Take DEI from awareness to action

Inclusivity must be part of every policy and benefit

Transcription:

Alyssa Place (00:08):

All right, so we have a bit of a reduced panel today, but it's actually better cuz we'll get to have a really nice intimate conversation. So today we're going to be talking about taking DEI from awareness to Action. And joining us today is Katasha Harley, chief people Officer of coaching platform Bravely, Ivan Hall, senior principal advisor of diversity, equity and inclusion at consulting firm Gartner and Aaron Youngblood, vice president of included health communities at Included health of virtual first healthcare provider. Oh, Before this panel we were talking about our hype songs, but this audience is hype and yeah, You can collect your reward at the door. So let's just dive in. Obviously there's been a huge evolution over the last couple years around the conversation of DEI. I mean, to be honest, in this conference a couple years ago we probably didn't even have a panel about this topic. So I wanted to ask about that evolution for you personally and in your work, what was kind of the turning point for you when this became something that employee employers weren't really talking about to something that really needs to be woven in from the top to the bottom, to healthcare benefits to culture, to everything else. So why don't we just start discussing that kinda evolution over the past couple years?

Katasha Harley (01:33):

Sure. I feel like I can remember the day and I'm certain most of us in this room can, so we all kind of reference back to George Floyd or the pandemic. Thankfully I was already at an organization, so I was working at the New York Times at the time heading up the talent development or L and D space. And I remember as things started to unfold, me being invited into the C-suite more often to just say, what do we need to do? So it changed from me presenting a proposal about plans and I've always worked in human resources, but at the New York Times inclusion was a part of everything we did. So, I always had that DEI angle and it turned from my proposal to just tell us what we need to do and how swiftly you need the budget for it and it's done. So the conversation shifted and I used that to my advantage to drive more change in the organization. So it's unfortunate that it came from a pandemic and it came from the murder of George Floyd. I am thankful that I was at an organization that had already been focusing on inclusion, but it exposed even the gaps when you do have practices in place. So that was it for me.

Aaron Youngblood (02:51):

I was just going to say what I think is so interesting is I think diversity and inclusion has been around for such a long time, but what's so new is the equity piece of things. And I think that's where a lot of organizations are starting to spend a lot of their time now to say how do we make our practices more equitable? We're doing an incredible job in focusing on talent management and talent mobility and coaching and things of that, but how do we do about pay equity? How do we do about benefits, equity and things of that nature. So, I think it's been around for a while and I think over the genesis it's really being focused on equity now.

Ivan Hall (03:24):

Yeah, I think from my perspective, I actually had kind of two triggering points before the pandemic on George Floyd. I moved into the more space, HR sales and things like that and I wanted to be a lot more authentic in my presentation. So I kind of got into DEI that way through my own personal journey. And then after the pandemic and George Floyd I moved more into the advisory space and I got to see so many clients that wanted to do better in this space and wanted to support their employees. And I was so moved by that sentiment that it kind of urged me to learn more about DEI and ingrain myself more in it and dig a little bit deeper. I think a lot of companies are really wanting to do the right things but DEI can be confusing and so that's why we're here to help them move the needle along.

Alyssa Place (04:16):

And Katasha, when you talked about at the New York Times and they were working inclusivity into all different levels, what did that mean before and then what did that look like once you got in there and were like, here's what needs to happen?

Katasha Harley (04:30):

Sure. So, I initially started and I ran an HR business partner group and we looked at all of the practices and policies we were responsible for and said, is it inclusive? So it's all the questions that people are actually having conversations about today, but the piece about equity and how you unpacked that and what it really means became more poignant. So for example, we've always had an engagement survey and you generally look at how experiences are for women and men or by race. I started to look at the intersectional differences within that space and other presenters earlier today even talked about it, but it wasn't just about, well let's look at the LGBTQ community, it's look at the black queer community, let's really zoom into the experiences and see where they're different. And so that's the one opportunity you have to actually do something that doesn't seem like it's equality, but it actually breeds more equality and more equity. So some things we did pulse like that shift in really looking at intersectional differences. We created a program for one I brought on bravely so I can talk about that in a second. And then I joined bravely, so that's another story. But we created a program for Black women who were showing that their experiences were different from everyone else in the organization. And previously we may have said, well if you run L and D, you have to offer it to everyone. No, right, because these folks are having a different experience that gives them a disadvantage with regards to promotion and growth, et cetera. So we're going to zoom in there. And so it's been remarkable what the changes have been cuz of that.

