Meet the LARC – LA County’s 19 Community Colleges

Pam Sornson, JD on January 26, 2022

Pam Sornson, JD

February 1, 2022

As an individual school, each of Los Angeles County’s (LAC) 19 community colleges offers its local constituents tremendous resources for building both a satisfying career and a fulfilling life. As a collaboration, however, those resources are multiplied when the collective group of schools – the Los Angeles Regional Consortium (LARC) – combines assets to enhance optimal credentialling streams, develop best occupational practices, and reduce redundancies in courses and programs across the County. As the LARC gets down to business here in 2022, it must clarify its most pressing challenges while building its initial, foundational steps towards regional educational excellence.

 

The LARC Schools

As a collective, the schools are already organized into 11 ‘districts,’ with the Los Angeles Community College District containing nine colleges – East LA Community College, LA Community College, LA Harbor College, LA Mission College, LA Pierce College, LA Southwest College, LA Trade-Tech College, LA Valley College, and West LA College. The other ten schools encompass a single ‘district’ each – Cerritos, Citrus, Compton, El Camino, Glendale, Long Beach, Mt. San Antonio, Pasadena, Rio Hondo, and Santa Monica college districts.

As the LARC came together during Fall 2021, leadership from all schools joined in conversations to develop the regional organization’s structure, governance model, and foundational projects. One of their starting points was found in the data reported by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation in 2019: “LA Community Colleges at a Crossroads – A market assessment and call to action.” That report suggests that the LARC schools pursue a three-part strategy in their effort to enhance the success of California’s Strong Workforce Program (SWP) within county boundaries:

1: Address Existing Threats:

Address a series of significant threats, including:

declining enrollment numbers,

accommodating a growing population of diverse learners,

revising programs to develop a more work-ready stream of graduates,

developing new programs to attract adult learners new to the higher education system, and

expanding the use of technology to prepare students and graduates for the pace of technological changes in the marketplace.

2: Embrace emerging opportunities:

Embrace a series of opportunities, including:

rebuilding the student journey to provide more, and more relevant, supports from before enrollment through to employment,

enhancing the LA community’s perspective about community colleges through strategic marketing,

linking learners to potential employers by partnering with local businesses, and

developing a cross-institutional collaboration among themselves to build strategic partnerships and enable forward progress on a regional basis.

3: Launch by undertaking ‘enabling’ actions:

Use advanced data analytics to clarify barriers found within the student’s journey,

Use those same analytics to discover learner beliefs about higher education and preferences for pursuing it,

develop a regional labor market partnership to inform curricula and program development, especially for fast-growth occupations that aren’t yet fully developed at the community college level, and

establish a regional entity to provide infrastructure and decision-making capacities on a regional basis. The establishment of the LARC is responsive to this ‘enabling activity.’

Keeping an eye on the data that underscores these overarching strategies will help the collaboration remain on track with its SWP mission.

 

Balancing Resources

One of the biggest challenges facing the LARC is the imbalance of resources available to the individual schools within the region. Many of the schools are located in wealthier communities, and students entering those schools typically have more robust support systems to assist them in their educational journeys. Other schools, however, are situated in less wealthy neighborhoods, and many of those students have fewer resources with which to approach their college experience. Finding a balance of regional resources that support each student equally, regardless of their location within the County, will be a challenge to the new organization.

 

Initial Foundational Projects

As the new year opened, the LARC launched a bevy of initiatives designed to bring its members together to address common concerns and develop common, near-term goals. These initial projects may represent ‘low-hanging fruit’ (as they pursue activities that are already common among the schools), but they also offer a substantial likelihood of early, encouraging success. Among them:

The Regional Industry, Engagement and Employment Pipeline Development – Taking advantage of the resources provided by the LAEDC, this project seeks employers willing to provide internships and other hands-on learning experiences. Additionally, LAEDC members will work with college faculty members to connect needed skills and talents with courses and curricula.

Also engaging with partner UNITE-LA, the LARC is using a targeted ‘universalism’ approach to ensure that typically underserved student populations have access to programs that have often utilized inequitable recruiting methods to screen them out. The collaboration directs its efforts in this project to steer low-income learners towards healthcare and technology occupations and careers.

