The Rider Firm: Our Stance on Social Justice, Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity
The Rider Firm is committed to promoting diversity, inclusion, justice and equity within our organisation and throughout the larger cycling community. We see it as our responsibility to proactively support the fight against racism and discrimination in all forms.
We are investing time, thought and resources to help make the community that we love more inviting, accessible, and inclusive for all riders, regardless of background, sexual orientation, race, colour, national origin, ethnicity, age, ability, gender, or gender identity. We humbly acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers. We’ll make mistakes and missteps in this process, but are committed to listening, learning, and making progress.
In an effort to provide transparency and accountability to our customers, we’ve outlined some of the actions we’ve taken thus far, and our planned actions for the future of this company.
Actions Taken
We have established a working group within The Rider Firm, which meets regularly to discuss ways our company can make internal and external progress.
We have committed to ongoing diversity, equity, inclusion unconscious bias training for all team members.
We continually evaluate and update our hiring practices to reach candidates from more diverse backgrounds and remove barriers from the application and recruitment process in order to promote a more diverse workforce within The Rider Firm. These updates include:
- Evaluating our job descriptions for inclusivity, bias, and unnecessary barriers
- Posting roles to job boards that reach diverse audiences, such as the Grow Cycling Foundation
- Reimbursing candidates for expenses incurred while pursuing roles within The Rider Firm
We have established The Rider Firm Social Injustice fund, which currently commits £48,000 ($65,000) per year to non-profit organizations that promote and fight for social justice, human rights, civil rights, and address other important issues such as mental health, food insecurity, support for the unhoused, and women’s rights. To see a complete list of organisations we’ve donated to, please view our partnerships below.
We are increasingly considering representation in our marketing materials and communications to be sure that we’re promoting the idea that riding is for everyone.
Actions In-progress
We are actively pursuing channels to establish internship and career opportunities within our beloved industry that remove barriers for candidates of diverse backgrounds
We are working to achieve gender parity across our roster of supported and sponsored athletes, while also recognizing and supporting non-binary and transgender riders. We have a lot of work to do on this front, but are committed to making progress. See our current roster of supported riders here.
Our Ambitions
The Rider Firm has the goal of establishing programs and scholarships to encourage new riders in the sport of cycling, regardless of age, colour, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression.
The Rider Firm has identified the need to add diverse perspectives to our leadership team.
The Rider Firm is committed to diversifying our workforce, and making a positive impact in helping to diversify the sport and industry of cycling.