JEVS’ Leadership and Human Resources Team wanted to know if there are racial tensions among staff members, and to use the responses from the Town Hall meetings to do a deeper dive into staff’s reactions about the internal climate of race relations at JEVS.
Five diversity themes were measured on the DAI: color blindness, conflict avoidance, compassion fatigue, special privileges for marginalized groups and comfort level when discussing diversity issues.
Our Goal:
- Our goal was to make recommendations to leadership and HR for future directions based on the results of the Cultural Audit.
The Corporate Situation:
- JEVS is a comprehensive non-profit, human services, community based corporation, that owns and operates facilities in six Pennsylvania and Delaware communities caring for seniors and disabled populations. The oldest programs in the Philadelphia area include: Behavioral Health and Recovery, Community Support and Adult Residential, Education and Career Services, Employment for People with Disabilities, Long Term Support and In-home Care and Youth Adult Services, all of which are supported by an annual budget of $100 M+ per year.
- Although staffing conflicts in the residential facilities were frequently discussed between HR and EMC, many of these staff members chose not to participate in the assessment. In their Philadelphia urban locations, the largest number of JEVS residential clients are African American. Additionally, some of the staff in these local residential facilities are West African and Caribbean immigrants.
- The staffing conflicts seem to center around patient care, including: turf wars between non-medical administrators and psychiatric staff; different interpretations of agency procedures in client management; and the enforcement of rules with regard to service delivery.
- Although the majority of staff and patients in residential facilities speak regional American English, immigrant support staff with regional accents, British dialects, and cultural colloquialisms became a source of conflict in patient care.
- The majority of staff taking this survey were from the educational and vocational areas.
Strategies:
- Assess the racial climate at JEVS and develop recommendations from the results.
- Present findings to leadership, Human Resources, and the new Diversity Council.
- Develop a report to reveal internal attitudes of various groups disaggregated by race, ethnicity, age and gender.
Actions:
- The Diversity Assessment Inventory (DAI) [Hunt, 1994] was administered to JEVS staff over two weeks.
- One third of the staff volunteered to complete the survey.
- The results were tabulated and a report was presented to JEVS administration and the Diversity Council.
Outcomes:
- According to our findings, JEVS’ staff believes that the organization does value diversity.
- JEVS frequently celebrates diversity by exposing the whole staff to holidays, traditions and foods of other cultures.
- Outside of sharing cultural traditions, JEVS staff tends to avoid discussions about racially loaded workplace conflicts.
- Informally, JEVS white female leaders have mentored people of color into mid-level management and direct service positions.
- There are no formal procedures in place for promotion and retention of diverse leaders in the organization.
- JEVS needs to do a deeper dive in examining how diversity conflicts are handled between staff and supervisors.
- Blind-spots about diversity practices between men and women, POC and generational differences are unexplored.
- As a result of the survey findings and pressure from within JEVS staff, EMC was asked by Human Resources (HR) to conduct an Implicit Bias Workshop.
- A Diversity Council was formed by staff volunteers to study the organization and make recommendations for change.
- Our Goal
-
Our Goal:
- Our goal was to make recommendations to leadership and HR for future directions based on the results of the Cultural Audit.
- The Corporate Situation
-
The Corporate Situation:
- JEVS is a comprehensive non-profit, human services, community based corporation, that owns and operates facilities in six Pennsylvania and Delaware communities caring for seniors and disabled populations. The oldest programs in the Philadelphia area include: Behavioral Health and Recovery, Community Support and Adult Residential, Education and Career Services, Employment for People with Disabilities, Long Term Support and In-home Care and Youth Adult Services, all of which are supported by an annual budget of $100 M+ per year.
- Although staffing conflicts in the residential facilities were frequently discussed between HR and EMC, many of these staff members chose not to participate in the assessment. In their Philadelphia urban locations, the largest number of JEVS residential clients are African American. Additionally, some of the staff in these local residential facilities are West African and Caribbean immigrants.
- The staffing conflicts seem to center around patient care, including: turf wars between non-medical administrators and psychiatric staff; different interpretations of agency procedures in client management; and the enforcement of rules with regard to service delivery.
- Although the majority of staff and patients in residential facilities speak regional American English, immigrant support staff with regional accents, British dialects, and cultural colloquialisms became a source of conflict in patient care.
- The majority of staff taking this survey were from the educational and vocational areas.
- Strategies
-
Strategies:
- Assess the racial climate at JEVS and develop recommendations from the results.
- Present findings to leadership, Human Resources, and the new Diversity Council.
- Develop a report to reveal internal attitudes of various groups disaggregated by race, ethnicity, age and gender.
- Actions
-
Actions:
- The Diversity Assessment Inventory (DAI) [Hunt, 1994] was administered to JEVS staff over two weeks.
- One third of the staff volunteered to complete the survey.
- The results were tabulated and a report was presented to JEVS administration and the Diversity Council.
- Outcomes
-
Outcomes:
- According to our findings, JEVS’ staff believes that the organization does value diversity.
- JEVS frequently celebrates diversity by exposing the whole staff to holidays, traditions and foods of other cultures.
- Outside of sharing cultural traditions, JEVS staff tends to avoid discussions about racially loaded workplace conflicts.
- Informally, JEVS white female leaders have mentored people of color into mid-level management and direct service positions.
- There are no formal procedures in place for promotion and retention of diverse leaders in the organization.
- JEVS needs to do a deeper dive in examining how diversity conflicts are handled between staff and supervisors.
- Blind-spots about diversity practices between men and women, POC and generational differences are unexplored.
- As a result of the survey findings and pressure from within JEVS staff, EMC was asked by Human Resources (HR) to conduct an Implicit Bias Workshop.
- A Diversity Council was formed by staff volunteers to study the organization and make recommendations for change.
