Activate: Making the Business Case for Racial Equity Action

There are many ways employers can take action to build racial equity in their organizations. In order to build policies and efforts, it is imperative that we develop a shared understanding of solutions.

It’s time to take a deep dive into the business case and promising practices that are building equitable policies at organizations throughout the nation.

Learn more about some key ways your organization can take action to promote racial equity in your workplace by clicking on the topics below. These profiles provide the background, business case, and offer some promising practices from business leaders who are taking action.

Let us help you build anti-racist, economically inclusive workplaces.

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The Case for: Moving from Employment to Family Sustaining Wages

Employers who have made a commitment to paying every employee a family sustaining wage have reaped rewards.

Learn more about the benefits to employees, the business and community, and how to approach these policies for your organization.

Measuring What Works: Talent Pipelines, Management, and Culture Brokers for Racial Equity

Recent reports show that diverse companies are now more likely than ever to outperform less divers peers on profitability.

Attracting, retaining, and promoting talented workers of every race and ethnicity is a business imperative, especially in light of recent Affirmative Action rulings. Learn how to make the case for investing in diverse talent pipelines at your organization.

How to make data-informed decisions to build anti-racist workplaces

The Racial Equity Dividends Index offers solutions and best practices for taking action to transform your organization.

Learn how organizations are using data to inform what actions to take, when, and how the assessment is helping organizations of all sizes reach their racial equity goals.

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the formula: Building Connections, Cash, and Contracts for Entrepreneurs

The Center for Economic Inclusion’s Vanguard Accelerator is investing in Minnesota’s groundbreaking job creators with the capital, connections, and capacity needed for them to grow and scale their corporate and government contracts that will create opportunities for increasing jobs that pay family sustaining wages, and build their wealth and that of their employees.

Make the case for corporations and investors to change the game and help diversify Minnesota’s supply chains.

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The Case for: reparations in the native american community

Historic racism, genocide, and wealth extraction require policies and investments that are equally as intentional about repair, reconciliation, truth and healing.

Let's learn together and build plans that center Native people and visions.

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the case for: reparations in African American Communities

Historic racism, genocide, and wealth extraction require policies and investments that are equally as intentional about repair, reconciliation, truth and healing.

Let's learn together and build plans that center African American people and visions.

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Ownership matters: Building Inclusive Economic Development, Community Development, and Real Estate

Black and Brown people have been opening businesses at dramatically higher rates than their White peers for years, but our property, job and wealth creation rates pale in comparison.

This playbook for developing with ownership, community wealth building, and love in the center promises to transform Black, Indigenous, Latine, and Asian communities for the better.

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Diversifying Supply Chains to Diversify the Economy

Supply chain diversity is no longer a compliance strategy.

Minnesota's corporations and governments have everything we need to position our Black and Brown businesses as the job creators of the future.

Learn why some corporations are leading the way in diversifying supply chains, and how others can take part in growing inclusive wealth and jobs.

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recruitment strategies for disrupting Bias

Black, Indigenous, and Latine workers are over-concentrated in sectors that pay low wages, while high-growth, high-wage sectors like tech, biomanufacturing, fin-tech and medical sciences are hurting for talent.

How are leading employers disrupting the talent practices of yesterday to build winning innovative, racially equitable, and inclusive workplaces?

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Targeted Approaches: How access to capital builds Generational Wealth in Black & Brown Communities

Capital is flowing to entrepreneurs at new rates. Is it the right capital, is it meaningful, and how will we know?

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Why Curated Spaces for Black & Brown Talent Matters

Black and Brown leaders have developed their own spaces to rewrite the rules for leadership development, career planning, business development, and mentoring. Learn from Twin Cities Black Affinity Network Development Day (TCBANDD), Coalition of Asian American Leaders,  Latino Lead, the Center for Economic Inclusion, and their corporate partners about what’s working. 

The new Racial Equity Dividends Index identifies opportunities for building racially equitable workplaces in Minnesota

By Nathan Arnosti, Director of Analytics
(This article first appeared on the Ramsey County website.)

On June 21, the Center for Economic Inclusion published its first annual Racial Equity Dividends Index, which surveys Minnesota businesses on their implementation of 36 of the leading standards for building  racially equitable and inclusive workplaces. Forty businesses – including more than a dozen headquartered in Ramsey County – participated in the 2022 Index, demonstrating their commitment to shared accountability for inclusive economic growth. These businesses hold tremendous economic power: they employ more than 200,000 Minnesotans and more than 550,000 workers outside of Minnesota. 

The 2022 Index revealed that progress towards racially equitable workplaces is uneven. Some policies are nearly universal among participating businesses: 98% of participants offer financially stabilizing benefits like health insurance and retirement savings to all full-time employees, and 90% of participants survey employees annually about their sense of equity and belonging.

Other data reveal areas where progress is needed: 35% hold leadership accountable for enterprise-wide goals related to hiring, retaining, and advancing workers of color; only 8% pay all workers a family sustaining wage (defined using the MIT Living Wage Calculator as $21.68 per hour, or approximately $45,000 annually for the Minneapolis-St. Paul region); and only 5% of participating companies have senior leadership teams that represent the racial demographics of their surrounding region.

For companies looking to build racially equitable workplaces – and benefit from the many dividends of doing so – a good place to start is to study the 36 standards identified in the Index and identifying those that your organization could benefit from adding first. The Index report also offers promising practices from participating Minnesota businesses that offer a road map for jumpstarting your efforts to strengthen your leadership, philanthropy, supplier diversity, or other strategies by learning from peers who have been in your shoes.

Promising practices include:

·      To strengthen Hiring practices, US Bank has established a program called Discover Us for first- and second-year year Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, and Asian college students. Participants receive a week of on-site training and professional development, $500 scholarships, and guaranteed opportunities to interview for internship positions at US Bank.

·      Trellis conducted an equity assessment on access to their services to improve Procurement processes and, based on these findings, expanded outreach to communities of color, simplified application processes, and increased their technical assistance for applicant organizations. After these modifications, the number of proposals they received increased by more than 270%, including many culturally responsive proposals to serve residents from distinct communities, including Karen, Korean, Cambodian, Liberian, Somali, and Indigenous communities. In 2021, 41% of available funds went to serve Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, and Asian seniors in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region, compared with a regional elder population that is less than 10% people of color.

·      To improve its Philanthropy, 3M created a coalition of racially diverse civic and nonprofit leaders to help them develop an equity lens for investing $50 million in support of racial equity. This coalition has grown to include leaders of organizations receiving investment.

·      Andersen Corporation improved its Culture, Retention, and Advancement by creating a new system in which entry-level employees on their production floor could use a QR code to privately express interest in leadership development programs, rather than rely exclusively on personal relationships to identify workers with management potential.

Companies are encouraged to participate in the Racial Equity Dividends Index annually to increase accountability and monitor progress as you implement new systemic actions over time.

Participating companies can utilize the customized, confidential reports and the aggregate regional reports to create opportunities for stakeholder trust building among employees, customers, and investors.

Registration for the 2023 Racial Equity Dividends Index will open in the fourth quarter of this year. Our team of consultants are available to help companies implement solutions and strategies identified using the Index.

With tools like the Center’s Racial Equity Dividends Index, companies in Ramsey County can be at the forefront of building racially equitable workplaces that benefit workers of all races and ethnicities and produce more innovative, dynamic organizations.

There’s no better time to act.

Solving Today's Talent Crisis Through Good Jobs and Inclusive Workplaces

By Andrea Ferstan, Vice President of Innovation, Policy, and Research, and Betsy Ohrn, Director of Research
(This article first appeared on the Ramsey County website.)

