Afterpay GenderFree is a new shop that launched during Pride Month to offer a new way to shop. Unlike many stores that are segmented with categories for men and women, this one encourages shoppers to make purchases that align with the way they like to best express themselves.

On the shop, consumers can browse for curated items from brands like Levi’s, Birkenstock, Jeffrey Campbell and Milk Makeup, and the shopping experience is mold-breaking too. Rather than sifting through lists and scrolling in a linear way, the shop pushes boundaries by letting users scroll with more freedom than usual. With GenderFree, Zahir Khoja, general manager for Afterpay North America, says "we are giving our customers a more diverse shopping experience and encouraging everyone to think differently about social norms."

In order to prioritize equality in the market, American Express is launching a special mentorship and grant program geared toward BIPOC-owned businesses across Canada. The project is called Blueprint: Backing BIPOC Businesses™ and is powered by the DMZ, which works to help companies grow their business.

The mentorship and grant program will provide 100 businesses, owned by Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour, with comprehensive guidance and $1,000,000 in grants to help support their business ventures. This comes as a welcomed and necessary program as statistics show that "BIPOC business owners face barriers to running their businesses at a rate higher than their white counterparts."

American Express Canada partnered with pro basketball player and owner of the FVV Shop, Fred Van Vleet, to help spread the word. Starting now until July 27, BIPOC business owners nationwide can learn more and apply by visiting dmz.to/AmexBlueprint.

Albertsons Companies recently announced it has expanded its vendor partnerships to include C2Fo, an online platform for working capital, in an effort to increase supplier diversity through early payments. the new partnerships will help diverse-owned brands alleviate immediate capital challenges by providing more funding for these businesses at significantly lower rates.

“Accelerated payment of receivables is essential for all businesses in need of greater liquidity, but especially for those that may be underrepresented and underfunded in our current financial system,” said Alexander “Sandy” Kemper, founder and CEO of C2FO. “We want to position these diverse suppliers for long-term success and can start by offering the working capital needed to grow and stay strong in this difficult economic climate. We are honored to join Albertsons Companies in their ongoing efforts to support the partners and communities it serves.”

The 'Wanted' marketplace is a different kind of job hunting platform for professionals that will enable them to anonymously look for new opportunities for a modern approach to climbing the corporate ladder.

The platform works by having candidates decide how much they'd like to be compensated, and only providing potential employers with information related to their skills and experience. Candidates will stay anonymous until they agree to an interview to help make the process of finding new opportunities far more discreet.

The 'Wanted' marketplace takes a different approach to job hunting and ensures that professionals get the exact number they have in mind instead of needing to barter for the appropriate compensation. This will come as welcome news to candidates and companies alike to make the process smoother with less roadblocks throughout the hiring process.

The needs of the remote workplace are different from just a few years ago and companies are recognizing this with programs that help to support employee learning, personal development and a sense of community. Chipotle is extending Udemy for Business for all full-time Restaurant Support Center employees, Executive Team Directors, Team Directors and Field Leaders, so that they may access thousands of courses on wellness, tech, business and beyond.

Chipotle also offers a Culture Committee that helps to make sure the remote work experience is one that feels purposeful. Chipotle has also introduced the United Network of Influencers Furthering Inclusion and Ethnic Diversity (UNIFIED) as an employee resource group and it was founded in a completely virtual setting.

Amazon is launching a new workplace health and safety program named WorkingWell across its facilities in the United States with the goal of reducing recordable incident rates by 50% by 2025.

The announcement comes after Amazon invested over $300 million in safety initiatives during 2021 as part of the e-commerce giant's mission to become Earth's Safest Place to Work. The new WorkingWell safety program will help to prevent injuries, enhance wellness services, and provide healthcare at Amazon workplaces and employee homes.

Amazon ran a pilot program that was effective in reducing musculoskeletal disorders by 32% over the course of a year.

“Amazon has identified some innovative technologies and approaches to address employee well-being and the implementation of training and wellness programs in their facilities,” said Jennifer McNelly, the CEO of the American Society of Safety Professionals.

In an effort to help content creators find job opportunities, TikTok recently debuted a new tool dubbed 'Resumes.' The feature allows people to post personal job pitches through TikTok videos. The move is not surprising as rumors buzzed last month that the social media brand was looking to enter the job requirement space.

As explained by TikTok: "TikTok Resumes is a pilot program designed to continue expanding and enhancing TikTok as a new channel for recruitment and job discovery. We're teaming up with select companies and inviting job seekers to apply for entry-level to experienced positions with some of the world's most sought-after employers, including Chipotle, Target, WWE, Alo Yoga, Shopify, Contra, Movers+Shakers, and many more, with a TikTok video resume."

