East Tennessee State University Strategic Plan 2016-2026
Vision, Mission, and Values
Education remains ETSU’s highest priority, and the institution is committed to increasing the level of educational attainment in the state and region based on core values where: PEOPLE come first, individuals are treated with dignity and respect, and are encouraged to achieve their full potential; where RELATIONSHIPS are created based on honesty, integrity, trust, and DIVERSITY of people and thought is respected. To ensure the diversity and inclusion of people and ideas, ESTU established a diversity task force charged with the responsibility of developing and implementing a plan to increase diversity and inclusion ---integrating these concepts into the fabric of the University. The Bucs Commitment Initiative for Diversity and Inclusion focuses on defining and expanding our view of diversity beyond race or nationality.
INTRODUCTION TO CHANGE
The "BUCS Commitment Initiative" aims to make progress toward providing new opportunities for personal and professional growth and development of the Department of Athletics staff by further prioritizing standards and practices in support of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I).
NECESSARY FOR CHANGE
Understanding and Embracing the Necessity of Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace
Confusion over diversity hiring sometimes lies in the mistaken perception that the goal of diversity recruitment is to increase workplace diversity for diversity's sake. However, the true purpose of diversity hiring is to identify and remove potential biases in sourcing, screening, and shortlisting candidates. It also seeks to educate individuals who may ignore, turn off, or accidentally discriminate against qualified, diverse candidates. Whereas, inclusion is a system for ensuring the organization is welcoming at every level to every individual, which applies to employees, students, fans, members of the local community, corporate partners, or whoever the institution has identified as a target audience. Inclusion also opens minds to a more interconnected and interdependent ecosystem within the Department of Athletics and across the enterprise.
Concerns Related to Culture
Hiring, Retention, and Representation
Whether it is in college athletics administration or the corporate offices of global institutions, leaders understand that for their enterprises to survive and thrive in a world in which their employees, students, alumni, local community members, fans, and corporate partners span multiple countries, languages, generations, cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds – they need their organizations to be inclusive. The Bucs Commitment Initiative on Diversity and Inclusion works to review the Department of Athletics' existing policies and practices to identify and correct diversity and inclusion issues by evaluating hiring practices and ensuring there is diversity among candidate pools for future employment opportunities.
Inclusion Is Not A Function – It’s A Growth Strategy
Diversity and inclusion, unfortunately, has always been a cost-center or a compliance-driven functional area that is often part of the Human Resources or an organization’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) department. Leaders must understand that just because you think you’re doing it right doesn’t mean you’re doing enough. A cost-center mentality more often than not limits opportunity. Compliance and CSR are substantial, but inclusion should not be confined to a functional area – it must be viewed as a mindset that all leaders and employees embrace the values and understand the benefits of diversity and inclusion.
Creating Interdependency on People, Their Experiences and Capabilities
Inclusion is about creating interdependency in people and their unique experiences and capabilities. It is about fostering environments in which leaders can best see, sow, grow, and share opportunities for a healthier organization's betterment. Only achieving diversity does not provide a competitive advantage; it requires work, and that is where inclusion comes into play. The organizations that figure out inclusion will be the ones to achieve the growth and development they seek.
Age of Personalization – Our new era is one based on individuality, which requires a concerted effort to know and account for the realities and the values of individual employees, students, fans, members of the local community, and corporate partners.
Leadership in the Age of Personalization
According to Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation, diversity must be engineered for inclusivity to permeate an organization. He asserts that “businesses thrive over time through innovation, and by definition, that requires thinking outside the box.” Donald further asserts that diversity doesn’t happen naturally, arguing that as human beings, it’s natural for us to cluster with people like ourselves – there is nothing evil about it, it is natural. However, he challenges leaders to interrupt that, stating we have to be deliberate in our efforts to interrupt the unconscious tendency to identify with people who we think are most like us because that tendency works against an inclusive workforce. Once the organization has achieved diversity, the challenge is training people to deal with diversity, and that is where inclusion comes into play.
“Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
MOTIVATION for CHANGE
The Financial Benefit of Integrating Diversity And Inclusion Into the Hiring Process
Founded in 1926, McKinsey & Company is a United States-based management consulting firm that commissioned a report titled, Diversity Matters, which examined proprietary data sets for 366 public companies across a range of industries in Canada, Latin America, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In this research, McKinsey looked at metrics such as financial results and top management and boards' composition. The findings clearly show that organizations in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians; and those with gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.
Benefits of Change
Six Benefits of the D&I
(1) A variety of different perspectives - diversity in the workplace means that employees will have other characteristics and backgrounds; they are also more likely to have various skills and experiences. (2) Increased creativity - People with different backgrounds tend to have different experiences and, thus, different perspectives. Exposure to a variety of different perspectives and views leads to higher creativity. (3) Increased innovation - In a diverse workplace, employees are exposed to multiple perspectives and world-views. When these various perspectives combine, they often come together in novel ways, opening doors to innovation. (4) Faster problem-solving - Employees from diverse backgrounds have different experiences and views, which is why they can bring various solutions to the table, which leads to faster problem-solving. (5) Better decision making - When employees with different backgrounds and perspectives come together, they come up with more solutions, which leads to more informed and improved decision-making processes and results. (6) Increased profits - Organizations with a diverse workforce make better decisions faster, which gives them a serious advantage over their competitors. As a result, companies with diversity in the workplace achieve better business results and reap more profit.
supporting a diverse, inclusive environment, increases the likelihood of having happy employees and an engaged organization, which yields better customer service and a stronger brand.