Employers in the Twin Cities are competing for talent in a tight and churning labor market. Yet even as workers have more leverage than they have in decades, the dire reality for Black and Hispanic workers calls us to action.

Despite steady or increasing employment, wages for Hispanic and Black workers continue to lag those of the region’s white workers. While wages have increased for all workers in recent years, wages for white workers are significantly higher and have increased faster than those of Black workers.

In 2020, the average annual earnings of full-time white workers in the Twin Cities was $84,000 while Hispanic workers earned $58,000, American Indian/Indigenous workers earned $66,000, and Black workers earned $48,000.

You can see this data more in-depth at our new Indicators for an Inclusive Regional Economy dashboard beginning June 21.

The result is that many full-time Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic workers in the Twin Cities are not earning enough to sustain a family.

In 2020, 77% of the region's workers earned a living wage, but this figure was far lower for many racial and ethnic communities — Black (52%), Hmong (53%), Mexican (60%), Vietnamese (63%), Indigenous (69%) — signaling compounding barriers to access jobs paying to family-sustaining wages and benefits in a labor market where a large number of employers are raising wages to attract talent, yet continue to over-concentrate people of color in lower-wage occupations. Given that Covid-related job losses disproportionately impacted Black, Hispanic, and low-wage workers, addressing wage inequities is more critical than ever.

Good Jobs

Rising inequality is driven by a rise in low-wage jobs. The Center for Economic and Policy Research found that since the 1970’s, the provision of “good jobs” — those that provide a living wage, employee-sponsored healthcare, and retirement benefits — has fallen. This is due to a loss in bargaining power for low- and middle-income workers, globalization, privatization, deregulation, and a stagnant federal minimum wage.

Meanwhile, the evidence is clear: a “good job” leads to employee engagement and well-being. And what is good for workers is also good for employers.

Our Good Jobs Framework includes four key pillars aligned with the following research-based strategies focused on racial equity:

Leadership: Provide core elements of a good job, such as sustainable equitable pay and benefits, stable hours, and scheduling.

Hiring & Support: Help workers perform well and achieve stability by attracting racially diverse talent, providing training, childcare, and transportation support.

Retention & Advancement: Help employees advance in their careers and develop their skills through career development, mentorship, and acknowledgement.

Voice & Culture: Ensure employees have agency and are engaged through participatory management and a commitment to antiracism.

Becoming an inclusive and competitive region requires cooperative employer action.  Good jobs and racially equitable and inclusive workplaces are vital ingredient for employers pursuing competitive edge for talent and customers. This is correlated to higher profits, innovation, and productivity. In today's environment, this is a critical competitive edge to attracting and retaining diverse talent.

Action Steps

1.     Commit to Pay Equity: Start by conducting a pay equity audit and identifying where you have pay gaps by race and gender. Close gaps and build salary ranges for new positions to help guide more equitable decision-making during hiring, negotiations, and promotions. Establish a policy to stop asking candidates for their salary history or salary expectations, which limits salary negotiations. By establishing job offers based on salary history or expectations rather than salary ranges and candidate experiences, employers have been shown to exacerbate pay disparities by race and gender. Finally, make a commitment and stick with it. Let your team know you are working toward a more equitable pay structure, take action, and continue to measure progress.

2.     Provide Educational Benefits & Formal Career Pathways: Ensure equitable access to leadership development, tuition reimbursement and advancement programs, career advancement, and on-site education programs for Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian employees. Analyze participation in these programs and develop strategies to increase diverse representation and completion.  

3.     Provide Mentoring, Coaching, and/or Employee Resource Groups for Employees of Color: Black and Brown employees regularly face aggressions in the workplace and in the community and such efforts can help Black, Indigenous, and employees of color navigate some of these challenges. Managers should also be trained to ensure they are not coaching employees of color to adopt white cultural norms, but to maintain autonomy, build and leverage diverse strengths, address micro- and macro-aggressions, and facilitate inclusive teams and cultures.

4.     Create Supports your Employees Need: The Covid pandemic laid bare the challenges facing working families today. As we emerge into a new era, consider how you can support your employees in meaningful ways. Offering flexible work hours, subsidized transportation, housing and childcare, and sick and family leave benefits can pay dividends for both employees and employers in reducing lost time, increasing retention, and productivity. Start by asking your employees which benefits would help them the most and invest in the options that will have the greatest impact for your workforce.

5.     Take Stock of your Inclusive Culture: Inclusiveness starts with trust and ends in high levels of engagement and productivity. When trust and relationships are in the center, good policies for all are the result. A good job goes beyond compensation and benefits. Regularly survey and analyze the quality of your culture. Consider, do you have a transparent grievance process? Do employees have the autonomy they need? Is there open communication between leadership and employees? Is antiracism demonstrated in organizational values, strategy, goals, vision, and partnerships? If you’re interested in learning more about measuring your company’s progress towards building a racially equitable and inclusive workplace, check out the Center’s Racial Equity Dividends Index.

Becoming an employer focused on good jobs is a strategy, not an accident, requiring inclusive policy, practices, and culture. The results of these strategies are worth the work. Not only do they result in improved retention, higher productivity, and profitability, but in an inclusive economy that works for everyone.

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Resources

Gould, E., & Kassa, M. (2021). Low-wage, low-hours workers were hit hardest in the COVID-19 recession: The State of Working America 2020 employment report.

Schmitt, J., & Jones, J. (2012). Where have all the good jobs gone? Washington, DC: Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Congdon, W. J., Scott, M. M., Katz, B., Loprest, P. J., Nightingale, D. S., & Shakesprere, J. (2020). Understanding Good Jobs: A Review of Definitions and Evidence.

How Minnesota Employers Can Achieve a Competitive Edge: Ensure Racially Equitable and Inclusive Workplaces

By Andrea Ferstan, Vice President of Innovation, Policy, and Research
(This article first appeared on the Ramsey County website.)

Across the nation, companies are struggling to find and retain the diverse talent, resulting in high turnover costs, lower productivity, and down revenues. Many of those same companies are realizing that the key to unlock and achieve year-over-year growth and a competitive edge is to ensure their workplace is racially equitable and inclusive.

Research has long pointed to the economic benefits of racially inclusive workplaces. In Minnesota, research by Fed Communities found that by closing the state’s racial gaps in employment, our GDP would have increased by $2.3 billion each year (2005 to 2019).

Over the next 20 years, the pipeline of talent will increasingly be Black and Brown. By 2044, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian people will represent the majority of the nation’s population, workforce, and consumers.

In Ramsey County, the workforce is comprised of 36% racially and ethnically diverse employees. Starting now, employers have a window of opportunity to examine and make the necessary improvements to their workplace cultures and recruitment, hiring, and retention practices and policies.

The most successful companies will be those who commit to identifying barriers, crafting data-informed solutions, and taking meaningful action to close racial employment gaps and build a workplace of equity, inclusion, and belonging.

The time to build that racially diverse and inclusive workplace of the future is now.

The Competitive Edge

Data show the competitive edge of racially equitable and inclusive workplaces:

·      Businesses with a more diverse workforce have been shown to have more customers, higher revenues and profits, greater market share, less absenteeism and turnover, and a higher level of employee and customer commitment to their organizations.[1]

·      Studies have shown that feeling more included boosts productivity.[2]

·      Employers who intentionally find ways to advance the careers and enhance the experiences of their frontline employees of color—entry-level employees who engage closely with customers—can gain competitive advantage.[3]

There are multiple evidence-based practices employers can adopt to advance racial equity[4] for recruiting, attracting, hiring, and retaining diverse talent to create a workplace of racial equity, inclusion, and belonging. Closing racial employment gaps is how companies will achieve and maintain a competitive edge in the market.

