50% VP level and above female representation by 2030. While they are part of what we’re striving for in the future, we want to delve into where we are as an organization now and the barriers we still need to overcome.

We are currently at 44% women at or above the VP level. And although we realize the closer you get to parity, the harder it is to get there - we still think our future goal of 50% is not just reasonable but necessary to hit by 2030. We also know that the contingent workforce industry is female-dominated, but we are still not seeing that representation at the higher levels of our organization, so we are committed to contribute to that much needed change.

We have a global DE&I focus. Gender specifically is a priority across all our regions, but the attention is concentrated on the areas most applicable to each location. Our 50/50 gender in VP+  goal is working to diversify our leadership globally. In the UK for example, there are 41% women in the upper levels and 47% in the upper middle of our organization. Although this proportion is not bad there is still much progress to be made. Some examples of interventions we are making include launching an inclusive leadership course that covers many globally applicable dynamics of unconscious bias and team interactions, as well as rolling out a new Gender Awareness Campaign. In addition, we consistently work with our talent acquisition teams to help increase their knowledge and block bias. 

As we work toward understanding our race/ethnicity statistics globally, there are certain considerations we must keep in mind and barriers we’re working to overcome. When it comes to gathering this type of information, there are complexities and legal constraints due to European Economic Area (EEA) General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), as well as inclusion dynamics for individual cultures and countries. The DE&I team is working with our Privacy and Legal teams to refine our methods to better understand what to ask, research and gather data on depending on location. It is standard for organizations to look at gender globally and only race/ethnicity in the U.S., but we’re looking for ways to move past those obstacles as part of our DE&I efforts.

Progressing DE&I for the Contingent Workforce

We are passionate about instilling DE&I into the contingent workforce and are proud of how we’ve helped move it forward. By creating thought leadership, partnering with impactful organizations, collaborating with clients and developing groundbreaking research, we take much needed steps in ensuring the contingent workforce is part of that DE&I journey in organizations across the globe.

In 2021 we partnered with Werklabs and The Mom Project on two white papers focused on the contingent workforce. “Defining What Matters to the Extended Workforce: Key Drivers for Attracting, Equipping, and Empowering Contingent Labor” gives insights into what matters most to contingent workers, predictors of inclusive work experiences, and actions organizations can take to attract top talent.

 “What Drives a Diverse Extended Workforce: Fostering Feelings of Inclusion for Diverse Contingent Talent” delves into the ways talent assesses DE&I and how companies can foster more inclusive environments, including the impact of trust, equity and respect on worker experience.     

We have also seen tremendous success with our Racial Literacy Campaign, which is part of our DE&I offering. The goal of the campaign is to increase awareness on topics of race and begin fostering healthy conversations through short, approachable emails sent to workers twice a week for five weeks. Across all clients we’ve worked with on the Racial Literacy Campaign, which encompasses 8,900 workers, we’ve seen great results, including:

• 70% found the campaign engaging
• 2/3 of recipients would recommend the campaign to other workers
• Awareness of race increased by 65%

Our impact also includes increases to representation. At a large life sciences company that partnered with Magnit, we worked together on a contingent workforce DE&I strategy that aligned to their robust full-time employee strategy.  The strategy targeted belonging, Black/African American and Hispanic/Latinx representation and gender representation opportunity zones, as well as committing to supplier diversity. As a result of the DE&I team’s efforts and partnership, the company saw a 5% increase of Black representation and a 9% increase of Hispanic representation, excellent feedback on the Racial literacy campaign and increased supplier diversity. Read the full case study. 

Data as an Integral Component of DE&I Progress

Data is a key component to creating DE&I change. It shines a light on areas of opportunity across the organization and helps establish clear, tangible goals across teams and departments. Without it, companies blindly put resources where they might not be necessary, workers may feel a lack of inclusivity, among other negatives that can reflect poorly on the organization. Learn more about how talent intelligence and analytics can help inform priorities and improve DE&I.

Even though more leaders are starting to understand the importance of having DE&I data, many organizations are still unsure about how to approach collecting and leveraging this sensitive data given the legal and privacy implications involved. Our solutions brief gives insights into:  

• How to get started on collecting diversity data
• Methods for customizing internal processes
• Ways to measure DE&I and use data to inform priorities

Read the full solutions brief for best practices on collecting DE&I data.

Related reading: 4 Steps for Collecting And Leveraging Diversity Data to Reach DE&I Goals

Our 2022 Impact Report is a massive cross-organizational achievement and testament to our commitments in progressing environmental stewardship and DE&I for our workers and the contingent workforce as a whole. And while we’ve made tremendous leaps, we also know there is much more work to do and will continue to strive toward those goals through continued partnerships, research and dedication into the future.