The Do’s of DEI Strategies

Pam Sornson, JD on December 13, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

December 13,2021

Perhaps the biggest ‘don’t do’ activity to avoid including in a robust DEI strategy is ‘everything that’s been done before.’ Despite decades of ‘awareness building’ of the realities and consequences of unfair workplace practices, the needle has barely budged toward true enlightenment or improvement. That reality suggests that what’s been done before hasn’t worked and that the challenge of righting those wrongs now requires a different focus with an enhanced perspective.

Recent socially fraught events only magnify the need for change, and it is heartening to note that many companies are electing to rise to the challenge. Gartner reports that the number of organizations now prioritizing DEI projects has almost doubled since 2019. Just the added attention augers well for the cause, but in order for the effort to actually achieve improvements in DEI numbers, leaders must also be aware of what systems and strategies actually work to achieve those ends. Fortunately, there are both entities and experts who’ve done the digging and are offering insights into what to do to build a truly diverse, inclusive, and successful enterprise.

 

The Big To-Do’s

 

1. Start Talking About Diversity & Inclusion

Having a ‘diverse’ workforce means that employees come from different backgrounds, with different cultural nuances and individual experiences that influence their perspectives. It is inevitable that clashes between ideals, ideas, and individuals will occur, often because those involved aren’t aware of the distinctions that divide them. An appropriate response to these dilemmas is to start talking about where the communication disconnect is happening and clarifying what everyone needs to know to find common ground.

Discussions about aspects of the DEI conundrum – skin color, cultural heritage, gender identities, etc. – can be challenging to start but will be integral to the success of the DEI strategy. These types of conversations are also often the strongest indicator of a healthy and diverse company. Organizations where DEI chats are common and encouraged often have happier workers who appreciate the open and respectful culture.

 

2. Start Talking About Social Identity

One facet of the DEI spectrum that is not well understood is that of ‘social identity,’ the encompassed truth of each person, including race, ethnicity, religion, gender, socio-economic status, and other differentiators. Often hidden behind one primary distinction, skin color or gender identity as examples, the myriad of elements that make up each individual are also those that often hold the most emotional value to them. Corporations that invest in understanding the depth and breadth of the social identities embedded in their workforce gain insights that can guide the development of strategies that address and support those nuances.

Making this project element a little more difficult is the fact that, often, people don’t recognize or understand their own ‘social identity.’ In these cases and to ensure that all workers’ needs are addressed, it becomes significant for the organization to pursue two angles when examining ‘social identity’:

Firstly, raise awareness of the phenomenon itself and explore how it affects each employee. Those workers in a dominant class, for example, may be unaware of how their ingrained attitudes skew their perceptions of their colleagues.

Next, raise awareness of the organization’s determination to provide supports for every worker as those respond to the individual’s personal ‘social identity.’ In many cases, this determination may require financial investments to generate supports that reflect the full strata of their diverse employee roster.

Both the civil rights issues that have flared up over the past two years and the COVID-19 pandemic have laid bare many of the fallacies that underpin today’s work world. Examining those falsehoods reveals that much of today’s social and industrial infrastructure is designed to meet the needs of only a few small but highly entitled populations. In the work world of the future – and today is the future – every organization must address the ‘social identity’ needs of every varied, distinct, and diverse population if an enterprise intends to succeed in the post-COVID economy.

 

 

3. Launch a Coaching Culture

As with any new endeavor, a little coaching can go a long way to ensure success, and coaching through a DEI lens can speed the revelation and elimination of both known and hidden biases. Some organizations develop a team of DEI champions to address DEI concerns as they emerge across corporate sectors. These ‘equity anchors‘ perform many tasks, from identifying and resolving DEI challenges to designing appropriate channels for communications and improvements.

An enlightened management team, in particular, is critical to a full implementation of the DEI strategy. A well-trained management staff keeps their doors and ears open to concerns, offers feedback when necessary, and can assist with designing responsive changes.

A team of dedicated mentors can also be helpful. These specially trained professionals can provide deeper insights into challenges and look ‘beyond the box’ for truly adaptive solutions. They can also contribute to strategy development and implementation.

High-level sponsors will also add heft to the significance of the DEI initiative. Companies signal to their workforce and community their support for and investment in a diverse and inclusive culture when they designate a trained and appropriate C-Suite member to sponsor and oversee the DEI overhaul.

Developing an enterprise-wide DEI team builds DEI awareness and competency into the foundational fabric of the organization. That effort will result in a happier, better-engaged workforce and attract a broader, more diverse consumer base.

 

The impetus to explore and expand a DEI strategy is growing in importance in companies based around the globe. As of mid-2021, more than 1,600 CEOs committed to following through on the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion Pledge. The number of companies that addressed DEI initiatives in their earnings calls rose from 4% in Q1 2019 to 40% in Q1 2022. Those organizations will almost certainly see higher levels of profit and productivity when they allow their workers’ needs to set their DEI tone and then follow through with efforts to make their organization more fair, safe, and inclusive for their entire workforce.

 

The Don’ts of DEI Strategies

Pam Sornson, JD on December 13, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

December 13, 2021

Recent editions of the Pulse have discussed several facets of thought around ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI), following Pasadena City College’s 3rd annual Future of Work conference (FOW), presented by the Economic and Workforce Development department (EWD) on November 12th (watch the replay). The conference’s title was ‘Advancing Equity Beyond the Benchmark,’ which asserts its theme: it requires action and intention to address and reverse the unfairness of racial, gender, or other types of discrimination. The keynote speaker and panelists shared their experiences with DEI situations and their strategies for addressing the inequities they find in their current professional roles. Fundamentally, the event added depth and nuance to the DEI conversation, helping listeners to understand better the differences between ‘equity’ and ‘equality,’ the high value of ‘equity anchors,’ and the barriers to equity that are embedded in today’s social and industrial structures. 

 

The DEI Strategy: What Not to Do

The FOW conference offered attendees ideas on how to address the DEI concerns arising within their enterprise and urged them to develop a remediation strategy that encompasses their entire organization. What wasn’t discussed (due to time constraints) was what not to do. Without careful analysis and design, seemingly minor errors or missteps in one aspect of the strategy can create the potential to offset or sideline the DEI implementation project altogether. Understanding the missteps experienced by other entities can help leaders avoid making those mistakes as they advance their own organization’s DEI strategy.  

 

Don’t Start at the Bottom

A truly diverse organization maintains a culture of inclusion as its usual way of doing business and has instituted policies to ensure that inclusion is imbued in every corporate element. Leadership at all levels is responsible for building that culture and enforcing policies to ensure its continuation. To achieve leadership awareness and engagement in the DEI strategy, organizations should focus on embedding three fundamental expectations into their leadership development processes:

Leaders must espouse dedication to DEI principles as their obligation within the company’s formal leadership strategy. A DEI-informed approach will ensure that both newly onboarded and long-time experienced managers receive the training they need to maintain DEI activities as innate to doing business. 

Leaders must also adhere to DEI practices at all levels of the enterprise. Companies may have to revise their existing practices to incorporate DEI-sensitive changes and then retrain current leadership  – from the warehouse to the board room – and staff to ensure they understand and will adhere to the new way of working. Ongoing training may also be needed until the entire organization automatically works within the DEI framework as a standard matter of course.  

Leaders must also be held accountable for their activities. The corporation should develop systems to ensure all management understands the need for DEI behaviors and can comply and follow through with those policies. Failure to do so should trigger retraining at the least and more dire consequences in worst-case scenarios. 

 

Don’t change people: Change the organization

It’s not enough to assign an equity anchor and then leave the work of generating an equitable corporate culture up to that individual alone. In any enterprise with more than just a few employees, there will be a myriad of opinions, biases, and prejudices that will each require individual attention to come into compliance with newly released DEI policies. Full acceptance of the changes is also threatened when that anchor is a part of a dominant group or someone who holds power over staff. ‘Changed behaviors’ may be for show only and not demonstrative of the worker’s actual beliefs. 

