At WIRe, we know that the collective charge toward a more gender balanced workplace and world requires allies from all levels of management and expertise. To that point, we asked some of the biggest companies in the Market Research field to share what they’re doing organizationally to support Women in Research and heed the call of inclusion today and every day.
Catherine Chipeta, Content Creator, Conjoint.ly
Conjoint.ly embraces #EachforEqual by seeking diversity within our organisation at every given opportunity. We encourage our constantly growing team to foster an inclusive environment where all ideas, contributions, and experiences are valued. Leading by example, we hope that others in the market research community will also aim to create and offer supportive and welcoming environments.
Richard Thornton, Chief Commercial Officer / Deputy CEO, Cint
Cint’s core values as a company include accountability, collaboration and innovation. Intrinsic in these values is a commitment to social causes, such as diversity and wellbeing. This is one reason that we decided to celebrate International Women’s Day 2020 with a series of social posts from our team promoting the #eachforequal message, helping accelerate diversity and gender equity at Cint. We’re proud to have a high percentage of women in executive roles at Cint, and a nearly equal percentage of men and women overall on our global team. We believe it’s important to further conversations about important topics such as equality and diversity. For International Women’s Day, we are excited to be part of the global voice that is celebrating the economic, social, political, and cultural achievements of women. #WeAreCint
Tiama Hanson-Drury, EVP, Product Development, Dynata
My grandmother was one of the only women in her college class. My mother was one of the only women in her PhD program. Neither of them felt perfect in what they were doing. But they were brave and put themselves forward to create, shape and defend their perspectives. Today, my sister is part of a dual Ph/DDS class that is 50% women. I’m leading product at a major multinational company, and I have several other female exec counterparts driving our business forward. I share this because I know it can be disheartening to read that at the current rate of change women won’t get equal pay until 2277. Or to see yet another LinkedIn post of a strategy offsite or conference stage with no female in sight. But I reference my own observed rate of change because it keeps my flame of inspiration alive and I know that helps inspire others. Never before has our industry needed diversity of thought more to evolve, and in order to do that we need to hear all ideas and all voices. As women we’re much less likely to step up for a promotion, cut in to a loud conversation, or challenge a leader’s established point of view. As an industry we must encourage that though as we cannot continue to do things the same way and continue to deliver value. The landscape has changed and we need new ideas about how to traverse it.
At Dynata we’re doing a few things. Firstly, we’re proud to share that we are joining WIRe’s 50/50 initiative for 2020 parity of gender on conference stages. Secondly, we have recently formed a Diversity and Inclusion taskforce with more than 50 members in more than 21 offices around the world. We’ve selected a two year theme to focus on our effort and impact, Equality, which happens to coincide with this year’s IWD #EachforEqual campaign. As part of that we’ve focusing on ways in which we as an organization will highlight and focus on both diversity and inclusion. One of those was to pick global days of significance that we as a business will celebrate and IWD was a top vote. We are planning the global launch of our program to coincide with the IWD holiday and are celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world in a variety of different ways that feel authentic to our local offices. We’re just beginning, but will do everything we can to encourage all Dynatives to be brave, not perfect. To ask in every meeting if someone who hasn’t shared yet would like to contribute. To make sure that each idea is indeed, treated equally.
Sandy Wax, COO, LRW Group
At LRW, we’re continuing to promote a positive, inclusive environment where our employees can bring their whole selves to work. We’re increasing our support for employee-led affinity groups, maintaining our unconscious bias training program, and ensuring our that our talent acquisition efforts encourage a diverse slate of candidates. Fostering a truly inclusive environment requires organization-wide support, and we are fortunate that our CEO, Dave Sackman, and our entire executive team are so passionate in their commitment to this effort.
Michele McDonald, SVP, MetrixLab
MetrixLab takes inclusion and diversity in our industry quite seriously. Beyond corporate anti-discrimination policies, our leadership actively seeks to develop and promote diverse teams and support equality for all. To this end, we have several women in key positions across the globe who run commercial, research, and innovation teams. Our mantra is One Team One Goal! Beyond internal efforts, we continue to support the industry through actions like sponsoring WIRe city events and Bacardi’s Spirit Forward Summit.
Katrina Noelle, Co-Founder, Scoot Insights & Founder, KNowResearch
We at KNow Research and Scoot Insights are joining the call for #eachforequal call toward a more inclusive and diverse industry by supporting women and/or minority-owned partners, suppliers and vendors for all aspects of our business. Support businesses who not only supper women and minorities, but who are run by them! #womensupportingwomen
International Women’s Day may be one day a year but here at WIRe we’re investing in the power of women in business daily. Join us by supporting our Global Scholarship Fund, becoming a corporate donoror city sponsor, hosting a sponsored webinar, or simply by reaching out to collaborate. Together, we can make a measurable impact on the market research industry and the world at large.
