Companies scrambling for workers are raising wages, offering bonuses and reaching out to recruit the best and brightest.
But one area that proves as challenging as ever is assembling a diverse, inclusive workforce and making sure that all are treated equitably once on the job. It’s all the more pressing in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and growing demand for social justice.
Energage surveyed about 8,000 employers in the past year and surveyed 1,445 top workplaces with at least 150 employees on diversity issues for the first time. Of that total, 251 returned the questionnaires and 128 were honored for their efforts. Five of those have operations in San Diego County, including two locally based.
Sleep Data, a 26-year-old San Diego company that treats sleep problems, was one of the surveyed companies. Its nearly 300-person workforce is 71 percent women and 60 percent people of color, said Julie Golich, human resources director.
“The struggle is not to bring them in but how to keep them included,” she said. “Diversity is one thing. Making sure people feel included seems like a little more of a challenge.”
Like many companies, Sleep Data asks its own employees to refer friends for possible open spots. But then there’s a revolving door after a few months or years when new hires leave for better pay or conditions.
“What we’re talking about is the ‘great resignation,'” she said, and continued growth makes it all the more difficult to keep up with a supply of good workers. The company plans to add about 80 employees in the coming year.
Even if the workforce is currently diverse, companies have to do more than post job openings. Golich said she reaches out to schools, communities and specialty media to attract a wide range of applicants.
The shift to remote working makes it all the more difficult to cultivate an inclusive culture, where individuals can build relationships with higher-ups and earn promotions.
“One manager has 70 employees right now and spends a couple of days each week reaching out to every individual on the team,” Golich said.
In every group, there are extroverts and introverts, and for those employees who feel reticent about raising their hands, the concept of “allyship” is one solution.
“It’s for training people so they can say something (on behalf of a colleague) if there’s an issue,” she said.
For ambitious employees eager to move up, they need mentors to help them navigate the internal politics in any company.
“Leadership development, building bench strength, is going to be a key (in 2022),” Golich said.
Company officials plan to go department by department to implement a formal promotion policy with a focus on including everybody interested in the advancement pool.
Reginald Jones, resident and CEO at the Jacobs Family Foundation and Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation in Encanto, said despite efforts at many companies, ” San Diego has a lot of work to do” compared with places like Atlanta and Detroit. (Jones is a member of the U-T Business section’s EconoMeter of experts.)
Various ethnicities are well represented in the service sector, he said, but not so much in San Diego’s growing high-tech industries. And when it comes to the management level, diversity often falls short.
“Companies have a long way to go in demonstrating commitment,” Jones said. “I think we’re at a deficit.”
While it seems that a company simply has to collect data to demonstrate its diverse employee base, statistics don’t tell the whole story.
“It’s not just pay,” Jones said. “We’re talking about a company where all employees feel they have a voice in company discussions on how to improve the company.”
Historically under-represented individuals can sometimes feel overlooked in a group setting and fear that speaking out might hurt their reputation and slow advancement.
“There are historic inborn feelings among minorities of suppression within major companies,” he said. “You have to call things for what they are. Major companies are White dominated and historic issues of race in those places continue to play out.”
As for coping with employees working from home, Jones is worried that promotions will be more difficult than for those who work at the office.
“The personal dynamic … is a strong factor in how you’re perceived as an employee and how your attributes come through,” he said.
Energage spokesman Bob Helbig said its diversity survey will be conducted again as a way to spot companies’ best practices.
“One of the things we realized is it’s important to measure what companies are doing and not just how they feel about the issue,” Helbig said.
Such surveys are helpful in the pursuit of one goal, he said: “Everyone should have an opportunity to succeed, and clearly these companies are creating an atmosphere where that can happen.”
However, achieving full diversity, inclusion and equity takes time to implement.
“It’s not something that can be changed in an instant,” Helbig said, especially at upper management levels.
The bottom line, he added, is that such practices should result in better companies and happier employees.
“You take care of your people and they’re going to take care of you,” he said.
At Sleep Data, human resources head Golich said from her employees seems to bear that out: “I hear from a lot of folks that this is a place where they can finally be their true selves.”
Selected comments from companies locally based or with offices in San Diego that completed the Energage diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I survey):
• CGI (information technology and business consulting services, Fairfax, Va. ): “CGI promotes inclusion through a variety of speakers, discussions and listening sessions. We also have a cultural calendar and celebrate a variety of cultural observances… CGI also promotes inclusion by sharing the stories of our (employees) through member spotlights, interviews and social media takeovers.”
• Ken Blanchard Companies (management training, San Diego): “We have a diversity outreach program that publishes active job postings and we reach out at least quarterly to other EEO (equal employment opportunity) groups. We do not require inclusion for interviews because we always interview the most qualified candidates regardless of background.”
• Marsh McLennan Agency (insurance White Plains, N.Y.): “We introduced MMA Voices as an initiative to center under-represented colleague populations, to hear about their lived experience and how we can foster allyship… We will continue to develop campus-level relationships to build our focus on diversity and inclusion for early-career talent.”
• Sleep Data (home sleep-testing, San Diego): “For us DE&I comes from the top. Our executive team regularly communicates out to all staff on important topics, such as Juneteenth and Pride Month activities, and messages of after the civil unrest in our country last year. The messages are both educational and celebratory.”
• Wintrust Financial (services, Rosemont, Ill.): “We offer … an inclusive culture workshop for all people managers in the organization. Intercultural development inventory assessments are available to all people managers and executive leadership.”
Roger Showley is a freelance writer for the U-T.
