Workplace bias is very real. Too many people have unfortunately experienced its power to silence co-workers, stifle growth, and limit potential. We know that business is better and work is better when you can unleash the proven power of diversity.

But how do you bring people into the conversation, instead of just calling them out?

Our brief was to showcase the bias that exists within Facebook's own organization with the objective to increase diversity and inclusion training sign-ups internally. Our Unfollow Bias campaign platform was also designed to:

- Spark conversation within the company

- Build empathy for the experiences of diverse groups

- Drive change to mitigate bias in the workplace

We produced a series of emotional and direct films with a cast representing employees in groups that experience the most prevalent workplace biases - Race, Gender, LGBTQ+, Age and Disability. The films reveal how bias is experienced through micro-aggressions by individuals represented across these diverse communities. The work was filmed to help marginalized groups feel seen and to prompt everyone to examine their own behavior.

We made a conscious effort not to cast real Facebook employees to protect their identities. We also wanted to ensure that the films could resonate across people’s work experiences throughout their career, beyond Facebook.

To help people take action and “Unfollow Bias,” we created a way for employees to easily click through the work and sign up for anti-bias training. Films were shared by the relevant employee network groups to the whole Facebook company through the Facebook Workplace group.

Insight:

We conducted a multi-national study to help inform and influence the campaign. With our brand's purpose to give people the world over the power to build community, we needed to start with everyone within the Facebook community first, to ensure that their voice was heard, their contributions were recognized, and their full potential realized. We found that bias was holding Facebook back.

Key Message:

As a company full of brilliant, diverse and complex humans, it's true that bias lives within our walls. It's time to #UnfollowBias - a call to action that speaks to the internal Facebook community in terms that are identifiable as Facebook values.

Target Audience:

Facebook employees around the world, in all levels.

Creation and Distribution of Assets

Each video was posted once on Facebook Workplace by the relevant employee groups. This guaranteed comments, likes and shares which maximized visibility and drove sign ups.

We used Facebook's own internal Facebook Workplace group on the Facebook platform to share the films to our global employee network. To help people take action and “Unfollow Bias,” we created a way for employees to easily click through the work and sign up for anti-bias training.

The program was launched over the course of a month, with a new video posted each week by the representative employee group. The first video - the intro video which spoke to all marginalized employees - was posted by the Leadership team group. The Facebook POC group posted the Race video, the Women's group shared the Gender video, and so on.

The campaign reached Facebook's 60,000 employees and achieved a benchmark smashing watch-through rate over three-times the average.

The campaign was extremely successful. It garnered engagement from Facebook employees (sparked conversation), and it helped continue the journey of building empathy for workplace bias. Most importantly, the work drove change.

Over 4,400+ employees took action and signed up for Facebook’s “Be the Ally” training course.

The campaign was also able to drive company diversity goals.

On top of sign ups, the campaign reached 60K employees. Smashing benchmark watch-through rates by 3x the average.

Facebook employees found the campaign impactful and effective, with 71% of employees reporting that they believe the campaign was good for the company and 29% reporting that it increased their awareness of workplace micro-aggressions