Aaron Youngblood (06:26):

So Katasha, if I can just say one thing first, I applaud your work about really listening to your employees because that's a really big part of DE and I. I think organizations do a really good job of doing the best of their ability to listen to their employees, but sometimes it's only surface deep and it's only a very high level engagement survey. I think employers that I've seen be incredibly successful have really taken the time to dig deep, talk to employee resource groups, talk to diversity councils look at that anecdotal and qualitative data that goes along with it. So this is another example. So included health, we're really focused on elevating the standard of care for everyone in every community. And we really do mean that. And we do lots of things from navigation, extra medical opinion, virtual primary care. But part of it is also bringing healthcare forward for those in the LGBTQ plus and black communities. But what's really important is that individuals need to listen and understand what are the needs of employees before you can solve for those. So we had the privilege of working with many large organizations like Walmart, state Farm, Genentech, Medtronic, and the list goes on and on. And we conducted a survey with individuals within their black employee resource groups and we got over 3,200 surveys and we did focus groups. So really going to individuals to say, what is your intersection with healthcare? Is it, can you navigate your employee's benefit ecosystem? What are you looking for? And what we found out is that truly all the hard work that the benefits team had put together, it wasn't being experienced in the way that the benefits team had wanted. So individuals in the black community were for example, looking for culturally affirming and concordant care and they couldn't find that they were really looking for better support around maternal fetal health and things of that nature. So that's kind of a long-winded set way of saying really listen to employees and try to understand where their friction points are to bring I practices forward.

Ivan Hall (08:22):

Yeah, I definitely wanna dig in a little bit deeper to both listen to employees and the equity piece. One of the things that we work with a lot of clients on is allyship. And I think if we dig deeper into the allyship kind of bucket, I think it's really important to listen to your marginalized communities about what they need from their allies. But on the flip side of that, I think it's also really important to help allies understand the cultures of which they're trying to advocate for. A lot of allies kind of start the journey of I support you, I love you, I want you to do great things and I want you to move forward. And then because they don't really necessarily understand the culture of that person or the intersection of that person, they kind of lose a little bit of focus on the differences between their journey as an ally and then that person of color or that queer person or that queer person of color, et cetera. Or let's say you have a disabled veteran, it's a similar thing. You don't quite understand their journey unless you really immerse yourself in the culture as well. So I think it's really important to give employees those glimpses behind the curtain and let them understand people from a different perspective.

Katasha Harley (09:25):

Can I chime in? I'm sorry.

Ivan Hall (09:26):

Yeah, of course.

Katasha Harley (09:29):

So Case in point something that I've done with senior leaders, for example around inclusive leadership. So yes, it can be a training that you go to, you can learn about allyship, but I've intentionally paired senior leaders with people across difference just to engage in a conversation. This is not a part of a formal mentor program, which we also have, but this is about learning about what someone enjoys who they are as a person. Because guess what, you may not be able to go, you may not have invited them to the golf course, you didn't know anything about them. And when you think about how relationships and organizations work and transformative work for the HR community to look at those small interactions and the meaning in the impact that they can have. So definitely listen and listen deeply.

Aaron Youngblood (10:18):

How insightful when you get to see someone's true lived experiences.

Alyssa Place (10:23):

And I think for this topic and many topics in the workplace, there might be some fear, there might be a little bit of resistance to having some of these conversations not knowing how you relate to each other. You factor in the isolation of covid. Has that been an experience that you've all had to go through as leaders and how have you overcome some of those hurdles?

Ivan Hall (10:46):

You mind if I jump in first? Please?

Alyssa Place (10:47):

Yeah, go ahead.

Ivan Hall (10:48):

So I work with a ton of clients and pushback is one of the cornerstones of some of our DEI research. And we work really hard to give two sides to kind of that pushback coin. We give emotional reasons why DEI is important. It changes lives, it gets people in positions that they weren't normally in before. It lets people in entry level positions see people that look like them and identify as them in other positions and et cetera. And then the other side, we give business reasons why DEI is so important. So it increases innovation, it increases productivity, it lets you move into new markets easier, et cetera, et cetera. And so when you prescribe a solution to pushback that has kind of an emotional and a business side to it, you're going to be able to win people over because one or the other, if not both, that's going to click something in their brain that's going to kind of let them listen to the conversation instead of being a little bit more reactionary. Sometimes when you say DEI, certain parts of the population naturally freeze or become afraid. Unfortunately just DEI has been a little politicized. So that's kind of something we have to work through in this space. But I do feel like if you give people an understanding about why this is important and why it can impact them and then how they can impact DEI and how they can change someone's life or make more revenue for the company through DEI efforts, you're really going to be able to get leaders more on board with the DEI processing or strategy.

