Inclusion
Blue Cross Blue Shield MA, DEI, DEI-WWM, TrueMotion, wayfair

Creating DEI Program Toolkits: Use Cases

Why does DEI matter? And why should it matter to your company? Those are two questions, posed by moderator Andre Green of SkillWorks, that were tackled by panelists Rory Anderson of Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA, Nicole Keegan of TrueMotion, and KeyAnna Schmiedl of Wayfair, during our Creating DEI Program Toolkits: Use Cases program. This was the second session in the Workforce, Workplace, Marketplace: Embedding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion series.

The responses were varied, which very much goes to the constituency of the companies. Wayfair, a large consumer-based company, and TrueMotion, a small company providing tech to auto insurers, look internally at their employees, hoping to bring people together and give them a voice and opportunity to have impact on the organization. Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA takes an external view, looking at the racial injustice within the healthcare system to bring their DEI initiatives back to the organization.

A major theme that was discussed was stamina. Be it on the part of those creating these programs or the individual employees who, especially in a remote world, need to share more about themselves than ever before. The use cases our panel members shared all focused on “many hands making light work” and helping to keep the mental strength that is needed to make yourself vulnerable. And in the end, that openness is where energy can come from and impact can occur.

A major takeaway for companies getting started is to choose one thing, work at it, and then choose another. They will not all work, but it is the only way to build.

Watch full discussion:

See posts and videos for the full Workforce, Workplace, Marketplace DEI series:

  1. Getting Uncomfortable: Embedding DEI into the Fabric of Your Organization with DEI leaders from Bloomberg, CarGurus, Pegasystems, and Wayfair (Oct 23, 2020).
  2. Creating DEI Program Toolkits: Use Cases with DEI leaders at Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA, SkillWorks, TrueMotion, and Wayfair (Oct 30, 2020).
  3. Measuring Success in DEI Programs with DEI leaders at DraftKings, Fuze, PTC, and Wayfair (Nov 9, 2020).

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