Using the social innovation methodology of Stanford’s ‘Collective Impact‘ strategy, the LARC’s ‘Faculty Innovation Hub‘ will provide leveraged matching investments with stipends to develop regionally relevant curricula alignment and facilitate faculty convenings.

Raising awareness about the high value of LAC schools began with the launch of the ‘CCLA-19‘ marketing project in 2019. It already provides a ready-made foundation for the LARC’s marketing campaigns as it educates the LAC community on the affordability of LACC programs and the job and career opportunities they support. Activities within the project include both growing enrollments for all the LARC schools as well as creating connections between LARC programs and the businesses that need well-trained workers.

The LARC is also looking to attract pre-college students by connecting high school Career Technical Education (CTE) students with community colleges using ProgramFinder.com. The digital tool connects younger learners with college programs they’re already interested in and facilitates better collaboration between high school and college CTE faculty.

 

The outstanding effort of the LARC membership to come together, form their teams, and launch new projects collaboratively as quickly as they have is commendable and bodes well for the region. Their continuing work will be a welcome addition as the sixth pillar of Pasadena City College’s Economic and Workforce Development department.

 

 

The LARC’s Industrial Clusters

Pam Sornson, JD on January 26, 2022

Pam Sornson, JD

February 1, 2022

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the State of California is looking ahead to rebuild/recreate its economy to withstand better future catastrophes like those wrought by social justice inequities and climate-induced floods and wildfires. Virus vaccines and treatments are changing the course of the COVID concern. The challenging realities it revealed are informing a new way forward for communities, businesses, and whole industrial sectors.

In Los Angeles County (LAC), a new collaborative is uniting its 19 California community colleges (CCCs) into workforce development engines that serve its ten primary industrial sectors and five emerging ‘economies.’ Shifting the economic development onus from individual schools to a regional collaborative will reduce curricula redundancies while powering best practices to inform the activities of all. Efforts by all 19 schools (now dubbed the Los Angeles Regional Consortium, or LARC) are already underway to identify teams, strategies, and first steps. Pasadena City College’s (PCC) Economic and Workforce Development (EWD) department is the selected coordinator of the project and has embraced the LARC as its sixth pillar.

 

The LARC’s Industrial Complex

As the largest county in the country, LAC is home to thousands of businesses that populate hundreds of industries. To maximize economic growth opportunities, the Los Angeles Regional Plan used labor market information to identify ten major industry clusters as the focus of its workforce development strategy. Additionally, there are also five newly recognized ‘economies’ emerging from the COVID-19 fog, each of which provides critical corporate infrastructure inputs through all industries. The work of the CCCs is to collaborate with the businesses within these industries for training and skill-building guidance to develop and implement educational strategies that produce the highly skilled workers they need.

 

LA’s Industry Clusters

An industry ‘cluster’ represents all the businesses contributing to the overarching industrial production capacity. Parts manufacturers, transportation agencies, and consumer-facing commercial companies, among many, many other contributors, all play a pivotal role in each sector’s success.

 

The Manufacturing Cluster

LAC produces an immense volume of high-value assets through several notable manufacturing industries. These four have been identified as having the capacity for substantial growth opportunities for the region:

Its globally renowned entertainment industry generates over $100 billion annually for the State of California through both its film and television efforts and those related tourism receipts. Thousands of companies contribute resources to the industry, from entities producing visual effects to developers facilitating enhanced distribution capacities. The burgeoning digital gaming industry is a sub-industry of the entertainment sector, which pulls talent from the digital, entertainment, and media arts sectors to create globally popular online games.

Information and communications technology (ICT), including that used in the entertainment industry, is also a growing industrial concern in the LA basin. The Center for a Competitive Workforce estimates that almost 10,000 middle-skilled ICT jobs will be available in the region in the coming years.

Based on its enviable climate and access to vast expanses of agricultural assets, LAC’s food manufacturing industry produces internationally acclaimed foods and services. Not insignificant is the region’s multi-ethnic population, which supports a wide range of food products with origins that span the globe.