Instead, develop a system that tracks equity standards throughout the employee experience, from hiring, through promotions, and all the way to retirement or off-boarding. Changing existing systems to incorporate DEI and equity practices through all employment levels ensures that all corporate activities will reflect that cultural component.    

 

Don’t just talk: Action is required

While awareness of DEI concerns is critical, action that addresses those concerns is mandatory if the long-term objective is to build an inclusive, diverse, and productive company. Attaining awareness requires inquiry into how the organization is currently functioning, and data gathering to reveal where inequities exist and the negative impacts they generate. Leaders can use the data to design responsive actions within the DEI strategy. Activities should also include data gathering to track the sufficiency/efficacy of the strategy itself. Developing a genuinely diverse enterprise is an active process, not a single event.  

 

Don’t Miscommunicate 

Building a fully embraced DEI framework requires the buy-in of all workers, including leaders, which escalates the importance of sharing information across the enterprise. Recent research reveals, however, that a thorough communication of corporate intentions and actions is rarely achieved. Lever, a staffing and recruiting company, interviewed more than 1,000 workers and 500+ leaders to see how successful their organizations had been with their DEI initiatives. The results of the survey were not promising:

While almost all leaders (97%) announced they had launched new inclusion measures into their organization, only a quarter of the workers (24%) reported knowing of them. 

While 52% of the corporate leadership spoke of their ‘equal pay’ initiatives, only 24% of the employees noted that they’d experienced that occurrence at their office.

And while 27% of leaders reported expanded benefits and perks based on DEI principles, only 9% of workers reported having those made available to them at their place of employment. 

The disconnect between what leadership is doing and what workers are experiencing is significant: workers who aren’t informed about their employer’s DEI efforts can’t actively engage in those new systems nor experience the benefits they are designed to confer. And without that worker buy-in, the corporation itself can’t claim itself to be genuinely DEI informed and aware. The lesson here is that comprehensive and repeated internal communications with all employees about DEI efforts, successes, and challenges are crucial to building a fully integrated, fair, and equitable enterprise.    

 

Knowing what not to do is often as important as knowing what should be done in any given situation. As the PCC’s FoW conference participants noted, equity and equality are becoming ever more important to a company’s success. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly critical to avoid missteps that will that impede progress when developing a DEI strategy.  

DEI Initiatives Reverse Designed Discrimination

Pam Sornson, JD on December 2, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

December 2, 2021

The world is changing, as is the way it works. Global competition has escalated the demand to do more with less while at the same time offering enhanced value at a reduced cost. In too many cases, workers are forced to shoulder the losses caused by the pursuit of these corporate goals, and workers from suppressed communities are carrying the heaviest load. And while individual corporations are reaping the benefits that flow from increased profits and reduced worker compensation, as a whole, society is suffering as communities struggle to provide supports for people who don’t earn enough to support themselves.

The reality is that today’s inherent inequities are the result of decades of intentional policy-making and practices. ‘Leaders’ have made choices that were designed to marginalize some community members while enriching others. Reversing the course of this overwhelming tide requires comprehension of the facts, a commitment to changing the status quo, and a strategy that addresses the old while building the new.

 

Discrimination by the Numbers

The past 40 years have recorded the widening of a distinct division between society’s ‘have’s’ and ‘have-nots’:

Prior to 1980, median worker wages rose as productivity rose, as accepted social and corporate policies rewarded those who actually produced the relevant values.

Since then, however, those measures have diverged due to changing attitudes and behaviors in both the C-Suite and the government. By 2019, while net corporate productivity rose by almost 60% (59.7%), the typical worker’s wages grew by only 15.8%.

Instead, the funds that the workers did not receive were diverted to corporate owners and shareholders. Through changes in both corporate and government policies, the economic growth generated by workforce labor was funneled into the accounts of the country’s top 10% wealthiest people; the country’s top 1% experienced a 160% compensation growth over the course of those decades.

For workers to gain a comparable increase to their compensation, wages would have to rise by $9.00 more per hour across all wage brackets.

Without intentional interventions into the systems that perpetuate these inequities, they are bound to continue into the future and will continue to hamper real economic growth for all.

 

Discrimination by Design

This shift in the allocation of profits from workers to owners results from intentional policy setting and practice. Around the globe, policies set by governments and governing bodies have eroded the opportunity for the world’s workers to earn a decent living and intentionally suppressed their opportunity to thrive beyond that simple standard.

Policies

The globalization of both organizations and industries undercut wages across the enterprise while prioritizing profits for upper-level management and leadership. At the same time, outsourcing production activities to reduce costs, intentional industrial deregulation to mitigate production costs, and prohibiting collective bargaining practices shifted both control and wealth from the workers to the owners. The erosion of worker labor standards also contributed to the problem, facilitating the organizations’ opportunity to push more burden on its workers without increasing their wages to compensate them for the added responsibility.

The combination of these factors has facilitated an unfair advantage to those in power, who also secured their status by building and reinforcing the social structures that perpetuate their controls.

Problems

The reduced volume of available resources causes friction and distrust among those groups at the bottom of the economic strata: women in general, people of color, and the differently-abled or oriented. Too often, the growth experienced by any individual group can cause (or feel like it causes) even more loss to another.

And recent data indicates that those struggles for resources are pervasive across the country. In its analysis of 2020 census data, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that three critical ‘hardships’ remain constant even after the dispersal of federal funds to alleviate the stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic:

Food Stability

Insufficient food supply continues to hamper the lives of 20 million adults, almost 10% of the country’s population, and 8% of its households without children. In homes with children, 12% of parents reported not having enough food. In addition, blacks, Latinos, and Indigenous people are much more likely to suffer food instability than white people.

Unstable Housing

Race also skews the results of the 12 million Americans who have not or can not catch up on their back-due rent, caused by unemployment created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey showed that 28% of all Black renters, 18% of Latinos, and 20% of Asians were behind on rent in 2021, compared to 12% of white renters. Making matters worse, a recent Supreme Court decision ended the COVID-19-imposed eviction moratorium, which now threatens these non-white renters with homelessness if/when they cannot make up those past-due obligations.

Unmet Financial Needs

Even those who aren’t facing food or housing crises still face challenges covering basic household expense costs. In summer 2020, almost one-third of all American adults (29% = 63 million) reported they had insufficient funds to cover all of their household expenses, including food, rent, medical bills, car payments, etc. That number fell as the federal government pumped stimulus checks into the economy but rose again as that funding stopped. Again, black and Latino households were more affected than whites (44%, 38%, and 23%, respectively). Also worse: 36% of families with children were suffering these financial hardships, a circumstance that is known to impact a child’s long-term health and education capacity.

The data show that these hardships were persistent prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and remain significant as that phenomenon rolls on, despite immense financial inputs from federal coffers.

 

Recovery from Discrimination

The societal destruction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the fundamental unfairness embedded within today’s social, commercial, and industrial strata. Some experts are suggesting that long-standing policies and practices designed to reward the white, male upper-class at the expense of other social sectors, have created an equally destructive ‘inequality pandemic’ that threatens the future just as surely as does the coronavirus. As the world struggles to find a path to recovery, it will have to face and address the challenges posed by both of these tragedies to achieve its fullest measure of success.

 

 

Reversing Bias from the Top Down

Pam Sornson, JD on December 2, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

December 2, 2021

The biggest challenge to reversing implicit bias is recognizing that it exists. The prevalence of prejudice at all levels of society continues because it has been ‘normalized’ as ‘accepted practice,’ making it effectively invisible and therefore exceedingly hard to identify. Reversing these inherently biased ‘accepted practices’ is difficult because they are often embedded in the highest level of social policies. Reducing and eventually eliminating their corrosive impacts requires intentional focus and action, and that action requires a strategy that addresses both their causes and their damages.

