Experts convened by NJBIZ offered advice on how businesses of all sizes can promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.

The panel, which was moderated by NJBIZ Editor Jeff Kanige, included Kristine Hurlbut, senior vice president, leasing, Denholtz Properties; Justin Lane, sales manager, large group, AmeriHealth; Avonia Richardson-Miller, senior vice president, diversity, equity, and inclusion/chief diversity officer, Hackensack Meridian Health; Monika Williams Shealey, senior vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Rowan University; and Pamela Teagarden, MAPP, SESI Consulting Engineers.

The event opened with a question about the business case for DEI. From there, Kanige went around the horn to discuss the buy-in from leadership. “How is this business case being received by people in leadership,” Kanige asked. “Is this now something that’s accepted widely enough or is there still work to do?”

Teagarden said before working at SESI, she saw a rollercoaster of leadership attitudes about DEI, but says her organization’s leaders are focused on it and tying the efforts into the business operations as a whole. “They wanted to invite the whole person to the table, to give everyone a voice and inclusive performance,” Teagarden explained.

She added that getting along is not enough if you can’t get to work better together. “What that becomes is a strategic imperative rather than just an H.R. initiative,” she explained. “I think you need it to be associated with the business rather than some sideline thing.”

“We talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion being ingrained throughout the fabric of the organization. And that’s not just lip service,” said Richardson-Miller. “So, leaders have to get that and embrace that.”

She noted that Hackensack Meridian Health champions DEI as a strategic imperative. “It’s the glue that holds everything else together,” said Richardson-Miller. “So, DEI is not just the responsibility of the Chief Diversity Officer or the DEI Department, which is typically a very small group of people. DEI is everyone’s responsibility.”

DEI should be integrated throughout the organization, she believes. “So, it’s not an extra something to do,” said Richardson-Miller. “It’s another layer that should be integrated and implemented seamlessly into what it is that you do.”

Lane said that executive sponsorship and buy-in creates a trickle-down effect. “This has to be a key, critical, integral layer to everything that your company does. It has to be a leg of the table,” said Lane.

He said that signals to everyone that they need to move in this direction too, and has helped pave the way for having real, tough conversation, championed by leadership.

Hurlbut, who is new to the space, noted that the commercial real estate industry she operates in has traditionally not been diverse, so there are many strides to make to diversify the industry, which she acknowledged is difficult to break into. And she stressed a desire and focus to tackle those challenges.

“We have in the commercial real industry a lot of work to do,” said Hurlbut.

Williams Shealey acknowledged that the demographics and trends will not shift overnight, but she sees encouraging signs. “What we’re seeing is this renewed interest coming out of COVID and certainly the calls for racial justice, a commitment on behalf of all of our organizations, a renewed commitment in some cases,” Williams Shealey explained. “Some of us have gotten re-energized.”

But she cautioned that those attitudes and beliefs that existed pre-2020 still exist. At Rowan, she said leaders spend a great deal of time talking about just what it means to be committed to DEI. She also noted that even in a room that does not look diverse, there are still diverse perspectives, values, experiences, places and understandings of the world.

“So, I really encourage people to talk about what they mean when they say, ‘we want a more diverse environment,’” said Williams Shealey. “We have to call out what kind of diversity we’d like to see.

Kanige mentioned some of the outside factors going on in the world over the last few years including social justice campaigns, the pandemic, the school shootings, abortion debate, LGBTQ issues and more.

“Those kinds of things are issues that are preying on folks’ minds as they come into work,” said Kanige. “All of these things that employees are bringing to the table every day.”

Kanige asked how business leaders should go about having tough conversations and whether they need to be sought out or happen organically.

Lane said such discussion must be sought out, but that the stage must be set properly to ensure people know it is a safe to speak freely, which expands understanding and perspective. “We spend so much time with each other in the workspace that you want to feel comfortable,” he said.

“Do you have to be explicit about where those boundaries are,” Kanige asked. “Or do you just sort of find it as you go along?”

Richardson-Miller said that out of the George Floyd murder came a Listening to Understand campaign at Hackensack Meridian Health, which included moderated discussions with facilitators, guidelines, icebreakers and questions.

“What we found was that our team members really wanted it to continue,” Richardson-Miller said. “It’s about setting those boundaries and ensuring that it’s a safe place to come and to just listen, or to come and just share.”

She noted that HMH executives realize that things are happening in society all the time that affect team members. And that society is so divided and some of community connections are not as tight as they once were.