The fashion, apparel, and lifestyle industries rank at the top of the nation’s ‘creative design’ sector, producing more high-quality furnishings, cosmetics, and fashions than any other region in the country. Collectively, the sector comprises the region’s fourth-largest business sector and generates over $115 billion annually.

 

The Aerospace and Defense Cluster

The Aerospace and Defense industries also contribute significantly to the regional economy, playing a leadership role in the national defense sector. Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Palmdale’s NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center are global leaders in space exploration technologies. The Space and Missles Systems Center at the Los Angeles Air Force Base generates $9 billion a year designing and developing space and missile systems components and configurations.

 

The Advanced Transportation and Logistics Cluster

Home to the most extensive port system in the western hemisphere, the San Pedro Bay port complex (comprising Los Angeles and Long Beach shipping ports) handled over nine million cargo containers in 2020, valued at more than $259 billion. It accounts for one in twelve jobs in the region and 74% of the West Coast’s market share for the shipping industry. Five airports in the county also contribute to its logistics industries, as do the businesses involved in electric vehicle development, alternative fuels, emerging mobility capacities, and more.

 

The Energy, Construction, and Utilities Cluster

Businesses involved in these industries may be facing the steepest challenges as the world turns more toward digital solutions for emerging concerns and the LA region prepares for the 2028 Olympics. Across the sector, older workers are retiring, taking their years of experience with them. Candidates for these positions will need advanced training and enhanced skills to fill in those gaps. The addition of technological advancements increases the complexity of many middle-skilled jobs, which points to an increase in labor market demand.

 

The Healthcare Cluster

Business services in this cluster are growing at exponential rates across all levels of industry, from entry-level data-processing jobs to advanced healthcare technology and engineering careers. The cluster includes both traditional healthcare industries as well as some of the world’s most acclaimed teaching hospitals, the UCLA Medical Center, the City of Hope, and Cedars-Sinai Hospital, to name just three. The California Institute of Technology – Caltech – has been ranked the world’s premier research hospital for several years running.

 

The Bioscience Cluster

LAC’s bioscience research and production industries lead the world in scientific research, discovering new avenues of inquiry and developing life-saving treatments for myriads of illnesses and diseases. Drawing on the unparalleled resources of the region’s top research universities, medical centers, and teaching hospitals, the sector accounts for more than $44 billion in economic activity.

 

The Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Cluster

World-class shopping venues highlight just one aspect of this economic sector, ranging from the internationally famous Rodeo Drive to the bustle of downtown LA’s Fashion District. The Hollywood Walk of Fame attracts thousands of visitors each year, as do the County’s many theme parks, performing arts venues, sporting events, and other cultural attractions. With more than 50 million visitors a year, this cluster brings in more than $18 billion for the regional economy.

 

The LAC economic community is large, thriving, and in need of well-trained workers to maintain its current upward trajectory. The mission of the LARC and its 19 CCCS is to ensure that those businesses, and the region’s economy overall, have the human resources needed to maximize all that potential.

 

New Horizons for a New LARC

Pam Sornson, JD on January 12, 2022

Pam Sornson, JD

January 18, 2022

Despite coming into reality as a single entity in summer 2021, the Los Angeles Regional Consortium (LARC) has actually been active since 2016. Back then, the California Legislature allocated funding to launch its ‘Strong Workforce Program.’ Its ‘consortium’ strategy collects the State’s 116 community colleges into seven regional groups – seven ‘consortia’ – each of which to design and develop career and technical education (CTE) programs that would meet the needs of regionals and local businesses and industries. A merger of the 28 California Community Colleges (CCCs) located in Los Angeles and Orange counties comprised the Los Angeles/Orange County Regional Consortium (LAOCRC). In summer 2021, the California Community College Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) launched its ‘Regional Collaboration and Coordination‘ initiative (RCC) to further strengthen CTE education by streamlining CTE programming at a regional level. It quickly became apparent that the two merged counties could do better pursuing the RCC initiatives if they separated into two separate regions. Thus was born the Los Angeles Regional Consortium (LARC).

 

LARC – The Basics

The LARC comes into being well aware of the complexity of its agenda:

Los Angeles County is the country’s largest single county, with ~10,000,000 residents, half a million employed workers, and almost a quarter-million companies and businesses.

