Best Buy and Parity.org Celebrate 4 Years of Working Towards Increasing Representation for Women and People of Color in the C-Suite and Board
Our CEO, Cathrin Stickney, caught up with Amelia Hardy, Vice President for Strategic Community Engagement at Best Buy, to talk about their 4-year partnership in closing the gender and racial gap at Best Buy.?
Cathrin: Amelia, so much as happened in the last four years. Corie Barry is now your CEO, the first woman to lead Best Buy. And you've intentionally made your executive team and board more representative in terms of gender and race. Perhaps the most difficult time has been getting through COVID-19 and coming out the other end intact. How has the pandemic affected the culture in your company? Has your company initiated any new programs that helped to lessen the impact that COVID-19 had on women and POC??
Amelia: We first took a look at employees’ needs and all of our employee benefits, and searched for ways we could either enhance them or create new ones to help our employees, their families and their well-being. This included expanding childcare and mental health benefits, building on our paid leave and caregiver pay benefits, offering tutoring reimbursement, offering tutoring reimbursement, flexible work options and more.
Cathrin:?Amelia, Best Buy was one of the first companies to take the ParityPledge, just after we launched in 2017. What inspired your company to decide to make this public commitment when you did?
Amelia:?We have always been committed to increasing the representation of women and people of color at Best Buy. That means being an inclusive employer that empowers and supports all of our employees. And as CEO Corie Barry said in a letter to the company in June 2020, we are committed to doing better when it comes to taking action to address racial inequalities and injustices in our company, community and country. That's why taking the ParityPledge when we did made so much sense.
Amelia: Thanks for asking! We’ve committed to creating more than 100 Teen Tech Centers and reaching 30,000 teens annually to help bridge the opportunity gap and tech access digital divide for teens in disinvested communities across the country. These centers are safe after-school spaces where teens can get hands-on experience with technology, training, and mentorship, as well as explore their interests and passions in coding, robotics, photography and music and film production.?
Cathrin: Thanks for taking a few minutes to speak with us, Amelia. We can't wait to catch up with you next year to hear what's next.