“So, we’re finding that corporations need to do a little bit more to step in and be that support,” she said. “We have continued our Listening to Understand sessions.”

The sessions allow team members to connect directly with leadership and engage in that dialogue in a safe space. And the program offers the chance for team members to share feedback and suggestions.

Wiliams Shealey said that feedback has helped guide decisions or become part of the process.

Teagarden said SESI centered its efforts around inclusive performance, which she says led to less formal discussions because team members were having way more conversations amongst themselves because they were bound by their inclusive performance.

“You’ve got to make sure that you’re not just trying to achieve world peace,” said Teagarden, stressing the importance of inclusive performance. “So that they are bound by something inside the organization. We can’t solve world peace with every conversation that we have.”

Kanige noted that it seems like executives have to prime the pump to get this kind of dialogue started, but once it is then they happen more organically.

Richardson-Miller also believes that the efforts must have a degree of intentionality behind them, using her organization’s Days of Understanding initiative, where leaders are asked to have uncomfortable conversations with the team.

“Many would not engage without that degree of intentionality,” said Richardson-Miller. “So yes, it’s happening organically, to some degree. A lot of diversity, equity, and inclusion happens organically. But you have to have intentionality.”

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“The leadership buy-in says, ‘this is an ongoing conversation,’” said Lane. “We don’t have to whisper about this. We don’t have to have this behind closed doors. And we have a cross-section of experiences that are being shared. So, you get what Avonia said, more intentionality behind those conversations with that leadership-buy-in.”

“I agree 100% with the intentionality,” said Hurlbut. “We need to have more of these conversations, and this is how things are going to better.”

From there, Kanige moved on to how organizations of all sizes go about doing that.

“How do you start,” Kanige asked. “What do you need to have in place and what do you need to gather to get that started?”

Williams Shealey said that at Rowan, it started with students. In 2019, they called for the university president to name a Chief Diversity Officer.

“It starts with the mission and the vision,” she explained. “Are we explicitly addressing our commitment to DEI?”

She said that process includes setting goals and developing consensus around those goals, which she says is simply operationalizing the mission and the vision and the values.

“We are all holding ourselves accountable to the transformation that we want to see in our organization,” said Williams Shealey. “We need that quantitative and empirical case to be able to demonstrate how we’re making gains. But we also need to measure our progress qualitatively.”

Teagarden said her organization has prioritized the business imperative part of the equation as opposed to just having it be just a recruiting initiative or corporate social responsibility.

Richardson-Miller added that it is vital to have leadership engagement and accountability as well as a sound DEI governance structure.

“Because if you don’t have that accountability piece and that leadership piece, then whatever you had is going to fall by the wayside,” she explained. “Diversity drives innovation. But of course, you’ve got to have inclusiveness and equity and create that workplace environment before that diversity can really have an impact on innovation.”

Lane reminded the audience that people have blind spots and that the situation or circumstances could change from when a DEI plan was first developed. “So, you have to be willing to change and adapt,” said Lane.

The panel ran through a series of other topics ranging from mentoring to hybrid workplaces to the challenges of instituting DEI policies in such a tight labor market and more. They also shared resources to help organizations get their DEI initiatives off the ground and took some questions from the audience before Kanige gave them the floor for final thoughts on the issue.

“Everyone needs to try to have an open mind about things and have these conversations,” said Hurlbut. “I think that’s the most important thing. Having those conversations internally, those difficult conversations, because that’s the way that things will change.”

“Just keep in mind, as Avonia said, ‘this is a journey, not a destination,’” said Lane. “Baby steps will still get you there.”

“Every organization is in a different place on that that journey, a different stage of that journey,” said Richardson-Miller. “And as long as you are intentional in your strategy to continue moving along that continuum, and that you are collaborative and that you ground your strategy in research and best practices and form those relationships because that’s going to be key.”

“Especially small businesses need to know the difference between aspirational and inspirational DEI,” said Teagarden. “If you set out to break every bias and succeed at racial healing and all of the things that it sounds like we’re supposed to get out of this, you will get nowhere. But if you inspire it from your talent pool, your community, your people, the business you want to have in the next phase, it’s going to become easier to take those three components of recruiting and corporate social responsibility and performance and make that inclusive on your own terms.”

Williams Shealey had the last word and shared two closing thoughts.

“I encourage all of us to align our actions with our behaviors, with our values, with our mission and vision,” she explained. “And then finally, I would say to the audience, if you’re not a part of the solution, then you’re a part of the problem.”

“So, let’s all be a part of the solution.”