One in five residents (21%) are under 18 years (future CCC students!). Of those residents over 25 years:

– almost half (40%) have achieved a high school diploma or less;

– one in four (25%) has achieved a CCC-level education;

– less than one-third (30%) have achieved a bachelor’s or master’s degree or higher.

Its 19 CCCs include ten schools organized as independent CC Districts and another nine schools contained within the single Los Angeles Community College District. Together, these schools service ~375,000 students per year.

The work of the LARC is to coordinate CCC efforts across the county to provide CTE training and resources to county residents looking for well-paid, sustainable jobs and careers.

Fortunately, the LARC isn’t starting from scratch but instead has five years of experience behind it, as well as several guiding strategies already in place. As the LAOCRC launched, it devised a 2017-2020 Los Angeles Regional Plan, which incorporated data and factors streaming from the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Workforce Development Board, K-12 school districts, adult education providers, industry and business partners, and many others.

The plan established six priority industrial sectors that encompassed industries with strong metrics for growth, a growing demand for workers, and a correlated number of CCC graduates from relevant CTE programs. The six priorities include

Advanced Transportation and Logistics,

Business and Entrepreneurship,

Energy, Construction, and Utilities,

Global Trade,

Information Communication Technology (ICT)/Digital Media, and

Health.

Because of its size and complexity, the region also identified life sciences/biotech and digital media (due to the County’s prominent entertainment industry) as emerging sectors. The strategy is to have the local CCC engage with companies in these sectors to share knowledge, define program needs, and build reliable, sustainable talent pipelines.

 

LARC – The Future

Looking forward, the LARC will be working closely with Los Angeles County as it pursues its 2021-2025 Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy. It will also continue its pursuit of the strategies contained in its updated 2021-2024 regional plan, which incorporates regionally relevant Strong Workforce Program goals.

Further, and through the auspices of the RCC initiative, the Consortium will be developing CCC programs responsive to the five ’emerging economies,’ as those were identified in 2021’s ‘After the Storm‘ report, produced by Burning Glass Technologies. That industry, employment, and labor data analysis revealed that five ‘economies’ are emerging through the COVID-19 pandemic smoke. The coronavirus crisis exposed the need for expertise in each of these economies, as global systems broke down amid the sickness, and people were forced to recreate their jobs in a remote capacity.

The five economies address the systemic gaps and opportunities revealed by the pandemic and co-occurring environmental catastrophes:

The Automated Economy – Technology infuses every aspect of life these days, and cutting-edge programming is taking over many routine functions through automation. However, even automated services require development and maintenance as well as a well-trained and dedicated workforce.

The Green Economy – While the country was slowly shifting toward using more renewable energy sources, the tragic environmental disasters that coincided with COVID indicated that a more impactful action was needed to move away from fossil fuels. Many businesses and industries are emerging in this sector, all offering exciting new jobs and economic development options.

The Logistics Economy – COVID-caused disruptions in supply chains revealed (painfully) how dependent the world is on its global transportation systems. The work of this emerging economy will focus on examining those failures, repairing broken systems, and devising improvements to existing systems to avoid a repeat of the 2020 toilet paper debacle.

The Readiness Economy – Fundamental social and civic infrastructures were decimated by COVID-19 disruptions, leaving whole communities without healthcare, cybersecurity, social services, insurances, and other critical systems. The situation opens significant opportunities to develop programs responsive to these circumstances, both to build and maintain the infrastructures.

The Remote Economy – While not an option for many employees, working remotely – away from one’s principal place of business – became both mandatory and widespread through the pandemic and continues to be popular as that crisis continues. The process, however, requires enhanced technology and connectivity capacities, and many businesses need well-trained specialists to set up and maintain those assets.

Moving forward, the LARC will be pursuing the implementation of training and deploying CCC graduates into jobs related to these emerging economies, in addition to the efforts being made in the already complex LA County industrial and corporate environment.

 

California’s Strong Workforce Program and the CCCCO’s Regional Collaboration and Coordination initiative combine to provide guidance, structure, and shared goals for each of Los Angeles County’s 19 CCCs. The LARC will be working closely with all participants in those systems to help repair the State’s economy and provide its residents with the training they need to fully participate in the process.

