Anti-Racist Action & Accountability at BUCK →

Racial inequality is endemic in every aspect of American society, from healthcare and education to housing and employment. As our industry grapples with its own complicity in the problem, we, at BUCK, are looking inward. We recognize that the process of rooting out systemic racism within our industry must include substantive change and we must start with educating ourselves and scrutinizing our practices.

BUCK’s lack of diversity, especially in leadership, is a problem we need to rectify. Since our founding, we have relied on art schools and our jobs page as our main recruitment tools, but we realize now that those tools alone are inadequate. We are committed to enacting change in our recruiting, mentoring, and hiring practices.

Below are the immediate actions we are taking across our entire organization to fight racism and increase equality and diversity at BUCK.

Internal Analysis

Working with third-party partner Paradigm we are analyzing the makeup of our staff with a quantitative and qualitative study. We know that effective D&I programs require change at a structural and systemic level, and will use this data to understand where to focus, and how to prioritize our efforts. We will publish key findings in the coming weeks and will evaluate ourselves annually.

Gathering EEOC data on our staff in order to continuously monitor our diversity hiring and retention goals.

Education

Unconscious Bias training for all global staff - Research indicates that compliance-oriented unconscious bias training doesn’t make a difference. Our third-party partners at Paradigm studied what really drives change, and designed a new approach that actually works. This training helps people understand how unconscious bias undermines diversity and inclusion, effective decision-making, collaboration, and management, and motivates them to engage in specific, effective behaviors that create more effective leaders, more productive teams, and a more inclusive organizational culture.

All employees will attend a harassment virtual training course designed to prevent employees from engaging in harassment and abusive conduct at work. With an emphasis on civility and bystander responsibility, we will educate BUCK staff on the laws prohibiting sexual harassment and the harassment of persons belonging to protected classes -- from gender to race to the disabled. For supervisory employees, we will train on properly and thoroughly investigating complaints of harassment, disciplining employees who have engaged in harassment, and protecting the employer from claims of harassment. 17 of our staff members including all of the executive team attended the 3% Conference, a two-day virtual conference dedicated to gender, age, and racial equality.

Ongoing diversity and inclusion education will occur consistently and indefinitely.

Internal Inclusion

We created a committee with representation from BIPOC, women, and our LGBTQ+ community to create initiatives for the immediate future as well as a long-term strategy. We have committed a substantial budget to drive their efforts. Our collective goal is to create meaningful initiatives, ensuring anyone who works with BUCK feels confident knowing we will continuously hold space to listen while amplifying voices within our creative community.

In order to guarantee pay equality and equity, we scrutinized the salary and promotion rationale for every role in the organization, ensuring that every position has a clearly defined job description, salary band and growth strategy, and course-corrected any inconsistencies.

We developed a performance review system that allows all team members the ability to celebrate their achievements and define their growth opportunities.

We are implementing an anonymous feedback system for employees to safely, securely, and openly give feedback to management without fear, which is supported by our non-retaliation policy.

After a thorough audit of our company materials like the employee policies and procedures, we are revising to use more inclusive language including but not limited to how we refer to our caregivers.

We have designated gender-neutral bathrooms in our physical office spaces.

We are creating a system, facilitating and encouraging employees to set up internal representation groups.

Recruiting

The talent team is going to expand relationships with more schools throughout the US, including HBCUs, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and local Community Colleges that have Design and Animation programs. We are connecting with Department Heads, Career Placement Offices, and Student Groups. We are also looking at a global strategy to establish new relationships with top schools throughout the world to ensure a diverse pipeline of candidates from all different cultures and backgrounds.

Mentorship

We are evaluating our current internship program at BUCK to see how we can be more inclusive and provide inspiration and opportunities to underrepresented artists. We will also be hosting portfolio reviews to lend support and advice on how to break into the industry.

Partnerships

We are partnering with social institutions that foster interdisciplinary innovation at the intersections of art, design, technology, Black culture, activism, environmentalism and sustainability. Our initial partnership will consist of equipment donations while we develop additional opportunities to help support the cause.

Supporting the Community

We are matching all employee and freelance donations to organizations that are fighting for the rights and protection of the Black community.

We are reviewing the procurement of all of our business needs with an effort to source products and services only from vendors who are more representative of BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and Womxn communities.

Ongoing Commitment

We have committed to an annual budget that will ensure every employee has ongoing education in diversity and inclusion. We do this in order to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable to be themselves, use their voice and their talent without hesitation, and all team members have equal opportunities to succeed.

This is only the beginning of what will be an ongoing effort to affect tangible changes in ourselves and our industry. We’re committed to this long term and will be transparent and accountable as we work to achieve these goals. We welcome feedback and ideas from anyone who would like to help us move forward.

Peace, love, and respect,

BUCK
feedback@buck.co