Allyship At Work
Allyship is an active and consistent effort to use your privilege and power to support and advocate for people with less privilege. This training program empowers employees to take meaningful action and build an inclusive workplace culture.
Allyship is critical to fostering an inclusive workplace culture.
The right policies alone cannot shift workplace culture. It’s critical that employees become part of the cause. That’s where allyship comes in. Research shows allies don’t just influence one person at a time. They inspire others to act as change agents, too, creating a culture of acceptance and support.1 Simply put, allyship is a powerful force for good.
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But here’s the problem: Many employees are not showing up as allies.
While a majority of employees think of themselves as allies, relatively few white employees are performing basic allyship actions, such as advocating for racial equity or mentoring women of color.2 Allyship at Work helps to bridge this gap by helping employees at every level of your organization identify specific ways they can take action to make a meaningful impact. Companies from adidas to WeWork are successfully using the program, and more than 94% of participants feel more equipped to practice allyship and would recommend the training to a colleague.
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What makes Allyship at Work effective
Specific
and interactive
More than 50 specific, research-backed actions empower employees with the appropriate strategies to take.
Designed to
engage all employees
Everyone—regardless of identity, role, or seniority—discovers ways they can practice meaningful allyship.
Rooted in
intersectional research
The program content is designed to address the inequities impacting traditionally marginalized groups.
Free & flexible
Easy to implement in both large and small groups, the program comes with everything participants and moderators need. Because inclusion shouldn’t depend on a company’s budget.
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Running the program is easy
We make it simple to implement the program, no matter your organization’s size. Empower your own HR, DEI, or team leaders to facilitate the workshops in three steps.
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1
Learn how to moderate effective workshops.
In addition to our free moderator training, we provide a Moderator Guide with a primer on allyship and a recommended script for running the workshop. -
2
Get everything you need to engage your employees.
Allyship at Work comes equipped with a Company Playbook filled with marketing assets and email templates to get your team excited, a Workshop Presentation complete with educational videos, and a Personal Workbook employees can reflect in and return to. -
3
Bring employees together virtually.
Allyship at Work is optimized for remote or dispersed teams of all sizes.
How it works
The program is designed for virtual or in-person teams and consists of two main components: a four-hour workshop that introduces participants to the practice of allyship and three small group follow-up sessions that provide participants with accountability and support as they put what they’ve learned into action.
Half-Day Workshop
Setting the Foundation: Allyship, Privilege, Power, and Action
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Three Monthly Discussion Groups
Practicing Allyship: Ongoing Action and Accountability
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WHY (AND HOW) WE DEVELOPED ALLYSHIP AT WORK
It’s critical that companies support women with traditionally marginalized identities, yet too few get the allyship they deserve. Only 16 percent of Latinas report that Latinas have strong allies in their organization, and Black women are even less optimistic about the level of allyship Black women receive.3 Allyship at Work was designed with a deeply intersectional lens to address this problem head-on. And the program goes beyond gender. Employees learn how to show up for coworkers who hold traditionally marginalized identities, including people of color, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ community—making Allyship at Work an integral part of fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.
Leading companies are seeing results
After participating in the program, 94% of participants feel more equipped to take effective allyship action & 96% would recommend the program to a coworker or another company.
What companies are saying
This program not only provided educational resources and insight, but also tools, best practices, and next steps to evolve individual, and community, allyship practices.”
Ready to build an inclusive workplace?
Become an Allyship at Work moderator.
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Endnotes
- Maureen Scully and Mary Rowe, “Bystander Training within Organizations,” Journal of the International Ombudsman Association 2, no.1 (2009), https://www.bu.edu/fafc/files/2012/05/bystander.pdf; Benjamin Drury and Cheryl Kaiser, “Allies against Sexism: The Role of Men in Confronting Sexism,” Journal of Social Issues 70, no.4 (2014), https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12083
- LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2020 (Oct. 2020), http://womenintheworkplace.com. More than 60 percent of employees consider themselves to be allies to women of color at work, but less than a third of white employees say they’ve consistently taken a public stand to support racial equity. Only 42 percent (4 in 10) advocate for racial equality in private discussions, and less than 10 percent mentor or sponsor one or more women of color.
- LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2020 (Oct. 2020), http://womenintheworkplace.com. Only 11 percent of Black women think that Black women have strong allies in their workplace.