Aaron Youngblood (12:14):

I think culturally too, you just need to encourage everyone to say that this is a safe space and that you should be asking questions within our organization. It is very common for everyone whenever you introduce yourself to use their pronouns. So I always say I'm Aaron Youngblood, I use he him pronouns, it's part of our slack, it's part of our email, it's part of everything that we do. And I think just doing that creates that very inclusive culture and just from the top down creates that safe environment for people to feel free to ask questions and engage.

Alyssa Place (12:43):

I'm also curious about this thinking that we did this one thing that's enough and you have employers maybe saying we're giving people what they want or they're not using these benefits or they're not engaging in ERGs. What's some of your advice for pushing employers past that kind of I'm blanking on the word, but losing steam on some of these things that were so top of mind a couple years ago. How can you encourage them to keep that right at the top of their minds?

Katasha Harley (13:16):

I'll jump in this time. We've certainly seen it or experienced it post it's been a couple 18 months now and you can start to see things slow down. I go back to building off of what Ivan said, so if you know what the statistics are and that it impacts the bottom line in productivity, how do you weave DEI? It's not just about wellbeing. It's very important and I think there's a lot that we can do even from a benefits perspective on it, but the way you get your CEO bought in is to continuously prove how it impacts the bottom line. And so when you use the DEI scorecard or whatever your measure is, I remember and I can talk about it from a recent experience, we had five priorities for the company and one of the priorities was to make it a best place to work. And that's where DEI lived. And I looked at the other four priorities and I'm like, there's DEI woven in all these who are priorities. So when you're talking about the consumer and what the consumer, the personas are right? There's a DEI bend in Aaron, if you're not thinking about it, we're going to lose consumers When you're looking at your ARR, there's a DEI being. And so then they literally changed all the priorities to weave in words that nod to DEI. And so then it's top of mind. So every time they're reporting out they're talking about DEI and then the wellbeing piece is still relevant but it's now much more of a bigger conversation. And so weave it into everything you do is what I would recommend.

Ivan Hall (14:59):

Yeah, absolutely. I think from making sure you don't get stagnant, I'll touch on kind of the DEI strategy piece in the ERG piece. Cuz ERGs are actually one of my specialty is. So from a strategy perspective, definitely cosign making sure it's woven into other parts of the business. I think leadership accountability is really important when it comes to the strategy. If you're not holding your leaders accountable for DEI, they're natural focused. Just because it's the job of a leader to make sure the department's functioning at a high level, they're naturally going to start leaning back towards those revenue generating goals that they have. So making sure if you weave in that accountability for leaders and having rewards and recognition and different things like that in the pipeline is really important. I think from an ERG perspective, I've heard this from a lot of clients that they feel like their ERGs are kind of losing steam right now or that they're not having the amount of turnout that they wanted at events and things like that. And I think again, going back to cultural and intersections, excuse me, I think it's really important to listen to your populations and understand what they want from that ERG. Because if you try to cookie cutter approach ERGs across the board, you're going to miss the mark on what communities want. So for example, a lot of companies start off first with a women's ERG. It's kind of the obvious one to get your dip your toes into the ERG world and usually they have great success with it. And then when they try to emulate the women's ERG across Latinx, Asia-Pacific Islanders, black queer veterans, they don't always see the same results. It's cuz those populations don't want the same things. So I think that's important. I think on the other token of that a lot of ERGs have become saturated with allies, which is really wonderful. We love allies, we want you to be a part, we want you to contribute. However, sometimes the allies voices can overshadow the voices of the communities the ERG is trying to serve. And so you want to make sure that within your ERG space you're creating enough room and breath for the marginalized groups to rise while still giving training and support to your allies. So it's a very interesting balancing act there, but with the right tools in place, you're able to meet the needs of everyone and foster a true inclusive environment.

Aaron Youngblood (17:14):

To answer your question, I think we live in a culture of immediacy. So everyone wants instant results and to be very honest, don't let perfect stand in the way of progress. This is a cultural thing, it takes time. And to your question or to your comment about ERG is losing steam, I'm going to say something that's very non-conventional ERG leaders should be compensated. So we have these group of individuals who do tremendous work on behalf of an organization and they're doing it off the side of their desk. If you're going to invest in DE and I and you think it's so important, you should also invest in your ERGs and compensate these individuals for the amazing work that they do and see how much more that motivates and creates a culture of inclusivity.