TikTok also debuted a TikTok Resume website to help candidates find inspirations and tips for creating their personal video pitches.

Those who are wondering if they have what it takes to join the U.S. Air Force can see if their skills are up to par with the U.S. Air Force E.C.H.O. (Enhanced Cognitive Human Ops.) program. The interactive gaming experience challenges players to use the cognitive skills that are in practice every day, such as focus, composure and reaction. As Air Force Recruiting Service national events chief Major Jason Wyche describes, "While the Air Force has the most advanced technology in the world, an Airman’s cognitive skills are still the key to effectively employing that technology."

The gaming experience kicks off with an explanation of what it takes to be in the program, plus tasks like Track & React, a challenge that tests for accuracy and more.

The 'Trusting AI' project by IBM Research aims to improve the tech giant's predictive technology tools like IBM Watson by ensuring fairness, inclusivity and accountability.

In addition to tools that are built for performance, IBM Research believes that future AI needs to be centered around trust and that trust can only be achieved with consistent evaluation and tweaking. Trusting AI is part of this plan and represents how IBM is working to ensure its technology is fair and inclusive while staying accountable when improvements can be made.

"As AI advances, and humans and AI systems increasingly work together, it is essential that we trust the output of these systems to inform our decisions. Alongside policy considerations and business efforts, science has a central role to play: developing and applying tools to wire AI systems for trust. IBM Research’s comprehensive strategy addresses multiple dimensions of trust to enable AI solutions that inspire confidence," says the brand on its website.

Amazon SageMaker Clarify is an all-encompassing and fully managed service designed to help developers build more comprehensive and inclusive machine learning models. The service was recently announced at AWS re:Invent in December 2020 and is driven to "reduce bias in machine learning models" while also offering a more streamlined and cost-effective solution for developers.

“We are launching Amazon SageMaker Clarify. And what that does is it allows you to have insight into your data and models throughout your machine learning lifecycle,” said Bratin Saha, Amazon VP and general manager in a December 2020 interview with TechCrunch.

The service works to Identify statistical bias that can be found in data -- often the result of human biases coming from the scientists building machine learning models -- while also aiming to eliminate racial stereotypes within various algorithms.

In honor of National Indigenous Peoples Day, CIBC is celebrating the unique heritage, diverse cultures, and outstanding contributions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples with a new commitment to further reconciliation efforts. The banking brand announced it has closed 18 banking centers near Indigenous communities to honor the day and employees are encouraged to participate safely in local events to learn more about how they can promote reconciliation.

"Indigenous peoples in Canada continue to experience systemic racism and intergenerational trauma. We are committed to creating an environment that fosters true reconciliation and economic sustainability for Indigenous communities," said Jaimie Lickers, Vice President of Indigenous Markets, CIBC. "We remain dedicated to supporting the next generation of Indigenous leaders and changemakers through investments and active engagement in communities across Canada."

In addition, CBC has donated more than $1.8M annually to fund organizations that support Indigenous communities. These include scholarships and school support.

Amazon reworked Generative adversarial networks to improve clothing searches to better match product descriptions. Generative adversarial networks were initially created in 2014 to produce synthetic images, sing two networks. One network produces fake images, and one that attempts to find fakes, and these two networks compete against each other. However, Amazon was able to give the system the ability to keep old features and adding new ones simultaneously. Amazon was also able to prioritize images with color features more similar to the description.

The new system was able to increase item classification by approximately 22%, the color was improved by 100%, and gender was up by 22%. Overall the new findings could eventually be integrated into Amazon's e-commerce search engine.

Personal care brand Unilever recently announced its plan to change its the brand name of its skincare line 'Fair & Lovely.' The decision came after the brand reconsidered the name's promotion of negative stereotypes of dark skin tones. In addition, the brand will remove references to "whitening" or "lightening" on the products.

Sunny Jain, President of Beauty & Personal Care at Unilever, said: "We are fully committed to having a global portfolio of skin care brands that is inclusive and cares for all skin tones, celebrating greater diversity of beauty. We recognize that the use of the words 'fair', 'white' and 'light' suggest a singular ideal of beauty that we don't think is right, and we want to address this."

Brands are still learning how to use their platform and funds to foster diversity and inclusivity, and now Burberry's scholarship program will be expanded to specifically help students from "underrepresented communities."

