Earlier this year, SkyWater Search Partners was invited to join the Ramsey County Inclusive Workplaces Cohort. The group had its third monthly meeting in December 2021. We would love to share what we have learned and continue the discussion.
December Discussion and Take-Aways
This month's meeting, titled "examining where you are and determining where you want to be," entered the. beginning stages of measuring the efforts our companies make towards workplace inclusivity. Together we explored:
- What to measure
- What to do with the data we gather
- Setting goals for our data
What should we measure?
In order to measure how inclusive your workspace is, consider looking at the following:
- The hiring of diverse candidates.
- The diversity of the leadership team.
- The payscale and economics of white vs. non-white employees.
- The satisfaction of the employee pool, white vs. non-white.
- The diversity that is represented within vendor relationships.
- Philanthropic activity.
What do we do with our Data?
Ask "why?" Why are your findings satisfactory? Why are they lacking? Are you looking in the right places for candidates? Is there the right representation in your leadership team? Why or why not? Perhaps some practices within your organization attract a certain type of candidate yet deter others who would be very valuable additions to your company. There's no clear answer on what each company should do after looking at some of the suggested above areas, but likely the next step is asking the question of "why," and going from there.
What should our Goals be?
Some goals are easier to set than others. Choosing a percentage of profit to dedicate to philanthropic activity might be easier than setting a goal for representation in your leadership team. Reviewing our current vendors and business partners was an exercise that we did within SkyWater. We are more intentional about including minority-owned businesses in our vendor and supplier searches. Certainly finding a way to capture employee feedback and taking the results seriously is a must in any organization. If you're not sure where to start with employee surveys or feel it's time to refresh your current process, check out our Better Employee Engagement Starts With A Better Survey article.
After considering the initial areas we can be studying as an organization, we feel like we have been on the right track with about half of the list, but that we have some work to do in others. This cohort continues to be full of great discussion and seeds for a better more inclusive workforce.
What is the Inclusive Workplaces Cohort?
The goal of the cohort is to accelerate employers’ ability to advance racial equity and inclusion within their organizations and to support businesses that aim to leverage and sustain a more inclusive and sustainable workforce. Approximately 20 employers were be selected to participate and influence their organization’s hiring strategies and efforts. The Center for Economic Inclusion leads each discussion by creating a learning environment that fosters the discussion and sharing of ideas while encouraging accountability through safe and brave spaces for confidentiality.
Upcoming Session Topics
We're very excited for our next meeting on December 9, where the topic is "creating an inclusive workplace culture." We'll be posting a blog after each Cohort session so please subscribe to this blog and join the conversation.
Here is the posted schedule through August 2022:
*Another study showed that 24% of black homes are owned, however, we had some trouble finding a link to the source of that statistic. In either case, the racial wealth gap is prevalent in homeownership statistics.