California’s Vision for Workforce Development

Pam Sornson, JD on January 12, 2022

Pam Sornson, JD

January 18, 2022

As a single state among America’s 50, California is unique. In addition to being the country’s third-largest state geographically and the one with the biggest population (40,000,000), California also boasts the country’s largest state-based economy, with a ~$3 trillion Gross State Product (GSP) in 2020, making it the fifth-largest economy in the world. With such a richness of resources, it’s not surprising that the State also offers unparalleled opportunities for personal, local, regional, and statewide growth in hundreds of sectors and industries. That reality is the foundation of California’s vision for its Post-COVID economic recovery, and it’s gaining traction in that recovery process because of its extensive network of 116 community colleges. The trick is to tie their efforts to the local, regional, and statewide labor demands of the State’s thousands of industries and businesses. 

 

California’s Constellation of Economic Development Assets

To borrow from the adage: it takes a village to repair an economy. To rebuild the State’s economic, environmental, and social tapestries, California must harness all appropriate resources toward that end. In 2012, the State began its quest to remake its community colleges into workforce development sites that connected well-trained workers to the jobs and businesses that needed them. Through the intervening years, the State has developed a network of governmental and industrial resources to match up its economic development efforts with the educational activities of the community colleges.

Government Resources

Building and maintaining economic resources is the State’s primary function.

The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) provides a range of business-based services designed to build and expand existing economic realities. From attracting new business opportunities to the State to streamlining permitting procedures and developing international trade opportunities, GO-Biz is invested in helping the Californian economy thrive.  

The California Workforce Development Board is the Governor’s agent for managing the State’s workforce investment system. This entity develops the policies that guide the industrial, educational, and social practices that underpin economic activities.            

Locally based workforce development boards coordinate these efforts at and local levels. A total of 45 ‘Local Area’ development boards pursue public and private partnerships between governments and industries to enhance economic opportunities and growth within each region.

California’s Employment Development Department performs a variety of economic services across the State, including dispersing labor market data, providing financial and industrial analyses, and forecasting trends in education, business, and industries.

A variety of adjacent services provide more intense or personal supports for Californians, including the Department of Rehabilitation, CalWORKS, and CalFresh Employment & Training (E&T), among several others.  

 

California Community College (CCC) Resources

Meanwhile, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) has been steadily working toward the State’s economic goals, too. The CCCCO’s primary function is the administration of its 116 community colleges. Together, these schools offer more than 350 distinct fields of study, 4,500+ associate degree programs, and over 8,000 certification programs to more than two million students annually. Of those students, more than 25% (500,000+) engage in CTE programs and coursework. The agency’s Workforce & Economic Development Division (WEDD) oversees the administration of CTE programs and how they respond to laborforce demands. It also manages state, regional, and local activities driven by California’s Strong Workforce Program (SWF), Adult Education Program (AEP), Apprenticeship Initiative, and the Economic Workforce Development programs (EWD) at each school.     

Coordinating the efforts of all these schools to achieve overarching, state-level goals is a challenge, which the CCCCO has addressed by implementing two key strategies: 

It approaches the State not as a monolithic entity but instead as a set of eight regions, each of which encompasses all the CCCs within its borders. A ‘consortia’ of CCC leadership from all those schools coordinates regional Career and Technical Education programming (CTE) to establish strategies that connect their CCC students to the jobs and careers they seek. 

It’s been expanding the State’s CTE programming to fill the labor force demand of those regional businesses and industries.

 

New Initiative Opens New Opportunities …

In response to the economic chaos generated by the COVID-19 pandemic and in conjunction with state and local governments, the CCCCO has launched its most ambitious project yet to pursue statewide economic growth. The 2021 Regional Collaboration and Coordination (RCC) initiative seeks to merge the CTE effort of all the schools in each individual consortia region into a unified workforce development ‘agency’ that is responsive to the needs of both the regional population and the industries within its borders. An added element is an intentional effort to address and repair the damages done by inappropriate but embedded biases and discriminatory activities found in many governmental and industrial systems. The promise of the initiative is to engage all of the State’s resources in its economic recovery so that all of its residents can benefit from those gains. 