 

Taking the Lead to Reduce Embedded Discrimination

At the recent 3rd Annual Future of Work Conference, hosted by the Economic and Workforce Development department (EWD) of Pasadena City College (PCC), each of the four guest speakers addressed the biases they had experienced and addressed in their individual lives and careers. These DEI leaders are now leaders in their industry and will use their aggregate wisdom in their roles as DEI ‘equity anchors‘ to their individual organizations.

 

In the Legal Field

From a legal perspective, changes are needed across all social sectors to right the inequity wrongs of the past century:

These days, Black Americans are incarcerated at five times the rate of whites.

Hispanic workers make up 75% of the country’s agricultural labor force. Almost three-quarters of those (70%) of those are undocumented and therefore have no rights even though their efforts contribute $9 billion to the annual economy.

On average, women are paid just $.84 for every $1.00 earned by a man.

These realities persist because existing policies and practices support their inequitable impact.

As an attorney, speaker Silvia Torres-Guillen has made it her life’s work to push through these policies and find justice for people impacted by biased systems. She’s addressed inequity and inequality in her roles as California Director of Education Equity for the ACLU and as General Counsel for the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board. During the FOW conference, Torres-Guillen noted that true change comes when advocates are thoroughly informed about their constituents’ actual circumstances. Deep research is necessary to uncover hidden causes of bias and the often invisible damages those inflict.

 

In Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic and emerging technologies are up-ending industrial processes in all sectors. Those circumstances also raise awareness of the inherent prejudices that inhibit personal, industrial, and economic growth. That awareness is leading to new ways of thinking about how the diversity of people provides value to society and opens the doors to bring in the fresh perspectives of those who’ve previously been ignored.

For Albertsons Companies, a national conglomerate of 20 different food industry enterprises, Chief DEI Officer Jonathon Mayes leads the charge to ensure the organization’s workforce resembles the social, ethnic, and diverse cultures of its millions of customers. During the FOW conference, Mayes discussed his role as an ‘equity anchor’ and how he screens for biases at all levels of the enterprise. One of his higher-profile projects now is to rethink how the company measures ‘productivity.’ Too many workers have obligations beyond their jobs that impede their capacity to bring their best effort within traditional ’employment practices.’ Instead, notes Mayes, facilitating workplace flexibility to measure productivity as it relates to individual worker parameters results in both a happier employee and a reduction in staff turnover.

 

In Government

Utilities

Equal access to reliable utility services is presumed to be a given in the United States. However, in many locations, minority communities struggle to maintain what services are made available and are often the first to lose utility services when disasters strike. In some cases, those service lapses aren’t addressed simply because no one in charge is looking for them or at them. One of the reasons for this potentially ‘willful blindness; on behalf of service providers is utility companies rarely collect data that would reveal the concern. Economically, that gap compels minority communities to pay a disproportionate share of their income to maintain their heat, light, and water services while also suffering higher levels of disconnections than their white neighbors.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LA DWP) has hired FOW speaker Monique Earl as its first-ever Chief DEI Officer to overhaul internal policies and practices that embed inequities in the organization and also to improve the agency’s capacity to better serve local communities with the highest needs. Earl’s 20 years of service in LA’s Department of Transportation, as Deputy Chief Controller, and as Deputy Mayor of Budget and Financial Policy have given her unique tools to tackle the work.

Earl’s appointment comes as the Agency unveils its new and comprehensive Racial Equity Action Plan. The Plan will both enhance career opportunities for historically disadvantaged communities within the organization and ensure that all LA residents, regardless of their ‘other’ status, benefit from the city’s conversion to 100% renewable energy. One of her first projects is to collect data related to how job postings unfairly limit employment access by inflating educational requirements in a job that doesn’t need that level of training. Clearly, the utility company means business: Earl is starting with a staff of 111 workers who will raise and review equity concerns in its HR department, supply chains, vendor contracts, and more.

Transportation

Cities rely on transportation systems to move both human and commercial resources; when those systems are designed to divide communities into ‘haves’ and ‘have nots,’ they inherently impede the full growth potential of the underserved neighborhoods. Such is the case with many road systems in the U.S. that were intentionally built to be a physical barrier between wealthy and less wealthy districts. In many cases, those roads and railroads were built right through the middle of neighborhoods settled by ethnic cultures, primarily Blacks and Hispanics. Often, the impacted population simply didn’t have the economic clout or voice to prevent the destruction of its community.

As Senior Director of LA Metro’s Office of Equity and Race (OER), FOW speaker Naomi Iwasaki and her colleagues will implement the agency’s Equity Platform, which seeks to reduce housing, job, health, and safety inequities through improved transportation systems. The work will measure how public transportation systems impact communities, education, and economic growth and use the data to inform future transportation planning.

Long an advocate for the underserved, Iwasaki has advised LA leadership on neighborhood services, bicycle programs, and affordable housing. She notes that the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted minorities, who either lost transportation altogether or were forced to risk their health to get around town. She is particularly interested in ensuring that all LA Metro constituents have a voice in the agency’s evolution.

 

It is essential to do more than just understand how the corrosive impact of bias and prejudice erodes social, community, and economic foundations. Leaders must also look at where those prejudices originate and develop strategies that both dismantle the unfair systems address the damages those have already caused. Organizations must also hire DEI professionals to both ferret out inequities and also replace those elements with strategies that address injustices and inequalities. These organizations are demonstrating leadership by facing inequity head-on and pivoting their resources to reduce its impact. The ‘equity anchor’ leaders they’ve chosen to pursue the task are exemplary role models for the rest of the community.

 

Dr. Vijay Pendakur: Key Notes from the Keynote

Pam Sornson, JD on November 11, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

Working. Workers. Workplace. According to Pasadena City College’s (PCC) President/Superintendent Dr. Erika Endrijonas, these three occupational tenets comprise one of the college’s two primary missions: developing a workforce that can respond to the evolving contours of today’s tumultuous economic climate. Adding complexity to the process is the growing demand for a more equitable and fair employment experience. The concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are becoming more critical for achieving corporate success, so companies are looking to improve their DEI metrics as a means of maintaining competitiveness.

California’s community colleges are working to meet these sweeping evolutions by revising existing systems to meet emerging needs. One way to learn about those needs (and potential responses) is to talk about them, which the hosts and guest speakers were doing at PCC’s third annual Future of Work conference, held virtually Tuesday, November 9th. (Listen to the replay here.) For attendees, the morning was filled with information and insights about how DEI leaders have approached these issues in the past, and ideas about how to view and address them in the future.

 

Starting the conversation was keynote speaker Dr. Vijay Pendakur, Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer and Global HR Leader for Zynga. This digital gaming company produces numerous globally popular social games such as ‘Words with Friends.’

Insights Inform Actions

Having twenty years of experience studying and working on DEI issues in the higher education sector, Dr. Pendakur shared his perceptions of today’s contorted workplace and how it poses both challenges and benefits to today’s workers. (He also spoke with PCC’s EWD – hear that chat here.)

On the positive side, pressure to provide more flexibility in the employment environment was rising even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The past decade’s explosion of devices and programming has decimated the concept of the old-style ‘office,’ and more workers than ever were working remotely without losing productivity.

The COVID crisis only enhanced this phenomenon, launching millions of employees into a fully remote work situation. Companies that had the resources were able to acquiesce to the shift, and it seems that both employers and employees are enjoying the opportunity to find a better balance between work and home/community.

Now, workers in one geographical area can work in another, which disperses talent across a wider swath of industry.

In addition, ‘hybrid’ working conditions, where workers split their time between their home and employer’s offices, are becoming ubiquitous, too, providing precisely the fluid work environment that many workers need. (Hybrid work situations generate their own concerns, however. See below … .)

On the negative side, Dr. Pendakur recognizes that much of the same technology that facilitates remote working is also eliminating many jobs altogether as companies engage robots to perform the routine tasks formerly done by humans. Moreover, because so much of that tech is new and emerging, people simply don’t know if their jobs are about to become obsolete, nor do they know what they’d do without them.

Pendakur used the acronym “VUCA” to describe how all these factors impact today’s work environments: they are increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, creating fear and tension for both employers and employees. The situation makes it even more difficult for systems to address DEI initiatives while contemplating responsive activities.

