``Help us assess and manage our staff’s reactions to George Floyd’s murder and community protests!``
The Corporate Situation:
- JEVS Human Services C-Suite Team was concerned about their staff and client reactions to the local (Philadelphia) racial climate and its related protests following George Floyd’s murder in May, 2020.
- Local activists and independent community agitators began protesting about police brutality in Philadelphia and across the United States.
- A few months after George Floyd’s death, a Black man in West Philadelphia was shot by Philadelphia police near his home. The victim was mentally ill and threatening toward his mother, who called the police for help. The victim was known by both the police and his community to be mentally ill.
- JEVS leadership instructed their Human Resources Vice President to respond to the racial climate that could be arising in the company as a result of these local and national protests.
- While the majority of its staff and clients are persons of color, JEVS’ history for promoting racial diversity in corporate leadership roles is problematic.
- JEVS serves over 25,000 clients and employs over 1000 individuals.
- The corporate leadership and board members are predominately white, Jewish and male.
- Despite its organizational core value of “making hope happen,” its hiring practices and talent development strategies have resulted in hiring only one Black male in the C-suite and appointing one Black woman to the Board of Trustees.
Strategies:
- Conduct town hall meetings to determine the level of internal and external racial distress among the staff.
- Interview racial and ethnic affinity groups separately to identify trends within each group.
- Make recommendations to leadership and the organization’s newly formed Diversity Council.
Actions:
- Town Hall Meetings
- JEVS leadership wanted to take the emotional temperature of staff regarding racial tensions in Philadelphia and the USA. The recent Black Lives Matter protests and charges of widespread police brutality against the African American community have sparked challenges to corporations and social service agencies to take a stand against structural racism.
- Implicit Bias Training and Microaggression Workshops were conducted for staff and leadership.
- Meet with the Diversity Council to review findings from the survey.
Outcomes:
- The results from the Town Hall were very revealing. Staff and leaders freely disclosed their thoughts about police officers and the recent protests in Philadelphia.
- Some of the staff reported having direct experiences with police brutality in their communities and families. A few female staff members cried when recalling how their sons were being stopped for minor traffic violations.
- Some were physically attacked by officers when the victim questioned why they were being stopped.
- Staff also questioned why white people refused to acknowledge structural racism in America.
- A staff member stated that one of the white male C-Suite leaders actively complains about the Black Lives Matter movement in staff meetings and actively voices his support for the Blue Lives Matter reactions to Black Lives Matter. JEVS leadership has remained silent about this situation.
- The staff discussed how police are trained to “shoot to kill” when there is no evidence of them being in danger.
- Staff also suggested that leadership makes a commitment to study how exclusionary institutional practices need to be recognized, dismantled and restructured in order to build a new structure that includes more diverse representation within its leadership ranks.
- This work inspired the formation of a Diversity Council that would recommend the organization investigate its current personnel selection and employment practices reinforcing the current leadership structure.
- As a result of the EMC Town Hall talks, JEVS’ leadership approved the formation of the Diversity Council, and committed to hosting a training on Implicit Bias and Microaggressions.
- It’s EMC’s observation that the HR Department of JEVS has committed to applying a piecemeal/patchwork approach to addressing DEI issues within its culture, instead of developing a comprehensive and sustainable approach to structural change that includes diverse and empowered voices. There is also ambivalent buy-in at the C-Suite level.
- The Corporate Situation
-
The Corporate Situation:
- JEVS Human Services C-Suite Team was concerned about their staff and client reactions to the local (Philadelphia) racial climate and its related protests following George Floyd’s murder in May, 2020.
- Local activists and independent community agitators began protesting about police brutality in Philadelphia and across the United States.
- A few months after George Floyd’s death, a Black man in West Philadelphia was shot by Philadelphia police near his home. The victim was mentally ill and threatening toward his mother, who called the police for help. The victim was known by both the police and his community to be mentally ill.
- JEVS leadership instructed their Human Resources Vice President to respond to the racial climate that could be arising in the company as a result of these local and national protests.
- While the majority of its staff and clients are persons of color, JEVS’ history for promoting racial diversity in corporate leadership roles is problematic.
- JEVS serves over 25,000 clients and employs over 1000 individuals.
- The corporate leadership and board members are predominately white, Jewish and male.
- Despite its organizational core value of “making hope happen,” its hiring practices and talent development strategies have resulted in hiring only one Black male in the C-suite and appointing one Black woman to the Board of Trustees.
- Strategies
-
Strategies:
- Conduct town hall meetings to determine the level of internal and external racial distress among the staff.
- Interview racial and ethnic affinity groups separately to identify trends within each group.
- Make recommendations to leadership and the organization’s newly formed Diversity Council.
- Actions
-
Actions:
- Town Hall Meetings
- JEVS leadership wanted to take the emotional temperature of staff regarding racial tensions in Philadelphia and the USA. The recent Black Lives Matter protests and charges of widespread police brutality against the African American community have sparked challenges to corporations and social service agencies to take a stand against structural racism.
- Implicit Bias Training and Microaggression Workshops were conducted for staff and leadership.
- Meet with the Diversity Council to review findings from the survey.
- Town Hall Meetings
- Outcomes
-
Outcomes:
- The results from the Town Hall were very revealing. Staff and leaders freely disclosed their thoughts about police officers and the recent protests in Philadelphia.
- Some of the staff reported having direct experiences with police brutality in their communities and families. A few female staff members cried when recalling how their sons were being stopped for minor traffic violations.
- Some were physically attacked by officers when the victim questioned why they were being stopped.
- Staff also questioned why white people refused to acknowledge structural racism in America.
- A staff member stated that one of the white male C-Suite leaders actively complains about the Black Lives Matter movement in staff meetings and actively voices his support for the Blue Lives Matter reactions to Black Lives Matter. JEVS leadership has remained silent about this situation.
- The staff discussed how police are trained to “shoot to kill” when there is no evidence of them being in danger.
- Staff also suggested that leadership makes a commitment to study how exclusionary institutional practices need to be recognized, dismantled and restructured in order to build a new structure that includes more diverse representation within its leadership ranks.
- This work inspired the formation of a Diversity Council that would recommend the organization investigate its current personnel selection and employment practices reinforcing the current leadership structure.
- As a result of the EMC Town Hall talks, JEVS’ leadership approved the formation of the Diversity Council, and committed to hosting a training on Implicit Bias and Microaggressions.
- It’s EMC’s observation that the HR Department of JEVS has committed to applying a piecemeal/patchwork approach to addressing DEI issues within its culture, instead of developing a comprehensive and sustainable approach to structural change that includes diverse and empowered voices. There is also ambivalent buy-in at the C-Suite level.
- The results from the Town Hall were very revealing. Staff and leaders freely disclosed their thoughts about police officers and the recent protests in Philadelphia.