Currently, the program offers grants to students attending Parsons School of Design in New York City, Institute Français de la Mode in Paris and Central Saint Martins in London. Undergrad programs at these schools typically focus in art and design, with students boasting degrees in anything from textile design to fashion communication. It hasn't yet been detailed how the designer fashion house will be reallocating its funds, however in an official statement Burberry's Chief People Officer said "“In order to truly diversify the talent we bring into this industry, we have to meaningfully commit to diversifying our talent pipeline.”

We Are Womxn is a new platform dedicated to empowering early-stage Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ2S+, and Womxn of Colour entrepreneurs in the food and beverage industry in Canada. The initiative will launch on International Women's Day (March 8th) and offer transformative digital-first opportunities including grant and mentorship programs, business interview and learning services, and more.

“When COVID hit last year, I had to pivot my business quickly and in talking to other womxn about how we could work together, realized that we needed a platform to talk openly about how hard it is to be a womxn entrepreneur and a safe space to do something we womxn almost never do: ask for help,” says We Are Womxn founder and Founder/CEO of Shot of Gold, Marissa Bronfman.

The 'Hire.Video' platform is a cost-effective solution for businesses that are looking for an easier way to recruit, pinpoint the best candidates and hire them onto their team. The artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform will work through the recruitment process with ease by eliminating bias and allow administrators to seamlessly access the best-quality talent possible.

The platform is focused on providing both the recruiters and the candidates with reports as well as analytics right after the interview has finished to put a focus on transparency. The 'Hire.Video' platform speaks to the increased prominence of AI technology in the small and medium-sized enterprise business world as operators seek out cost-effective ways to reduce workloads for existing employees to scale at a manageable rate.

The interview process doesn't always lead to a job offer but is an essential part of the job hunting experience that can provide a number of learning experiences for applicants, which is exactly what 'Mockinterview.app' is focused on highlighting.

The platform works by allowing candidates to search for an interviewer of their choice from their favorite company before scheduling a mock interview with them. Interviewees can then enjoy a challenging interview with their chosen professional who will provide feedback afterwards for the person to learn from going forward into their next real interview.

The 'Mockinterview.app' platform will connect applicants to some of the best interviewers from prominent companies to help them learn from real world experience instead of relying only on sporadic interviews.

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project is an organization built on the belief that "all people [should be able] to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence." As such, it works to support minority groups in their fight for racial, social, and economic justice by making "respectful and affirming social, health, and legal services for communities." The project is named after Sylvia Ribera (1951-2002) who was a civil rights pioneer, a veteran of the 1969 Stonewall uprising and had a "loud and persistent voice for the rights of people of color and low-income queers and trans people."

Projects like the Sylvia Rivera Law Project are important ones to support as it does the groundwork in addressing much of the issues LGBTQ+ community members and radicalized folks are experiencing today.

Sifting through resumes can be a time-consuming process but LinkedIn created a new Video Intro feature to speed up the job of finding the right candidate. LinkedIn found that "92% of talent professionals report that soft skills are equally or more important to hire for than hard skills" yet these skills don't often come across until there's an opportunity for face-to-face interaction. The new Video Intro feature has the potential to help hiring managers to quickly assess an applicant's skills even before the first live interview with prompts like: "Tell me about yourself,” or “What is your greatest strength?"

At a time when many people are working from home and communicating with colleagues via video conferencing software, or being interviewed for a potential position online, LinkedIn's new feature helps candidates show off their soft skills.

Amazon Canada is teaming up with Winnie Harlow to celebrate International Women's Day by supporting female-founded small businesses. On a global scale, the Canadian model will be joined by Diane von Furstenberg (for the second year in a row) and eight other influential women, including Priyanka Chopra, Mindy Kaling, and Keke Palmer, among others.

Amazon Canada customers can now shop the brand's first-ever International Women’s Day storefront to "discover the stories and products of eight inspiring women who are working with Amazon to grow their businesses – including small business sellers, handmade artisans, and AWS customers."

Alongside this incredible female-focused initiative, Amazon Canada, in partnership with the Women in Leadership Foundation, is hosting a special event that celebrates Canadian women who have successfully built a business online. The free virtual event takes place on Thursday, March 11 at 12 p.m. ET. You can sign up to attend through Eventbrite.

Countries have had many problems in distributing universal basic income payments to individuals in need, especially if those individuals are of an under-represented group—like refugees, for example. Kenyan fintech company Kotani Pay is trying to resolve such issues in distribution by using Stablecoins to transfer funds to African refugees. This project is supported by the Refugee Integration Organisation (RIO) and Impact Market. Through this collaboration, Kotani Pay ensures that non-smartphone holders will also benefit from the service—described as "a pioneering achievement in the world of universal basic income payments, digital currencies, and the inclusivity of refugees" by the company.

