In April of 2021, Forbes magazine partnered with market research company Statista to survey 50,000 people working for businesses with at least 1000 employees and pinpointed the top employers dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion in America. All of the survey's participants were anonymous, allowing them to openly share their opinions and rate their organization's commitment to diversity. And these responses were reviewed for potential gaps. So, if workers from underrepresented groups, for example, rated in an organization poorly on diversity. But their counterparts rated it highly, Statista would take that into account and adjust the company score accordingly. Statista then asked respondents belonging to underrepresented groups to nominate organizations other than their own. Forbes then ranked the final list of 500 employers that not only received the most recommendations. But also boasted the most diverse boards and executive ranks and had the most proactive DE&I initiatives as well. Interestingly, companies facing ongoing allegations of unresolved lawsuits related to diversity were excluded from the list. So, maybe some of the big names that you expected to be on the list, weren't there? Perhaps because of this reason. Now, what Forbes and Statista has done is an assessment called benchmarking. Benchmarking occurs when you measure key business metrics and functions and compare them to a similarly situated function. Organizations perform benchmarks to see where it is and if it needs to adjust in order to match or exceed the performance of their benchmark peers. For your in-video assignment. I want you to find an institution that's comparable to yours, in terms of their size and industry. Go to their website, do some searching and benchmark a function at your organization with a function at the peer organization. Now that you have done a benchmark, let's return to the practical nature of this course. Every organization is on its own journey and is traveling along the DE&I continuum at its own pace. So as you are completing your assessments and start to wonder if the grass is actually greener over there. I want you to have some key DE&I points to keep in mind to certify why you feel that way. Think of this as before I just a program or maybe go personal with before I change jobs. These are the DE&I comparables that I'm going to benchmark to decide if the grass is actually greener. Yep, this is absolutely a hyper subjective list that may not include all the boxes that you may check off. It'll be fun to explore nonetheless. So let's do it. If the mind, body and soul of the organization's DE&I anatomy is being reviewed, I'm checking the skeleton first. The skeleton being the bones of governance. It should be no surprise to anyone that the equal opportunity guy believes that if something is important to an organization, it should be in a written policy somewhere. That spells out how decisions are being made and who makes them. For me an organization skeleton holds up the entirety of the priorities and its internal systems of justice. Its policies on discrimination, harassment, equal opportunity, affirmative action, etcetera. They all matter to me. So do its DE&I pronouncements such as anything related to diversity recruitment, a strategic plan or that goes beyond an aspirational statement and looks more like accountability. I'm then searching for inclusive policies such as a lactation policy that protects a woman's right to express at work or a policy that protects LGBTQ members, such as the right to identify and express themselves consistent with their gender identity. Also, I'm looking for signs of accessibility. Or how easy it is for an individual with a disability to get a reasonable accommodation or the process for an employee with a sincere religious belief to receive a religious accommodation. If all of this matters to the organization, it should be easy to find. The next thing I'm going to review is is HR page. I want to know the benefits, the support services offered such as employee assistance programs. Or if I have suffered any trauma including trauma motivated by race or sex. That there's some help available to me. I want to know what employee resource groups they have or any evidence of diverse communities having a platform to reflect their interests of that group within the organization. Also may consider the grass being greener if the physical plant is accessible and inclusive. By inclusive, I mean what messages are conveyed in community spaces that make people feel comfortable in them regardless of their identity. If I'm able to, my assessment may include a visit to the location. So I can walk around the grounds and see how am I treated. Am I welcomed? Also, I may want to know where the organization is located so I can determine if it's seen as being a part of the community or perceived as being an invader to it. True story. I remember going to an event in my neighborhood where two competing organizations that had campuses near to each other were present. At one point during the event, each were recognized and through applause and cheers, one was clearly the neighborhood favorite. I'm looking for benchmarks like that. Signs around the community that the organization is a vital part of it. I am looking for signs of partnerships such as memorandums of understanding with community entities such as historically underutilized minority owned businesses and signs like that. Again, if it is important to them, they should post that somewhere. Also, I want to learn more about the organization through their marketing efforts, such as who's represented in their ads and how do they view themselves? Do they seem exclusive or inclusive? In addition to looking for lawsuits or scandals and other gaffes. Go to social media sites like glassdoor and read reviews about people's experiences with it. And of course, if you can talk to people do so, just know that the grass is greener assessment uses your own criteria to determine what the benchmark. But even with that criteria in mind, we all have had a [LAUGH] time where we thought the grass was greener and didn't discover that it was artificial turf until it was too late. So before you abandon your own lawn, do your due diligence and benchmark carefully. After doing that, you may decide to find out what is missing with your current lawn and nurture it. And if you do water and fertilize it back to health, do it with what you learned from benchmarking. And that marks the end of this week until next week. Be easy.