 

Assess Before Starting

Fortunately, Pendakur also offers a theory that facilitates appropriate evaluation of the evolving work world and strategies to use to implement needed changes. He suggests leaders look at the impacts of three fundamental realities emerging in today’s workforce sector, and consider how managing them will affect the organization as a whole:

1. The phenomenon of Skill Extinction

‘Skill extinction’ occurs when the nature of work changes and prior skills are no longer relevant. Workers whose jobs are overtaken by technology or other workplace evolutions often find their skills no longer meet the needs of any employer. One study suggests that up to 20 million jobs (and their requisite skills) will be obsolete by 2030.

Pendakur urges employers to encourage their workforce to develop ‘learning agility’ while on the job. Essentially, providing employees with opportunities to develop new job skills and abilities within their current occupation reduces their risk of becoming obsolete. It also reduces employee turnover, making the policy a win-win for the company.

2. The Hybrid Worker phenomenon

While a hybrid work arrangement offers many pluses, management must also address several drawbacks:

People who work both from home and at an office must manage inconsistent work conditions. The home office situation may be impacted by family needs, technological challenges, and even security concerns that are not evident to most employers.

‘Work from Home’ (WFH) employees also miss out on those informal ‘water cooler’ chats where ‘aha!’ moments frequently happen. Pendakur refers to this as a ‘loss of serendipity.’

WFH talent is also often invisible to on-site managers, who may lose track of their effort and contributions. The ‘invisibility might also lead to

‘Proximity bias,’ where leadership offers rewards like promotions and special projects to those workers who are physically on-site more often.

Ironically, Pendakur suggests using technology programs such as MIRO or Donut to overcome these potential productivity handicaps.

3. The Demand for Wellness and Well Being

Workers were complaining about difficult work situations well before COVID descended; the pandemic simply underscored the relevance of their concerns. These days, worker burnout is an even more significant challenge, and, in many cases, employers can make changes to reduce its impact.

Pendakur suggests adding benefits that support the worker as a whole, not just their employment situation. Offering financial management guidance, child care stipends, and other ‘life’ related perks can assuage feelings of burnout.  Assessing and reducing workloads is another step that will alleviate worker stress; providing many opportunities to recognize and reward effort is another. And corporate culture matters, too; workers who are welcomed and comfortable in their workplace are more productive than those who feel sidelined or unseen.

 

Most importantly, Pendakur encourages leaders to assess their organization’s DEI efforts as those arise within these three concepts: skill extinction, hybrid work sites, and worker wellness. Every worker brings value to every company; ensuring that all employees have the appropriate environment, skills, and opportunities to do their best work enhances the success of both.

Equity Anchors – Grounding DEI Principles

Pam Sornson, JD on November 11, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

November 11, 2021

During the recent virtual Future of Work webinar hosted by the Economic and Workforce Development department (EWD) at Pasadena City College (PCC), keynote speaker Dr. Vijay Pendakur discussed how corporate ‘equity anchors’ can embed fundamental diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles into every enterprise. The event’s four panelists (Monique Earl, Naomi Iwasaki, Jonathon Mayes, and Sylvia Torres-Guillen) and two guest hosts (Dr. Kari Bolen and PCC’s EWD Director Salvatrice Cummo) are certainly ‘equity anchors’ in their organizations and industries. Based on that fascinating discussion, every company can benefit from the values offered by ‘equity anchors’ when they understand how those leaders perceive and can positively impact the fundamental corporate culture.

 

 

‘Equity Anchor’ Defined

In essence, an equity anchor acts as a sensor for DEI issues within the organization and can either or both flag leadership to those concerns as well as steer the conversation towards finding solutions to them. When in a leadership position themselves, the anchors can assess overarching corporate cultures and norms to determine where the company can make DEI improvements. As an employee, the anchor can raise concerns in conversations with the HR department and their managers and supervisors. In both cases, the anchor can impact how the enterprise manages the DEI challenges of its workforce and, in the long run, have a significant effect on its productivity and success.

 

Assessments Through the Anchor’s Perspective

Dr. Pendakur offers five elemental inquiries that every equity anchor should make, both as they get started and as part of an ongoing strategy to ensure the company adheres to critical DEI principles. Their purpose is to ensure that the enterprise addresses everyone’s best interests in its policies and practices:

    1. When a concern arises within a specified system, leaders should inquire about who that system was designed to support and whether inherent inequities were built into it. Using a gender lens to highlight an example: many corporate calendars and schedules are not designed to accommodate the needs of parents. When women shoulder the bulk of the parenting obligation, they must also often navigate around systems that don’t flex to provide them options.
    2. The above-referenced example suggests the next question: do enterprise systems favor (establish as a ‘norm’) certain groups over others? Companies with policies that provide maternal but not paternal leave create a norm that favors a mother’s need to be home with an infant but reduces or eliminates a father’s opportunity to contribute to that care.
    3. Data also plays a part in determining the efficacy of DEI standards, but it can only be helpful if it is properly collected for the purpose. Companies that routinely track, respond to, and measure the outcomes of worker DEI concerns are more likely to be DEI champions as well. Pendakur suggests short (two to three questions) surveys delivered often (monthly? quarterly?) as an effective method of collecting worker satisfaction data. Analysis of that information should reveal both challenges and possible solutions.
    4. Data collection would also reveal who in the organization is not being heard. In some cases, those left out may be individual employees; in other cases, there may be larger sectors of the workforce that are routinely left out of corporate conversations. A fully transparent enterprise will ensure it includes the perspectives of all its constituents in its policy and practice development activities.
    5. And those policies themselves can be the source of the problem. Again, using the example mentioned above, many companies still do not have paternity leave policies in place, and that gap maintains an ongoing unfair practice that discriminates against fathers.

These questions can guide the assessment of an individual concern or the overarching practices and policies of the enterprise as a whole. In addition, they will provide leadership with the information it needs to become more sophisticated in its approach to DEI principles going forward. Most importantly, leaders should heed the data and address the DEI concerns of their workforce. These days, no company can afford to tolerate the use of superficial elements, such as race, sexuality, or gender, to reduce the high value of every employee.

 

 

Assessments Guide Solutions

Pendakur was careful to note that solutions to entrenched DEI problems often require tailoring to the needs of the specific employee or class of employees. He explained the difference between ‘equality,’ which provides equal resources to everyone, and ‘equity,’ which offers resources designed to meet the needs of individuals so they can attain an outcome equivalent to that of their colleagues. The distinction between the two is critical for leadership to understand because knowing the ‘inequities’ suggests how to design and deliver appropriate and effective responses. Attempting to remedy inherently biased practices and policies requires more than a ‘one size fits all’ effort.

Dr. Pendakur offered three notable examples of how his company, Zynga, responded to the DEI needs of its employees by determining precisely what their issues were and then introducing benefits packages to remediate those challenges.

One concern was heard across the company, especially after COVID descended. Workers who also had caregiving responsibilities at home were inordinately more challenged in their productivity than their non-caregiving colleagues.

Another common concern was the mental health status of employees who were balancing work, home responsibilities, child and parent care, and other obligations that were made much more difficult by the pandemic.

The social unrest of the past 20 months was also a trigger for a benefits analysis. The company recognized that its LGBTQA+ community might not have been given the support they needed to weather the backlash against increased LGBTQA+ rights.

In all three cases, Zynga adjusted its benefits offerings to meet the specific needs of three very different employee populations. Giving each of those employees the support they needed to succeed in all areas of their lives also enhanced their productivity and value to the organization.

 

In the next edition of the Pulse, we’ll include our panelists’ thoughts on Dr. Pendakur’s comments and also their own personal impacts on the DEI issues and concerns that arise within their organizations. You won’t want to miss it.