Katasha Harley (17:53):

So we do compensate, ERG leaders. So at bravely and bravely small, so we don't have an E R G but DEI B task force to, and then we have projects that stem from that. And in previous organizations the shift came post George Floyd, and so it was already on the table. So that's where things are. You have these great ideas, it was already on the table and then we just turned the knob to say, no, we needed to have done this before and we're going to do it, do it now. Bravely for instance, I wanna talk about again something in terms of keeping things top of mind for senior leaders. So Bravely is a coaching company and what we do is we democratize coaching. And so it's offered to every level within the organization, but we can't customize some programs. So around DEI, I had every senior leader paired with a coach to talk about those issues. And so it can be very uncomfortable when you're talking across difference like you said before. And they had a safe space to talk through whatever they were going to say to their employees, the pain point for them, what they're struggling with and they came out with a plan and felt more poised and prepared to address it and then they have someone to coach them along the way. And I think that helps keep it top of mind.

Ivan Hall (19:18):

I think before we move on real quick, one thing on that I wanna point out, I think it's also really important that leaders support other leaders in creating a transparent and safe psychological safety space for their employees to voice those kind of concerns. I can say one thing I love about Gartner is that our leaders are so open to hearing about our lived experiences through work and making changes to make our experiences better, that it has kind of pushed DEI for the whole company up and it's something that's really cool to see and it's nice to see that happening at clients as well. When they create those safe spaces where employees feel valued and they can open up you'll be surprised how much more you get out of your employees cuz now they feel valued, they feel seen, they feel recognized, and they're going to naturally put in more for you and push the company further.

Alyssa Place (20:06):

Yeah, I wanted to circle back on what you had mentioned before about allyship and what that looks like. Also, some of the training, I mean obviously it's not enough to just say we're offering this program, so I'm an ally now. It seems like it's a much more actionable role that you need to play. So if you wanna talk a little bit about how can people be better allies, what does that look like? What kind of training is involved in that?

Ivan Hall (20:32):

Yeah, so I'll start off from a advisory standpoint. I think there are things that people can do outside of the workplace that help them be better allies. So reading books by marginalized communities a lot of people read self-help and leadership books specifically go out and look for self-help and leadership books that are written by black or Latin X or veteran authors to get a different perspective of what self-development looks like in these communities. I always tell people whenever I do bigger panels or things like this you will be surprised what you personally can give back to a marginalized community. It's not always about your business kind of things. A woman I worked with said I want to help. She's like, I just don't know how. And I said, well what do you do for fun? And she's like, well I play piano. And I was like, well go to an elementary or middle school in a marginalized community and volunteer your hours to teach piano. You're giving these kids an outlet that they would not have had otherwise. So look at the things that you do naturally for your fun, whether it be hiking or all kinds of random events, I don't know, but kind of look at what you do and think about what could you give back to those communities and put into those communities to give people visibility into things they never saw. I for example, love whitewater rafting random, I know, but it's not an event that you traditionally see a lot of people of color going out doing. And if we're not for someone bringing me into and letting me experience that activity, I would never known that. I love it. So it's kind of thing right there from a business perspective on allyship, I think it's definitely recognizing bias within your company that may be taking place. Let's say for example you are in sourcing and recruiting and you want to prefer the DEI look at your job recs and see if there's gender neutral language. You'd be surprised how many women are discouraged from applying for jobs based off language. The word assertive is my least favorite word to ever sing in a job wreck. Cuz for men it means assertive, but when you apply it to a woman, it means something completely different to some people's minds. So I think that's one. I think if you dig in deeper and again offer cultural events to let people see visibility in the culture, offering mentorship and different sponsorship programming is also really important.

Aaron Youngblood (22:47):

I like that you said mentorship cuz that's a big part of allyship. Identifying someone who might be of a different race or of different sexual orientation or gender identity or gender expression and building that mentorship program and learning from them and asking questions simply right there. That's allyship.

Katasha Harley (23:04):

You said it all.

Alyssa Place (23:07):

And I mean it seems like in some ways this can be very overwhelming, but I do wanna touch on the assistance that you can get from using data. So if anyone would like to discuss how data has helped them kind of advance some of these efforts and keep some of these ideas kind of flowing for people when they have that tool at their disposal.

