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LightBox DEI: A Diverse Approach Starts With Our Employees

LightBox | June 5, 2023

DEICRE Pledge

LightBox, a leading data and technology company within commercial real estate, places tremendous focus on the voices of our employees. In 2021, we launched our first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council. The council is employee-led and run with a vision of creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment and empowering our staff to bring their authentic selves to work.  In its first year, the DEI Council hosted four events with outside trailblazers in CRE committed to moving the needle for the under-represented. The Council also published a new series of quarterly newsletters to share timely developments with our employees and raise awareness about DEI challenges. We also launched an inaugural Mental Health affinity group.

Based on those early successes, the DEI Council expanded its foundation to launch four new affinity groups: the Women’s Inspiration Network! (WIN!), Persons of Color, Asian American and Pacific Islanders and LGBTQ+.

Our five affinity groups are a place for employees across the company to connect with and learn from one another and enable candid conversations about the unique challenges faced in each of these areas. The co-chairs of each group are responsible for developing strategies around making a positive impact both within and outside of LightBox, including:

  • A designated “Make a Splash” month when each group plans companywide events throughout the entire month to educate colleagues and raise awareness.

  • Fundraise for a charity that aligns with their group’s mission and values. This allows groups to spread awareness and support a cause that resonates with their employee base.

  • At least 4 companywide communications throughout the year (totaling to 20 across the council) educating our employees about relevant dates and raising awareness (I.e., Women’s Equality Day, National Trans Awareness Day, etc.)

The DEI council also continues to provide educational events on broad and timely topics, including a recent internal webinar that focused on the importance of diversity in the workplace, where our Chief People Officer, Lee Gavin, served as a moderator along with panelists including Collete English Dixon, Jennifer Miles, and Sam Chandan.  

Our hope with the council is that our employees feel empowered by these initiatives and supported by our leadership. We recognize there is a lot of work to be done but we are excited to be taking the steps to ensure a more diverse workplace, and industry.

CREW PILLARS:

  1. Partner with CREW Network to support our mission to advance women and begin your efforts now to make change.

    • Our CEO, Eric Frank, was one of the first CEOs to sign CREW’s Pledge for Action and commit to DEI at LightBox and in our industry. Since then, we formed our structured DEI Council which has the support and commitment of our Executive Team.  "Our mission to expand the work started by our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, to include the creation of various affinity groups, is in sync with CREW’s core mission to improve DEI in our industry. This program partnership is an important step for LightBox given the exciting ways that connected data and technology applications are enabling new solutions to old challenges across commercial real estate." Eric Frank, CEO

    • Our Developing Leaders mentorship program, now in its 4th year, has successfully ushered 80 CRE professionals through a rigorous career development program. Nearly 70% of our mentees have been young professional women just starting out in their careers, seeking the guidance and support of female leaders.

  2. Close the compensation gap in our industry by conducting a pay equity study in your company.

    • The LightBox Women’s Inspiration Network (WIN!) is working closely with our HR team to better understand the compensation gap and what actions can be taken.  

  3. Increase inclusion in your company through senior executive sponsorship of women and/or individuals in underrepresented groups within the company.

    • Each of our affinity groups has an assigned executive sponsor. Our CFO, Amanda Allen, serves as the executive sponsor for WIN! and is responsible for providing guidance and support around initiatives to address the challenges that women face in the workplace.

  4. Advance women to your company’s top roles to achieve gender diversity in leadership.

    • Our two most recent VP promotions have been women, Caroline Stoll, Managing Director, Enterprise Data and Valerie Bordelon, VP of Sales, Lender & Valuation Solutions.  We look forward to continuing to advance the career for women within our organization.

  5. Increase diversity in your company and in the industry through intentional recruiting and hiring of individuals from diverse backgrounds.

    • All people leaders have a mandated objective to build diverse teams. In collaboration with the talent acquisition team, checks and balances and individual role strategies are being defined prior to any search.

  6. Implement accountability strategies in your company to measure progress.

    • We have publicly launched our framework for action at a companywide level and we will continually check and communicate our progress.