 

Equity Ethics: A Moral Choice

Pam Sornson, JD on October 29, 2021

‘Morals’ and ‘ethics’ are at the heart of today’s equity discussions, particularly when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion concerns (DEI). Eons of social evolution have prioritized the rights and opportunities of some (primarily white males) while reducing options and opportunities for others (females, people of color). However, the burgeoning diversity of the American population is eroding the unspoken acquiescence to immoral ‘standards’ that enrich the one group at the expense of the other. Instead, communities want to see a morally driven, ethical ‘standard’ that levels the playing field and offers all participants equal opportunities to work, earn, and thrive personally, socially, and economically. In short, communities want more than just talk about expanding corporate diversity; they want to actually see those morals in action as the ethical directives that will change how every company does business moving forward.   

 

 

Institutional Morals (Beliefs) Ground Institutional Ethics (Actions) 

Today’s roiled social and political climate has revealed some deeply embedded cultural practices that are both immoral (fundamentally unfair) and unethical (enforced rules that favor some participants over others). For example, unequal compensation practices allow companies to pay male workers more than female workers for doing the same job. More than ever before, the community is now looking more closely at how organizations are managing situations like that, where ‘standard’ corporate policy unfairly rewards some workers over others for no apparent reason other than their color, race, or gender. The challenge is to discern precisely what any individual company is doing about its DEI concerns, which is especially difficult in corporations of size. With those, it’s challenging to identify where or how embedded discrimination systems exist and, especially, how the organization can end them. 

In 2011, UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, introduced its Cultural Diversity Lens (Lens) to measure and analyze corporate program activities through a cultural diversity perspective. While aimed specifically at entities (governments, school systems, etc.) engaged in economic and social development projects, the Lens applies to any organization seeking to ensure equity and equality for all its participants. It is intended to be used throughout a project’s life cycle:

From the beginning, developers design the process and goals to ensure that diversity concerns are explored and included in all planning activities.

During the development stage, the Lens helps leaders implement strategies and construction elements that include DEI initiatives.

Throughout the active life of the program as a monitoring tool, the Lens ensures DEI activities remain on track and embedded within the fundamental culture of the enterprise.

As an evaluation tool, the Lens tracks and measures the project’s success based on its DEI metrics as well as other relevant metrics. 

Using the UNESCO Lens, any organization can evaluate its DEI activities and pivot its actions to a more appropriate practice based on Lens-relate data.  

 

 

One Framework: Five Themes   

Five themes populate the Lens framework, each of which explores the activities embedded within a specific corporation element. Following the order of the framework ensures that leadership evaluates all relevant DEI aspects of the enterprise:

Theme 1: The Cultural Diversity of the Program in the Context of its Community

This theme evaluates the company or program as a whole, including where and how it sits within its community, how it pursues its fundamental purpose, its management of its legal and institutional parameters, and its socio-economic dimensions. The theme’s purpose is to determine the greater community’s cultural diversity standards and whether the corporation is complying with them. 

Theme 2: Diversity of Perspectives

This theme explores how various diverse opinions and insights were/are incorporated into the programs’ development and implementation. Did decisions made in the planning and implementation stages include and respect the perspectives of all stakeholders? Beneficiaries? Identifying and listening to unheard voices reduces tension points throughout all stages of the project.

Theme 3: Access and Participation

This theme looks at how the organization facilitates project access to relevant populations and the extent to which they participate in its functions. It provides directions on determining whether that access is culturally appropriate and where barriers might exist that prevent full participation by stakeholders.

Theme 4: Cultural Heritage

This theme investigates the connections between the project and the inherent cultures of its participants and community. In too many cases, dominating cultures have trampled the heritage of indigenous communities, which ultimately reduces the values of both populations. UNESCO encourages intentional connections between the project and the heritages of its stakeholders to enhance project success. 

Theme 5: Economic Dimensions

This theme explores how the embrace and promotion of diverse backgrounds and cultures can enhance the economic fortunes of both the program and its participants. 

The Cultural Diversity Lens gives every organization the tools it needs to identify DEI gaps in its existing structure, assess options to remediate those, and strategies to achieve a more balanced, more fair, and more productive enterprise.      

 

 

Following Leaders

Some entities are better than others at correcting and then preventing the moral and ethical challenges that impede social and economic progress. Booz Allen Hamilton, for example, provides professional management services in a wide range of economies and industrial sectors, including cybersecurity, analytics, and digital solutions to complex problems. In 2021, it was also ranked by Forbes as the world’s best employer for women and the world’s second-best employer for diversity. Its DEI efforts encompass all underrepresented populations, including women, people with disabilities, veterans and military families, the LGTBQ+ community, and others. The company’s 100 years of success are founded on its belief that talent, in whatever form or presentation, provides the true foundation for corporate and economic success. 

DEI concerns can arise in any situation, and many companies are taking ethical action and working to eradicate those divides from their enterprise activities.  

During Pasadena City College’s Future of Work Conference, Tuesday, November 9, from 9:00 am to 11:30 am (register here), attendees will hear how panelists approach DEI initiatives in their career arena, whether that’s in government, higher education, or industry.     

‘Equity’ Unpacked

Pam Sornson, JD on October 29, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

October 29, 2021

The pursuit of ‘equity’ is driving many social reform initiatives across all sectors of Californian society. The definition of ‘equity,’ however, may vary based on the issues being addressed and the responses to those concerns. On Tuesday, November 9th, from 9:00 am to 11:30 am, the Economic and Workforce Development department (EWD) at Pasadena City College (PCC) is hosting its third annual “Future of Work” Conference to discuss the contextual meaning of ‘equity,’ and will provide examples of how some entities have pivoted their organizations to more fully embrace it. Attendees will come away better informed about this critical social concept and inspired to do their part to improve those equity-challenged aspects of their own communities. 

 

‘Equity’ Defined

The dictionary defines ‘equity’ as ‘the quality of being fair or impartial’ and extends that definition to include ‘chancery:’ ‘the application of the dictates of conscience or the principles of natural justice to the settlement of controversies.’ It also adds a context to the word: ‘equity’ also means ‘a legally valid right or claim.’ 

A broader understanding of the concept is achieved by combining those concepts into one sentence: ‘Equity’ means applying fair and impartial principles of natural justice to the settlement of legally valid claims and controversies.’ And as concise as that sentence is, it still doesn’t encompass the depth and breadth of ‘equity’ issues that are currently disrupting the community. While those are many and disparate, thought leaders can loosely group them into one of three overarching themes, each of which focuses on a particular circumstance: Racial equity, gender equity, and compensation equity.  

(Side note: ‘Equity’ is not the same as ‘equality.’ ‘Equality’ indicates that all groups receive the same resources. ‘Equity’ allocates resources according to individual needs to facilitate an equal outcome for all.) 

 

Racial Equity

Pursuing racial equity means providing (primarily) people of color with the resources they need to achieve the same outcomes as their white neighbors and colleagues. The process of pursuing racial equity approaches the issue from two sides: 

Adding in resources to make up for gaps that developed over time (either intentionally or inadvertently), and

Removing unnecessary barriers to growth that were put in place (intentionally or inadvertently) over time. 

In many, if not most, cases, both sides evolved through the application of institutional policies and practices that favored one color of people over the other(s). The consequences of maintaining these destructive policies and practices are many, from reducing the life expectancy of people of color to the loss of vast economic opportunities when valuable skills and talents go undiscovered. Addressing racial inequities requires intentional action on both sides of this equation.

 

Gender Equity    

Pursuing gender equity means recognizing that there are significant and fundamental differences between women and men. Like racial equity, it also requires intentional action to compensate for the social and historical disadvantages that impede a woman’s opportunity to achieve the same outcomes as a man.

Gender inequity evolved over eons, as women and men developed ‘standard’ practices and expectations about living and working together. In almost all global societies, male dominance is accepted as the norm, based on socially accepted (but not scientifically accurate) beliefs that men are naturally more intelligent and more capable than women, which makes them also more ‘valuable.’   