The RCC project was compelling changes to the CCC system right from the start. Initially divided into seven consortiums, the RCC grant application process revealed the significant geographical and logistical difficulties posed to the consortium of schools found in the combined Los Angeles and Orange County region (LAOCRC). Together, these two counties are home to 28 CCCs and serve ~700,000 students each year. The size of the combined school districts made a single RCC effort unreasonable, so the collective group of LA and OC college CEOs elected to separate them into two individual regions: the Los Angeles County region and the Orange County region. Even after the split, implementing the RCC initiative will be challenging, especially for the newly named ‘Los Angeles Regional Consortium‘ (LARC) since it is home to 19 CCCs that serve over half a million students each year. 

Pasadena City College (PCC) has been named the RCC LARC coordinator, which launched January 1, 2022. In this role, PCC will work with LA County CTE departments, Economic and Workforce Development departments (EWDs), CCC administrations, and regional businesses and industries to define both the assets and challenges of the regional economy and devise appropriate and successful responses to current and emerging needs. The group will need to access all available governmental and CCC resources to implement the RCC goals.  

California’s CCC-based approach to its Post-COVID-19 economic recovery is yet another element that makes the State truly unique as a leader among America’s states.   

     

 

 

2022 – California’s Recovery with Equity

Pam Sornson, JD on December 23, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

January 4, 2021

Question: how does a state overcome pandemic-generated barriers to achieve a better standard of education for all of its residents? Answer: by changing its perspective. Recasting ‘challenges’ as ‘opportunities’ opens eyes and minds to possibilities that may not have been apparent through the previously clouded lens. By pivoting its attitude toward a post-COVID economy from ‘bleak’ to ‘bright,’ the state of California intends to repair and rebound after COVID by incorporating remedies for social justice inequities into its economic growth plan. The strategy is called ‘Recovery With Equity,’ and it promises equity-based guideposts for schools and students that address evolving concerns arising from both the flattened economy and the demand for a fairer, more just society.

 

Designed By Experts

A collection of higher education experts, educators, think tank denizens, and industry and administrative leaders comprised the ‘California Higher Education Recovery with Equity Taskforce’ that convened in summer 2020. One of their tasks was to examine the state’s challenges as it works toward recovering from COVID-19. The other task was to address the long-hidden practices that perpetuate biases and hamper the educational and career ambitions of too many people.

Taskforce members brought a broad scope of perspectives to the project. The individual experiences and wisdom of non-profit organization leaders, civil servants, and industry builders combined to develop recommendations that will advance the strategy’s four guiding principles:

Foster inclusive institutions – by rethinking educational cultures and practices to support all learners, especially those that face inequitable barriers.

Simplify support strategies to stabilize all students – by reorganizing existing and new support services and options that meet every learner’s basic and educational needs.

Build in student transition processes – by offering technological and academic guidance in college preparation processes.

Streamline pathways to career success – by developing an integrated, state-wide system to facilitate easy entry, access, and completion of programs and degrees.

Each principle encompasses an overarching goal that the strategy intends to achieve. Each goal is designed to both address the inequities of past practices while generating a path into the new economy. And each goal is expected to provide the state’s higher education students with the supports, opportunities, and directions they need to thrive in the emerging, post-COVID economy.

 

Focused on Where the Need is Greatest

And many of those overlooked students will need help. Recent data indicates that California is experiencing significant economic and social distress caused by both the ongoing pandemic and its less than optimal history of discrimination. Decades of intentional and unintentional biases have left whole communities without the resources they need to improve their economic foundations, and those gaps have exacerbated the damages caused by the pandemic:

Right now, California has the fifth-highest level of unemployment in the country.

The San Joaquin and Imperial Valleys are suffering unemployment levels that equal those of the Great Depression, at 29% and 27%, respectively.

Communities of color are most heavily impacted. Unemployment rates in the Black and Latinx populations are higher than before COVID-19, at 8.2% and 7.9%, respectively.

Perhaps most concerning: 99% of the state’s Black community with a high school diploma or less filed for unemployment benefits in 2020.