1.Build the internal capacity for an inclusive, understanding, and adaptive culture that values the contributions of employees of color.

 Accountability

• CEO commitment to racial equity

• Chief DEI leader

• Company-wide evaluation of managers at all levels of the organization

• Commitment to anti-racism is demonstrated in the organizational values, strategy, goals, vision, performance reviews, and partnerships

Learning

• Employee resource groups

• Ongoing REI trainings

• Address bias, micro-aggressions, and build a culture of anti-racism

2. Strengthen management and HR systems, policies, and practices to enable equitable outcomes for employees of color:

Stability Support

• Childcare subsidies or vouchers

• Competitive and equitable pay

• Employee Assistance Programs

• Employee hardship funds

• Health insurance for all part-time employees

• Transportation assistance

Scheduling

• Minimum hour guarantees

• Predictable and flexible scheduling

• Shift swapping

Leave

• Paid sick leave

• Paid parental leave

3. Intentionally invest in the development, recognition, and promotion of more employees of color:

Hiring, Training and Retention

• Cross-training

• Recruiting people of color to management trainings

• Investments in talent pipeline development; diverse referral programs

• Peer mentoring and coaching to develop racially responsive leaders and executives

Other Supports and Partnerships

• Clear career pathways and eliminate artificial barriers to advancement

• Education/tuition assistance programs

• Formal mentorship and sponsorship

• Strategic partnerships with local and national organizations to build Grow Your Own programs

Building a racially equitable and inclusive economy that works for everyone requires long-term commitment, action, and accountability. The road map to closing racial gaps is available and achievable. Now, we need leaders across sectors to take those smart, bold first steps within their companies, catalyzing a ripple effect of inclusive growth in the region.

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[1] Vivian Hunt, Dennis Layton, and Sara Prince, “Diversity Matters,” McKinsey & Company, February 2, 2015, https://www.mckinsey.com/businessfunctions/organization/our-insights/whydiversity-matters

[2] Accenture-Getting-To-Equal-2020 Research Report

[3] Advancing Frontline Employees of Color, Innovating for Competitive Advantage in America’s Frontline Workforce by Fay HanleyBrown, Lakshmi Iyer, Josh Kirschenbaum, Sandra Medrano, Aaron Mihal; FSG and PolicyLink

[4] Ibid and Center For Economic Inclusion

Important Components for Attracting Racially Diverse Applicants in Job Openings

By Suzanne Kelly, Chief of Staff, Center for Economic Inclusion
(This article first appeared on the Ramsey County website.)

To build an economy that works for everyone, both public- and private-sector employers must consistently reexamine recruitment and hiring policies and practices that often result in excluding women, people of color, individuals with disabilities, and others who have experienced challenges in their work history.

Research from a 2021 Harvard Business School and Accenture study described such individuals as “hidden workers,” which they defined as “millions of people who are eager to work and possess — or could develop — the skills employers seek” if employers were intentional about identifying and eliminating impediments to their recruitment and hiring.

The report identified those who often comprise the category of hidden workers as individuals with:

·      Health issues: physical, mental, or developmental/neurodiversity challenges, a history of substance abuse

·      Gaps in employment histories: long-term unemployed or previously incarcerated

·      Family care responsibilities: caretakers of children or adults/older people

·      Few formal qualifications: no school qualifications or below a degree-level education

·      Required relocation: veterans, immigrants and those moving locations

·      Disadvantaged backgrounds: raised in a care home or had unemployed parents/caregivers (Accenture, 2021, p. 5)

Research shows that Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and recent immigrant populations, are disproportionately represented in many of these categories. Coupled with the unconscious bias that creeps into hiring and recruitment, the economic loss for individuals, families, and society is high.

According to a report by Citi, “If the Black wage, education, housing, and investing gaps had been closed 20 years ago, it would have added an estimated $16 trillion to the economy, with the Black pay gap alone accounting for $2.7 trillion.”

Harvard professor Joseph Fuller, who coauthored the Accenture study, noted that existing hiring practices are not only exclusionary but end up hurting fully capable candidates and limiting business growth. Nearly 90% of more than 2,250 executives surveyed during the study admitted that qualified, highly skilled applicants are screened out almost immediately because their employment history doesn’t align with the specific criteria cited in the companies' job descriptions.

If we are to build an economy that works for everyone, employers must reconsider long held, convenient approaches to recruitment and hiring. It will require employers to have champions at every level, a willingness to measure progress regularly, and the innovation to make changes, when necessary.

At the Center for Economic Inclusion, our work to build an inclusive regional economy includes regular conversations with private- and public-sector leaders from companies and organizations of all sizes seeking advice and assistance on how to build a racially diverse workforce. We have found that while there is not a one-size-fits-all solution, there are several critical action steps employers can consider — especially post-pandemic — to achieve greater success in using an equity lens to drive all steps in the recruitment, hiring, and retention process.

Start With Data

Disaggregated data is key. Quantitative data, disaggregated by race, place, gender, ability, and more, is key to a deeper level of understanding of how your hiring practices thwart efforts to diversify your workforce.

For example, standard data collection may show that hiring trends are on the mark and perfectly adequate, while disaggregated data may reveal where hiring for diverse talent is concentrated in only a few departments or teams and for a specific set of positions. Do the work, mine the data, and then let it tell the story. From there, a roadmap to rethink your hiring practices will emerge.

Rethink Hiring Best Practices

A critical step in diversifying your staff is to intentionally assess the outcomes generated by your current hiring practices and refresh outdated approaches that have long maintained the status quo. Being intentional and consistent in your approach to inclusive hiring practices will allow you to:

1. Demonstrate a commitment to building an inclusive workplace culture.

2. Avoid bias in your human resource processes.

3. Broaden employment access to those long excluded by artificial hiring barriers.

Amplify Your Strategies

According to Harvard Business Review, diversity and inclusion should be a core ingredient in the design and execution of business strategy and embedded in the activities of the organization, day in and day out.

Also keep in mind that every person associated with your hiring process serves as a gatekeeper to your organization. Ensure that your hiring team possesses a deep understanding and some level of accountability for your REI commitment, strategy, and outcomes.

Action Steps

1. Rethink Job Descriptions: Detailed postings that layer on a laundry list of requirements and preferences that are only tangential to the work, should be rewritten. Jettison the lengthy list of requirements and instead focus on the few skills it takes to do the job well. According to the Harvard/Accenture study, employers who simply add new requirements to existing job descriptions, “risk excluding applicants with knowledge gained through deep experience derived from years of work” but lack new tech training or other recently identified skills that could easily be trained for.

2. Be Open to Non-Traditional Resumes: Many hiring managers have been trained to quickly scan resumes looking for linear career trajectories that chart a path from high school to college to post-graduate degrees with minimal job changes and progressive advancement. That method often prevents potentially qualified applicants from being interviewed. Many viable candidates entered the workforce or the military immediately after high school to support their families. Still others were priced out of a four-year college degree. COVID also has resulted in a slew of unplanned lay-offs and forced resignations that produce employment gaps on resumes. Any of these situations could be explained during the interview process, but most “hidden workers” never make it that far.

3. Be a Second Chance Employer: According to the Second Chance Business Population (SCBP), nearly 25 percent of the American population has a criminal record. Employers who automatically reject this population – which disproportionately includes Black, Indigenous, and people of color – exclude a significant pool of potentially skilled candidates. According to SCBP research, “nine in ten employers require applicants to undergo a background check, and a criminal record can reduce the chances of a second interview by 50 percent.” The consequence is a pre-pandemic unemployment rate of nearly 27% for those with a record, regardless of the offense.

