Creativity supports financial institution’s diversity and inclusion efforts

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago has entered the first of its three-year plan to achieve a vision of diversity and inclusion in the organization. To give a visual identity to the effort, the bank engaged Flowers Communication Group (FCG) to develop a branding campaign that includes creative elements and messaging. For its efforts and the impact they had on the bank, FCG has earned first place in the “Diversity and Inclusion Initiative” category of PR Daily’s Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

The campaign’s goals include increasing employee involvement in diversity and inclusion activities and growing the organization’s diverse vendor ranks. This first year of the program has been dubbed the Year of Transformation. The result of FCG’s work with a number of internal groups at the bank was a name for the campaign: BEBOLD&INSPIRE, along with a variety of associated visual elements designed to speak to the bank’s employees, members and customers.

The first day of the campaign, the bank’s 500 employees were greeted with various messaging points, such as television screen savers, employee resource group and general messaging brand stands, and branded giveaways like highlighters, lanyards, notebooks and buttons. Tabletop conversation starters were also placed in common areas around the bank to spark candid conversations about D&I among employees.

Visuals were also shared across social media channels, and presentation templates were made available to ensure a consistent theme was delivered in internal and external presentations.

In addition to producing a lift in employee affinity for the program, employees added 111 diverse vendors to the bank’s vendor database, and participation in diversity and inclusion events rocketed to 94.4%.

Congratulations to Michelle Flowers Welch, Christina Steed, Daniela Chavez Lira, Mary Corbin, Sharron Banks, German Chavez, Maurice Chavez and Sachiel Asencio.