Here's What We're Doing to Promote Diversity & Inclusion
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Early on, we all learn the Golden Rule: treat others as you want to be treated. More recently, someone came up with the Platinum Rule: treat others as they want to be treated.
The platinum version adds a little more thoughtfulness to the equation. I don’t bring my favorite cake to your birthday – I bring your favorite, right?
Now cake may be kind of a trivial example, but the same principle applies when you get into more serious matters. How do I treat my customers the way they want to be treated? How do I do the same for my co-workers?
Making sure we ask and answer those questions as a matter of course is why we’ve more formally embedded Diversity and Inclusion in our County culture. We’ve long been taking steps to improve aspects of diversity and inclusion. But a couple years ago we put together a task force to raise the profile for our whole organization and come up with a strategic plan.
They’ve just put out a Diversity & Inclusion Annual Report, summarizing our recent progress. I want to mention a few highlights, but also, like the report, start by recapping our goals.
We’re here to serve our customers – and they’re diverse. We’re better positioned to meet their needs when we have a workforce reflecting their diversity.
And when County employees are diverse, we need to make sure everyone feels welcomed by their colleagues. We want this to be a nice place to work! The more respected people feel on the job, the more motivated they’ll be to help our customers. It feeds back into our first goal in a positive cycle.
A diverse workforce also gives us a broader variety of perspectives and ideas. We need all the great ideas we can get! They’re what will keep us one of the most innovative agencies around. Diversity of thought is critical to making our organization operate at the highest level.
So here are a few things the team has done lately to reach those goals.
We’ve created over 100 D&I Champions, employees trained to spread the message of diversity and inclusion within their departments. Every County department has at least one.
More than 2,000 employees have received D&I presentations with an overview of the concepts and our strategic plan.
All new employees now get an extensive training in diversity and inclusion. From their first day forward, everyone who comes to work at the County has to know the importance we place on this.
Human Resources revamped its Embracing Diversity & Inclusion class and added a new class: Promoting an Inclusive Workplace.
One of the posters available to promote D&I at the County. The team developed a set of materials to help give the effort visibility: posters, lanyards and whatnot. They’re beautiful and great reminders to keep D&I at the front of everyone’s mind.
Nothing embodies the spirit of Diversity & Inclusion like the County’s employee resource groups. It wasn’t long ago that we had only a couple. Earlier this spring, our tenth came on board. They are incredibly active, holding everything from cultural events to professional workshops to social get-togethers. Remember that any employee can join any ERG or any of their events.
The newest ERG, DiverseAbility, was created to advance awareness and promote inclusion for people with disabilities. About the same time the group launched, Employee Wellness held its annual Amazing Race, with the addition this year of a course for disabled employees. That’s a great example of inclusion!
As the D&I team guides us forward, I want to make an important point. This is not an “initiative.” D&I is a mindset and way of doing things that enhances all our operations at the County.
When we talk about providing a positive customer experience, D&I makes us think: Am I really considering all my customers? Am I giving them all what they need?
Diversity & Inclusion is closely tied to Live Well Communities, our focus on neighborhoods that have the furthest to go in reaching our vision of a healthy, safe and thriving region.
And D&I reinforces our concept of One County, the way we work across bureaucratic lines to get things done. It’s all about bringing people together and teamwork.
I hope you’ll take a look at the annual report and visit the D&I website for more info, including the strategic plan.
And I hope that you – yes, you, reading this now – know that I personally value what you bring to our diversity mosaic, and I want you to always feel the spirit of inclusion here at the County.
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