Katasha Harley (23:29):

So love data, I use data for the HR people, professional, business professional, the data will get you so much further. And so from a DEI perspective there, I believe the CEO of Twilio said, you know, wanna use data to move not prove something, right? So it's not just about the stat of where you are in DEI, but begin reporting on how that's moved your population from point A to point B or the impact that it's having when you weave the stories around the data becomes so much more powerful. I mentioned the program for black women, I would not have been able to launch the program without showing the gap and the employee experience based on the data from the employee survey. So there's a mix of quantitative and qualitative data that you wanna get. Keeping a scorecard, something that's very clean and crisp, there's usually thousands of points of data you can reference. If you tie it back in to what's the highest priorities for the organization, it helps get move things along much more quickly. And it keeps you honest. People generally feel, it's amazing when I work with leaders and they're like, I think we've been doing a really great job. And I'm like, well actually it may feel that way. Or maybe the people that you speak to twice a month are telling you the things that you want to hear, but collectively here is the experience and here's the numbers to prove it and then it gets them to move in a different way.

Aaron Youngblood (25:13):

Yeah, I think quantitative data is amazing. Everyone loves Excel, everyone loves the spreadsheet, but don't underestimate the power of qualitative data. So that's incredibly important too because there you can filter out the noise and the signal a lot there too. In terms of, another really good example of best practice is really employing a self-identification program within your organization. So really encouraging individuals to be able to self-identify race, ethnicities, sexual orientation, gender identity faith, other those data points. And really mentioned that it's a safe space so that this data is only going to be used to improve and inform the direction of our business. But I will mention is sometimes data is hard to get and that's another problem. So again, as I mentioned earlier, I'm in the health equity and benefits equity side of things. So oftentimes we're working with employers who want to better understand, well what is the health of my black employee population? What is the health of people identify as being LGBTQ plus? And at present there isn't a fantastic way to attach those to claims data. So those markers aren't there. So there was an individual who spoke earlier today, and I'm going to steal her term, and she uses the term data quilting. So oftentimes you have to pull data from lots of different areas and pull them together to try to make that picture. So I fundamentally agree data is so important for a direction, but you gotta pull it from lots of different areas.

Katasha Harley (26:39):

Can I say something else? So yes, the data that you reference, it's like beyond what the EOC requires, right? Yes. So you gotta go deeper and to do that, employees need to trust you.

Aaron Youngblood (26:50):

A hundred percent.

Katasha Harley (26:51):

You may not get it a hundred percent the first time, but the more you build trust, they'll be willing to disclose. The more you move on the data previously, the more they'll be willing to disclose the next time. So it it's a journey. It's not a short game.

Aaron Youngblood (27:06):

We've done a bunch of surveys, sorry, anyway a bunch of surveys with the organizations and asking them about are you out at work? And so many individuals have responded and say that they're not out at work because they're so fearful. It's also generational people and different generations are very uncomfortable about disclosing their sexuality. So yeah, trust is a huge component.

Ivan Hall (27:27):

Piggybacking on both amazing points here I think from a self ID campaign is very important. But I think you need to make sure that your leaders are very honest about the culture they have. Because a lot of times I see people roll out self ID campaigns, they're like, no one responded. And when we start digging into the inclusivity of their culture, the culture's not there for the employees to believe that you have their best interest at heart when they're doing self IDs or employee experience surveys. So I think making sure that your branding is on point, making sure that your CEO and executive minus one s are all posting about DEI and talking about it and there's action being taken, I think is really important there. I will selfly self admit that data is not my happy place. I went to school the music, I went first to school the first time for music. My brain is just set up a little differently. However, I will say even though I'm not a data person, it's so important. I see a lot of companies that will put out their goals for DEI and their amazing lofty goals and I'm so happy to see they're taking it seriously. But then when we start drilling down, I realize they haven't done the work to understand their employee population or the populations that they're hiring from to realize if those goals are realistic or not. So I think you really need to make sure you have the data to inform your strategy, otherwise you're going to miss the mark on certain areas and then you may end up losing some of your employees upon that journey because they no longer believe in your vision.

Alyssa Place (28:53):

And I'd love to hear what you are all doing now. What's something that you are implementing at your organizations that you're super excited about or optimistic about that's kind of taking all this stuff and putting it together into real action?

