Purposeful Partnerships: How Empower Work and Pinterest are working together to improve wellbeing at work
By: Jaime-Alexis Fowler
We believe everyone can thrive at work. To achieve that vision takes partnership on many levels. We’re grateful to Pinterest’s commitment and generosity of a recent significant grant in support of our mission to create healthier, more equitable workplaces for all, especially at this moment when the need is so great.
Work is core to our wellbeing emotionally and financially. Unfortunately, for millions of Americans, particularly vulnerable workers, wellbeing at work is not a reality. And it’s contributing to growing inequality.
At Empower Work, we’re changing that. Through our text line that provides confidential, immediate support for workers who are struggling, we help people thrive, particularly historically marginalized workers and those working in smaller, less resourced workplaces and communities. We ensure that people have the support, information, and resources to navigate complex work challenges via technology and human connection.
We’ve set ambitious goals to radically reimagine what healthy, equitable workplaces look like in the coming years, learning from what workers share are their needs and goals with us.
I sat down with Kathy Gu, Purpose Partnerships Lead at Pinterest, to discuss our new partnership and our shared commitment to supporting worker wellbeing.
Here are highlights from our conversation:
Pinterest believes that emotional wellbeing is key to unlocking inspiration for people to create a life that they love. Can you tell us more about how the platform supports this mission?
Pinterest’s focus on emotional wellbeing is a natural extension of our mission to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love. Pinterest has deliberately designed a more inspiring place online through its policies and product while centering emotional wellbeing.
We’ve banned weight loss ads and built-in compassionate search, which offers a collection of activities to help Pinners safely access supportive resources if they are feeling stressed, anxious, sad, or trying to manage difficult emotions. We’ve also launched inclusive products, including our hair pattern search tool and skin tone ranges feature.
And we’ve developed a Creator Code - a commitment to kindness that all our creators sign to educate and build a safe online community that centers on inclusive and compassionate content.
Our commitment to mental health and emotional wellbeing extends beyond our platform too. We have invested more than $6M to date in our Purpose Partners, including our new partnership with Empower Work that we’re excited about. We continue to broaden our support beyond funding and identify new partners that are advancing emotional wellbeing in thoughtful and creative ways.
In 2021, Pinterest made a commitment to fund organizations that are focused on increasing the awareness of mental health challenges and fighting against racial inequities. At Empower Work, we support workers every day who are struggling with their overall wellbeing due to systemic inequities and serious challenges at work. Given this, what are you most excited about the impact that Pinterest and Empower Work can make together?
Pinterest’s work around emotional well being has three focus areas: Raising Awareness, Reducing Stigma, and Advancing Innovation. Empower Work’s priorities of reaching BIPOC, women, LGBTQ+, and other vulnerable workers aligns with our focus area of Reducing Stigma.
We’re thrilled to be part of moving forward Empower Work’s ambitious goal of reaching 3 million workers in the next five years. Tech has the power to not only help organizations like Empower Work reach scale, but it can also surface learnings and trends. I’m most excited about the tech and data project that Pinterest is supporting at Empower Work. This project will enable Empower Work to streamline data analysis to surface trends, enabling important proximate insights for communities and partners as well as insights around how to improve resources and connection. An improved data structure will also facilitate more specific follow-ups with users, resulting in better support services. I believe that this project will not only help drive growth in the number of workers reached, but also result in better quality support as well as insights that could potentially be leveraged by others who work in the mental health space.
There has been so much talk about the myriad of ways in which the pandemic has changed how people behave and what people are now prioritizing in both their personal and professional lives. At Empower Work, we have seen a noticeable increase in requests for emotional and mental health support. For Pinterest, how has the pandemic changed what people pin and how they interact with the platform?
Data shows us that Pinners are increasingly coming to Pinterest looking for inspiration and for ways to relieve stress and anxiety. In fact, searches related to stress and improving mental health started to rise during the pandemic and have continued to grow throughout the past year.
People are turning to Pinterest to find encouragement and to discover wellbeing techniques. Searches for “how to improve mental health”, “stress quote” and “mindful living“ doubled during mid-February to mid-March compared to the year prior.
We also answered Pinners’ desire for more content about mental health and emotional wellbeing. Throughout Mental Health Awareness Month, we elevated the content from a range of creators and world renowned experts on Pinterest surfaces and on our Mind Your Wellness group board. More recently, we hosted a live Pinterest TV series with Dr. Marc Brackett of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. We have been working closely with our Purpose Partners and hope to see more of their expert content on Pinterest as well. We believe there’s even more we can do to infuse emotional wellbeing into our platform, and I’m grateful to have passionate colleagues actively working on bringing that to life.
What gives you hope and inspiration for a future where all people - regardless of gender identity, race, or socioeconomic background - are able to thrive in healthy, safe, and equitable workplaces?
The work that all our Purpose Partners are doing gives me great hope and inspiration. That includes, of course, Empower Work. To see the impact that Empower Work is already having - that over 91% of people who use the text line report improved mental health - shows the power of innovation and thinking about new modes and ways to support people. It’s wonderful to know that with our support, that impact will continue to expand.
I also had the chance to attend the Mental Health Youth Action Forum in Washington, DC. Pinterest served as an industry partner for this event and we continue to work with the Forum fellows. I was incredibly moved by the diversity of the youth fellows and impressed by their creativity and commitment. They have a remarkable ability to connect with their peers. These young people will make up more and more of our workplaces. And if these fellows are a reflection of our future workforce, we are moving in a positive direction.
