Our Commitment to DEI

In August 2021, we received official Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) certification from the U.S. Small Business Association. It was a bittersweet moment for me: sweet because it will open doors to government contracts for us; and bitter because I have felt every step of my journey as a woman-owned business leader. My commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is driven, in part, by this experience, but it is also driven by a desire to grow and do better, to recognize my struggles and my privilege.

I am proud of the team we have built at Ohlinger Studios (OS), and I am prepared to put in the work to continue to diversify that team. Today, the apparent homogeneity of our team fails to illustrate the many layers of our rich diversity, layers that include struggles like mine and that cannot be photographed but should nonetheless be celebrated. Still, DEI will continue to be central to our mission as we strive to make our team more diverse. This work is challenging yet paramount to who we are, and we know it’s work that is both never done and always worthwhile.

As a company, we will continue to be transparent in our efforts to diversify within OS and support our communities outside OS, and we will hold ourselves accountable for effecting change where we can. The DEI Commitments we developed in 2021 have guided all our efforts: They are part of our Employee Handbook and therefore a commitment of every employee.

Led by our DEI Taskforce, which started in 2020 and became a permanent strategic team in 2022, here is a summary of the progress we have made to fulfill our pledge to improve diversity and be an ally:

• Developed DEI in Context, a video-based online learning program that explores the historical foundation of systemic oppression.   

  • DEI in Context’s debut collection, Patterns in American Racism, focuses on anti-Black racism in the United States and features six video-based modules and a Facilitator Resource that supports each module:  

    • Introduction to Patterns in American Racism 

    • Reconstructing Slavery Part 1: Slavery 

    • Reconstructing Slavery Part 2: Reconstruction 

    • Jim Crow and Lynching 

    • Housing Discrimination and Education 

    • Mass Incarceration 

  • We launched this collection in April 2024. It is currently available for sale. Learn more at DEIinContext.com.

• Continued to fine-tune our hiring process to minimize bias.

  • Applied when filling open positions

  • Also used to maintain our large pool of subject-matter experts and freelancers

  • Created an optional census for freelancers to identify the demographic trends of recruiting sources

• Developed and implemented a Purposeful Education training curriculum for our team to integrate DEI principles into our daily lives, including such topics as:

  • unconscious bias, misperceptions, and stereotypes

  • demographics, including race, in the United States 

  • accessibility and equity in education

Training is voluntary but has been attended by most employees and has included readings, presentations, podcasts, videos, etc. One important priority for us was giving and receiving feedback, including having difficult conversations related to DEI; thus, OS hosted an outside consultant to lead an all-company training session, Stand Up, Speak Out! Challenging Bias Through Effective Bystander Intervention.

• Developed a paid Internship Program to mentor students and give them experience in publishing.

  • We began partnering with the Ohio Third Frontier Diversity & Inclusion Technology Internship Program.

  • We recruited interns through the University of Louisville Career Center.

• Continued pursuing and completing work that uses what we have learned about DEI, including:

  • Authoring and developing content for middle and high school social studies and math courses through a DEI lens

  • Evaluating and making DEI recommendations for video and content remediation

  • Creating accessible learning materials

• Joined forces with Hospets, a nonprofit that aids low-income seniors and their pets.

  • 15 team members helped coordinate the 2021 and 2022 Santa Paws program that provided gifts and essentials to more than 1200 seniors and their pets.

Finally, we continue to encourage our team members to be involved in their communities (OS is a mostly virtual workplace), so we added a floating holiday for team members to volunteer.

We’ll continue to update our progress in this space.

Sincerely,

Our Commitment to DEI

May 2021

Last June, as I witnessed the protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, I pledged that Ohlinger Studios would work to improve our diversity and be an ally. And as those protests became a powerful, far-reaching movement, I felt ever more strongly that OS should take concrete action.

While the pandemic slowed down our ability to hire (though, proudly, we have retained all of our employees through this difficult time), we have taken the following actions to fulfill our pledge.