4. Use Data to Identify and Correct Bias: Employers must continuously address implicit biases.  Organizational “gatekeepers,” such as hiring managers and resume screeners, should be required to participate in training and skilled, facilitated dialogue. According to RippleMatch, unconscious bias during the hiring process affects marginalized groups because of negative stereotypes, which affords a relative benefit to other non-marginalized groups. And while unconscious bias is often tied to characteristics like race and gender, it can extend to other areas. Examples of bias include affinity bias, confirmation bias, perception bias, and groupthink among interview teams.

5. Post Outside the Box: To better ensure a diverse applicant pool, employers must be strategic and innovative when posting job openings. Don't ignore emerging sites like TikTok, Twitter, or YouTube, in addition to more traditional job posting sites. Also, be intentional about posting in media outlets owned and managed by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian individuals or agencies. Similarly, take advantage of culturally specific podcasts, radio spots, and other vehicles that can help you reach the typically underrepresented populations in your workforce.

6. Don’t View Revamped Hiring Practices as a Social Experiment: Instead think of these changes as a strategic investment in the health and viability of your business. The Harvard/Accenture study noted that “a company that relegates a group of workers to a special recruiting status is not only acknowledging that its routine recruiting processes are failing to access that population, but also that the ordinary metrics by which candidates are being assessed are being waived.” That message both undermines the candidates and ignores the assets and experience they bring that benefit the company.

Revamping a company’s entire hiring process is not easy. Leaders who are serious about change must be willing to ask for help. Systemic change requires commitment, accountability, data, a plan, and time. Consider engaging with a proven thought-partner, like the Center for Economic Inclusion, to help you on your journey to design a successful, measurable, racially inclusive redesign of your hiring processes, one step at a time.

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Resources

Fuller, J. (2021). How to Resolve America’s Hidden Worker Problem. SHRM. 7 Oct. 2021.

Fuller, J., Raman, M., Sage-Gavin, E., Hines, K., et al (Sept. 2021). Hidden Workers: Untapped Talent. Published by Harvard Business School Project on Managing the Future of Work and Accenture.

G&A Partners (2021). Look Beyond the Traditional Resume

Advocating for Inclusive Job Growth

By Isaac Russell, Director of Public Policy, and Andrea Ferstan, Vice President of Innovation, Policy and Research
(This article first appeared on the Ramsey County website.)

Our state economy faces a set of unique challenges. Employers are currently struggling to find and retain talent. They are also grappling with disrupted supply chains and a lack of relationships with and access to diverse suppliers positioned to meet their procurement needs.

Workers, both employed and those seeking employment, continue to face challenges finding good jobs that pay family sustaining wages and offer benefits that help families move up the economic ladder. The shortage of good jobs with employers who foster racial equity, inclusion, and belonging in ways that help employees feel affirmed and appreciated for who they are not only harms workers, it is also a barrier for employers who need high engagement to drive productivity, retention, and economic growth.

One solution is to invest in inclusive job growth. Investing in job creation, business development, and supplier diversity strategies to expand the number of jobs in businesses owned by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian people and women-owned businesses can accelerate inclusive economic growth in Minnesota and expand employment avenues for Ramsey County residents.

Policy is a powerful tool for justice. By leveraging our collective power as employers to advocate for inclusive and equitable regional, state, and federal public policies, we can stimulate inclusive economic growth and build vibrant communities. We encourage you to consider your relationships, take every opportunity you have to use the knowledge you’ve gained in building a diverse workforce and inclusive organization to educate legislators this session on the economic imperative to invest in businesses and workers, particularly those from Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian communities.

At the state Legislature this session, the Center for Economic Inclusion is advocating for inclusive job growth. We believe that creating a statewide fund to connect employers to jobseekers from racially diverse communities and grow the number of scaleable businesses in Black and Brown communities is a smart investment that will pay dividends in our economy. To achieve it, we’re advocating for a $10 million Inclusive Job Growth Fund.

The Center for Economic Inclusion’s Inclusive Job Growth Fund will support the state in two ways:

1. Create Good Jobs & Invest in Inclusive Workplaces - Pay for performance contracts with proven, community-based organizations who train and connect jobseekers to employment and provide critical services to support employment retention, such as counseling, peer mentoring and support services, housing, and transportation. Services will be provided in Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Cloud, Rochester, Willmar, Duluth, and other communities.

2. Build Wealth in Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian Communities – A loan fund offering forgivable loans, revenue-based financing and equity investments, coordinated support services and referrals for B2B purchasing, and connections to the state’s CDFI network for business development, expansion, and property acquisition and development..

The state's Legislature’s policies and investments to close stagnant racial employment, income, and wealth gaps can accelerate economic growth in Minnesota. In fact, according to McKinsey & Co., closing racial wealth gaps could add 4% to 6 % to the U.S. GDP by 2028.

The Economic Imperative: Why an Inclusive Job Growth Fund & What the Data Show

Economic Growth Requires Talent and is Accelerated by Racial Diversity & Inclusion

• Minnesota has an estimated two jobs for every person seeking employment.

• Pandemic-related layoffs disproportionately affected women, Indigenous, and Black Minnesotans, with more than 8 in 10 Black employees and more than 7 in 10 American Indian employees having filed unemployment claims, compared to 4 in 10 non-Hispanic white employees.

• Advancing racial equity and achieving inclusive growth would mean new opportunities for participation in the economy and an additional $6,000-$8,500 in annual income per capita.

• Workforce Development programs like North@Work, Mind the G.A.P.P. Ujaama Place, the East Side Employment Xchange, Summit Academy OIC and many others are training workers and transforming results for Minnesota’s employers and the economy and yet, we must work together, faster and with more urgency to ensure workers have opportunities for good jobs in today’s economy

Black and Brown Businesses Accelerate Economic Growth and GDP

• White entrepreneurs attract 17 times more equity capital than Black entrepreneurs.

• Disproportionate impact of the pandemic on Black-owned businesses, with a 41% drop in the number of active business owners.

• Collectively, minority-owned businesses generate $5.2 billion in annual revenue and are Minnesota’s 9th largest employer.

• Minority-owned businesses grow at 3.5 times the rate of all Minnesota businesses.

 Your Voice Matters

According to McKinsey’s Institute for Black Economic Mobility, over 30% of public policies created to address racial disparities result in exacerbated results in communities of color. To address racism, we must invest in organizations and businesses led by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian people. Contact your state legislator about your workforce needs, share data on your workforce and supply chain challenges, and discuss the need for investments, policies, and actions.

 Why now?

Minnesota will appropriate $2.58 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act. Not only is this an unprecedented amount of federal resources coming into our state, counties, and cities, it is a historic opportunity for targeted investments aimed at growing an inclusive economy that will stimulate economic growth and shared, equitable prosperity.

The Center and Ramsey County will continue partnering together and with many others to advance solutions to close racial employment, income, and wealth gaps and build racially inclusive and equitable regional economies.

Policymakers have a critical role to play and the voices of employers, workers, and business owners have never been more powerful in informing the decisions made at the Capital. Your voice must be at the table to ensure every dollar invested in our state leads to a more prosperous and racially equitable and inclusive state -- a state we can all be proud of. Raise your voice!

Changing Demographics & Work: Reimagining Talent Development and Retention

By Andrea Ferstan, Vice President of Systems Innovation
(This article first appeared on the Ramsey County website.)

Employers across sectors are regularly lamenting about the difficulties of finding and retaining talent. The reverberations of the Covid-19 pandemic and the accelerated move towards automation and digitalization are projected to “…eliminate about 85 million jobs in the next five years—potentially displacing up to half of the United States workforce with no clear path for them to connect to the new jobs likely to be created by these technological changes.” [1] Those most impacted by this convergence have been and will be women, Indigenous, and Black Minnesotans.