The collaborators are relying on the Celo blockchain to make this exchange and support to African refugee communities possible, while also keeping fraud and corruption at bay.

Vestpod is a financial literacy platform for women that aims to make the subject of money less daunting through custom workshops, educational resources, events and an engaging podcast.

Founded by Emilie Bellet, an ex-private equity analyst, Vestpod is a digital platform that aims to make finance relatable and easy to process -- thanks to the prevalence of intimidating language among traditional investment firms, resulting in financial concepts that are made to sound more complex than they are.

Hosting 21 events in London last year, the brand also introduced founder Emilie Bellet's first book "You’Re Not Broke, You’re Pre-Rich," along with adding new episodes to its podcast The Wallet. Featured episodes have included themes like building a mindset for success, launching a business with limited funding and repaying credit card debt.

In response to the unjust murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and far too many others, HP launched a number of initiatives to implement tangible ways the organization can create sustainable and scalable movements to support the black community. The company also held a one hour interview between HP's Chief Diversity Officer Lesley Slaton Brown, Chief Communications Officer Karen Kahn, and Aarti Shah to discuss the roles brands can tangibly combat systemic racism.

“Don’t mistake good communication for action,” Karen Kahn, commented. “There is a really big difference. Writing well on behalf of our companies and executives is very different from corporate policies, procedures, and actions on behalf of our brands."

KFC US recently announced that it would be appointing John Mays, who formerly served as the company's franchise business coach, to an all-new role: director of equity and inclusion.

By appointing Mays to the new role, KFC hopes to improve its inclusion and equity strategy, while promoting a "people-first culture" at the company. In release from KFC, Chief People Officer John Kurnick explains that Mays has worked diligently to educate staff on systemic racism, and advised them on how to respond to recent events.

Mays spoke to the shift by stating, "While equity and inclusion may look different for everyone, if we can spark change by capturing on the momentum of this moment to become a sustainable movement for our brand, then I believe KFC will have done something extraordinary."

Knix, the global intimates brand, recently partnered with the Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI) to build a program to support the Black birthing community. Dubbed the Nourish Community Doula Training Program, the program will provide scholarships for up to 20 Doulas to receive training and assist 80 black birthing families across the U.S in receiving free postpartum care. In addition, Knix is also donating $75,000 in scholarships to support the fight against maternal mortality rates within the Black community, with ongoing proceeds from Knix’s Postpartum and Knix Nudes collections going towards the partnership.

“BWHI and Knix are aligned in acknowledging, normalizing and uplifting the lived experiences of birthing people,” said Kanika A Harris, PhD, MPH Director of Maternal Health at BWHI. “Knix brings a unique vision to intimate apparel which is to inspire people to live unapologetically free. This representation of people from all shapes, sizes, ages, races, and ethnicities is not only refreshing to see, but empowers and supports the work of BWHI. We recognize that all Black birthing people are inherently resilient, healthy, and beautiful, and partnering with Knix is a great way to amplify our work.”

BMO's 'Jane's Story' campaign is an emotional and empowering ad launched in celebration of International Women's Day 2020. The campaign tells the story of Jane who grows up lacking confidence when it comes to her finances. As the subject grows older, her husband is shown to manage all finances, leaving her overwhelmed and financially insecure following his tragic and unexpected death.

The ad concludes with the powerful statement "when we tell girls they're bad with money, they believe it." The statement is followed by a message reading "let's change the future of women and money."

"Despite the strides that have been made in gender equality, stereotypes about women and money prevail. It is time we change the conversation that contributes to women feeling less confident with their finances," said Catherine Roche, Chief Marketing Officer and Head, Social Impact, BMO Financial Group, explaining the organization's goal to empower women to feel confident about their financial futures.

With only 0.6 % of brewers being Black, the beer industry, like many others, has more work to do when it comes to inclusivity and diversity -- in an effort to shine light on this and to celebrate the Black brewmasters in America, Dwayne Wade launched an initiative alongside Budweiser in which a $1 million scholarship has been named after Natalie Johnson -- Budweiser's first Black female brewmaster who heads up their flagship St. Louis brewery.

In an emotional ad spot, Wade informs Johnson of the brewing scholarship created in her name. With its $1 million in funds, the UNCF Budweiser Natalie Johnson Scholarship will be granted to 30 students annually. The scholarships offer between $4,000 and $6,000 in support for each recipient.