Studies reveal, however, that when given the same resources and opportunities as men, women do just as well, and in some cases, better than their male counterparts. Evidence of this can be seen in how the COVID-19 pandemic has been managed; overall, female-led countries fared better than male-led countries, but not because their leaders were female. Instead, those countries that placed a high value on women in general were more likely to do better during a crisis, including the COVID-19 situation. Pursuing gender equity, then, will require an erosion of the ‘male dominance’ default position and an expansion of respect for female competencies and capacities.     

Adding a wrinkle to the concept is today’s recognition that ‘gender’ itself is a fluid concept. ‘Gender fluidity‘ refers to people who identify themselves as both male and female, and they express themselves accordingly. ‘Gender identity’ is different, too, from ‘sexual’ identity, which defines the preferred sex of the person and the sex of the people who attract them. These terms are significant from an ‘equity’ perspective because both are often used as a justification for bias and prejudice. 

 

Compensation Equity

The most significant and damaging impact of both racial and gender inequities is the compensation inequity that typically results from those practices. 

Racially-based compensation inequities are most glaringly revealed by the practice of slavery, which provided much of the labor needed to build the new country. In the subsequent 245 years, people of color have struggled to gain equal pay for equal work, and many legitimately point to unequal access to education as just one barrier. A recent study shows that Blacks, overall, fare worse than Asians and White people and only slightly better than the Latinx community in terms of pay equities. 

Women, too, continue to struggle to find equal compensation footing compared to their male colleagues. A LinkedIn study indicates that, despite legal mandates in place to eliminate the problem, in 2021, women earn only $.82 to every $1.00 earned by men. 

This discussion underscores the significance of inequity in today’s society, where people are marginalized for their gender, sexual preference, skin color, and other attributes that have nothing to do with their talents, skills, or value to their community. Consequently, the evolving conversation about ‘equity’ – defining it, addressing it, and achieving it – is more complex than many people recognize and more critical than ever to the community as it seeks new footings in the post-COVID economy. 

PCC’s upcoming Future of Work Conference offers an excellent opportunity to hear how some community leaders are facing the inequities they see in their organizations and discover new strategies to address the challenge in your organization. Please join us.   

Future of Work Panelists: DEI Everywhere

Pam Sornson, JD on October 18, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

Diverse cultures enjoy a broader scope of perspectives and experiences and provide a more fair and equitable lifestyle for more of their members. Thanks to the Internet and global travel capacities, the planet’s vast range of diverse communities are fully in view today, and international circumstances are pushing them closer together now more than ever before. To fully embrace and engage the opportunities presented by this vast cultural array, appropriate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) standards must be present across all community sectors. And to achieve that level of a truly diverse culture, people must be willing to set aside their prejudices and talk about ‘diversity’ as a valued asset of the whole community.

Talking about DEI and why it matters is what the Economic and Workforce Development department (EWD) of Pasadena City College (PCC) will be doing during its 3rd Annual Future of Work Conference, Tuesday, November 9th from 9:00 am till 11:30 am (register here). 

A diversified panel of experts representing the law, government, industry, and higher education will discuss what diversity means within their sector and help listeners understand why a dedicated DEI focus is so significant in today’s evolving society.

 

Diversity and the Law

Achieving fair and equitable access to justice in society requires a legal community well-versed in the cultural nuances of its communities. Attorney Sylvia Torres-Guillen is proficient in those competencies through racial, economic, and environmental causes.

She has held numerous prestigious positions in both public and private practice. As the ACLU’s Director of Education Equity, Ms. Torres-Guillen obtained a $7 million settlement to benefit Los Angeles County’s highest-need students. As Governor Jerry Brown’s first Latina General Counsel, she ran California’s Agriculture Labor Relations Board, where she tirelessly sought justice for the State’s 800,000 farmworkers. In 2018, the California State Bar named Ms. Torres-Guillen the California Lawyer of the Year.

 

Diversity and Industry

Since 2017, Jonathan Mayes has been coordinating the DEI efforts of Albertsons Companies, the owner of 20 different food industry enterprises, and, with over 270,000 employees, one of the largest employers in the country. As the Senior Vice President for External Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer, Mayes’ job is to ensure that the profile of the conglomerate’s workforce resembles that of its millions of customers. Mayes stated that he took the job because of Albertson’s ‘corporate culture that fosters different values, ideas, and backgrounds.’

Also an attorney and the winner of numerous awards for his advocacy focused on DEI initiatives, Mr. Mayes is a founding member of Albertson’s African-American Leadership Network and serves on the boards of the California Grocer’s Association and the California Chamber of Commerce.

 

Diversity in Government

Two panelists represent agencies from California’s governance sector, Monique Earl and Naomi Iwasaki:

Monique Earl is tapped to inaugurate the role of Chief Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Officer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the largest municipal utility in the country, serving over four million customers. Her new role includes managing several agency directives, including the oversight of initiatives related to human relations, economic development, supplier diversity, and the ‘equity metrics’ data project.

Earl will also be leading the development of the Department’s Racial Equity Action Plan (REAP), an endeavor specifically designed to develop career opportunities and well-paying jobs for community members who have been traditionally under-represented in the agency. Encompassed within the REAP is the utility’s  LA100 Equity Strategies, which aims to ensure all of LA’s communities of color have equal access to a 100% carbon-free future. This initiative works with the federal National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to develop energy access systems for traditionally marginalized LA County residents.

Naomi Iwasaki is Senior Director for LA Metro’s Office of Equity and Race. Her background in ‘public works for social good’ is notable, having been the Director of Neighborhood Services and Great Streets for LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, and a leader in New York City’s Department of Transportation Bicycle Program. As an independent civic planning and engagement consultant, Ms. Iwasaki helps her public and private clients develop comprehensive equity analysis frameworks. Since 2017, she’s been serving on the City of Los Angeles Affordable Housing Commission.

Her work at LA Metro is equally engaging. In 2018, LA County established its Metro Equity Platform to redesign its transportation systems and improve access for its underserved communities to health, housing, education, and safety services. Ms. Iwasaki’s comprehension of the societal divisions caused by disparate transportation decisions will help guide Metro on its way to becoming a more equitable transportation network. 

 

Diversity in Education

The Conference’s keynote speaker brings his own unique perspective to the event. Dr. Vijay Pendakur’s education credentials in history (BA), East Asian Studies (MA), and education (Ph.D.) inform his work building end-to-end strategies to drive DEI initiatives in the workplace. As Dean of Students and Presidential Advisor on Diversity and Equity at Cornell University, he led the school’s efforts to fully engage all its diverse resources, utilizing his expertise in developing student success and equity design strategies for universities across the country. As a member of the institute teaching faculty, he currently participates with the USC Race and Equity Center and the “High Impact Practices Institute” for the American Association of Colleges and Universities.

Dr. Pendakur is also the inaugural VP and Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer at Zynga, the digital gaming company responsible for “Words with Friends” and other globally popular games. His work includes coordinating the company’s worldwide DEI efforts (spanning three continents) and leading its corporate social responsibility, university relations, and learning and development initiatives.  

 

Moving forward through and out of the COVID pandemic and climate crises and into a more fair and equitable future requires intentional, well-considered leadership. The remarkable panelists of the PCC EWD Future of Work conference ably demonstrate their leadership capacities as they guide their organizations towards DEI success. PCC invites you to listen in and learn from their expertise.

Intentional Change – Retooling for Equity’s Sake

Pam Sornson, JD on October 18, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

October 18, 2021

The phrase ‘life-long learner’ has, perhaps, never been as relevant as it is today. People have to learn new ways of thinking, working, and communicating just to maintain their status quo. Experts suggest that technological and social evolutions will require the reskilling of up to a billion people so they can find work in the emerging re-engineered global economy.

Organizations are having to learn new things, too. Their long-entrenched strategies no longer meet the needs of their core constituents because the population of that constituency is rapidly becoming more diverse. To remain competitive, the enterprise must identify and address the hidden inequities and social injustices that are deeply embedded in its culture and that negatively impact its new consumer base. Companies can overcome these barriers to progress when they are willing to learn the full depth and breadth of their inequity problem and take steps to change their processes in response.

