Diversity & Inclusion, Employer Brand, Employee Experience
In our last article, we looked at trends in perks that companies are offering to their employees, based on their responses to the Culture Audit. Today, we want to focus on some of the great programs that have been developed to support employees and the communities around them.
Bias Mitigation
We are seeing more programs around unconscious bias training and bias mitigation around hiring. For example, NVIDIA scrubs resumes to remove gender-indicating information to ensure that sex doesn’t play a role in the screening decision. Deloitte, Dropbox, EY and KPMG are doing neurodiversity training to help employees up-skill teams on recognizing and working with neurodiversity, such as autism, in the workplace.
Diversity and Inclusion
While it comes as no surprise, companies are continuing to take diversity and inclusion seriously to create stronger, more diverse teams. We are seeing companies offer training around conflict resolution and critical conversations, in order to improve communication across teams. Dropbox has a program on how to speak in non-binary terms called "Pride and Pronouns." Companies are working to ensure employees are appreciating each other, being inclusive and creating a great workplace for all.
Coffee with a Cop
Nugget Market, a supermarket chain operating within the greater Sacramento metropolitan area, has established "Coffee with a Cop" events, hosted in their cafes. The events allow people in the community to meet local cops and foster positive relationships with police.
PTSD Awareness
USAA has an “empathy lab,” where the company is exploring helping aids for people with disabilities. The innovation lab shows technology that can predict a PTSD episode in a veteran. The technology can pick up on increased heart rate and blood pressure of an individual, and the room will respond by lowering the lights and blacking out the TV screen with something calming.
Second Chances
Entrepreneurship is a pathway for people who have been affected by the criminal justice system to earn a family-sustaining income and build a career. Bank of America has a program called "Unlocked Futures," which aims to open the opportunity equation to those impacted by the criminal justice system and remove barriers to social enterprise.
We continue to be awed by the work that companies do to create great workplaces for all. We look forward to seeing the programs you are working on this year to impact your employees and the community around you.
