If we say it, we do it

Team leaders at DICE are expected to make a commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion as part of their daily work. Easy to say – less easy to prioritise, especially when you’re working for an ambitiously scaling company. To support these efforts, the DEI team spends time with each team leader to help them set clear and achievable DEI goals for each specialist area.

But while goal setting is crucial in driving change, it’s also important for our team leaders to understand DEI as part of their working life – to be inspired by the work of their colleagues and to easily connect and contribute to that work. With that in mind, here are some of the areas we’ve been most proud of this year.

Our Leaders Who Learn series explores the ways in which our leaders have engaged with diversity, equity and inclusion and, more importantly, what they have learned. These sessions are held in our offices and streamed across the company, where our people are invited to join, listen, ask questions, and hopefully be inspired to find their own ways to engage. 

In March we hosted an ode to International Women’s Day, with the theme of ‘Embracing Equity’, where we unravelled the meaning of inequity and dove deeper into the privileges and disadvantages that affect us. In past Leaders who Learn sessions, our founder and CEO, Phil Hutcheon, talked about his experience of vulnerability growing up, and our VP of Content for Europe, Amy Oldham, shared her thoughts on Neurodiversity As A Superpower.

Another inspirational event was our month-long celebration of International Women’s Day, where our Director of Music, Sophie Doherty, hosted a panel of women from the music, tech and culture industries to discuss the ways in which they have embraced equity. 

In 2020 we committed to improving the diversity of our people, particularly at Technical, Team Leader and Board levels. In 2023, we’re happy to see a higher representation of women at Team Leader level and on our Board, and a higher representation of ethnic identity at these same senior levels. 

In June, we announced Caron Veazey, founder of Something In Common and co-founder of the Black Music Action Coalition, to our Board of Directors. Caron will work alongside our Artist Development, Content and DEI teams, as well as supporting our other team leaders. 

‘Making our Leadership Team and Board more diverse is really important to me. It changes the way we work for the better and increases the impact we can make in the industry. I’m proud that we have amazing people at DICE that represent our community of fans, especially at this most senior level’ – Phil Hutcheon, founder and CEO.

We have five Employee Community Groups at DICE: Women and Femme, BIPOC, Pride365, Neurodivergent Minds, and Parents and Carers. Leadership Sponsors play an important role in making sure that our ECGs have the support they need, and their participation gives team leaders an opportunity to engage directly with employees across the organisation, bridge the gaps between functions, and connect the mission of each Group to our company goals. 

In 2024, the DEI team will provide coaching and mentoring support to the ECG Chair Lead and Co-Chair; direction with ECG goal setting; advice on ways of working that address inclusion barriers; and advocacy for ECGs across the company via regular updates and communications.

In May of 2023, we launched Donut, a fun and easy-to-use tool that helps our people connect serendipitously with colleagues across different departments, territories and levels. It’s amazing to see the conversations that have begun to bubble up and the new connections that are forming across all kinds of boundaries as we continue to scale.

We’re always keen to learn more about how to improve what we’re doing, so if you have any feedback that can help us with our work, please reach out to deiteam@dice.fm