Reflecting on one year of equitable hiring

By Lena Tom (she/her), Meso’s Founder & President

As we’re all wrapping up and wishing a not-so-fond farewell to 2020, I am especially grateful for the opportunity to celebrate some wins.

Meso Solutions launched just one year ago this week, and in that time…

We partnered with nearly 30 clients to plan and promote more equitable hiring practices, from organizations fighting for voting rights for everyone, to policies for a better future, to better workplaces in our own industry. We have been with you through COVID-19, the fight for Black lives (both at home and abroad) and racial justice, the elections, and everything else this year threw at us. We also helped multiple young organizations make their first hires, and we are excited to see them grow.

Our partnership with these nonprofit and social good groups resulted in more than three dozen new hires, half of whom identify as People of Color.

On the internal front, we hired two staff members, Lara and Temi, and are in the process of bringing on a Vice President of Outreach & Engagement.

We also led two free trainings on building equitable workplaces that reached 300+ people, as well as joining trainings and talks with other leaders in the space on diversity and inclusion initiatives.

What’s to Come

In our year ahead, we are looking to more growth, including expanding our reach to Black- and brown-led organizations with sliding-scale offerings, training a cohort of hiring managers, and releasing research on disability access in hiring.

Thank you for all of your support in the form of referrals, kind words, and more. If you have someone else we should meet with or ideas for how we can grow this model further, reach out to us.