What can a certified B Corporation get out of a Diversity Works engagement? Quite a bit, it turns out. AMS Fulfillment attributes its impressive safety record to its long-time DEI commitment. Focusing on DEI has helped strengthen its culture of safety and reassure employees that they can speak up for themselves. However, our evaluation identified an opportunity to better connect the company’s good intentions and its culture. AMS has many DEI projects, including a partnership with the sheriff’s department to employ justice-involved individuals and a leadership training program open to all employees. But it was lacking a plan to connect the projects and measure their progress. 

Our final report recommended that AMS formalize a DEI committee and implement metrics in multiple areas to track progress. “Even for a certified B Corp and social enterprise that has been focused on diversity for years, we identified areas for improvement. They also helped us articulate our DEI value proposition to better explain why it matters to us. We’re grateful for the experience and excited to take the next steps!” – Ken Wiseman, Chief People Officer, AMS Fulfillment

Like many Diversity Works clients, a $200 million renewable energy company came to us because its employees wanted to know what their employer was doing to take action on racial justice. They thought they needed racial bias training, but we recommended they take a step back and conduct an evaluation to make sure they were solving the right problem.

Our engagement uncovered opportunities to break down existing barriers to move diversity in the talent pipeline and to increase the company’s impact through supplier diversity and strategic partnerships. At the end of the engagement, the company was grateful for Diversity Works’ recommendation to evaluate their performance before investing in training. During the course of the two-month engagement, the company had presented their DEI challenge at a quarterly management meeting, identified an internal DEI lead, and initiated a process to update the company values to reflect their new DEI commitments.

How can a community nonprofit leverage DEI to deliver its mission? Through a Diversity Works engagement to help turn their good intentions into a smart strategy. Like a lot of organizations that take proactive steps to evaluate their DEI performance, the Child & Family Network Centers (CFNC) of Alexandria, VA, is taking positive steps despite not having a written roadmap to guide its DEI efforts. Our engagement helped CFNC identify how a roadmap can help CFNC achieve its mission and better serve its learners and their families. For CFNC, making a concerted effort to improve its DEI performance means strengthening the organizational culture, increasing the demand for its services among families from a wide range of backgrounds, and establishing itself as a leader in the community. In short, a smart DEI strategy is helping CFNC deliver its mission. 

“The Diversity Works evaluation got me thinking about what equity means in the workplace and I realized I wasn’t being equitable with a very valuable asset: my time. I was giving more of my time to people who asked for it. Now I make a deliberate effort to check in with all employees on a regular basis to make sure everyone feels heard and has equal access to my ear.” – Lisa Carter, former Executive Director, Child & Family Networks Centers