So how can businesses adapt and respond to these demographic and industry changes to ensure a competitive advantage by leveraging the diverse talent in our region? New research from APM Research Labs notes that “…four-fifths of BIPOC Minnesotans believe employment discrimination is a regular problem for their racial or ethnic group in Minnesota.”

Our demographics are rapidly shifting, yet the culture, policies and practices within many businesses continues to exclude and limit advancement of Black and Brown people. While the solutions are multi-faceted, below are a few strategies businesses can implement to maximize these changes for growth.

New Approaches Yield Big Results

Back in September 2019, Accenture noted the need for what they referred to as “new skilling” rather than “reskilling” because skill-building is additive. They also noted the need for experiential training where people continue to earn while they learn and the need to move from degree-based hiring to hiring based on performance and potential. Paid on-the-job training provides a viable alternative to inflated education requirements that disproportionately bar people of color from accessing good jobs.[2] Apprenticeships, paid internships, and pre-apprenticeships can be a powerful tool for lowering barriers to entry associated with other formal training and education programs.

New research from the Project on Workforce at Harvard aligns with this shift in changing training approaches, noting that the job categories growing fastest in the United States over the last thirty years utilize high technical and social tasks. Studies show that on-the-job and work-based experiences are critical for developing social skills. As technology continues to displace repeatable and automatable technical tasks in jobs, educational interventions must increasingly prioritize supporting learners in honing social skills for work contexts. Research has shown that future jobs, especially those with good wages, will require a combination of foundational, transferable soft skills, and job-specific skills.

The new report from McKinsey & Company “Toward an equitable economic recovery in Minneapolis–St. Paul,” illustrates that “…by closing long-standing racial equity gaps and preparing people of color for the future of work, the region can put itself on track to recover both equitably and more quickly.”[3]

This report notes that business can play a critical role today when many people, particularly from Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian communities, are grappling with both the health and economics of caring for young children and/or returning to work, in helping to remove barriers to training so employees can take advantage of reskilling and upskilling opportunities—for example, provide free or subsidized childcare, transportation, or compensation for training hours.  

As the demographics of both current and future employees and customers change, businesses must build new community partnerships and models for both recruiting and developing a diverse workforce with the skills necessary for today’s changing economy. This will require authentic, trusted relationships with Black and Brown communities and organizations to support workplace inclusion, good jobs for Indigenous people and people of color, and inclusive economic growth and prosperity for the region.

Introducing the Racial Equity Dividends Index: A new tool to drive and support racially equitable business practices

By Nathan Arnosti, Director of Products & Analytics
(This article first appeared on the Ramsey County website.)

Businesses across the country have demonstrated a renewed interest in reckoning with our country’s systemic racial inequities in the 18 months since the police killing of George Floyd. According to a review by McKinsey, approximately one-third of the largest 1,000 companies in the nation made statements in support of racial equity in 2020 and committed more than $66 billion to advance racial equity.

In addition to the moral case for change, more and more leaders understand that racism is bad for business. Companies with racially diverse and inclusive teams perform better than more homogenous organizations. And if racial inequities were eliminated across society, our collective prosperity would grow by trillions of dollars, according to a recent report by researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

But moving the needle on racial equity will require more than just well-intentioned statements and donations from business leaders. It requires changes to how businesses treat Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian job applicants, existing employees, suppliers, customers, and communities.

Introducing the Racial Equity Dividends Index

In January 2022, the Center for Economic Inclusion will introduce a new analytical tool that businesses can register for to help them make tangible, durable changes to inequitable internal systems, policies, and practices. The Racial Equity Dividends Index (REDI) will enable businesses to measure their progress on racial equity across seven dimensions: Hiring; Culture, Retention, and Advancement; Procurement; Philanthropy and Investment; Public Policy; Products; and Leadership.

How REDI Works

Businesses that register for the Racial Equity Dividends Index will be evaluated on their progress across 37 racially equitable workplace practices, drawn from the expertise of Center for Economic Inclusion staff and other practitioners at the forefront of corporate racial equity strategies. Businesses then receive a confidential score report, which will identify where they excel and where they fall short compared to peers.

Collectively, this knowledge is essential to guiding future efforts to advance racially equitable and inclusive practices within their organization.

REDI is designed to celebrate and accelerate progress toward antiracism. High-scoring businesses will be publicly recognized and highlighted in an annual Racial Equity Dividends Index Report and included on the Center for Economic Inclusion’s Best Businesses for Racial Equity list.

Availability & Fee

The Racial Equity Dividends Index will be available on an annual basis. In its first year, REDI is available to for-profit businesses with a footprint in Minnesota. In the coming months and years, REDI will be available in other markets.

To register for REDI, businesses are charged a $1,000 administrative fee. More information about the Index and link to registration will be available soon at www.centerforeconomicinclusion.org.

Measurement Matters

Today’s racial inequities are the result of racist and inequitable practices within the private and public sectors, sustained over generations. It will take deliberate action from all of us – including leaders in the private sector – to overcome these harmful patterns and build an economy that works for everyone. Data drives action – and this is what the Index does at its core.

The Center for Economic Inclusion’s Racial Equity Dividends Index is the newest tool we offer to help businesses chart a path to greater racial equity – and profitability. We hope that many businesses in Ramsey County and across Minnesota seize this opportunity to move from a verbal commitment to racial equity and inclusion to meaningful action that gets results.

RACIAL EQUITY DIVIDENDS ASSESSMENT: Forging Data-Informed Pathways to Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

By Samuel N. Ndely II, Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships
(This article first appeared on the Ramsey County website.)

The global protests following the killing of George Floyd demonstrated the widespread awareness of racial inequity and the determination to do something about it. By the end of 2020, roughly one-third of the nation’s Fortune 1000 companies responded, committing $66 billion to racial-equity initiatives.

As companies donated billions, created new director-level positions focused on diversity and inclusion, and shared the good news about their commitment, many employers are still left with internal, deeply embedded systemic issues that result in inequity, exclusion, and harm to Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian employees and overall workforce.

What can companies do to address it? Begin with data. Data benchmarks what currently exists, which allows employers to better understand the impact that any decisions, policies, practices, and systems have on their workforce.

Employer Journey to Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

As a region facing some of the most alarming and uncivil racial and economic inequities, we believe it is possible to change this descending trajectory and unlock our region’s potential by more deeply embedding principles of anti-racism in our day-to-day actions as employers, measuring the results of those actions, and scaling them together with other employers to achieve results that we are all depending on.

The Center’s work has grown to meet the needs of businesses and agencies across the country committed to closing racial employment, income, and wealth gaps by dismantling institutional racism, and fueling inclusive and equitable regional economic growth.

We offer a suite of racial equity consulting products and services for employers who are ready to compete by maximizing shared value, business results, and regional economic growth. We help employers develop the awareness, knowledge, and tools needed to identify and replace policies and practices that are producing racially exclusive results today, with new racially inclusive market-responsive approaches.

Comprehensive Organizational Analysis

Our approach is grounded in comprehensive internal and market data analysis and optimization through the Racial Equity Dividends Assessment (REDA). Developed by the Center, REDA is our proprietary quantitative and qualitative assessment of employee experiences and perceptions of business policies and practices, as well as the social and economic pressures employees are navigating that may be reflected in employer turnover, productivity, and profitability.

REDA is a powerful data tool we use to identify the areas of an employers’ organization that need attention. As companies are assessed, they will see an increase in productivity and profitability.

REDA centers and leverages the employee experiences to tell the story of an organization, from the inside out. It provides a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the employee experience and perceptions of an organization’s policies and practices. It also takes the social and economic environments and conditions employees navigate that may be reflected in areas of turnover, productivity and profitability, or employee attrition, and engagement.

