Just because I haven’t written a DEI reflections blog post in a few months doesn’t mean that EverTrue’s DEI Committee has stopped working. You better believe we still meet each week and continue to chip away at a handful of initiatives and projects!
One big change for us this year was actually reworking how we facilitate our meetings. We realized that our regular weekly meeting format was becoming a running to-do list instead of being an open, dynamic conversation and, in general, things were feeling a bit dry. So we decided to shake things up!
As such, we divided ourselves into task forces depending on our own interests and passions. We now have three task forces that work within the following buckets:
Organizational Change
- Focus on our culture and what experiences makes up the fabric of our company
- Review existing processes to ensure they reinforce inclusive behavior
- Raise awareness around DEI at all levels within the company
- Create space for important dialogue and discussion
Recruiting & Talent
- Standardize the process for attracting talent and evaluate the onboarding process
- Make recommendations to hiring managers in regards to job descriptions, places to post job openings, and the interview process
- Conduct demographic survey/reporting and complete benchmarking work to provide insight as to where we can improve
Integrating DEI into the Business Model
- Recognize where DEI plays a role within EverTrue’s core business
- Give EverTrue back to the community through TrueBeliever program
- Integrate DEI values into our case studies, marketing, and highlight customer success stories in regards to DEI in advancement
- Audit marketing materials for diverse representation
Every other week we meet as a big group and the in-between weeks are devoted to working in your task force. This gives us the ability to work in tandem with one/two other people on initiatives that we are passionate about and get more done because we can be hyper-focused and accountable.
It always amazes me how much we are able to achieve in a short period of time. While it doesn’t feel like we accomplish a lot in the moment, whenever I write these blog posts, I think, “WOW”. So check out the list below for some of our highlights from the last six months. And this is a nice reminder to try writing out your own accomplishments along the way too! Personal, professional, and everything in between. It’s proven to be a great way to acknowledge and celebrate progress.
- We pitched a new 2022 Holiday Calendar to our management team that is more reflective of EverTrue’s values and our DEI Mission Statement. This includes taking Juneteenth as a day of learning/service, recognizing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, International Women’s Day, and Indigenous People’s Day.
- We standardized the places that hiring managers must post new positions to include a number of diverse job boards including the Black Career Women’s Network, Diversifying Tech, HLPA, and PowerToFly.
- We revamped our job description template and in particular our ‘About Us’ section to include our DEI priorities and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.
- We are celebrating Pride Month and in turn, our LGBTQIA+ colleagues, customers and friends through an updated logo. Each Friday during June, we are highlighting someone from the Black LGBTQIA+ community in Slack. We are sharing that individual’s history and legacy with one another so that we can learn together, make connections to today, and apply lessons to our daily life.
- We are in the process of adding a pronoun field to our constituent file to appear on constituent records within the EverTrue platform. The visibility of pronouns reinforces respect for someone’s identity and encourages customers to import pronouns.
- We shared the findings of our first-ever Demographic Survey with the company. We felt it was important to be transparent and allow our colleagues to understand the makeup of their peers. As EverTrue continues to hire, we want to ensure we know where we have room to grow in our intersectionality. The survey results showed a handful of gaps - some more obvious than others - that we can now work towards filling in the coming months.
Perhaps our most important activity from this half of the year was our first “Around the Watercooler with the DEI Committee” event. We opened up a Zoom room to anyone who wanted to join us in discussing what DEI means to them. We wanted to give folks the opportunity to talk in a safe space, learn from each other and discuss things that sometimes are uncomfortable and that many of us feel unpracticed at. The 30 minutes around the watercooler were absolutely amazing — I feel honored to have been a part of such an open and vulnerable conversation. While projects and initiatives can change processes and structure, allowing space for dialogue builds trust, creates camaraderie, and ultimately allows us all to grow and evolve. We are excited to now host these watercooler discussions every quarter after receiving positive feedback.
In the coming months, we have exciting things in store including hosting our first “Behaviors of Inclusion” workshop in partnership with LifeLabs Learning, participating in a panelist discussion for the Ron Brown Scholars Program, hosting a “DEI in Advancement” customer-only roundtable, and beginning to work on a Corporate Social Responsibility plan.
As we transition into the summer months and enjoy summer vacations, it is still important to stay informed and educated. We must remain committed to improving not only our EverTrue community but our own communities of families and friends.