Katasha Harley (29:08):

Something really recent, the ink isn't dry yet, but we're all in the midst of this Rovy wade. and how as organizations we're going to support employees or what our stance is on it. And I'm going to talk a little, I'm on another panel about caregiving tomorrow, but I'm in the process of putting together a wellbeing stipend. So what is the best way to move forward in supporting financially employees that may need financial support for reproductive care? But I'm not going to establish a new group health plan. So for all the benefits of folks in the room, exactly what I'm talking about, right? It's complex. I don't wanna create this health plan, there's tax implications, et cetera. Have a stipend, use it however you wish. It feels scary. We we're not going to ask for receipts, we don't know what's going on, but it's serving a need. And what it opens up I like to refer to, there's this curb cut effect that I talk about, I don't know if you've heard of it, but when you establish a program for the few marginalized, it actually benefits so many others. So when they started cutting the curves and city sidewalks for people with wheelchairs, it actually benefited mothers and fathers and whomever with babies and strollers. So it helps others. So my goal for the stipend is the stipend. Use it as you wish. Let's say you wanna take an L and D course, I may ask for a receipt for that, but it's like a stipend for your wellbeing, inclusive of reproductive care, but inclusive of gender. Whatever you wanna do, I wanna support you where you are and what you need for your life right now. And I know that it impacts how you show up at work and how you're going to be productive and more successful. So that's what I'm working on right now.

Ivan Hall (31:03):

I think from my perspective, some of the things that we're doing in Gartner that are really exciting is we're doing a lot of intersectional ERG work. So our ERGs have never really been separate, separate. We've all kind of talked to each other and work together and share ideas, but now we're really highlighting where do places connect. And so for example, later in the year we're going to do the trans day of visibility and we're going to do a group event for bride and pride in the black employee network coming together to highlight the trans woman of color that started the Stonewall riots. And there's all sorts of different points of intersectionality that you can kind of connect to. And so I'm excited for that. I'm also excited that we're looking at the generational needs with intersectionality. So for example, I'll use me and my mother for example. We are very similar people, God bless us. But from a generational standpoint, I'm a millennial. I'm very solidly in that generation. I apologize to everybody and I am very transparent. I'm very open about things. My life experiences, good, bad and ugly. I feel like by being transparent I can show people with similar stories. You can make it, you can overcome, you can do this. My mother friendly, bubbly lover, but she's just from a generation that's a little bit more closed off. And so if I tell her about things than I'm talking about doing at work, self IDs and things like that, mom's like, I would never fill that out. And I was like, well, why? She's like, we don't talk about those kind of things. And I was like, I had to realize from a generational standpoint, DEI kind of hits differently. And so we're kind of working on helping different generations connect to the DEI mission and how to bring themselves to work. So I'm excited about what we're doing.

Aaron Youngblood (32:50):

One of the things that we're doing at work that I'm incredibly passionate about is we as an organization have taken a really firm stand in saying that we really want to elevate the SARA of care for those in the black community. Understanding that individuals in the black community unfortunately have a lack of access to care, concordant care or clinically competent care or culturally competent care in certain geographies. There's an erosion of trust that individuals in the black community may have with the healthcare system and working really, really hard to mitigate that. So I personally am part of the black community. I'm biracial so I have the white side of my family and the black side of my family. And I tell the story a lot but when the pandemic hit and the vaccines were rolled out, I saw this very interesting aspect to my family by which when the vaccines were available, everyone on the white side of my family immediately signed up and everyone got the jab. And I looked at the black side of my family and everyone's like, mm-hmm nope, I'm not getting that jab. And I'm like, what's going on? And it was because of the lack of trust in the healthcare system. And then to add insult to injury, the black semi, my family is from Montgomery, Alabama, which is right next to Tuskegee. And I think a lot of people what knew what happened with the SY house. So what that means that there's this culturally ingrained lack of trust with the healthcare system. So our ability to really bring forward a representative team of individuals to support black people through their healthcare journey about identifying access points of care, so black people and white coats that people can go to. And then really leaning into the needs of what the black community are. So not black disease states by any mean, but disease states that disproportionately impact the black community. So hypertension, cardiovascular disease, veto maternal health. I think we've all heard the stats around maternal health. Women black women are three times more likely to die than white Hispanic women. Black children are two times more likely to die. But what's interesting is that when there's a black doctor involved, that number gets cut down by half. So there's something missing here. So that's something I'm really excited about that we're doing within our organization that we're sharing with lots of others. And I think we're making a meaningful change in the black community.