We monitor and measure the impact of these changes across over 150 dimensions of employee engagement, household financial security, and economic growth and inclusion to close racial income and wealth gaps, increase business results, and expand regional economic growth.

The Voice of the Employee

Direct employee feedback is a crucial. REDA includes qualitative questions designed to show employers where their employees stand on essential issues, including:

• Organizational Commitment

• Racial Equity Competencies

• Workplace Experience

• Growth and Belonging

• Compensation & Benefits

All information collected through the assessment remains anonymous.

The qualitative employee data -- coupled with quantitative demographics and data focused on transportation, economic development, and human capital – paints a complete picture and provides a strong foundation to internal systemic change. A series of focus groups and interviews are conducted to dive deeper into the assessment results.

Ultimately, the data is a means to new and powerful pathways of opportunity to embed racial equity and belonging in the journey to becoming a more inclusive workplace for all employees.

It is our hope and belief that as we engage with more and more employers, REDA will provide a unique and innovative approach to look internally within their organization as they take the journey towards becoming an antiracist organization dedicated to creating a culture of racial equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Promising Practices, Resources, and Policies for Sourcing Racially Diverse Talent

By Tony Tolliver, Vice President of Engagement & External Relations

Building an economy that works for everyone will require designing solutions to close employment gaps by attracting, hiring, and retaining diverse talent for good jobs with family sustaining wages. It will require employers to have champions at every level, a willingness to measure progress regularly, and the innovation to make changes, when necessary.

In fact, the economic benefits are in the billions of dollars: according to Fed Communities, if the racial gaps in employment were closed, the GDP for Minnesota would have increased by $2.3 billion each year from 2005 to 2019.

At the Center for Economic Inclusion, our work to build an inclusive regional economy places us in regular conversation with private- and public-sector leaders from companies and organizations of all sizes seeking our advice and assistance on how to build a workforce of racially diverse talent. While there is not a magic, one-size-fits-all solution that we offer for recruiting, attracting, hiring, and retaining diverse talent, there are a number of critical key actions we recommend that can help employers achieve greater success to create a culture of racial equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Whether you’re recruiting for open positions, creating a talent acquisition strategy, or both, the following are actions to consider to better prepare your organization in its efforts to attract and retain diverse talent.

Start With Data

Disaggregated data is key. Quantitative data that explores your workforce and is disaggregated by race, place, gender, ability, and more is key to a deeper level of understanding of your workforce. For example, standard data collection may show that hiring trends are on the mark and perfectly adequate, while disaggregated data may reveal where hiring for diverse talent is concentrated in only a few departments or teams and for a specific set of positions. Do the work, mine the data, and then let it tell the story. From there, your road map will emerge.

Define Your Strategy

It’s important to cultivate your talent pipeline by actively recruiting for diverse talent. While posting open positions on websites that promote diverse talent is one tactic, it should not be your only one. However, being intentional and consistent in your approach to inclusive hiring practices will allow you to do three things:

1. Demonstrate a commitment to an inclusive workplace culture

2. Measure your progress

3. Avoid bias in your processes

Amplify Your Strategies

Who needs to know your diversity recruiting and talent acquisition strategies? The simple answer: everyone needs to know. Aligning your recruiting and talent acquisition strategies with your overall diversity, equity, and inclusion commitment, strategy, and outcomes will elevate the significance of your narrative on inclusion. This will matter to future talent of color and serve as a model to other companies and organizations.

According to Harvard Business Review, diversity and inclusion should be a core ingredient in the design and execution of business strategy and embedded in the activities of the organization, day in and day out.

Also keep in mind that every person associated with your hiring process serves as a gatekeeper to your organization. Ensure that your hiring team possesses a deep understanding and some level of accountability for your DE&I commitment, strategy, and outcomes.

6 Steps to Take Right Now

1. Relationships Matter: Build strong relationships and invest the time and human capital in community organizations, professional associations, and educational institutions. This will elevate your company, what you stand for, and demonstrate your overall commitment to racial equity and inclusion. This can lead to a strong, diverse talent pipeline for many years to come.

2. Leverage Your Team: Engage your employees in your recruiting and talent acquisition strategies by encouraging them to share opportunities within their networks and social media platforms. Provide your team the tools they need and they will be your best ambassadors.

3. Regular Audits: Audit your hiring process with a racial equity lens. Evaluate the list of “minimum qualifications” versus “preferred skills” for each job posting. You could be unintentionally screening out very talented applicants. Build trust by being transparent. According to Social talent, upfront salary details will encourage more applications from strong, dedicated, and diverse candidates.

4. Prioritize Ongoing Training: Continuously address bias and through training and skilled, facilitated dialogue, and require additional training for your gatekeepers -- hiring managers, talent acquisition, and recruiting teams. According to RippleMatch, unconscious bias during the hiring process affects marginalized groups because of negative stereotypes, which affords a relative benefit to other non-marginalized groups. And while unconscious bias is often tied to characteristics like race and gender, it can extend to other areas. For example, an employer or recruiter could be attracted to particular candidates because they have distinct similarities in aspects, such as hometown or geographical area, alma mater, involvement in fraternities or sororities, and more.

5. Look Within: Conduct a qualitative assessment of your workplace. This will allow your current employees’ voices to be heard and help you devise strategies to improve the experience of future employees. What are your employees proud of? Would they refer a friend? Do they believe they have the proper tools to work in person or remotely? Do they think you have an inclusive culture and feel a sense of belonging? Do they feel valued for who they are? Many annual employee satisfaction and pulse surveys don’t go deep enough. Go deeper to find the information you need to activate organizational change that leads to happy employees.

6. Take the Next Step: Taking a data-informed approach to thoroughly analyze the effectiveness of your current recruiting and talent acquisition strategies requires a proven thought-partner who can deliver, like the Center for Economic Inclusion, to help you on your journey to design a successful, measurable, racially inclusive plan, one step at a time.

Creating an economy that works for everyone won’t happen by chance. It requires commitment, accountability, data, and a plan. Embedding promising practices, resources, and policies for sourcing racially diverse talent are the first steps.

Additional resources: 

Ramsey County Workforce Solutions

Minnesota Apprenticeship Program

The Forum on Workplace Inclusion

Diversifying Your Supply Chain to Strengthen the Economy

By Samuel N. Ndely II, Director of Employer Inclusivity
(This article first appeared on the Ramsey County website.)

As the pandemic released its grip on the economy and businesses began reopening last spring, the slogan, “Buy local or say ‘goodbye’ to local,” began to circulate throughout the region to remind consumers of the importance of spending with locally owned businesses to stimulate our local economy. Businesses also have an important role to play. Studies show that supplier diversity and inclusion and efforts to increase spending with local businesses owned by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian people and immigrants is a key lever in driving an inclusive economic recovery.

Minority Business Enterprises are increasing in size, scale, and contributions to our regional national economic growth. The U.S. Small Business Administration estimates that there are over 8 million companies owned by Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx people and immigrants as of 2018.

Similarly, the National Minority Supplier Development Council, a business-certifying agency that supports corporations and businesses owned, operated, and controlled by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian people and immigrants, reports that these businesses generated over $400 billion in economic output, created over 2.2 million jobs, and $49 billion in state and local revenue. Employers who diversify their supply chains by purchasing from undercapitalized and historically marginalized businesses grow their revenues, workforce, and economic impact on the economy. The result of this powerful business strategy is good for everyone.

Large corporations have gained national attention for scaling their supplier diversity initiatives to be more intentional about investing in local Black- and Asian-owned businesses.

