Challenge

When Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago (FHLBC) embarked on its bold journey towards achieving its Diversity and Inclusion vision, FCG was retained to help FHLBC accomplish its mission. FHLBC aimed to communicate diverse and inclusive thinking to its 500 employees across the various demographic segments at the Bank.

Solution

FCG worked in collaboration with various internal groups to brainstorm key branding elements that would authentically speak to the Bank’s vision. Employees from different segment groups, including Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), were invited to contribute their thoughts for consideration. FCG designers were then tasked to funnel insights from various brainstorms into their creative strategy to develop concepts that were truly representative of the Bank’s employees, focusing on the Bank’s core ERGs: African American, Hispanic, LGBTQ, Asian, Women and the Bank’s Green Initiative. From this ideation process, BEBOLD&INSPIRE came to fruition with a message to all employees that their bold actions in creating a diverse and inclusive environment will inspire change in others to do the same.

FHLBC launched the campaign with a BEBOLD&INSPIRE Day where 500 employees were greeted with various messaging points, including television screen savers, employee resource groups and general messaging brand stands, and branded giveaways like highlighters, lanyards, notebooks and buttons, all of which encouraged employees to spread the BEBOLD&INSPIRE message throughout the day. Social graphics across the Bank’s platforms highlighted the ERGs, as well as general D&I messaging.

Impact

BEBOLD&INSPIRE has led to increased conversation within the Bank around D&I and has helped to change the mindset of employees to become more inclusive in areas such as supplier diversity, hiring, and recruitment. The Bank successfully achieved its goals during launch year by adding 111 diverse vendors to the Bank’s vendor database and increasing employee participation in D&I activities to 94.4%.