Fostering a Culture of Inclusivity
Culture has always been incredibly important at Mass. Bay Brewing Company (MBBC) and one of the things that makes our culture inherently inclusive is our employee ownership model. From the employee’s first day, each employee is an owner, giving them a real stake in the business, and helping foster an inclusive environment.
To further our work within MBBC culture, we formed a Diversity Inclusion and Unity Committee (DIU) in 2019. The DIU is in place to help broaden and deepen the bonds that tie us together and make each of us unique.
In the words of our CEO and co-founder Dan Kenary, “It’s incumbent upon us as a leader in the craft beer industry to recruit a more diverse workforce and to educate everybody on how to foster a culture of inclusivity.”
Since DIU’s inception, we have built on its momentum, including:
- Connecting with more partners in the Greater Boston area who are uniquely positioned to help us engage with diverse communities before, during and after recruitment events.
- Creating educational programs that help promote and teach inclusion – getting diverse talent in the door is one thing, but we also want to help lead the way when it comes to making diverse teams feel comfortable in a work environment to ensure success.
- Making changes to our own bylaws through our DIU Committee that reflect this focus on unity and inclusion.
- Participating in the Pink Boots Collaboration Brew Day; each year we host an event in March where the women of MBBC team up to brew special batches of beer to celebrate women in the brewing industry.
- Educating and communicating with our staff to keep DIU top of mind with monthly meeting updates, newsletters and calendars, as well as an inaugural employee survey, which asked our team about their own experience with DIU at work.
- Hosted an award-winning Hop Forward Career Fair. This first of its kind career fair within the industry aiming to create a more diverse craft brewing community in the Greater Boston Area that more accurately reflects the area’s demographics and formed new and meaningful connections to communities, while also providing opportunities for networking and recruitment in the process.
- Partnered with the Mass Brewers Guild to launch HopForwardEquality.com – an online hub of resources developed in collaboration with community partners that we hope will help breweries in the state of MA transform or further their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
From our perspective, diversity helps drive new perspectives and fresh thinking, which ultimately helps drive Mass Bay Brewing Company’s innovation. Our focus is on doing all we can as a company to impact greater diversity within our four walls and industry.