Recently, Minnesota-based Target announced plans to spend more than $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by 2025 and to invest in several internal and external partnerships to support Black-owned businesses in their efforts to grow and scale. The company is committed to supplier diversity and to incentivizing their non-diverse vendors to spend with minority-owned businesses. In 2019 alone, the company spent $1.4 billion on goods and services with first-tier diverse suppliers and influenced its first-tier suppliers to buy over $800,000 worth of goods and services from second-tier diverse suppliers (source: Harvard Business Review).

For Target, this is just good business. And as the businesses in their supply chain grow and thrive, they can hire workers who also thrive and contribute to building healthy, thriving neighborhoods and communities, in turn creating a great business climate for Target stores.

The same is true for all businesses. Creating an ecosystem that fosters the growth of Minority Business Enterprises is a key step in achieving a more racially inclusive and equitable economy. The challenge today is to overcome generations of racism in business development and the lending ecosystem that has led to disparate gaps in business growth, employment, revenue generation, and wealth creation among businesses owned by Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx people and immigrants.

Black and Latinx households now own just 10 cents and 12 cents of wealth, respectively, for every dollar of wealth owned by white households (source: Prosperity Now). According to McKinsey, eliminating disparities for Black business owners alone could generate $1.6 trillion in revenue. Achieving this goal will require better aligned supply and demand, plus inclusive and equitable lending, procurement, and social capital policies and practices.

There has never been a better time to act. Building a new or stronger supplier diversity strategy is good for your business and the region for many reasons:

• Improved brand awareness: The future is diverse, and it requires inclusion. As you diversify your supply chain, your brand will reach new diverse markets.

• Improve competition and bottom-line performance: By expanding the pool of suppliers competing for your dollars, you can drive costs down over time and save time and dollars.

• Meet and exceed goals: Data shows that businesses owned by people of color and women outperform or meet their counterparts’ standards, in most cases.

• Innovate for the future: Diversity and innovation go hand-in-hand. You need the best thinkers, who represent a wide array of viewpoints, experiences, and perspectives creating the products and tools for your business to drive innovation.

• Regional growth and resiliency: As small businesses grow, the region’s employment base is secure, increasing economic and social resilience, community vitality, and fiscal health.

Economic growth requires that companies of all sizes build inclusive supply chains and partnerships with Minority Business Enterprises. The economic engine of our region and state is fueled by small- and mid-size businesses. As Minnesota’s demographics grow more diverse, the growth of our economy requires an inclusive business development ecosystem to meet supply chain and consumer needs, grow good jobs, and drive the GDP.  

Ramsey County is committed to partnering with employers, like you, to expand supplier diversity efforts and the growth of businesses owned by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian people and immigrants. Ramsey County’s Economic Competitiveness and Inclusion Plan - created in partnership with the Center for Economic Inclusion, Fourth Economy, MZ Strategies, NEOO Partners, Inc., and Urban3 - identifies the need for a minimum of 500 more Minority Business Enterprises to match the U.S. ownership rate. Achieving this goal will create 6,690 new jobs and increase fiscal health, inclusive wealth building, and economic resilience for all Ramsey County residents.

Your commitment to supplier diversity as a partner in this effort can help us achieve this goal. The Center for Economic Inclusion partners with businesses to support designing and retooling supplier diversity strategies. Whether you are new to supplier diversity or need to take your program to the next level, commit to building a strategy that is good for your business and good for the Ramsey County economy.

If you are seeking Minority Business Enterprises who offer goods or services you’re purchasing today, one of these entrepreneurial support organizations may be able to help you: The Activate Network, African Economic Development Solutions, Asian Economic Development Association, Fearless Commerce, Latino Economic Development Center, Neighborhood Development Center, MEDA, and Minnesota Black Chamber of Commerce. Each of these organizations provide valuable resources, including training, coaching, lending, and referrals to hundreds of small business owners each year. Truly, the only way we can build an inclusive, equitable economy is together.

Building a Culture for Inclusive Recruitment & Retention

By Tony Tolliver, Senior Director of Partnership & Impact
(This article first appeared on the Ramsey County website.)

The pressure to attract and retain the best talent has never been greater. The good news is that there are a lot of talented people, who represent the voice of your customers, looking for opportunities for a job like the ones you offer. But, how will you attract them? And, if you attract them, how will you keep them?

Our conversations with human resources leaders and other executives on their equity and inclusion journey often go something like this: “We can’t find people of color to fill our roles, and when we do find them, we can’t keep them. What I’m really trying to say is, I’m committed, but we’ve tried everything, and nothing is working.”

Sound familiar? How often have you felt the same way? You need more employees, you want to be a part of building a more racially inclusive community, but nothing is working.

Recruitment and retention of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian people and other underrepresented populations go hand in hand. Recruitment improves when retention improves. Both can improve with intentional actions in three key areas: Analysis, Planning, and Creating a Culture of Inclusion.

Mind the Data

Examining key questions can help you understand what is hindering talented people from choosing to give your business their talent. Ask yourself and your leadership or human resources team these questions:

• What do jobseekers see when they look at your business?

• What do employees who want to move up the ranks see when they look at upper management?

• How well are your organization’s vision, mission, and values reflected in the demographics and experiences of your workforces and Board of Directors?

• How do your workforce demographics stack up against those of others in your industry or competitors?

• Do your customers see themselves reflected in your workforce, the people they interact with, and the people making decisions about the products and services you offer?

This data isn’t about meeting quotas or even simply reflecting the communities where we operate. According to McKinsey & Company, more diverse companies are better able to win top talent and improve their customer orientation, employee satisfaction, and decision making, which all lead to a virtuous cycle of increasing returns.

Remember: first impressions count! Onboarding and orientation efforts are one of the first critical keys to retaining diverse talent.

According to The Business News Daily Editor, one-third of new employees begin searching for a new job before they have been with the employer for six months, and 25% leave before they have been there a year. In a war for the best talent, you need to know where you stand before you create a plan.

Listen to the Experiences Behind the Data

According to Gallup, businesses in the lowest quartile for employee engagement experience turnover rates 31-51% higher than their peers. Those rates can be even higher when exacerbated by a culture that does not reflect the racial diversity of the community.

How informed are you about how employees from different backgrounds are experiencing belonging and inclusion in the workplace, and how it impacts engagement? Employee satisfaction surveys are used by many employers as the norm to inform leaders about overall employee satisfaction. Some may add standard diversity-related questions to gain deeper insight to the culture. And many employers disaggregate the results by department, race, gender, age and other demographic fields. Yet, even when this data is disaggregated it may provide enough insight to enable leaders to identify and address root causes of low recruitment and retention rates of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian talent.

Once you’ve gained insight into the ways employees are experiencing the organization, you can begin to assess the opportunities for deeper engagement, inclusion, and belonging that can increase talent attraction and retention. Hiring a facilitator to host focus groups or interviews with employees from under-represented backgrounds to create judgment-free spaces for them to brainstorm ideas for your business is a great way to move forward.

Creating a culture of inclusion

Companies that invest in their greatest asset—human capital—are often more successful at retention. Diversity exist in every organization, each of us bring a variety of experiences, and demographic characteristics. Inclusion and belonging however, require action, sustained over time the ability to see evidence of racial equity and inclusion throughout a company goes a long way in retaining diverse talent.

Employees stay where they feel welcomed. According to Berrett Koehler Publishing, millennials say they would give up an average of $7,600 in salary to work in a better corporate culture.

Creating a culture of inclusion includes being intentional about addressing bias — at every level — by providing training and facilitating discussions. Consider assessments, focus groups, stay interviews, or pulse surveys for creating a platform for your employees to feel safe sharing their feedback to help you identify and eliminate exclusive policies.

