This article originally appeared on LinkedIn.
During the last few months, we have listened to individual stories and challenges from many of our employees that they face every day. As we move forward, we are incorporating what we are learning to develop concrete plans to further support and advance our organizational values.
In North America, we are at a critical point that requires us to more actively engage the organization in driving our Diversity & Inclusion efforts. Diversity is one of our values and inclusion is the activation of diverse perspectives that are critical to executing our business strategy. Diverse, inclusive cultures foster more debate and creativity, and also attract and retain talented people. To achieve our goals, we will be updating our North America D&I Council model to improve our ability to drive accountability, empowerment and speed of execution. By the end of the quarter, we plan to:
- Create a NA regional D&I Executive Team with representation from corporate, business units and functions across North America. This group will partner with the North America D&I Council to share accountability in creating a strategic plan, establishing goals, securing funding and driving execution.
- Transform and empower the North America D&I Council to move more quickly in achieving its goals and enhance employee visibility of this work.
- Benchmark with other high-performing organizations to advance our training and education to create a best-in-class culture of diversity, inclusion and equity at our company.
We know the plans we create may need to be updated and changed over time, but it’s important that we set clear timing and hold ourselves accountable for committing the time and resources to this necessary step forward. The D&I Council works closely with the Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that I wrote about in my last article. Together, the Council and the ERGs work to empower and enable employees with critical perspectives and experience to drive initiatives that help us continue to grow our diverse and inclusive team.
Over the next couple of articles, we will begin talking about our talent acquisition tactics that help us attract diverse talent and some of the steps forward we are making.
Learn more about our Diversity and Inclusion efforts here.
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