Between the 18th and 20th of October, the Diversity in Practice Summit, held by Blend Edu, took place, which brought together presentations of cases, solutions and good practices of diversity by those who are transforming the corporate world.
Also at the event, the winners of the 9 categories — one of which was a popular vote — of the Diversity in Practice Award were presented.
Despite not being one of the winners, Rock Content became a finalist in all the categories for which it applied. And what we want to share in this article is how we achieved this position and recognition.
After all, being a part of the great brands and successful cases that were finalists is a strong indication that we are doing well — and I don’t need to say this only as a member of the company, but as someone who can see in practice the paths we follow and the impact we generate for our internal and external community.
How did we get into the top 5 in three categories of the Diversity in Practice Awards?
Diversity in Practice is a movement proposed by Blend Edu to inspire more companies to take diversity out off the page and into practice.
“Every day the need to put #DiversityInPractice grows, inspiring the market with positive examples and sharing the lessons learned along the way. That’s why Blend Edu created the Diversity in Practice Award. There were more than 260 cases registered, which made this project a success in its first edition.” explains Thalita Gelenske, CEO and founder of Blend Edu.
In its 1st edition, the Diversity in Practice Award identified and recognized innovative actions that build more inclusive work environments. To participate in the award, companies from all over Brazil registered practices regarding diversity and social impact carried out between 2021 and 2022 in their organization.
When we asked the founder of Blend Edu “about the importance of being finalists, what made Rock Content among the 5 selected from the three categories in which we entered?”, we received a response that delighted us:
“Aspects such as innovation, impact, representativeness, intersectionality and multidisciplinarity were evaluated to choose the finalist cases, including Rock ‘n’ Grow in the Education and Empowerment category, Volunteer Week in the Inclusive Business category and the Governance Plan in the Social Impact and DEI in the Internal Structure category.
The External Review Committee (composed of D&I, HR and ESG experts) praised the long-term social impact Rock Content can generate by providing programs aimed at enhancing the careers of people from underrepresented groups.”
Both the response and the analysis by the Evaluation Committee — with big names and references from Corporate Social Rin Brazil — show us that this recognition comes from the consistency of our initiatives, and also from the real and shared commitment to our stakeholders.
All this has made us achieve significant results in each of the practices carried out in recent years, which are in line with our mission of “making Marketing better, having a positive impact on the world”.
How do we practice Education and Empowerment?
In this category, we entered the top 5 practices with the “Rock ‘n’ Grow” education program. As one of the ways to practice education and empowerment, we promote actions for professional and career development focused on young people from underrepresented and/or economically vulnerable groups.
Rock ‘n’ Grow is our flagship program, focused on technical skills and training for the job market in areas related to digital marketing — the initiative is part of the commitment to the Pledge 1% movement to donate 1% of our product.
Held since 2020, the program seeks to ensure access to quality education and better employment opportunities for economically vulnerable groups (with a monthly family income of up to 4,000 Reais) and/or socially underrepresented groups, such as the LGBTQIAP+ community, people with disabilities, black women and people.
Since 2020, more than 60,000 students have received free access to paid courses on the Rock University platform through this initiative. Visit our page to learn more about the “Rock ‘n’ Grow” program!
How do we move the Internal Structure?
The new governance of Social Impact and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion was implemented in March 2022, with the formation of the DEI Committee. For the composition of this Committee, selection processes were carried out for leaders of Rocker Network Groups (RNG) — previously called affinity groups.
From the leader selection process and restructuring of groups, the RNGs became a place for the development of new diverse leaderships, creation of new projects, involvement of more people in decision-making and also representation.
As a result of these efforts in favor of diversity, in addition to the Social Impact and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team, Governance is also composed of the leaders of the following groups:
- Women Rock, organized for women and representative of the Gender Equity pillar
- AfroRock, organized for black people and representative of the Racial Equity pillar
- Inclusion Rocks, organized for people with disabilities and representative of the Accessibility pillar
- Roqueer, organized for the LGBTQIAP+ community and representative of the Identities pillar
- Rock.org, organized for volunteerism and representative of the Giving back pillar to the external community
How do we make our Businesses Inclusive?
We participated in the top 5 among the finalists with the Global Volunteering Week 2021, promoting diversity through initiatives focused on the community and social activism.
Rock Content’s 5th Global Volunteering Week took place between December 6th and 10th, 2021. The event aimed to encourage employees to act as protagonists of social acceleration through volunteering. So the Rockers donated their work time to support and develop young people, entrepreneurs and NGOs with career and professional advice. The initiative took place simultaneously in three countries: Brazil, the United States and England.
In all, 154 young students were impacted, as well as an institution supporting women entrepreneurs in England. With this action, 1,098 hours of our employees’ time were donated through our time commitment to volunteer with the global movement Pledge 1%.
Making a positive impact on the world
Having a mission and purposes that are truly aligned with social impact, diversity, equity and inclusion is increasingly beneficial for brands. At this point, the data argues for itself:
- In 2019, Google research and the Women’s Quotient revealed that 64% of people have already taken action after seeing an ad that is considered diverse or inclusive. In some consumer segments, the percentage was even higher: millennials (77%), Afro-descendants (79%), Latinos (85%) and the LGBTQIAP+ community (85%).
- According to Global Consumer Pulse Research, a study done for Accenture in 2019, Generations Y and Z can be called Generation P (On Purpose) — and they represent nearly 5 billion people.
- According to data from a study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), companies that invest in diversity, particularly in leadership roles, also reported 19% higher innovation revenue than companies with below-average leadership diversity.
- According to the Global Marketing Trends Executive survey, 57% of Gen Z, the new consumer force, is more loyal to brands that are committed to addressing social inequalities in their actions. 94% of Gen Z expect companies to take a stand on important social issues.
- Deloitte research also shows that companies with better growth results are establishing key performance metrics for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) business objectives, unlike competitors with lower growth.
Rock Content was founded in 2013 following an educational path to help the market grow. That’s why we have Rock University, which has already certified more than 500,000 people in Digital Marketing courses. In 2019, we evolved in this approach and structured our social impact, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
With teams 100% focused on these areas, we managed to make the commitment to impact and diversity shared by all our stakeholders: Rockers (our employees and protagonists of our practices), C-level and investors, our talent community, and our external community around the world — mainly NGOs working with education and employability, and youth from socially underrepresented and/or economically vulnerable groups.
When we are asked, “Why are you making a social impact and practicing diversity, equity and inclusion?” We have two main reasons as answers:
- It’s the right thing to do;
- This starts important conversations in many places.
The initiatives that led us to the top 5 finalists in three categories of the Diversity in Practice Award are the materialization of our efforts to unite purpose and mission within the Rock Content brand.
These results, and also the recognition that comes through them, are only possible because of our employees, who make marketing better every day and at the same time positively impact the world. Likewise, our investors, our talent community and our partners, who share (and, above all, practice) our purpose with us.
Want to learn more about corporate social responsibility at Rock Content? Access our 2021 Social Impact Report, and keep following us on the website and social media.