We formed a permanent working group—our DEI Taskforce—to address diverse, equitable, and inclusive behaviors and practices at OS. The taskforce has accomplished the following:

• Revamped our hiring process:
  Ohlinger Studios is committed to improving our diversity and has therefore implemented the following recruitment procedures:

  • posting on job boards that work to support and promote diverse candidates

  • putting a system in place to overcome bias:

    • writing neutral job descriptions

    • including skills-based interview questions

    • evaluating work samples

    • using diverse interview panels

• Completed Hire Autism’s training on accommodations for neurodiversity in the workplace and developed and delivered a training module for the entire OS team.

• Developed our DEI Commitments:
  Ohlinger Studios is an equal opportunity employer and ensures that all team members have the same opportunities for employment and promotion based on their abilities, qualifications, and suitability for the work. We aim to create a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment so that all team members can contribute to our values and business success. Each and all team members are expected to act in accordance with the following Ohlinger Studios’ commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion: 

  • Compassion and Respect. We believe in the dignity and worth of every person. We appreciate and deliberately seek out the unique qualities and beliefs that all of our team members and partners bring to the table. We believe differences make us stronger; we welcome and embrace them.

  • Reject and Challenge Bigotry. We will not work with any organizations or individuals who promote or foster racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or other biases of injustice. When faced with unconscious bias, we will challenge it and educate team members and partners. We strive to behave in ways that do not offend, intimidate, degrade, insult, or humiliate others.

  • Communication. We value honest, simple, and clear communication. We adapt our communication styles so they may be as accessible as possible for all team members and partners. 

  • Work Environment. We provide a safe, respectful, and open environment where all team members can regularly discuss issues related to diversity and inclusion, one in which they can feel comfortable sharing concerns and beliefs and confident that others will listen to understand. We implement appropriate workplace supports based on our employees’ and partners’ needs. 

  • Ongoing Education. We foster ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion-related learning opportunities, discussions, and practices to encourage exploration, learning, and growth individually and collectively. We are committed to self-improvement.

  • Community Engagement. We encourage team member engagement with people, activities, events, and causes that positively support diversity in the communities in which we live and interact.

  • Accountability. We listen. We challenge each other and are generous in both giving and accepting feedback. We believe good feedback is kind, respectful, clear, and constructive. We hold each other accountable for ensuring a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment. We adjust our practices when we fall short. 

We pledge to continuously learn and identify ways to best demonstrate these commitments through action. We will measure and ensure our ongoing progress through quarterly evaluations.

• Opened an internal DEI discussion group on our intranet to share info about DEI-focused speakers, articles, videos, podcasts, etc.

The DEI Taskforce will take action with these upcoming initiatives:

• Create a Mentorship and Paid Internship program for BIPOC college students that will give them valuable guidance and work experience in publishing.

• Develop a Purposeful Education training curriculum for OS to teach us how to integrate DEI principles into our daily lives.

• Form a Giving/Receiving Feedback subgroup to coach our team on having uncomfortable conversations.

Finally, the DEI Taskforce and our internal Culture Strategy team are working on ways our team can do Community Outreach. Because most of our team is remote, we are looking for ways we can have an impact in our home communities.

Sincerely,

A Reckoning

July 2020

The last five months have laid bare the weaknesses and cruelty inherent in our institutions and social structures. The toppling of statues, the banishment of the Confederate flag, the end of offensive sports team names and mascots were not even possibilities six months ago.

Social justice, equality, and inclusion are principles I value. Black lives matter to me. I volunteer, donate, and vote to support these principles. However, in the one place where I could deliver the most impact, I have fallen short—in my business. I have not done enough to seek out and hire a diverse team.

Several years ago, I lamented that we don’t get a diverse pool of candidates when we post jobs. I identified the problem but I stopped there. I did not seek out help or counsel to change the situation. That is my shame and it is to Ohlinger Studios’ detriment. We will do better in the future.

I commit to the following steps to improve diversity at Ohlinger Studios:

• We will work within our communities through mentorships and internships to create a pipeline of diverse talent.

• Our internal team will undergo diversity, equality, and inclusion and anti-bias training.

• We will develop and implement a DEI code of conduct.

• We will remove biases from our hiring practices by intentionally networking with people who can connect us to diverse networks; by writing neutral job descriptions; by including skills-based interview questions and evaluating work samples; by using diverse interview panels.

• We will look for a culture add instead of a culture fit.

We’ll update our progress in this space.

Sincerely,