Diversity
Report

Becoming Somewhere Everyone Can Belong

Diversity & Belonging

If we’re going to create work that reflects the world we live in, we need a team that does the same — So we’re working carefully to hire all kinds of different people and encourage a culture where each individual is supported and comfortable bringing their ideas and full selves to work.

This diversity report is a snapshot of our agency-wide effort to learn about, design, and implement increasingly diverse, equitable, and inclusive systems. There’s a focus on identity metrics because any system that succeeds in achieving fairness should naturally produce a representational group — so this is how we’re measuring success.

With that said, this data is only a review of our internal progress — the ultimate success we’re working toward is long-term, permanent improvement in our industry, community, and culture.

Data Sources
 & Collection

Our gender, race, and ethnic identity data is provided voluntarily and in alignment with EEOC guidelines.

We look at the U.S. Census to provide a benchmark for representation data. We know this isn’t a perfect source of information, so we’re supplementing our expectations with 3rd party studies from sources like the Pew Research Center and reports from industry leaders like Google.

In 2021 we started measuring our internal Inclusion and Equity sentiments via an anonymous Employee Experience Survey. This has been so unbelievably helpful, we wish we’d started years ago.

Gender 
Diversity

We look toward the U.S. Census to establish benchmarks for fair gender representation and self-identification (50.5% women). This does not yet include data for non-binary genders which Pew estimates to account for 1.6% of adults.

All Agency

50
%
Men
50
%
Women
All-Agency Representation of Women

Since developing more intentional hiring policies, our agency-wide gender representation has closed the gap. Moving forward, we’re looking more closely at differences across disciplines and levels.

Leadership

70
%
Men
30
%
Women

The changes we’ve made at the all-agency level aren’t yet realized across leadership. Leadership roles at Hook are most often filled from within, so we are continuously investing in skill development and leadership training programs to accelerate growth. Our expectation is that these figures will adapt to match all-agency representation over time.

Racial & Ethnic Diversity

Our goal is to maintain at least 40% BIPOC representation across the organization by 2025. In the longer term, we are working to increase diversity within our creative industry — an influential group that does not yet fairly represent Black and Latinx communities.

All Agency

62
%
White
34
%
BIPOC
Change in All Agency BIPOC Representation

Since setting this goal in 2020, we’ve seen a 7% increase in racial and ethnic diversity. We believe these immediate changes are the result of a better recruiting process including a greatly expanded talent sourcing programs and a more equitable candidate evaluation process.

All-Agency Representation Breakout
All Agency
Sr. Leadership
U.S. Pop
Asian10%0%6.1%
Black7%20%13.6%
Hispanic or Latino5%0%16.9%
Native American0%0%0.3%
Two or More12%20%2.9%
Unspecified4%0%N/A
White62%60%59.3%

Leadership

80
%
White
20
%
BIPOC

As with gender representation, racial and ethnic diversity within our leadership group is changing more slowly.

Diversity Initiatives

In pursuit of both immediate results and long-term change, we’re working to further increase agency representation through the growth of new and existing initiatives:

Sandbox Mentorship Program

Talent is everywhere but opportunity is not. Aimed at improving industry-wide representation, Sandbox is an ongoing high school and college mentorship program that exposes young people to the potential of career opportunities in creative fields.

Refined Interview Processes

Foundational agency-wide training with two primary goals: Create a more consistent and equitable interviewing process and develop a shared language for equitable evaluations while reducing the effects of biases.

Expanded Talent Sourcing

If our industry as a whole isn’t producing representational diversity, then we need to look beyond traditional recruiting methods. We actively evaluate our sourcing methods to make sure candidate pools include a broad range of diverse experiences and perspectives.

Inclusion

2022 was our first year measuring agency-wide inclusion sentiment. We calculated a score based on a collection of questions included in the Employee Experience Survey. Now, with a benchmark in place, our goal is to make improvements every year.

All-Agency Inclusion Score
86/100
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
I can be myself at work
86
It’s easy to ask others for help
99
I feel like I belong in this company
85
It is safe to take a risk on this team
78
Input of individuals from different backgrounds is heard
83
People on this team are not rejected for being different
90
I’m comfortable bringing up problems and tough issues
87

These results have informed new goals across the organization and inspired the development of new programs and initiatives like an expert speaker series and a staff-run resource group.

Inclusion Initiatives

Expert-led seminars on Unconscious Biases, Mindful Dialogues, Inclusive Conversations

We’ve partnered with Tosha (https://www.toshacc.com) to facilitate ongoing agency-wide conversation around inclusive behaviors and practices in a diverse environment.

Remote-First Culture & Workflows

We’ve adopted a remote-first working culture — encouraging everyone to work from wherever they feel most comfortable and productive. As a result, we’ve begun implementing asynchronous and mindful workflows that minimize interruptions and make it easier to contribute meaningfully.

JEDI Speaker Sessions

In pursuit of ongoing education and cultural awareness, the staff-led Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee coordinates an expert speaker series that assembles influential voices to share their experiences as creative professionals from intersectional communities.

Flexible Holiday Schedules

Not everyone celebrates the same holidays or milestones. This year, we began offering Flex Holidays, allowing everyone to select five holidays per year in addition to company-wide holidays. Flex holidays allow our teams to observe the celebrations that matter most to them.

Equity

2022 was also our first year measuring the agency-wide perception of equity. Calculated from a mix of questions in our Employee Experience Survey, the score represents an average across fairness, advancement, and compensation-related topics.

All-Agency Fairness Score
84/100
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
My performance is fairly evaluated
82
People from all backgrounds have equal opportunity here
79
My manager treats me fairly
100
I feel I have equitable opportunities to grow
86

Throughout 2022, we’ve developed several new programs around transparency, compensation, and performance evaluation.

Equity Initiatives

The primary insight coming out of the survey was that we needed to become a more transparent organization.

Public Salary Bands

This year, we published the salary ranges of all positions throughout the agency.

Growth Track Documentation

We maintain a transparent framework for advancement to provide concise and equitable insights for everyone working toward career growth. Each role at Hook has documented expectations for Craft, Complexity, and Leadership — these enable targeted goal setting and objective performance evaluation.

Lattice Implementation

We’ve implemented Lattice (a people management platform) to help make sure everyone is being evaluated fairly and given equitable opportunities for advancement. The feedback, goal setting, growth tracking, and new-manager tools immediately helped create more meaningful feedback and communication processes.