We are thrilled to announce we are again recognized as one of Staffing Industry Analysts’ (SIA) diversity-supplier list for 2021.
Our goal is to make a concentrated effort on both our people and our processes in order to remove systemic bias and inequality in all talent programs, practices, policies, and protocols. According to a survey conducted by Salesforce, 80% of business professionals believe businesses have a responsibility to make a positive societal impact. Still, only 35% reported that their organization was actively working to achieve diversity.
While Horizontal has been a Certified Minority Business Enterprise since our inception, we know we’re just getting started on our mission. Our level of intentionality needed to increase substantially over this past year to truly make the sort of impact we believe all companies should make.
People, Process, and Technology
We’re continuously looking at things through the lens of People, Process, and Technology to evolve and support DEI initiatives for both internal staff and how we can best support our clients.
Here are just a few of the people changes we’ve enacted this year:
- Our CEO, Sabin Ephrem, is now Horizontal’s Chief Diversity Officer
- Leadership from our Talent and Digital divisions are working to develop a DE&I strategy and framework
- This effort is being led by our new Director of Talent, Culture, and Inclusion, Emily Rickson
- The formation of an internal DE&I task force and Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
As part of our internal Employee Resource Group’s, we provide a safe place to share ideas, learnings, and support, including group discussions, speakers/trainers, and interactive activities around DE&I.
From a process perspective, we’ve implemented DE&I training and surveyed employees about Diversity & Inclusion to ensure we’re consistently giving them what they need to bring their true, authentic selves to work.
We’ve also recently collaborated with our recruitment marketing agency to ensure that all jobs are sent to all the primary diverse job boards, allowing jobs to be seen by a larger pool of diverse candidates. We also constantly evaluate diversity data by monitoring and reviewing diversity job boards and our job descriptions to be more inclusive.
To further support our clients’ commitment to hiring diverse talent, we also looked at the technology we’re using. Our candidate screening tools use artificial intelligence (AI) to automate assessments for potential hires, which can help alleviate the bias that can come from screening.
We’re also actively partnering with a number of organizations within specialized communities to determine additional technologies we bring into our tech stack to support DE&I efforts.
Let’s connect
We know it’s a journey, and we have much more to learn. The changes above are a step in the right direction. We’d love to chat with you about what you’re doing, share knowledge, and provide insights into the above in more detail. Feel free to reach out to your local office to set up some time.
