EMBRACING OUR DIFFERENCES.

• Author: Kinney, Ben
• Position: ROUNDTABLE: DIVERSITY IN BUSINESS

While most companies have one mission, their customers and employees are individuals. And meeting the first means recognizing, accepting and celebrating the latter. Addressing diversity and inclusion in the workplace has accelerated over the past two years as a pandemic, social movements and events that spawned civil unrest gripped the country. And that's a good thing for businesses and communities, says this group of experts working on the frontlines of the D&I movement. Business North Carolina magazine recently brought them together to discuss what needs to be done, how it should be carried out and its importance.

Fidelity, Gallagher, Lenovo, N.C. State University, Smith Anderson and Truliant sponsored the discussion, which was moderated by Business North Carolina Publisher Ben Kinney, it was edited for brevity and clarity.

WHEN AND HOW DID YOUR ORGANIZATION BEGIN ADDRESSING D&I?

JEFFREYS: Wendy John, a 25-year employee of Fidelity, was named head of global diversity and inclusion two years ago, She reports to Maggie Serravalli, chief financial officer. Everyone has to own D&I, not only the D&I enterprise team. While Fidelity's D&I journey began more than 20 years ago, it has become more intentional in many respects, especially hiring. We recruit from historically black colleges and universities and connect with diverse organizations and partnerships. We see D&I from a business imperative standpoint. Our customers are diverse. Our marketplace is diverse. We look at D&I starting with the end in mind. It's not all about the pipeline, putting diverse talent in entry level positions. If diverse candidates do not see themselves in senior leadership positions, then they don't consider them.

DEWBERRY: My role as chief diversity officer at Smith Anderson is new, but the firm has had a diversity committee for 20 years. Two of its strong equity partners serve as its chair, both female, one Black and the other part of the LGBTQIA+ community. That says a lot for a 110-year-old firm in the Southeast. There has been a big push for D&I from our clients and staff. We need to focus on our clients' demands. It's good business all around.

STILLWELL: Prior to joining Gallagher, an insurance, risk management and consulting organization, I did risk management and human resources for small and midsize businesses. Over the course of about 10 years, I witnessed a diversity, equality and inclusion evolution from focusing on compliance to intentionally putting in place systems that drive change. We continue to examine those systems that drive change. We should continue to examine those systems, innovating along the way to ensure we create cultures where everyone can thrive long term.

QUIRE-MCCLOUD: Our D&I journey officially began in January of 2021, but Truliant has been developing its D&I practices for several years. Our initial efforts were focused on education and ensuring all employees had a common understanding of where the organization was and its commitment to having an intentional DEI strategy. As was the case with many organizations, the murder of George Floyd, a man killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, was the impetus for many to take a more formal stance in support of understanding difference and the value of inclusion and belonging. While having a dedicated DEI leader is fairly new to us, we've always had a great workplace culture and are layering on top of a strong foundation of employees and leaders who view building relationships as a core value. I want to create safe and brave spaces for insightful dialogue to occur and for employees to know it's OK to have questions and to be vulnerable. Diversity can't be a dirty word in a place where we spend so much time together. We plan to introduce our first Business Resource Group this year and will continue to educate, train and build quality momentum not only because it's the right thing to do, but because our employees and communities are better for it.

LOPEZ: Lenovo has been focused on D&I for a long time. We started our first employee resource group--WILL, Women in Lenovo Leadership--about a decade ago. Now we have 13 ERGs represented at sites worldwide, including BLAST, Black Leaders Achieving Success in Technology, and HOLA, Hispanics of Lenovo Association. We also have NEMO for new and expectant mothers. ERGs improve the employee experience by creating shared identity communities. Discussions of a product diversity office were underway in 2019 and accelerated in 2020. I've managed it for about 18 months.

BROWN-GRAHAM: We've been on an evolution, thinking about this issue, for at least 30 years. 2020 was a remarkable inflection point. It caused all of us to consider the D&I progress that we've made and how to accomplish what we want. I'm a lawyer by training. I graduated law school in the 1990s and started work at a big firm. I was the first African-American lawyer it hired in its 135-year history. And like many of my counterparts, I was part of a revolving door. I went in, and I left. We can no longer...