Experience is top of mind for Medallia. We continually innovate to get deeper insights about our own employee experience, analyze what is driving employee engagement, and understand which investments are needed. This is why we are thrilled to provide our technology capabilities to the Race Equ(al)ity Index.
We believe tech companies have a responsibility to drive real impact, given the increasingly important role that technology has on society. While it’s a step forward for these companies to reveal the data about underlying racial and societal inequities in their own workforces, awareness alone doesn’t solve the problem. Publishing data just becomes the “end” instead of the “means.” This is where benchmarking tools come in –– as key ways to identify opportunities for improvement and create accountability for advancing equity in tech.
Benchmarks and indexes are great tools for companies to set internal and external goals, establish a baseline, and track growth. In particular, indexes like the Race Equ(al)ity Index, whose scores aren’t published publicly, provide additional value to companies by creating an opportunity and space for learning, experimentation, and improvement.
What is the Race Equ(al)ity Index, and how did Medallia get involved?
The Race Equ(al)ity Index is a comprehensive index and benchmarking tool that rates the equity and equality of a company’s current landscape. Its objective is to make inclusion a transparent process. The organization that created it, Matter, partners with leadership teams who are committed to creating equitable experiences and embedding inclusivity and accountability into their company’s core.
In 2021, Medallia participated in the second cohort of the Race Equ(al)ity Index, and doing so significantly complemented our focus on equitable experience. When Lauren Jackman, our SVP of diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging met with Mandy Bynum Mc Laughlin, the CEO and cofounder of Matter, they formed a deeper partnership with a new realm of possibilities. They recognized that as an experience platform, Medallia sits in a unique space to help shape equitable experiences and drive meaningful change.
Medallia Experience Cloud is now powering the Race Equ(al)ity Index, enabling the automation of scoring and customized dashboards. Medallia will help shape aggregate industry data from participating tech and tech-enabled companies into meaningful answers that move from simple reporting to taking action. The results will establish a baseline of how these companies are faring in several ways: representation, benefits & education, employee resource groups, recruitment & talent management, learning & organizational development, and office of equity.
Matter & Medallia Partnership Q&A
We asked Mandy and Lauren about the inspiration behind establishing this partnership, and got additional insight from Melissa Arronte, our employee experience solution principal, about how our technology will be applied to the Race Equ(al)ity Index.
Mandy Bynum Mc Laughlin
CEO, Co-Founder of Matter, A Race Equ(al)ity Project company
Tell us, why did you and co-founder Dion McKenzie build the Race Equ(al)ity Index?
Dion and I built the Race Equ(al)ity Index specifically for leaders who might already be engaging with workplace surveys and employee engagement platforms, yet are still struggling to improve metrics most impactful to racial equity.
What excites you most about this partnership with Medallia?
I’m inspired by Medallia’s innovative approach to accessibility, nuance in language and sentiment, and overall intentionality to be about — not just talk about — being accountable for impacting racial equity. By utilizing Medallia’s platform, we can automate and scale our efforts to help more companies advance racial equality and equity.
Lauren Jackman
SVP, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging at Medallia
Tell us the story behind Medallia and the Race Equ(al)ity Index partnership. How and why did you participate in this?
I knew right away I wanted Medallia to participate in the REI, because it’s so well aligned with our company values and our commitments to racial equity. Simply put, I wanted the insights that it would give us. So, that’s one important piece — I believe that the Race Equ(al)ity Index can create real change. I also believe that Medallia technology is a powerful tool for creating organizational change, so it seemed like a natural fit.
Melissa Arronte
Solution Principal, Employee Experience at Medallia
Why is a partnership focused on equitable experiences like this important?
We want to make it easy for companies to get insights on what drives equitable experiences and what they can do to make a difference. Without easy access to data, companies often use anecdotal data to make decisions.
Displaying results from a racial equity index isn’t a typical application of Medallia. What do you find interesting about that?
I find this creative use of Medallia so exciting. We can use the power of Medallia to report on the current index and innovate for the future.
What do you think about the relationship between experience feedback and index results?
We can use employee experience feedback as predictors of the equity index to better understand best practices and what can be done to improve equity. We can also apply personas to understand how to improve equity for different groups.
We know that diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workforce is one of the most significant contributors to success. This partnership is a big step toward demonstrating that DEI and business strategies can no longer be separate considerations.
To learn more about our partnership, check out this webpage.
