Speaking Out and Standing in Solidarity

Hasbro has taken a number of actions in response to the murder of George Floyd and the call for change that followed. Our immediate response was to support our employees, speak out, and make charitable donations. And as we’ve been talking about racial injustice, we have also been listening and looking within ourselves and our organization critically and honestly.

While we don’t have all the answers, we have never been more committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and using our brands, our entertainment and our influence to make a difference in this world.

At Hasbro, we’re in a very unique position to help shape minds and hearts from the earliest age. We have the privilege of being a part of childhood, fandom, and intergenerational play and entertainment, globally. With that privilege comes a responsibility to foster inclusion and to help teach the next generation that everyone is equal, and everyone is worthy. Making a difference in the world is our purpose and our legacy. We want every kid to feel like a hero. To see themselves on the screen, in their toys and games. To feel like they belong and they matter, irrespective of the color of their skin.

Together with our teams, we are creating new plans and accelerating initiatives already in place. We first communicated our Diversity & Inclusion goals publicly in 2017, including a commitment to increasing our U.S. annual hiring rate for minorities to 40%, and to growing women in leadership across all business units globally to 50% by 2025. We will continue to be transparent about our actions, our progress and our challenges. We are committed to do better – and be better – for the next generation.

If you’re interested in learning more, we’ve included below a series of recent internal communications to our employees about our commitment and the actions we are taking to drive lasting, meaningful change toward a more inclusive and equitable society.

To:       Hasbro Global Employees
From:  Brian Goldner, CEO and Chairman
RE:       Town Hall Follow Up
Date:   June 22, 2020

For those of you who were unable to join the Global Town Hall today, I encourage you to watch the replay that is now available. To our moderator and to our panel, I want to personally thank you. It takes a great deal of courage to share your personal stories and experiences, and I was incredibly, profoundly inspired. Empathy – real empathy that inspires action – starts with listening and brave conversations like this one.

Knowing we did not get to all of your questions, and many of them have to do Hasbro’s response and commitment, we wanted to follow up with more details about some of the immediate actions we are taking. While we are still in the process of listening and learning, we’ve heard several themes that we can address now, including:

• Transparency & Accountability: We understand that you want to know more about our actions to date and plans moving forward. We updated our Diversity & Inclusion Intranet site with more details about our commitment, our D&I teams and committees, our progress to date, and ways that you can get involved. We will be continually updating this site to serve as a central source for information about D&I at Hasbro, and we have added a button to the home page of the Intranet so you can easily access it.
• Expanding & Empowering our Employee Networks: Our Employee Networks have been critical in driving our progress to date. As mentioned, we are in the process of expanding our networks and increasing their budgets so they can be even more impactful within our company and community. Our networks are open to all employees globally and across Hasbro, eOne and Wizards. Learn more on the Employee Networks Intranet site, and if you would like to join one of our networks, please sign up here.
• Integration: We are expanding and diversifying our Diversity & Inclusion Executive Steering Committee to include leaders from eOne to ensure we’re integrated and aligned on our approach and our investments, and to maximize our impact across the full organization. You can read more about our Executive Steering Committee here.
• Reviewing our Goals: We are in the process of reviewing our current minority and gender goals to understand if adjustments are necessary to accelerate our progress. We first reported our D&I goals publicly in 2017, and will continue to be transparent with our goals, both internally and externally.
• Recruitment & Hiring: Over the past few years, we’ve taken several steps to help build a stronger, more diverse pipeline and address unconscious bias in the hiring process. But we can do more, and you’ll be hearing much more about this. In the meantime, you can read more about our efforts and access resources for hiring managers here.
• Training: As previously mentioned, unconscious bias training is a priority across the combined global organization, and we are rolling out virtual sessions starting in July. We’ve also added resources to Degreed for employees who want to educate themselves, and for managers who want to host discussions with their teams on these important issues.
• Taking Action: We realize that many of you are looking for guidance on what you can do now to make a difference. Within the resources on the Intranet site and Degreed pathway, we have ideas for educating yourself, talking to your children, making donations, and other ideas for getting involved.
• Growth & Development: We are building consistency and rigor in our talent selection process and developing additional training and mentorship to aid your career development. Your growth and development are a priority, and we’ll be sharing much more about this over the next few months.
• Continuing the Conversation: We’ve held about 15 forums to date, in addition to today’s panel, and we’re working on a series of initiatives to continue this important conversation. We will be sharing more details soon about the format and how to participate, but in the meantime, please continue the dialogue on the One Voice Yammer channel.