 

Identifying Diversity – It’s Not Just ‘Black’ and ‘White’

Creating a truly diverse workforce requires insight and awareness about what ‘diversity’ really means. For many leaders in ‘traditional’ companies (those managed and populated by nonminority leaders and workers), that definition is broader than they know. In many cases, the biases spring from long-held cultural standards that aren’t readily apparent, and those who hold them aren’t always aware of their inappropriateness.

For example, ‘White’ dominance is one such bias that is buried deep into the foundational cultures of many societal organizations. It remains entrenched through the use of ‘racially specific’ labeling, where companies that are affiliated with non-White owners or leaders are identified by that distinction. White-owned organizations such as banks, restaurants, etc., are identified simply by their business activity. A Black-owned business, however, is identified as a ‘black business.’ This skewed labeling convention obscures the fact that ‘White’ is also a racial identifier; add ‘White’ to the label of every business, and its dominance in most markets becomes more apparent.

While racial (White versus any other skin color) and gender (male vs. female) biases are often the most obvious, the list of other circumstances that generate and empower prejudice and discrimination is long:

Workplace discrimination continues to limit opportunities for females and minorities, keeping them in lesser-paying jobs with fewer opportunities for advancement.

Age discrimination eliminates the corporation’s opportunity to gain from years of experience and knowledge.

Disability discrimination eliminates valuable employee and leadership resources simply because some people function differently than others.

Pregnancy discrimination continues to impede economic and career progress for women. Between 1997 and 2011, pregnancy discrimination claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission jumped by 50%, and that volume of complaints hasn’t changed much since.

The elimination of biases from any organizational culture requires becoming aware of these and other hidden but insidious forms of discrimination.

 

Diversity = Economic Advantage

Pursuing diversity also makes good business sense. Companies that hold on to biases of any kind don’t often understand that that attitude also often erodes their economic advantages. These organizations typically don’t develop the ‘inclusive’ culture that supports every worker equally, regardless of their personal background or traits. Those workers respond by being less productive and less engaged in pursuing corporate success.

For example, one study found that, too often, corporate leadership believed its organization maintained a robust, inclusive culture, but its workers disagreed. A 2020 Accenture survey found that 78% of C-Suite respondents were proud of their ’empowered environment’ while only 32% of their workers reported feeling fully supported and included in their work environment. In another review, the French government determined that ubiquitous workplace discrimination within its fundamentally biased culture was also causing ‘staggering’ economic losses. Christian men were heavily favored for hiring over Muslim men by a four-to-one ratio, and women, in general, earned just 88% of their male counterparts for doing the same job. The analysis was done in 2015, and it concluded that the country could expand its GDP by up to 7% over 20 years by increasing access by women and minorities to training and skilled jobs.

 

Learning Lessons from Successful DEI Strategies

Decades of research may now be paying off as more companies pledge to improve their organization’s diversity. Many enterprises have been actively working on routing out inherent biases within their divisions, and some progress is being made, albeit not in all sectors:

College success numbers for employed Black Americans are rising, with approximately 20% holding Bachelors’s degrees. Black people also represent 12% of the total workforce, close to their 13.4% representation in the general population.

People with Asian ancestry are also educationally successful, with 65% of working Asians holding a Bachelors’s Degree.

However, the Latinx community hasn’t advanced as much, with only 22% of employed workers reporting achieving a Bachelor’s degree.

These successes and concerns indicate that corporate DEI progress is attainable when entities intentionally pursue those goals as an element of their fundamental culture. They confirm that intentionality must be an essential element in the strategy of organizations that are just now seeking to attain those goals. And media coverage of ongoing human tragedies caused by unfettered bias is driving the global impetus to pursue even faster a fairer corporate DEI culture.

Companies that want to improve their internal DEI successes can learn lessons from those that have already begun or mastered the process. One think tank suggests approaching a more robust DEI culture using a four-part strategy:

    1. Make it a moral imperative, not just a business case. Studies demonstrate that a diverse workforce can be more productive and profitable than one that is not. These days, however, people are looking for companies that share their values and intentionally work to benefit their communities as well as their shareholders.
    2. Encourage open conversations. In most cases, it’s more effective to use words that are meaningful but that are also uncomfortable. For example, using the word ‘race’ might be less comfortable than using the word ‘diversity,’ but it is also more specific in addressing the particular problem.
    3. Revise obsolete DEI programs. Recent events reveal the need for a more enlightened diversity perspective, rendering obsolete existing DEI plans developed years ago. They may also be siloed in HR departments and don’t reach the whole corporate sphere.
    4. Embrace the DEI culture through all career life stages. Becoming DEI-fluent means more than just hiring a diverse workforce. It also includes ensuring promotions, offering comprehensive retention benefits, and providing adequate career development resources for all employees.

These lenses provide well-informed guidance for companies seeking to improve their DEI culture.

The capacity to learn is becoming a crucial element of success for every entity – people, businesses, industries, and especially societies. The data suggest that improved corporate performance and profitability can happen when organizations learn what diversity is, why it’s essential, and how to entrench it into fundamental business practices. Now’s the time.

Strategizing the Post-COVID Economy

Pam Sornson, JD on October 14, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

Job development isn’t always an indicator of a robust economy when many of those job openings go unfilled. And unemployment isn’t always a harbinger of a horrible future when those unemployed workers are eager to work. Both circumstances present challenges and opportunities; the trick is to re-envision and restructure them to coordinate with each other. Recrafting job skills to meet emerging job demands solves both problems. It provides workers with the skills they need to find a job and businesses with the skilled workers they require.

California’s current economic situation lends itself to this very concept. Economic disruptions forced millions of people out of work while emerging opportunities leave thousands of companies without the skilled workforce needed to supply them. Fortunately, there’s a plan in place and a program already launched to address these realities, and they both flow through the State’s Community College system.

 

Economic Disruptions Create Chaos

A triad of major disruptors created chaos across California’s economy over the past 19 months.

The Covid-19 Pandemic

The eruption of the coronavirus in February 2020 almost immediately shut down the State’s economy. The number of unemployed people rose from ~350,000 in March 2020 to a peak of over 4.5 million in May 2020 to where it sits now at approximately 600,000 as of August 18, 2021. However, job openings surged through Spring 2021 as COVID-19 vaccines allowed businesses to open again, which was good news despite impositions of restrictions and capacity limitations. The Coronavirus Delta variant has slowed job growth over the summer, but increased vaccination rates promise to accelerate it again as Fall advances.

Climate Challenges

Climate changes threaten regional economies across the State, too. California’s 2018 fire season cost $150 billion in damages, impacting virtually all industries, from tourism to logistics. Smoke from the fires also affects economies, generating significant air pollution that aggravates existing health concerns. Rising sea levels contribute to economic woes, too. Based on current conditions, billions of dollars of infrastructure and property along the State’s coast are in jeopardy of loss due to elevated water levels. And an increasingly alarming rise in the State’s general temperature threatens everything from California’s agriculture industry to its transportation systems.

Advancing Technology

The coronavirus drove an unprecedented embrace of technology as millions of employees took their work home and embraced their new fully ‘remote’ status. In addition to that growing demand for technological devices, there is also an increase in demand for technicians to manage those devices, maintain their programming, and connect them with the ever-growing cloud-computing sector. Innovations in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will further enhance the already burgeoning California IT sector.

 

Emerging Economic Opportunities

Each of these disruptors caused immense economic damage by shutting down some aspects of the state economy, eliminating millions of jobs and occupations, and forcing an unprecedented overhaul of ‘how work is done’ in millions of businesses. As the pandemic passes, economic experts are evaluating how to recover from its damage by addressing those factors and conjuring new expressions of ‘work’ that will fit in the emerging economic landscape. One such expert is Burning Glass Technologies (BGT), an analytics software company that tracks labor market and industry data.