Katasha Harley (34:54):

Aaron, you brought, so speaking of that difference, you made me think about black men, especially within the healthcare system and just getting them to go to the doctor, their stats around that they don't go as much as they should, but something that bravely is also doing, not healthcare, which is so transformative, but identity matching with our coaches. And it's all with the same principle that we want employees to feel comfortable. And so if we think there's a blocker to getting you to coaching, and especially if you think about people who have traditionally been coached, they're senior executives which have traditionally not been marginalized people within the ranks. So what is a coach? How do I even engage in a coach? And so if you're more comfortable, whether it's based on race, whether it's based on gender, LGBTQ, whatever, you have the option to select a coach that you wanna talk to. And it's equi making equity to access even with coaches. So I'm excited about that.

Ivan Hall (35:53):

Yeah, I think that's really cool.

Alyssa Place (35:55):

And all that stuff is so great. I mean it's just inspiring to hear your energy and your enthusiasm. I mean, what keeps you optimistic? What keeps you energized to keep doing this work?

Katasha Harley (36:11):

Gosh, the reason why I got into the, I used to be a social worker. So I've gone from working in group homes for teenage girls where they were taken advantage of and abused and dealing with suicide and all kinds of things. So in my mind, every day I'm like, I can solve any problem at work because I have this perspective of the populations that I've served before. And then I just think personally for me, I'm a black woman, clearly I've come from, I said if I had a theme song, it would be started from the bottom. Now I'm here. So my family came from hard times. And so that for me and seeing where we've come from, I know that anything is possible and DEI is a long journey and you need people fighting for it. I'm not a DEI consultant, I haven't run a DEI practice, but what I can do for the people team in HR and organizations I find is even more powerful.

Ivan Hall (37:13):

Yeah, I think for me it's two fold. I think so obviously I, I'm a queer black male but I'm also bipolar. I was raised by a single mother. My grandfather was a World War II veteran. And so just across the scope of my life, I've seen how different the American experience or lived experience in general is for different people. And I naturally want to help as many people as possible kind of find their American dream, their piece of the pie, so to speak. And then from a work perspective I will admit, I was slam this to my boss the other day, the feeling that I get when a client says, that's a great idea, I'm going to do that. And then we have our second session and they're like, oh my God, I brought this to the CEO and he loved it and we're going to do this, that, and that. And another, it's the best feeling. It means that work is really being done. And the little piece that I'm adding to these organizations means that thousands upon millions of employees are going to have a better work experience and more equitable experience are going to get to you, have doors open for them that may not have even been doors, there may have been walls. And I just feel like that is the coolest feeling and I don't, I wouldn't give that up for anything

Aaron Youngblood (38:33):

What he said. No

Alyssa Place (38:36):

Tough act to follow.

Aaron Youngblood (38:38):

Yeah, I think there was an element in both of what you said and people like that's so amazing about this work. And I have the ability to take DE and I practices and improve total population health. Tens of thousands of millions of people improve lives. That's why I do this.

Alyssa Place (38:57):

And for the people here today, I mean, what would your takeaway be if they could leave this room and call their boss or call up an employee? What's the thing that they need to be doing today, next week in the immediate to advance their own DEI goals?

Aaron Youngblood (39:12):

I'll go first on this one. Earmark that budget. That is probably the number one thing. I read an article I was telling my panelists earlier, an article recently that said, post 2020 DE and I budgets have been decreasing. And I'm hopeful to think that it's only because of the economic headwinds that I think a lot of organizations are facing and that when things turn around, those budgets will return. I'm hoping it's not because of a lack of interest or there has not been social injustice that has happened. It is now encouraging people to so secure those budgets. Now if you're benefit professionals or wherever you are, ask for those dollars upfront. Don't always have to rely on reaching across the isle to get those things. Secure it now. So when you truly do need it, you're not scrambling to find it.

Ivan Hall (40:02):

Yeah.

Katasha Harley (40:03):

So two things I would say. What you do now today, throughout the next week, whether it's you personally or the leaders that you support, schedule them to meet someone across the virtual room that they don't know and just make that a part of their normal routine. I'm going to set up a coffee or whatever. We're going to have this once a month every quarter. So that's like immediate short term, long term. I'm going to go back to that quantity side, have that dashboard. So brush out out what you said you do for the organization in the height of George Floyd and just see, score yourselves. How successful have you been? And wherever you are, how can you be better?

