Category: Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) is an important and ongoing strategy of any HR plan. Ensuring that your company supports hiring, engaging, and retaining diverse workers with varied backgrounds will set your company up for long-term success and an increased bottom line. This topic offers the latest strategies for talent management, key insights from diversity leaders, case studies on D&I in the workplace, and more.

Unwelcome Office Birthday Party Leads to $450K Verdict, Lessons on Disability Law

Misunderstandings over an office birthday party recently taught a Kentucky employer an expensive lesson about disability discrimination. A jury awarded $450,000 to the affected employee who didn’t want the party and allegedly suffered a panic attack afterward. The employer’s alleged, repeated mishandling of the worker’s behavior after the episode offers the best explanation for the […]

All Fortune 100 Companies Now Have DEI Policies

Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts have gained remarkable traction in recent decades. In the final third of the 20th century, DEI was effectively dominated by and focused exclusively on affirmative action—the idea that employee racial and gender demographics should more or less match the population-level demographics. It didn’t necessarily matter whether women and people of […]

Reducing Liability: How Employers Can Be On the Hook for Employee-To-Employee or Third-Party Racial Harassment

Although employers may be automatically liable for supervisors or administrative personnel harassing subordinate employees under certain federal laws, they may also be held liable if another employee (even one subordinate to the harassed employee) or a third-party such as a customer or vendor harasses an employee based on their race. What Will Courts Consider When […]

Managing Activism in the Workplace: Some Guiding Principles

In a politically charged era where activism is considered noble, HR managers are confronting new challenges in the workplace in an attempt to find balance between the expression of disparate views while maintaining a productive and cohesive workforce.

A Decades-Long Commitment to DEI

It’s perhaps due to the traditionally unsung nature of human resources and DEI that so few of the diversity leaders we feature in our profiles had such roles in mind when they started their careers. Instead, they embarked upon careers in fields like marketing, sales, finance or operations and found their way to HR and […]

Benefits Disconnect: Closing the Perception Gap for Mental Health

People don’t want to be told what to do; they want to be heard. In my experience as a clinician and an executive in people operations, the greatest opportunities for both personal and organizational change occur in a psychologically safe environment that invites engagement. Such safety is established in one-on-one conversations and by fostering company-wide […]

The Shift in Corporate Abortion Policies and Support

It’s hard to find a more controversial and polarizing topic than abortion. It not only is an extremely personal issue but also straddles the intersection of three subjects that are generally best avoided in the office: religion, politics, and sex. Supreme Court Decision Creates Controversy But in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision […]

Workplace Investigations: Leveraging the ‘Honest-Belief Rule’

Conducting investigations of disputed workplace events is a routine responsibility for HR leaders. Faced with disputed facts, employers can make reasonable fact determinations based on a diligent probe and still obtain summary dismissal of a discrimination claim. A recent decision from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals confirms how employers can best ensure the […]

HR Works Presents A Seat at the Table: The Power of a Vulnerable Leader

In the latest episode of A Seat at the Table, listen in as Elena Valentine, CEO and Co-founder of SkillScout Films, a media company that has helped some of the most iconic brands tell their stories, discusses the value of fostering storytelling cultures, emotional connections, kindred curiosity, and more in today’s workplace. On July 20th, Elena […]

What Does ‘Equity’ Really Mean to Effective DEI?

In preparing for this piece, I set my sights on demystifying the term “equity,” as in diversity, equity, and inclusion, (DEI). I wanted to explore the part equity plays in creating a healthier workplace culture, which led me to this question: “What exactly is the difference between ‘equity’ and ‘equality’?”  I came across this situation […]