Diversity at emfluence
This is what we’re currently working on
We are really serious about promoting an atmosphere that encourages, includes and fully utilizes the talents of individuals with diverse backgrounds. Our diversity encompasses a variety of characteristics, including sex, age, race, color, national origin, religious preference or other beliefs, disabilities, sexual orientation, marital, family or military statuses, education, background and culture.
We’re building a diverse and inclusive workplace one day at a time. At emfluence, we’re actively engaged in several Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives that promote a better environment. Here are the areas we’re focused on:
Growing Knowledge
Fostering an inclusive environment starts with continuous education and awareness and we’re willing to put in the work. To achieve this, we’ve implemented the following:
- Conferences and Events: We encourage team members to attend relevant conferences and events to stay informed about best practices and foster connections, so much so that we’re more than happy to cover any expenses involved.
- Roundtables: We regularly host internal roundtables with invited guest speakers who are knowledge holders in various DEI topics. These provide our team members insight and facilitate meaningful discussions about our role and our impacts.
- Leadership Development: We’re investing in our team members from the bottom up and from the top down with training workshops that focus on raising awareness, challenging biases, and promoting inclusivity.
Hiring Mindfully
We understand that building a diverse team starts with mindful hiring practices. We’re committed to:
- Diverse Talent Sourcing: We actively seek to recruit new members of the team from a wide range of talent pools, ensuring a diverse applicant base for every position we post.
- Unbiased Selection Process: We’re dedicated to finding qualified candidates based on talent and not background and continue to refine our hiring process so that it is fair and unbiased.
Interested in hearing more about life at emfluence?
Check out our careers page to learn more!
Taking Action
True progress comes from taking action and implementing changes. This is how we’re dedicated to making an impact:
- Diversity Committee: Our Diversity Committee is made up of representatives from different teams and departments and collaborates on ways to bring diversity and inclusion to daily conversations.
- Community Partnerships: Being a KC native company, we’re all about empowering our local organizations and businesses. As part of our commitment, we support minority owned businesses and collaborate with groups like Digital Women Kansas City, The BrandLab, Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce, and others to contribute positively to community development.
- Diversity Chat: Slack houses communications for our company and for diversity. Our diversity specific channel is a place for our team to discuss recent news stories, share resources, and celebrate what makes them unique.
A Look Back on Diversity Initiatives
August 2023
We were excited to host the Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce for their Coffee Connections event! This is a monthly event meant to bring together professionals and community leaders in a comfortable and intimate environment. Shoutout to Kinship Coffee, a locally based, black-owned, specialty coffee shop for supplying the much-needed caffeine for this early morning networking event!
June 2023
Our June speaker featured Justice Horn, a local community leader, policy advocate, and social justice advocate. He’s the highest-ranking member of Gen Z in local government across the Kansas City Region and has broken barriers multiple times as the NCAA’s first openly gay multicultural wrestler, UMKC’s first openly gay multicultural student president, the first openly LGBTQ+ candidate to run for Jackson County Legislature. He continues to serve the community through his work as an advisor and a leader.
May 2023
We were excited to send our teammates to BrandLab’s 2023 Fearless Conference where they gathered (virtually) with other professionals to learn and discuss topics around diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within the marketing and advertising industry. They brought their knowledge back to the rest of the company after the conference by leading a discussion with great discussion questions!
April 2023
We hosted a virtual volunteer day among our team members by sharing more about an organization emfluence has been proud to support for many years, Children International. Along with letter writing activities, our very own CEO shared his experiences traveling to locations this humanitarian organization serves and what he learned about families in poverty and breaking the cycle.
March 2023
We welcomed Kate Mangino to our virtual workplace to discuss gender and her latest book, Equal Partners Improving Gender Equality at Home. Kate is a gender expert who has spent over two decades working to change harmful social norms through writing, training, and facilitation in over 20 countries.
March 2023
Our River Market office played host to Digital Women KC (DWKC), a professional and local network of women working in the digital space. This organization is committed to learning, mentoring, collaborating, and growing together. Our topic of discussion highlighted the latest tech news- ChatGPT!
February 2023
Our team spoke with Mistinguette Smith about diversity and inclusion in companies. Trained in diversity and inclusion interventions by The Equity Institute, the People’s Institute, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Race Forward, she’s currently serves as a consultant for her own firm (M Smith Consulting) working with organizations to build inclusive processes for equitable results.
January 2023
To kick off our first diversity roundtable of the year, we invited Jamie Grayson, founder of POAC (People of All Color) Succeed, to speak about his experiences working with next generation leaders in area schools. His organization looks to partner with local organizations and businesses to provide internship opportunities, on the job training and skill development tools to help enhance students’ Market Value Assets, for higher paying jobs in their future.