Ivan Hall (40:47):

I have two. So the first one is all of you, all your leaders, encourage them to post and talk about DEI have your CEOs do the CEO action pledge and then talk about it. You'll be surprised the excitement that comes from your marginalized communities when they start seeing DEI being more vocally spoken about, especially from the top down. On the flip side of that coin, when you start talking about DEI, parts of the population, especially if you have more homogeneous type departments or organizations are going to feel apprehensive, create safe spaces to let that part of the population know that they are safe in DEI efforts. I hear from a lot of clients that we have our sales group, our technology group, et cetera, that's worried that they'll lose their jobs because we're pushing DEI and that's never the case. So make sure that for those part of the populations that are more afraid or don't understand the real depths of DEI, make sure that they also have their safe spaces. We need to make sure that inclusivity is a big part of the DEI bucket and making sure that everyone feels like they're safe and psycho, psychologically safe and that they belong.

Katasha Harley (42:00):

Can I say something? So to that point we've run dialogue spaces for that exact reason and you can cut them anyway. They can be for ERGs, they can be for your managers, it can be for your employees, but it's like a safe space. When you have a third party do it. You can protect some of the confidentiality there for people's voices to truly be heard.

Ivan Hall (42:25):

Yeah. Real talks are a great way, please, But real talks where you talk about the situations in society that are going on right now because this is a very different era. There's just been so many major events that have happened within this generation of people that people are having a much harder time now disconnecting from outside influences. Things are in our ears. I, for one, use Twitter to kind of let me know what news articles I need to go read. Twitter's not my only source of news. That's not okay. But like CNN.

Katasha Harley (43:04):

I worked at the New York Times, let's talk about

Ivan Hall (43:06):

Oh okay. But New York Times or CNN, I have them, I have them up and they'll like the little tweet will come up saying new article. And so then I'll go read it and depending on what it is, it might influence my mood and my productivity and things like that. So it's really hard to disconnect in the social media age that you were talking about earlier that we have. So being really aware of offering spaces where people can really just get that out and talk about it with other people is really important because that lets them kind of collectively sigh of I'm heard, I'm seen, I'm okay and now I can go back to my day job and not feel as cut off. And it's also impacted by Covid and the virtual hybrid world we're in too. People are sometimes just in their apartments by themselves for day on days on end unless they go to the grocery store or the gym or something. And that's also something that's impacting kind of how people show up to work in their authenticity.

Aaron Youngblood (43:57):

So now I wanna add one more thing. So you first go ahead, but this little thing is clicking down so.

Katasha Harley (44:02):

But listen, if you think about never, I think in the history of America, have we had our employees working so much remotely and exposed to the news all day long. I mean, I had it because I came from news organizations, but now you have a whole swath of employees and there's no way that they're not bringing that into the workplace. And so wellbeing is going to continue to be a priority for our organizations and we have to prioritize our people first.

Aaron Youngblood (44:36):

And on that same vein, meeting people where they are. So being aware of what's going around peripherally in this world. So I'll leave one number with everyone and it's probably outdated already and it's 320. And that happens to be the number of anti LGBTQ plus legislation bills that have been presented. And you know, can't always think about what's happening just cuz you're headquartered in Minneapolis or elsewhere. You need to be broadly thinking about what's impacting your employees, where they are and what are you doing to help them and help them solve those problems. So that's another immediate thing that I think organizations can do.

Ivan Hall (45:11):

I know we're about up on time, but one more thing I want to throw out really quickly.

Aaron Youngblood (45:15):

It's coming up now, I think we did something wrong.

Ivan Hall (45:18):

From working with clients and being a Malone generation, I think there were a lot of mistakes made when it came to millennials entering the workforce and how they were handled and governed. Please don't make that mistake with Genin Z, with Gen Z, gen Z, a lot of people that I've worked with want to treat them like millennials cuz there are some similarities technology-wise. Gen Z is a radical social justice generation. They're also radical and flexibility. Please be aware that each generation has different needs within the organization and make sure you handle those accordingly, because that's also going to hurt not only your pretension of this new generation coming up, but also the way that they show up to work and the way that they're going to give themselves to your organization

Katasha Harley (45:59):

And their expectations.

Ivan Hall (46:02):

Yeah, completely different. They want completely different things.

Alyssa Place (46:05):

Well, we are a little bit over time, obviously there's still so much that we could discuss. So please feel free to find everyone here in the hall and around and thank you all so much. This has been a really wonderful conversation and hopefully a lot to take away.

Aaron Youngblood (46:20):

Thank You.

Ivan Hall (46:20):

Thank you so much.