Following the shooting death of George Floyd by police and the ensuing worldwide protests, IT businesses and executives have shown their support for Black Lives Matter and racial equity. Recognizing that words alone are insufficient, some businesses are taking actual steps to enhance diversity in their workplaces and pushing others to do the same.
“It’s critical for businesses to come out and say they care, and to have programmes around this,” said Michael Brown, a Seattle-area entrepreneur.
Brown and Don Hyun founded Diversity Window to assist businesses in taking greater measures to promote diversity and inclusion.
Bluehawk Consulting, a Kirkland, Washington-based firm with 200 employees that provides staff to technology corporations and others, is one of its clients. The company’s executive team is diverse in terms of gender and race, but it knows that it can do more.
“This year, a lot of folks felt helpless in wanting to do better and give back in some manner,” said Tami Martin, CEO of Bluehawk. “Part of that is being able to critically examine what you’re doing right now — and improving.”
Diversity Window aspires to be a resource for businesses by assisting them with:
* Create reports to share with workers and the public based on employee diversity data such as colour, gender, sexual orientation, veteran status, and impairments.
* Set diversity hiring goals and devise a strategy for attracting a more diverse pool of candidates.
* Employee resource groups that promote inclusivity should be supported.
* With a wider range of providers, they may diversify their supply chain.
* Provide diversity officers who are outsourced.
The startup also wants to act as a clearinghouse for diversity information on businesses, giving links to corporate diversity reports and allowing employees to review their workplaces.
Diversity Window is putting together an advisory board of diversity and inclusion officers from major corporations to exchange best practises and provide product recommendations.