Taking action to mind the data, listen to the experiences of people inside your business, and those you want to attract, and then building a culture of inclusion is not easy, or fast. But, it’s worth it. As you take these steps, you’ll create a platform to increase inclusion and belonging, which will pay off in diverse retention and recruitment rates.

Increasing Employee Retention by Healing Cultural Trauma

By De’Vonna L. Pittman, Director of Inclusive Growth
(This article first appeared on the Ramsey County website.)

The retention of diverse talent is critical to a strong, growing, and profitable organization. Organizations can support employees who are Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian by providing an outlet for healing after or during traumatic incidents or when they express that they are dealing with situations that affect their mental health. In the spirit of Mental Health Awareness Month, we submit this article and ways employers can foster inclusion, equity and belonging by being attentive to the mental health and wellness needs of all employees.

According to Employee Benefit News (Nov. 2020), “The trauma of the pandemic has also impacted mental health in the Black community more severely than other groups. In a September survey by the Commonwealth Fund, 39% of Black Americans reported feeling stress, anxiety, and sadness during the pandemic, compared to 29% of those who identify as white.”

Similarly, Asian Americans have experienced disproportionate numbers of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths. A devastating 49% of Asian American deaths from COVID-19 in Minnesota were from the Hmong community, and the number of young and middle-aged Hmong Minnesotans who lost their lives to COVID-19 is significantly higher than the numbers of white Minnesotans in the same age categories. These pandemic impacts coupled with the frightening levels of hate against Asian Americans may cause spiraling levels of fear, loss, and trauma for Asian employees.

“Unfortunately,” writes Angela Neal-Barnett (Harvard Business Review, June 2020), “few Human Resources leaders or managers have the skills and training to address the needs of a racially traumatized workforce. If employers are to successfully retain and develop Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian talent, it is critical that they start by acknowledging that racism impacts Black and Brown staff emotionally, mentally, and physically.”

Intentional attention to healing trauma in the workplace includes listening. Said Neal-Barnett, “[Employers must] …understand that when Black employees tell you ‘We are exhausted,’ ‘We are tired,’ or ‘We are in no mood to interact with white people,’ what is really being said is, ‘We are in distress, we are traumatized, and we need a safe space within this organization to come together as Black people.’” She suggests providing employees with that safe place and bringing in a skilled expert in racial trauma to help them process what they are experiencing and feeling.

Minnesota’s employers have undoubtedly experienced this trauma and the impacts of it in the workplace. Trauma may show up in lower levels of engagement and productivity, higher employee absences or turnover, and supervisory challenges. One solution employers can pursue is to build partnerships with and offer employee referrals to culturally responsive healing organizations. 

The founders of Afya Sanaa, Raiesha Williams and her mother, Rosemary Nevils-Williams, are no strangers to trauma. Their loved one, Tyrone Rashad Williams, Raiesha’s brother and Rosemary’s son, was killed by gun violence. Raiesha and Rosemary have created Afya Sanaa, a nonprofit space for healing, using the wisdom gained from their experience working to heal from their loss while also growing their own business. 

Raiesha Williams was born and raised in South Minneapolis and moved to St. Paul to launch her business, the Heritage Tea House. After her brother’s murder in Minneapolis, she and her mother found themselves commuting to St. Paul each day, and that added to their trauma. Raeisha has a deep love for St. Paul, and she feels a sense of community and connectivity that drew her in. They chose to move closer to the business, and with the support of community were able to purchase the home they had been living in.  She wants to ensure people have access to healing, resources, and the physical and mental health supports they need. 

Afya Sanaa is a healing center and community space where Minnesotans who identify as Black, African American, African Descendants of Slavery can find solace, safety and fellowship needed to start their journey to healing. Self-expression, wellness, and community participation are the cornerstone of the organization’s mission to heal through art, knowledge, and love. Afya Sanaa members can offer free yoga, counseling, massage therapy, workshops, healing circles, and a fully equipped podcast room.

Another resource for employers is the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL), a social justice network of leaders committed to network weaving, collective power and improving the lives of Asians by connecting, learning and acting together. CAAL brings leaders together to connect, learn and act together, elevating the stories and experiences of Asian Minnesotans, creating spaces for healing and transformation, recovery and rebuilding.

CAAL is led by Bo Thao-Urabe, and has a staff who lead efforts like MinneAsian Stories, an effort to dismantle the myths about Asians as a monolithic culture, and elevate the diverse voices and experiences that comprise our vibrant Asian community. CAAL also facilitates network weaving events, community celebrations, and healing spaces. As hate against Asians and African Americans grew across the country, CAAL hosted forums to bring healing and elevate the solidarity between Asian and Black Minnesotans and the importance of our unity to build an inclusive and equitable future for all people.

At the Center for Economic Inclusion, we help employers develop a multitude of ways to bridge gaps in understanding and experience to build more inclusive workplaces where employees experience belonging. Understanding the many ways each of us takes in societal stimuli and issues related to race and structural racism is critical and imperative. When leaders create safe and brave spaces to listen and learn and then respond by offering culturally specific and appropriate resources, healing occurs. By diversifying our leadership teams, we have more people who can reflect and understand one another’s experiences, accelerating the journey to reconciliation and growth as we process these experiences in the workplace.

Additional resources on how to support Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and People of Color on their journey to healing:

• https://hbr.org/2020/06/how-organizations-can-support-the-mental-health-of-black-employees

• https://www.springhealth.com/race-trauma-workplace-hr-foster-allyship-healing/

• https://www.benefitnews.com/news/addressing-racial-trauma-and-ptsd-among-black-employees

Partnering for Inclusive Economic Growth

The article below, by De’Vonna Pittman, Director of Inclusive Growth, first appeared on the Ramsey County website.

Economic inclusion is an economic imperative for our region and, as research has shown, for business growth and competitiveness:

• According to McKinsey & Co., closing racial wealth gaps could add 4% to 6 % to the U.S. GDP by 2028.

• According to McKinsey & Co., companies in the top-quartile for ethnic/cultural diversity on executive teams were 33% more likely to have industry-leading profitability. Likewise, companies in the bottom quartile for both gender and ethnic/cultural diversity were 29% less likely to achieve above-average profitability.

• Minnesota’s Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian workers have been paid less for their work than their white peers for far too long. The income gap between workers of color and white workers has remained stagnant for more than 15 years, and from 2009-2019, grew by more than $3,000, according to Brookings.

Ramsey County and the Center for Economic Inclusion (the Center) are partnering to increase economic growth and competitiveness by placing racial equity and inclusion at the center. On March 23, the Center joined fellow consultants Fourth Economy, NEOO Partners, MZ Strategies, and Urban3 to present the first-ever Economic Competitiveness and Inclusion Plan (the ECI Plan) in the state of Minnesota to the Ramsey County Board.

The ECI Plan, developed over 18 months in partnership with local governments and organizations, includes critical input from Ramsey County residents, employers, and business owners. The ECI Plan will accelerate county growth, prosperity, and racial wealth equity by centering Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian people in housing, business and workforce development, land use planning, and investments while simultaneously accelerating economic growth and competitiveness in Ramsey County. The ECI Plan can be accessed here. 

The ECI Plan includes eight strategies to inform Ramsey County investments, policies, and strategies over the next six to 10 years. Here, we will highlight the impact of one strategy created to sustain and accelerate workforce recovery programs and where we will partner to meet the needs of Ramsey County employers, workers, and jobseekers with responsive, relevant, and inclusive strategies.

The ECI Plan’s workforce measurements include: 

• Increase in the number of employers partnering with programs working with Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian workers to attain certifications in order to develop and source diverse talent.

• Increase in funding to Ramsey County’s Workforce Solutions Department from external sources.

• Adoption of new customized and culturally appropriate training programs.

• Increase in the number of companies participating in “earn and learn” programs.