We are continuing to listen, and we’re in the process of developing long-term, action-oriented plans across our total organization, our brands and our storytelling.

Everyone deserves dignity, fairness and respect. This is just the beginning.

Thank you,
Brian Goldner

To:        Hasbro Global Employees
From:   Brian Goldner, CEO and Chairman
RE:       Global Town Hall & Juneteenth Holiday
Date:   June 15, 2020

During the past three weeks, we've held more than a dozen forums to openly discuss issues of racial injustice and Hasbro's responsibility to drive change toward a more inclusive, just and fair company and society.

We've been incredibly moved and inspired by your willingness to share, ask questions, and listen and learn from your colleagues.

To further expand the reach of these discussions, we will be hosting a global town hall on June 22 featuring a panel of Hasbro, eOne and Wizards employees. We will be sending a meeting invite shortly with details for joining.

Additionally, as many of you know, this Friday, June 19, is Juneteenth, a day commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S. In conjunction with the panel on Monday and in honor of Juneteenth, we will be giving employees around the world Friday off for reflection and advocacy.

While we recognize that this is primarily a U.S. event to commemorate and celebrate Black history and culture, what we've heard from you in the forums and in our conversations is that racial injustice is very much a global issue, and thus felt it was important to extend this paid vacation day to all global employees. Moving forward, we will also be evaluating all paid holidays globally to ensure they remain aligned to our values and purpose.

Please also know that we will be sharing more details soon on some of the additional, immediate actions we are taking to address and build upon what we've heard from you in these conversations to date. This includes unconscious bias training, which is a priority across our combined organization. We will be adapting the training we started in 2019 for a virtual audience, and rolling this out globally starting in July.

We appreciate your continued engagement, and your eagerness to be part of the change.

Brian Goldner

To:        Hasbro Global Employees
From:   Brian Goldner, Deb Thomas, John Frascotti, Darren Throop and Dolph Johnson
RE:        Where We Go from Here
Date:    June 5, 2020

We want to close out this week – this incredibly challenging week – by saying thank you. We’ve had the privilege of hearing from so many of you about your experiences, your frustration and your desire to be part of the change. We couldn’t be more proud of the way this team has come together, engaged in meaningful dialogue, and pushed for action. This moment, this groundswell, will be a catalyst for lasting change across our company, and we will continue to encourage and foster dialogue to give you the opportunity to speak up and share your voice. While we’ve made strides, we have a lot of work to do as a company and as a society.

One immediate action that we are taking is to formally change our purpose to “Making the World a Better Place for All Children and All Families.” While this has always been the meaning behind our purpose, this is a time to be more overt in both our intentions and our actions.

We are also increasing funding for our Employee Resource Groups – Diversity, Women’s Leadership, PRIDE, Military Families and Career Parents – so they can expand globally, involve more employees across Hasbro, Wizards and eOne, and participate in more meaningful activities to drive change within our company and communities.

You will be hearing much more about additional actions we are taking, and we encourage you to watch the video for more about what’s happened this week, and where we go from here.

Thank you,
Brian, Deb, John, Darren & Dolph

Video Transcript:

Over the past several days, as we’ve been talking about racial injustice, we have also been listening and looking within ourselves and our organization critically and honestly.

And on behalf of our senior leadership team, we wanted to personally thank each of you who has shared, courageously, your experience and perspective, and your ideas for what we can do better.

It’s clear that while we’ve made a lot of great strides, especially during the past few years, we are not where we need to be. We can do better…and we WILL do better.

Our immediate response to the moment – the murder of George Floyd and the call for change that followed – was to donate, to speak out, and to support our employees. And while all of that’s very important, what really matters is where we go from here. It’s time for us with the privilege of power to reflect on how best to use this privilege to bring about a more just world. We truly want to do better, and we’re taking the time to get educated so that the actions we take are sustained actions that will create meaningful change.

