From Pledge to Progress, Corporate America One Year After George Floyd’s Death
After the killing of George Floyd in May 2020, many leaders across corporate America spoke up and out against the systemic racism that runs deep in our country. They took action when our own government would not. They issued statements, lent financial power to anti-racism causes and to the Black Lives Matter movement, worked to heal and fight against racism and injustice, and made DE&I a priority within the walls of their organizations.
It has been a year since George Floyd’s death, and we at Seramount wanted to know just how far corporate America has come (and how far it still needs to go) as it relates to addressing racism in the workplace. In April 2021, Seramount conducted a national survey of 2,431 college-educated employees at companies with at least 5,000 U.S. employees about their perceptions of racism in the workplace and their organization’s support for anti-racism efforts.
By helping us understand the opportunity gaps between what leaders have pledged to change at their organizations and what employees are experiencing almost a full year later, we can pinpoint where the hard work remains to be done.