At Nielsen, our purpose is to power a better media future for all people. That means representing all people and putting diversity, equity and inclusion at the heart of everything we do. From our people to our products, we strive to continue to be the unbiased source of audience insights for our clients and communities. In mid-2020, we made a commitment to fighting racism, specifically to address the systemic racism and attacks against Black friends and colleagues. While we've made progress over the past year, we still have more work to do and feel it's important to renew our commitment. Hate and anger persist in so many parts of the world. We still need to educate ourselves and each other about racism in America and stand firm against discrimination in all forms and in all places.
Nielsen will be taking further actions in the second half of 2021 to renew our commitment to fighting discrimination:
EQUITY
We do not tolerate social injustice in any country, and will fight discrimination on all fronts, starting with our people. Over the past year, we have increased the number of employees with diverse backgrounds and our next step is to ensure they have the opportunities to grow and advance in their careers. Globally, we'll be working to empower more women leaders in the mid- and senior-levels. Our global DE&I Council employee members are also working with the DE&I team to better understand discrimination in local markets and develop a plan to address them. In the U.S., we'll also focus on developing our Black and Hispanic mid-career employees. We will relaunch our Diverse Leadership Network program, mentoring and peer support groups of our high-potential talent.
In addition, we are implementing a new quarterly promotions process that includes compensation reviews by race, ethnicity and gender, to ensure pay equity with the local market and similar skills/levels inside Nielsen. We are also looking into conducting pay equity analysis based on race/ethnicity for U.S. employees.
Externally, we are focusing on driving equity for diverse-owned media. Nielsen is creating solutions to improve the measurement and reporting of diverse-owned media, to boost their visibility in marketer and agency planning and buying systems. To further empower this group, we will provide resources about the media ratings ecosystem, and engage in direct dialogue to better understand their needs. Along with our External Advisory Council and industry groups such as ANA/AIMM, we are working to advance the understanding of the value of diverse audiences and media.
TRANSPARENCY
Showing our progress on this DE&I journey through internal bi-annual updates on key people metrics. Externally, our DE&I metrics are part of our Global Responsibility report.
EMPOWER PEOPLE MANAGERS
Our people managers have set an example in inclusive leadership this past year. Many have also shared their uncertainty about having open, honest conversations with team members about potentially sensitive topics such as discrimination and mental health. We will provide tools and resources to our managers to help employees and teams thrive, and bring their best selves to work. Knowing that DE&I issues differ by market, our DE&I team, with the support of the DE&I Global Council, will continue discussions to develop a country/region DE&I strategy.
ADVOCACY
Using our insights, we will expand the Diverse Intelligence Series (DIS) to increase awareness about underrepresented communities - multiple abilities, LGBTQ and select global markets. We will also ensure that this information is available to the media and public across all our digital channels.
Small businesses are the backbone of diverse communities. To help minority-owned businesses create jobs and economic opportunity, we will introduce a small business pro bono consulting program in Q3, powered by Business Resource Groups. Our Business Diversity program will also include webinars for employees to learn more about our diverse suppliers and how to work with them.
Nielsen is doubling down on our commitment to ensuring that our panel measurement truly reflects our diverse audiences and their media consumption. Our Partners in Panels initiative is a collaborative effort to review current policies and practices used to recruit and maintain our panels and finetune our methodology.
NEW COMPANY COMMITMENTS
Valuable 500 is a global movement to put disability on the business leadership agenda inside Nielsen and in media representation.
CROWN Act In the U.S., hair discrimination remains a source of racial injustice with serious economic consequences for Black people. The CROWN Act corrects these racial injustices, currently illegal in only eight states. Nielsen will sign on to end discrimination in the workplace against race-based hairstyles and we encourage everyone to also personally petition their local and state governments.
As a company, Nielsen stands by our new values: Inclusion-Courage-Growth. Inclusion is first because it's intentional. Our unwavering commitment to DE&I puts us in a unique position to influence change in our industry, in our communities and around the world.
As people, we are at different stages of understanding and acting on matters related to race, privilege and advocacy. Let's stand up and move ourselves and our communities to a place of greater understanding and action.
Together, we can fight discrimination and break bias, ensuring that all people are treated with dignity and respect.
This article was previously published on LinkedIn.