At Hasbro, we’re in a very unique position to help shape minds and hearts from the earliest age. We have the privilege of being a part of childhood, fandom, and intergenerational play and entertainment, globally. With that privilege comes a responsibility to foster inclusion and to help teach the next generation that everyone is equal, and everyone is worthy. Making a difference in the world is our purpose and our legacy. We want every kid to feel like a hero. To see themselves on the screen, in their toys and games. To feel like they belong and they matter, irrespective of the color of their skin.

We are committing here to do better. From the composition of our leadership and workforce to the representation in our products, our packaging, our experiences, our marketing and our entertainment. We will do better. Together with our teams, we are creating plans and accelerating initiatives already in place - and we’ll be sharing updates on our plans, our progress and our challenges. And we will hold ourselves accountable and trust that you also will hold us accountable. If you’re not seeing the change, if there are things we can do better – please speak up. Tell us. Help us do better and be better for the next generation.

Through forums and team meetings and town halls, we’ve connected live with thousands of you this week. We’ve been moved by your passion, your courage, and your frustrations, and we’ve heard loud and clear that you all want to be part of this change. Every one of us has a role to play in ending racism, bigotry and injustice. And each of us can make a difference.

Thank you very much.

To:       Hasbro Global Employees
From:   Brian Goldner, CEO and Chairman
RE:       Speaking Out and Standing in Solidarity
Date:   June 2, 2020

As a follow up to our message on Monday, we wanted to share with you some of the immediate actions we are taking to  stand in solidarity with those fighting systemic racism against the Black community, and to support our employees and communities as we fight this injustice, together.

• We are participating in #BlackOutTuesday across all social media channels. No other posts will be made, and we encourage you to repost/share on your own channels. Many of our eOne Music, TV and Film team members, in solidarity with the entertainment industry, are pausing all operations today, and Dungeons & Dragons will not be presenting live stream broadcasting this week.
• Hasbro, eOne and Wizards of the Coast have made charitable donations to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, Black Girls Code, and the Equal Justice Initiative. We encourage those of you who can to support these organizations. U.S. employees can donate through payroll deduction on our Employee Giving  site. eOne and global employees can give directly through the organizations’ websites above.
• As referenced in Monday’s memo, we will be hosting forums for employees to share their experience and engage in dialogue to drive meaningful change. We are working closely with Diversity & Inclusion representatives from across all teams and will be kicking this off on June 3 with a conversation with John Frascotti. We will be scheduling additional forums throughout the summer to ensure all employees have an opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas with each other and senior leadership. We are also setting up a Yammer group for additional conversation.
• We are compiling resources on Degreed for those interested in educating yourself on the issues and ways to make a difference. We will also be including resources for managers, knowing you want to support your team members who are each working through this in their own way. You can also visit the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion website for educational materials and videos.
• Finally, we would like to offer time off to any employee who would like to volunteer or make their voice heard in their own community. There are ways to make progress, peacefully, and we encourage you to get involved.

EVERYONE deserves basic human rights, and we can do better. Let us stand together, make our voices heard, and continue to fight this injustice.

Brian Goldner

To:       Hasbro Global Employees
From:   Brian Goldner, CEO and Chairman
RE:       Coming Together
Date:   June 1, 2020

As you may remember, almost exactly one year ago, I took the pledge for CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, joining a coalition of companies vowing to cultivate a workplace where employees feel encouraged to discuss Diversity & Inclusion, and where diverse perspectives and experiences are welcomed and respected.

In light of that commitment, I feel it’s only right to address the horrific killing of George Floyd, and the pervasive racist events that continue to plague our society. I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge what you may be feeling, and re-affirm Hasbro’s zero tolerance policy for racism, bigotry and violence.

While we don’t have all the answers, I can assure you that we have never been more committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and using our brands, our entertainment and our influence to make a difference in this world, at a time that’s filled with tragedy, sorrow and pain.

We know that many of you have very personal and painful feelings about these issues, so we will be hosting a series of forums beginning this week for you to share your thoughts and experiences. This is a time that calls for action, and by encouraging dialogue, we hope to develop further understanding around these issues and join together to drive meaningful change.

Additionally, our eOne Music team, in solidarity with the entire music industry, is pausing all operations on Tuesday.

At Hasbro, our purpose is to Make the World a Better Place for Children and their Families. This means ALL children.  And ALL families.

Brian Goldner