Praytell’s Diversity Commitment: It Starts with Data Transparency

Representation matters. It’s that simple. And at Praytell, while our people are much more than numbers, we understand the importance of sharing our diversity data publicly. Transparency is critical to enforcing accountability in the fight to advance racial and gender equity with the urgency it deserves.

Praytell is intentionally built to ensure diverse perspectives are represented in the work and services we provide. We are relentlessly striving to meet and surpass representational goals that reflect the world we serve.* We’ve made progress, but there are gaps that must be bridged. We remain committed to doing just that.

Racial/Ethnic Diversity Breakdown: Praytell is made up of 38% non-White staffers / 62% White staffers (compared to the U.S. 40% BIPOC population / 60% White population). Over the next few years, we are committed to increasing our Black and Latinx representation to 14% and 19% respectively to be reflective of the U.S. population.

Diversity Across Career Levels: We are proud to have diverse representation on our Leadership team across race/ethnicity* and gender*. We are committed to further increasing Latinx and Asian  leadership representation, increasing Black senior-level representation, and hiring men of color across all levels.

Our Representation Action Plan.

It’s no secret that our industry has struggled with diverse representation, specifically racial diversity and leadership positions among Black and Latinx employees. We applaud the industry-wide momentum calling for change an increase in Black representation and a commitment to releasing data to employees. This is a pivotal step in the right direction.  

It’s all about the follow through and our commitment to building an equitable future that celebrates individuality while confronting systemic issues that impact our communities, employees and industry. Our diversity, equity and inclusion priorities include:

Be Transparent.

We will set transparent diversity goals based on the U.S. population race-ethnicity breakdown to ensure Praytell is truly representative of the world we live in. This includes monthly updates of our diversity metrics on our website, and in-depth annual reporting of progress against goals, helping inform industry benchmarks and supporting initiatives calling for data transparency.

Cultivate BIPOC Careers.

Diversity goals to increase representation only work if Praytellians feel valued, leveraged and welcomed. While we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and 6x Best Place to Work winner, we are taking inventory to further remove bias and put in place practices that give our BIPOC community a fair opportunity to grow, contribute and develop.

Our focus areas for 2020 include an investment in our Employee Resource Groups for Black, Asian, Latinx, LGBTQIA+ and Womxn staffers, and tailored programming that cultivates leadership opportunities, uncovers new mentorship networks and encourages membership to professional organizations that focus on career growth and development.  

Remove Bias. Advance Equity.  

Inclusive workplaces are reinforced by the ongoing review of practices and processes to remove bias and advance equity.

• Education is key. Our evolving programming includes D&I workshops to address how systemic racism, unconscious bias and microaggressions play out in the workplace.
• Ensure our recruitment, interviewing and onboarding experience champions diverse talent and our DEI goals.
• We’re formalizing best practices to inform team staffing, promotions and our annual review process.

Strengthen Our Pipeline of Black and Latinx Talent.

We will continue to invest in initiatives and partnerships that reinforce a diverse recruitment pipeline across all levels and practice areas. With a commitment to increase our Black and Latinx representation to be reflective of the U.S. population, we’ll build upon our HBCU outreach program through the addition of new college campuses, strengthening college recruitment efforts through a diverse set of colleges/universities/art schools, increasing visibility at industry events and building long-term partnerships with industry organizations (ex: NABJ, NAHJ, ColorComm, AdColor, HPRA).

Deepen Our Community Ties  

Headquartered in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, our culture has been shaped by the communities where we live, work and play. Investing time and resources into our local communities gave life to our Passion Project program -- a staff-run initiative offering pro-bono services and dedicated volunteer days to a variety of local nonprofits. We’ve enhanced this program to support causes during the pandemic and social justice initiatives, including Hella Juneteenth, NYFD Help Fund, Civic Nation’s When We All Vote and more. We’re just getting started in narrowing our focus of support and plan to announce news on this front soon.