Without change, those communities will continue to suffer while adding additional burden to the state by requiring additional social support benefits.

 

Embracing ‘New’ Resources

Remarkably, the state is focused on building its emerging economy using untapped resources that have not been developed before. The combined ‘one-two’ punch of COVID and the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement shone a bright light on the considerable damages done by inherently unfair systems that neither provided for nor protected the whole of the state’s population. State residents without access to quality, career-based education opportunities are prevented from pursuing their best future and contributing to the economic success of their community. Instead, often, they were compelled to seek social services supports, which added a financial burden to the state. And the pandemic just escalated the magnitude of the situation. Leaving these systems in place would perpetuate those adverse outcomes to the detriment of the individual resident, their social community, and the entire state.

The Taskforce has embraced this unique moment in time to redirect existing processes to reduce these inequities and instead build those untapped resources into the foundation of California’s thriving post-COVID future. The group noted that the existing systems ignore the talents, energy, and creativity of all of California’s residents. The pandemic has widened the gap that separates these populations and reduces their ability to contribute. Further, the Taskforce noted that the skills, talents, and insights of these communities will be critical to the state’s success if it intends to achieve its long-term goal of economic stability. And ultimately, the Taskforce recognized that the varied new and evolving economies emerging as the pandemic rolls on will need more skilled workers and contributors than the state can currently muster – it needs the effort and inputs of all its residents to achieve its economic goals. And it sees the state’s education systems – its universities, community colleges, public and private school systems – as the resource development agents that can implement and ultimately accomplish its vision.

In short: California is betting its economic future on education strategies that will overcome its unsavory biased past and embrace the values offered by all of its residents, not just a limited few. To quote its report: “California will thrive when income inequality and disparities of credential and degree attainment by race and geography are eliminated.”

 

An Open Invitation

To pursue these ambitious goals, the state is inviting every entity with an interest in economic success to participate in the best way they can. Civic leaders, industry leaders and developers, businesses, non-profits, visionaries, etc., are invited to engage with their local and regional education systems so they can play their part in the educational evolution launched by the Recovery with Equity initiative. By doing so, each individual will ensure not only that they will thrive in the post-COVID era but that their community will thrive there, too.

 

COVID Evolution: Revisioning PCC’s EWD

Pam Sornson, JD on December 23, 2021

Pam Sornson, JD

January 4, 2022

It’s safe to say that the past 22 months were unique. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted every system at Pasadena City College (PCC), all of which then required significant overhauls of decades-old practices. Social upheaval driven by centuries of entrenched biases revealed the alarming realities faced by many in PCC’s BIPOC communities. And climate-change disasters such as wildfires and floods drove some students, faculty, and staff from their homes and disconnected hundreds more from their electronic resources.

Despite the chaos, PCC and its Economic and Workforce Development department (EWD) persevered with their mission to provide optimal educational services to the school’s constituents. Many lessons were learned during the process, providing the team with tools and insights to tackle both the challenges and advantages that lie ahead. Now, the EWD is gearing up for 2022, revisioning PCC’s standard processes to apply that newfound wisdom in its pursuit of community college education excellence.

 

Unexpected Opportunities

Remarkably, despite its devastation, the COVID-19 pandemic also opened opportunities for growth that were previously shrouded by (now obsolete) tradition:

Previous mandates for in-person classes were ditched to prevent accidental transmission of the virus. A quick pivot to ‘remote learning’ required faculty and staff to rapidly upskill their technological know-how while students embraced their studies through the small screen of their devices. The remote learning option has remained popular with many students and teachers – and is sometimes optimal over in-class attendance – even as masks and vaccines reduced the risk of spread, and in-person attendance again became possible.

Skillsets once thought of as ancillary to the job are now considered ‘the job’ in and of themselves, and that recognition opens new employment options across most industry sectors. Identified as the foundational skillsets for ’emerging economies,’ job skills in technology, finance, and human relations, to name just a few, are gaining precedence in job list postings since they are applicable in virtually every business setting. The demand for workers with these digital, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence skills is driving the development of whole new programs to meet those needs and provide these necessary supports for the decidedly revised post-COVID economy.

