Resourcing the Work: How to Make Your Equity and Diversity Goals Reality
B Corps Turn to Employees and Outside Partners for Collaboration and Support in the Inclusive Economy Challenge
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
In a market where a new generation of employees bring diverse backgrounds and a desire for purpose-driven work, businesses are evolving to capture their attention and develop an inclusive company culture.
And some companies — like Certified B Corporations participating in the Inclusive Economy Challenge — recognize that inclusion is just the first step. Hundreds of participating companies are using their businesses to build an inclusive economy, one that is equitable and just for all, and they’re sharing their learnings.
One fundamental principle of doing equity, diversity and inclusion work is that for it to be effective, it must be resourced like other vital strategic initiatives. This work requires human capital, financial resources and expertise. Finding staff time, hiring a professional and paying for conferences — just a few of the options available for getting started — all require properly resourcing this important work.
While each Inclusive Economy Challenge officially takes a year, the B Corp community members making changes realize the work of building an inclusive economy is ongoing and doesn’t happen on its own. It takes intention, dedicated time and often professional assistance. Below are examples of B Corps investing time and resources to set goals, create a plan and follow through on those actions — by creating cross-company, diverse teams and working with partner organizations to realize their goals.
An inclusive economy is one that creates opportunity for all people of all backgrounds and experiences to live with dignity, to support themselves and their families, and to make a contribution to their communities.
These online resources can be used to help guide and shape diversity, equity and inclusion goals and measures at your company and especially for those participating in the B Corp Inclusive Economy Challenge.
Their work is guided by their participation in the Inclusive Economy Challenge, which just launched for the third year. Participating B Corps set at least three inclusive economy goals for improvement in the B Impact Assessment, creating a plan for the work and measuring their progress along the way.
A Working Group With Authority
For COOK, a United Kingdom-based company that prepares and sells frozen homestyle foods, shifting its workplace to be more equitable means exploring flexible scheduling for hourly employees and establishing an employee working group focused on diversity and inclusion.
The COOK diversity and inclusion working group, which has quarterly meetings open to all employees at its headquarters, is shaping company policies and providing feedback on proposed diversity training. While such a group is one way to resource the work, its members must have some basic qualities to ensure their effectiveness:
- Be demographically diverse and representative of different teams and levels of leadership.
- Have designated time to invest in this work (and not simply have to do this above and beyond their jobs).
- Be transparent with their work and engage the wider company.
- Have real decision-making authority.
At COOK, the working group is made up of about 10 people who meet quarterly. The sessions are advertised across the company headquarters so more people can join or pop in for a meeting.
The working group has already discussed various topics, according to Charlotte Sewell, head of impact and learning at COOK. These include designing “Everyone Matters” equity, diversity and inclusion trainings; increasing awareness of mental health support for employees; and providing office updates on the working group.
“We still have a long way to go, but this is helping us keep the conversation alive in headquarters so we can continue to think more broadly across the business,” Sewell says.
In addition to devoting employee time and focus to the internal diversity and inclusion group, COOK has joined other companies in the United Kingdom on a cross-industry working group to share best practices for flexible working in retail, an industry that relies on part-time workers.
In some organizations, certain departments or teams may not be as connected to the overall mission or have the same opportunities for career advancement. COOK and other companies in the UK retail working group are working with a consultant to “unblock” career progression.
“This is helping us make plans for introducing more flexibility into shift work, such as job sharing for shop managers,” Sewell says.
Through its working group takeaways, COOK has offered its employees new schedule options and equity-minded programs. While employees at COOK headquarters had flexible working practices in place, fewer are available to those in retail and manufacturing because of constraints due to location or hours of business. By investigating small workplace changes, COOK can serve as an example for other businesses and expand on what’s successful.
“We’ve also been taking small steps to prototype in house, for example, with a recent member of our kitchen team returning to work after maternity leave who we’ve designed a new shift pattern for to fit in with her child care responsibilities,” Sewell says. “We’re hoping to continue to learn from these small tests and are actively incorporating the need for greater flexibility in shift times into the design of our new kitchen.”
In addition to being a Certified B Corporation since 2013, COOK has been certified by the Living Wage Foundation since 2015 for paying all employees 18 and older a living wage of 8.75 pounds per hour in the UK and 10.20 in London, compared to the national minimum wage of 5.90 pounds for 18- to 20-year-olds or 7.50 pounds for those 25 and older.
