Embracing Inclusivity at Mindbody with the UNITY Pledge

Empathetic—this is just one of our core values that aims to guide all of our employees to make us who we are. But this week, this principle is more meaningful than ever. On November 20, I attended a meeting along with the rest of the Mindbody employees in the Scottsdale office to make a UNITY Pledge to commit to supporting each community that makes up the Mindbody family.

This UNITY Pledge is part of an Arizona organization, One Community, which focuses on creating equality and inclusivity in workplaces for the LGBT+ community. By signing this pledge, we are all committing to live by our core values to be inclusive to all.

Standing up to make a difference

I’m proud to be a part of a company that is taking a stand on workplace discrimination. We are joining over 3200 businesses and organizations in taking this pledge—the largest equality pledge in the nation. We sat in awe as Angela Hughey, founder and president of One Community, spoke to us about the powerful impact taking a pledge like this makes.

She educated us on the fact that November 20 is an extremely significant day within the LGBT+ community—it’s a date that marks the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Unfortunately, we celebrate this day to commemorate the transgender Americans who have lost their lives—and this year marks its 20th anniversary.

This made me realize that in Arizona, we still have a lot of work to do in treating members of the LGBT+ community the same as we treat everybody else. While there has been a ton of progress in the last 10 years regarding discrimination, there are many places in Arizona where people can be discriminated against based on their sexual preference or identity. But by being a company that signs this UNITY Pledge, Mindbody is hoping the legal basis for discrimination in Arizona will change.

Open for business for everybody 

I think the president of our company Josh McCarter said it best when he told us that our company is making a stance to be inclusive to everybody. “We want to bring everybody in no matter their race, color, creed, religion, gender identity—we want to be welcoming to everybody.”

He also drove home that being inclusive makes us a better business—not only are we able to bring on the best talent in the world, but we're also able to reflect our customers better. We have 64,000 customers around the world and many of them affiliate with this community, either directly or through their friends.

This is something our company has definitely shown over the years and we continue to show that we are really leaning into driving change. As mentioned above, empathy is one of our core values—and it’s one we have embraced for a very long time.

We’ve launched a DEIB Program which focuses on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the workplace and an MBPride Group in all 14 office locations spread throughout four countries to give everyone the opportunity to show their support for the LGBT+ community. On top of that, our company has also signed pledges in every state we do business including Georgia, New York, Texas, California, and Pennsylvania through another organization called Open to All.

As a company, we are signing this pledge because we want to lead from the front to show not only our employees but our community, that inclusivity is part of our company’s core values and part of who we are. We are putting into motion that we all want to move collectively towards a state and nation that truly celebrates, respects, and protects everyone.