The second Monday in October is a day to honor Indigenous people, their histories and cultures. At Best Buy, today and throughout the year, we celebrate and honor the rich heritage of Indigenous communities and their vast diversity of traditions and languages.
We are committed to helping build a stronger, more vibrant tech industry with more diverse innovators. That means breaking down barriers and supporting Indigenous voices and communities across the country.
As part of that commitment, we recently launched the Best Buy Indigenous Employee Resource Group, a safe space where employees can come together to share, learn and grow through awareness, education, understanding and cultural appreciation. The group will focus on a variety of goals and support for our employees, including professional development and networking.
“Our goal is to create a culture that empowers each and every employee to bring their authentic selves to work,” said Mark Irvin, our chief inclusion, diversity and talent officer. “By creating a space for employees that allows their voices to be heard and honors and celebrates their heritage, we cultivate an equitable, inclusive and innovative environment where everyone can succeed.
Additionally, we will open Best Buy Teen Tech Center locations in partnership with Indigenous-serving organizations as part of our broader commitment to expand to 100 locations nationwide by 2025. By expanding opportunities for youth and investing in personal development for employees, we aim to make systemic, permanent changes that address social injustices to improve our company and our communities.
Taking action
Last June, we said we would “do better” and, over the last year, we have shared actions we are taking to better address underrepresentation, technology inequities and provide educational and career opportunities in our communities.
Here are some of the ways we’re proud to support our Indigenous employees and communities:
- We are working toward filling one out of three new non-hourly corporate positions with Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) employees.
- Over the next two years, we’ve committed to hiring more than 1,000 new employees to our technology team, with 30% of them being diverse, specifically Indigenous, Black, Latinx and women.
- We signed the ParityPledge in Support of People of Color. It’s a public commitment to interview at least one qualified person of color for every open leadership role at the vice president level or higher, including the C-suite and board of directors.
- A minimum of 30% of our paid advertising will feature BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and diverse abilities cast members and family structures. We also made a commitment that 25% of production crew members will meet those criteria by 2023.
Click here to learn more about our diversity and inclusion commitments and efforts.