Rimmel London has announced that internationally renowned model and mental health advocate Adwoa Aboah will be joining on as its newest brand activist.

To introduce the partnership, the makeup brand launched an advertising campaign that celebrates the model while showing off some of Rimmel London's eye products. Aboah will be the official face of the brand's upcoming launches in 2021, and will represent its "true to you" slogan.

Rimmel London's Chief Brand Officer Stefano Curti spoke to the news, stating "Adwoa is one of the most powerful voices of her generation. She never apologizes for being herself, which perfectly encapsulates Rimmel London's mission to prioritize diversity and inclusion and to empower the people that buy our products to be the best and truest version of themselves."

Thanks to a Yelp update, the crowdsourced business review platform will now flag businesses accused of racist behaviour.

In the past few months, Yelp has undergone multiple changes in a continued push for diversity and anti-racism on its platform. As a result of the Black Lives Matter Movement, Yelp now spotlights Black-owned businesses and joined the 15% pledge to make diversity a priority. With its latest update, Yelp is helping reviewers escalate their complaints while holding businesses accountable, with a new flagging tool that serves as a Public Attention Alert. If a reviewer has evidence that a business owner or employee partook in racist actions, the platform will alert the public with a "Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert."

Through its recent partnership with Black In Fashion, popular fashion reseller Depop is celebrating Black entrepreneurs with an educational YouTube series.

The series launched on February 16th, and spotlights notable leaders from the Black In Fashion Council, who share their knowledge with viewers. Topics include how to spark creativity, manage finances, benefit from influencer marketing, and bring products to retail—among others.

Chinny Okolidoh, Depop's global head of diversity, equity, and inclusion spoke to the partnership, stating "On the back of our commitments to equalize entry into the fashion world for our Black community of Depop, we wanted to centralize our efforts for Black History Month on creating space for both dialogue and action through the theme of access."

The Vizzy Live Proudly Registry was created in honor of Pride Month and with its creation, Vizzy Hard Seltzer is supporting the transgender and nonbinary communities by offering an alternative to traditional gift registries. The online gift registry is a place where people can create a wish list of items for their allies and friends. To create the registry, the hard seltzer brand worked with four trans- and queer-owned businesses to feature items like pride streetwear, chest binders, cosmetics, gender-fluid clothing and more.

To kick off the launch of the registry, Vizzy is giving 50 people the chance to get $500 toward the purchase of items on their registry. Additionally, Vizzy is committing $25,000 to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Toymaking company LEGO launched the diversity-focused 'Everyone is Awesome' set in honor of Pride month. The 346-piece building set consists of a collection of 11 monochromatic minifigures that are themed around the colors of the rainbow, like those in the pride and transgender flags. The minifigures are set against a smooth, color-coordinated backdrop.

The Everyone is Awesome set was developed by LEGO's design VP Matthew Ashton as a passion project. The range of hairstyles and colors on the blank minifigures are meant to reflect the diversity within society. LEGO has positioned the promotion of inclusion as a company priority and has created and participated in a number of equity initiatives surrounding LGBTQ issues. The Everyone is Awesome set will be available starting on June 1st, 2021–the first day of Pride month.

Miller Lite and Equality Federation are introducing the Open & Proud program to create safe and inclusive spaces for the LGBTQ community at bars. The initiative focuses on the development and implementation of inclusivity training materials for bar owners and employees at the 55,000 bars and nightclubs where Miller Lite can be found.

Unfortunately, to this day, there are reports from members of the LGBTQ community feeling unsafe and unwelcome at bars and restaurants and this program aims to create more acceptance, support and environments that are welcoming. The program also includes town hall events across the country so that people can share their experiences and thoughts on how bar spaces can be made more inclusive, as well as a $250,000 donation to Equality Federation.

Dick's Sporting Goods is now leveraging high-profile brand ambassadors in an effort to promote its private label products, the new ambassadors will include Stephen tWitch and Allison Boss.

Both of the ambassadors will have a long-term relationship with the retailer and will promote the private label products associated with the Dick's Sporting Goods DSG family athleisure brand. The new brand ambassadors are a celebrity dance couple and also launched a TikTok dance challenge to mark International Dance Day.

"Stephen and Allison embody everything DSG is all about," said Ed Plummer, a Senior Vice President and Chief
Marketing Officer at Dick's Sporting Goods. "Just like DSG, they both actively live life to its fullest and support inclusivity for all athletes, no matter their size, skill, age or budget. We're excited to partner with the Bosses and look forward to all of the fun things we have planned together."