For its Spring 2021 report, After the Storm, BGT reviewed one billion+ current and historical job postings to determine which jobs and job skills are most likely to dominate the markets as the State recovers from its economic devastation. Their premise is that California can better strategize a recovery from the disruptions by understanding how those impacted individual industries and whole industrial sectors. The State can then direct both effort and investment into plans and programs to build a new economy, not just attempt to replicate the old one.

 

BGT Conclusions

Fundamentally, BGT projects the addition of 15 to 18 million new jobs across the country over the next five years, which will also compel an immense labor shift. Many of the new occupations will demand different skill sets from those currently in use, and many of those skill sets will require new or additional training than that which is now available. In BGT’s mind, the situation creates a disconnect between existing workforce development capabilities and those that will be needed in the future.

Most notably, BGT surmises that economic growth will flow not just from industrial development but also from the growth of segregated, skill-based ‘economies’ that overlay the traditional industrial structure and will be revenue generators in and of themselves. Their research indicates that today’s required skills sets have changed significantly from those in the past and that technological advances will drive a similar evolution over the next decade. Workers who gain these advancing skills will be highly popular and well paid and can work at virtually the job of their choice in almost any industry.

To better explain the fluidity of the emerging skill sets, BGT describes them in the context of the ‘five economies’ in which they are deployed:

The Automated Economy requires enhanced and evolving technological comprehension, as its technicians design, deploy, and maintain machines to perform mundane tasks with more efficiency and effectiveness than is possible with human labor.

The Green Economy overlays all businesses and industries as it mandates and deploys its environmental policies and practices across all sectors.

The Logistics Economy provides the understructure of manufacturing and transportation productivity to all the world’s industries by ensuring that goods are appropriately packaged, transported, and delivered to global destinations.

The Readiness Economy ensures that societal, physical, and industrial infrastructures remain steady, available, and reliable, such as those in the healthcare, transportation, and public safety sectors.

The Remote Economy offers workers and businesses work-day flexibility that they’ve never before experienced. With no physical tethers to an office, many workers will be able to provide their unique services from any location with a reliable internet connection.

Each of these economies promises remarkable job and industrial growth opportunities for entities that have suffered through the recent economic disruptions. Now is the time to build a responsive workforce development capacity to develop and engage them fully. The State of California has tapped its community colleges to establish those enhanced and enlightened training programs.

PCC Coordinates the CCCCO Regional Collaboration Grant

Pam Sornson, JD on October 14, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

California needs a new strategy to rebuild its economy after the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and immense technological innovation. Its 116 community colleges (CCCs) offer an exceptional opportunity to build out a ‘workforce development (WFD) pipeline’ that responds to the emerging economic demands. Historically, the CCCs have acted as stand-alone entities, developing programs and courses responding to their local community needs. While they are organized into regional consortia’s and do communicate with each other, collaborating with each other as a coordinated, educational infrastructure has been challenging at times. That’s about to change.

 

The Regional Collaboration and Coordination Grant

In Theory

In June 2021, the CCC Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) released a grant application request (RCC Grant) seeking CCC coordinators to organize a WFD framework strategy that engages all the colleges in each of the State’s eight CCC regions. It’s a daunting concept. The eight regions encompass California’s 116 community colleges, and each ‘collaboration’ will include all the schools within the individual region. The intent is to develop a unified framework of WFD programs as a single regional asset that responds to the region’s specific labor force demands. Such a coordinated strategy will reduce the redundancy of effort and the waste of financial and human capital as each school pursues its own WFD projects. It will also streamline best practices around any particular industrial or economic sector so that learners receive the best training possible to achieve their personal – and their employer’s – goals.

More specifically, the RCC Grant pursues two overarching goals:

1 Consolidating the Processes of School and Work

Regional activities will combine the efforts and aspirations of the CCCs with those of their corporate neighbors to ensure jobs and careers for students while generating a reliable supply of skilled talent for industry.

As the pandemic recedes (which it will eventually), businesses will be reinventing their processes to respond to that drastically altered economic landscape. They’ll need well-trained and skilled workers to maintain their market share and achieve new objectives. At the same time, students of all ages will require new or upskilled education to qualify for those jobs. Having one inform the other assures the success of both.

2 Addressing Inequities

Eliminating the entrenched inequities that now exist in all aspects of every community will be crucial to the region’s ultimate success. The social upheavals of the past year exposed how deep those biases run and the immense toll they take on the entire community, not just the affected people. The RCC Grant seeks to address these challenges through directed efforts by the CCC system.

 

In Practice

In practice, the RCC Grant requires significant engagement between school and business to ensure that each gains the intended benefit of the collaboration. It specifically identifies the interactive initiatives it’s looking for, giving regional leadership a diagram on which to build their WFD structure:

Comprehensive Supports are to be built in to the process to ensure that every student, regardless of their individual circumstances, has the assistance needed to achieve their educational and career goals. This tenet includes all barriers, from learning challenges to economic hardships.

Credit for Prior Learning will envelop the already existing skills and abilities earned before college. Military, work, and other life experiences often provide similar if not superior knowledge and skills, which may count as credit towards the student’s credential attainment.

Resilient 21st Century Digital Skills and Literacy will ensure all graduates bring cutting-edge digital qualifications to their work.

Earn and Learn experiences that will provide both education and income while still in college. Too many students can’t or don’t complete their programs because they can’t pay their living expenses if they’re not working while attending school.

Data-informed investments that will ensure all decisions are based on current facts and information, have measurable goals, and produce metrics related to the success of individual projects and the RCC initiative as a whole.

Not least significant, the RCC Grant instills in each region the mandate to pursue these goals not just in existing businesses and industries but also in the emerging economies identified in the Burning Glass Technologies report, After the Storm. Investments in whole new departments and resource sets may be necessary to ensure that the Los Angeles region can supply every employer with an appropriate, comprehensively trained worker regardless of industry or economy.

 

The Los Angeles Regional Consortium

Currently, the schools in each region are organized into ‘consortiums,’ with leadership from each school contributing to the governance of the whole region. These consortiums have been tasked with identifying a coordinator for their specific region; the CCCCO grant will fund the operations of the collaboration effort.

When the Grant’s RFA was issued, the Los Angeles/Orange County Regional Consortium (LAOCRC) was the overarching coordinator of the efforts of CCCs in both Los Angeles and Orange Counties. However, to achieve the purpose of the RCC Grant, the CEOs of those schools elected to divide the consortium into two separate regions, one in each of the two counties. It will be easier to coordinate the efforts of a smaller number of institutions in each county, which will improve their opportunity to achieve the RCC’s ultimate goals.

There are 19 CCCs in the newly classified Los Angeles Regional Consortium (LARC), the largest region in the state. The LARC is now tasked with weaving into its Strong Workforce Program (SWP) initiatives the mandates required by the RCC Grant. Fortunately, those SWP assets are robust and evolving. They include seven workforce development boards and hundreds of industry stakeholders, civic leaders, and organizations, all invested in improving the County’s WFD systems.

The CCCCO selected Pasadena City College (PCC) as the coordinator and fiscal agent for the LARC RCC Grant, with the school’s Economic and Workforce Development department (EWD) taking on the work of the project. For three+ years, PCC’s EWD has invested time, talent, and resources into building an engaged, informed, and forward-thinking program that connects PCC students to the jobs they want and the employers who want them. While still young and with grand plans for its future, the EWD has already established leadership and systems for both Student Success and Work-Based Learning and routinely communicates with its LA County community through The Pulse newsletter and its companion podcast. The EWD leadership demonstrated by Executive Director Salvatrice Cummo and Director of Operations Officer Leslie Thompson demonstrates their deep knowledge of the WFD arena and their equally deep commitment to the success of both PCC students and the school’s business and industrial community.

 

Rebuilding California’s economy after the devastation of the past two years is a formidable task. Designating its community colleges to invest their public and private resources into the project is an enlightened act, signifying the State’s confidence in both its higher education systems and its immense commercial community. Pasadena City College is immensely proud of its new role as RCC Grant Coordinator for the LARC. It will both strive for excellence throughout that initiative while communicating its progress to all its constituents.

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