Not least significant is the impact of recent social justice events. Incidents driven by racism, sexism, classism, and other inappropriate dividers have spotlighted inequities buried deep within social constructs and systems. Across industries and regions, entities are building responses to these concerns to clear away those divisions and provide the support that will truly propel people forward, regardless of their ethnic, racial, or religious background.

Through all these unfolding scenarios, the EWD department pressed on – reaching out digitally to students and business partners, modifying strategies to maximize remote access, and performing other equally out-of-the-box feats to ensure as many learners as possible had the access they needed to continue their education.

 

Remarkable Progress

At the same time, the EWD also maintained its focus on its institutional goals, as those are laid out by state policy. PCC has designed its activities and programs to ultimately achieve the goals of two overarching state mandates.

California’s Vision for Success (V4S) is a long-range strategy for accessing community college resources to build a reliable, relevant, and highly skilled labor force that can meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s industries.

California’s Strong Workforce Program sets out specific recommendations to achieve success in the V4S initiative’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) sector.

The school works toward achieving these ends by aligning coursework and programs with local and regional labor demands. The EWD contributes to the effort by aligning its community outreach efforts so that students can find relevant job-related experience while still in school, and local and regional businesses can find the well-trained workforce they need.

 

 A Well-trained Team

         By Design

PCC’s EWD is built on five pillars (up from four – the PCC “Extension” program was added as an individual and distinct pillar during the 2020-2021 academic year). As a group, the pillars represent PCC’s efforts to engage with its business and industry communities, offer students job and work-related information and guidance to inform their choice of program and career, and provide extended education opportunities to fill the needs of almost all local residents. The five pillars provide services to accomplish these tasks.

    1. The Robert G. Freeman Center for Career and Completion helps students find job opportunities that interest them and then prepares them for job searches and interviews.
    2. Work-based Learning develops hands-on learning opportunities at local businesses for PCC students.
    3. Workforce Training develops and delivers customized training programs to meet the needs of individual businesses and organizations.
    4. The Small Business Development Center offers small business owners guidance, training, insights, and resources to start, build, or scale their enterprise.
    5. The PCC Extension service provides education and training options for anyone seeking to upskill their abilities, learn new skills, or just find new ways to enjoy their lives.

Together, the pillars work to achieve the two primary goals of the department while also fulfilling the state’s primary mandates:

    1. Connect PCC students with the businesses and industries that will provide them with well-paid jobs and careers, and
    2. Provide upskilling and training facilities and resources to improve the regional community workforce for the benefit of our enterprise partners.

The ultimate aim of the combined effort of these pillars is to facilitate the training and placement of a well-trained worker in a job of their choice with an employer who needs and appreciates the values they bring.

 

         And With Intention

Engaged and informed EWD leadership is critical to the department’s success, and Executive Director Salvatrice Cummo is actively involved in the local and regional EWD community. Her work facilitates the regional relationships and agreements with industrial sectors and individual businesses that benefit both them and PCC’s student body.

Cummo sits on several workforce development boards and agencies, including the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership (SGVEP), Innovate Pasadena (IP), the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), UNITE-LA, and the Foothill Workforce Development Board (FWDB).

She also contributes as an advisory committee member to the Center for a Competitive Workforce (CCW) and contributes insights to the development of LA’s regional innovation and marketing strategies.

Through these connections and with these resources, Cummo can gather information about developments within the local and regional industrial sectors, fluctuations in economics and economies, and emerging challenges and advantages. She uses this information to inform the PCC community about economic trends, opportunities for growth, and the need to apply innovation and creativity to the systems geared to achieving the school’s goals. Maximizing these resources using relevant, timely data and streamlining PCC’s ‘best practice’ services to meet the needs of all constituents ensures that the school provides the values they seek through an informed, intelligent, and achievable strategy.

 

The challenges posed by COVID-19’s disruptions are numerous and imposing. Throughout the ongoing pandemic, however, the leadership and staff at PCC’s EWD department demonstrated their capacity to pivot as needed, and the lessons they learned are sure to bring even more excellence in services and support for PCC’s student body as 2022 unfolds.

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

Get the PULSE in your inbox!

Name(Required)