“We’ve also been part of a working group sharing best practices with the Living Wage Foundation,” Sewell says. “Establishing clear policies for manufacturing and retail is still a way off, but we’re confident that the research and learning we’re engaged in now will help us move further on this faster.”
In collaborating with others, especially experts from outside of their organization, COOK exemplifies another best practice to adequately resource the work to achieve their goals.
The company also has devoted time and resources to see where it stands on equitable hiring by publishing a gender pay gap report that details the split of male to female managers at COOK. According to the report, at COOK women are paid a median average of nearly 11 percent less than men and a mean average of nearly 18 percent. COOK was prompted to complete the report following government legislation and is committed to making improvements. The company was pleased to identify no gender pay difference according to roles. While COOK has more women in senior part-time positions, which may create an apparent pay gap, it provides part-time work options for people, including those on its senior team. The company also will start flexible working training for key managers across its business, from the office to the kitchen.
“This has helped us assess where we’re currently at more clearly,” Sewell says. “We’re still exploring how to best understand where we are in terms of reporting on company diversity.”
Conversion to Co-op
Another B Corp finding value by taking the Inclusive Economy Challenge journey with guidance and advice from other organizations is Sweet Livity LLC, which provides coaching and wellness programs to people and organizations who serve the community.
This has been the second year in the Inclusive Economy Challenge for Sweet Livity. Last year, Sweet Livity launched a yearlong Train-the-Trainer Institute, or T3, with partner organization Standing in Our Power. Through T3, trans women of color and gender nonconforming people of color in Sweet Livity’s trainer network had access to leadership development and wellness programming.
Sweet Livity continues its diversity, equity and inclusion growth this year through several projects. To spread the word about investment resources, Sweet Livity became one of the women-owned companies promoting the launch of Crowdfund Main Street, which connects female entrepreneurs with unaccredited investors — aka everyday people — who want to invest in them.
It also moved forward on its goal of increasing the number of transgender and gender nonconforming people in its management roles and network of consultant affiliates. By celebrating diversity in its leadership, Sweet Livity takes another step toward equity.
In one of its biggest equity and inclusion projects this year, Sweet Livity started a conversion process to become a worker-owned cooperative and share its financial success with more employees. By distributing ownership throughout the workforce, Sweet Livity improves employees’ financial security and job satisfaction while creating a more inclusive workplace.
Diana Marie Lee, who founded Sweet Livity in 2011, says the conversion process has required time, thought and intention from her and many others in the organization.
“We have to make time to have the conversations and make decisions together on what we’re going to prioritize,” Lee says. “When I think about how much movement there’s been, just in the last couple years, it almost feels like this is like the necessary work we had to do just to get here. It’s definitely a commitment.”
Sweet Livity added Samuel González to its multicultural global team to help co-lead this work. Lee, González and others at Sweet Livity have worked with mentor organizations, such as Project Equity, Prospera Co-ops and the Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI), to learn more about co-ops and the process of becoming and shaping one through a collaborative process that involves suggestions from workers throughout the organization.
“I’m beginning to understand that as those I work with come together around this idea, we may need to create a hybrid approach to co-ops,” Lee says. “I’m open to how this co-op takes shape and what we call it, because to be true to myself and my values, I need to do the work to move the leadership and power from me to the collective.”
Expanding the inclusion work from one to many also applies to the organization as a whole as it turns to other groups for assistance with the co-op conversion. The mentor organizations have helped Sweet Livity launch the process and share the work by donating their time and expertise — welcome contributions for an organization and employees with generally tight budgets.
“Even the people who came in to mentor us, around some of the mistakes that we were making in terms of gender equity or shifting our business model, they did that pro bono,” Lee says. “It wasn’t like anybody who was helping us had money. It was really the gift of time, talent and their heart.”
Through its work with advisers at DAWI, Sweet Livity was able to send some of its workers and business partners to a recent conference organized by the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, which is DAWI’s parent organization. DAWI also has helped identify technical assistance options to guide a consensus-building process for Sweet Livity’s conversion to worker ownership. Sweet Livity also received referrals to legal resources and other assistance from the Sustainable Economies Law Center.
Lee has learned that it’s necessary to seek and accept assistance and advice — from outside mentors and colleagues in the organization — to encourage new ideas and different perspectives, and to share the workload.
“I need to be more open to asking for support,” she says. “I have been shouldering the responsibilities, the decision-making. But to share the decision-making, you also have to share resources.”
By bringing others along for the journey toward a more inclusive workplace, B Corps like COOK and Sweet Livity have been able to tap into expertise and information they might not otherwise find and are able to move forward more efficiently with their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