10 employee Recruiting Strategies designed to Improve Diversity
Recruiting Strategies 1 thru 5
(1) Examine bias during the interview process. Strengthening diversity in the workplace means helping interviewers and hiring managers understand common biases that may influence their hiring decisions. For instance, confirmation bias is the tendency to embrace information that confirms one’s existing beliefs while rejecting information that challenges them. (2) Ensure the hiring committee represents diversity. Tackling the question of bias among interviewers is just one step in building a more diverse, inclusive organization. Creating a diverse hiring committee can yield a thoughtful, hiring process that includes various people. (3) Highlight the organization’s diverse culture through outreach. When communicating with potential candidates, emphasize the diverse culture that is being built. (4) Assess candidates’ skill sets first. As part of the organization’s hiring process, screen candidates’ skills through a small trial project. This approach gives interviewers and hiring managers a chance to form their opinions based on skill and execution. (5) Ask all candidates the same questions. Use the same set of interview questions, asked in the same order, for every candidate. Assign weighted scores to the items and compare candidates side by side.
Recruiting Strategies 6 thru 10
(6) Participate in diversity job fairs. Recruiters spend a large amount of time attending and meeting candidates at job fairs. However, participating in job fairs that are tailored to a diverse candidate base increases the talent pool. (7) Connect with organizations and groups to draw underrepresented candidates. Attending networking events and meetups for diverse or underrepresented candidate groups will help broaden contacts and open new doors for strong referrals. (8) Build a pipeline of diverse candidates through targeted networking. Building one-on-one relationships with career professionals who belong to underrepresented groups is a strong long-term strategy for successful recruitment and leveraging social and personal networks to build a more diverse pipeline. (9) Requiring interviewers to participate in diversity training. The workforce originates from the managers who make hiring decisions. Diversity training is imperative for employees at all levels, but it’s essential for interviewers and hiring managers. (10) Align with a recruitment partner that focuses on matching diverse employees. Work with a recruitment partner that specializes in matching a diverse candidate base with the right companies could help identify, recruit, and retain more diverse candidates. They can also provide valuable objective guidance to assist in making the internal hiring processes more inclusive.
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Good leadership requires you to surround yourself with people of diverse perspectives who can disagree with you without fear of retaliation. ― Doris Kearns Goodwin
Timeline for Change
Taking Proactive Steps to Promote Diversity
The organizations with successful diversity and inclusion programs regularly evaluate its effectiveness and take proactive steps to promote a diverse pool of candidates, including women and minorities, in its hiring, recruiting, retention, and promotion, as well as in its selection of board members, senior management, and other senior leadership positions. Leadership's endorsing of inclusion practices is linked to innovative outcomes and ensures meaningful results.
Establishing Regular Monitoring and Evaluations of the D&I Initiative Effectiveness
The organizations with successful diversity policies and practices not only allocate time and resources to monitoring and evaluating D&I performance under their diversity policies and procedures. They are committed to assessing the program on an ongoing basis.
Snap Shot of Change Implementation Plan
- Action: Conduct Climate Survey, Area of Impact: Climate, Target Date: Every 3 years, Beginning April 2021
- Action: Begin administration of cultural competency training cycle for faculty and staff, Area of Impact: Climate Target Date: September 2021
- Action: Develop and submit the diversity plan for approval, Area of Impact: Accountability, Target Date: October 2021
- Action: Introduce the Committee and promote the Diversity & Inclusion faculty and staff. (1) Present the diversity and inclusion plan. (2) Roll out marketing of and related initiatives, including logo and slogan contest., Area of Impact: Climate, Target Date: January 2022
- Action: Share climate survey results with faculty, staff, and other stakeholders., Area of Impact: Climate, Target Date: Every 3 years, Beginning January 2022
- Action: Meeting of director of athletics, administrators and key stakeholders. (1) Plan and calibrate their utilization of and adherence to the plan. Introduce modification to score cards. (2) Implicit bias training, Area of Impact: Accountability, Target Date: January 2022
- Action: Identify a funding stream and prioritize a budget for diversity and inclusion., Area of Impact: Accountability, Target Date: January 2022
- Action: Begin team building workshops for staff., Area of Impact: Climate, Target Date: February 2022
- Action: Train at least 10 staff members to lead small group cultural competence training sessions., Area of Impact: Climate, Target Date: February 2022
- Action: Begin department-based small group training sessions., Area of Impact: Climate, Target Date: March 2022
- Action: Involve the Director of Athletics and other senior and other stakeholders in preparation of data for ETSU Annual Report. Area of Impact: Climate, Target Date: March 2022
- Action: Research and begin development new recruitment plan. Area of Impact: Equity, Target Date: June 2022
“A diverse mix of voices leads to better discussions, decisions, and outcomes for everyone.” — Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google
“Diversity strengthens our innovative capacity, unleashes the potential of employees and thereby directly contributes to business success.” — Janina Kugel, Chief Diversity Officer at Siemens
Inclusion and fairness in the workplace . . . is not simply the right thing to do; it's the smart thing to do. ― Alexis Herman
Challenges of Change
Five Challenges facing the Integration of D&I
(1) If the organization’s culture doesn’t include diversity plan, it will be challenging to sustain a diverse workforce. (2) Diversity is challenging to achieve because the things that prevent workforce diversity are complicated and not always easily recognizable. (3) Diversity can’t exist in a vacuum. It must be part of an organized diversity program for the best results. (4) Diversity recruiting is the first step in achieving true diversity, but if there is no support or plan for successfully integrating diverse candidates, they will not stay and become an integral part of the organization. (5) Diversity hiring must be supported by a diversity recruiting strategy, workplace diversity training, and a commitment to diversity from the top.
AssessmenT
Allocating Time and Resources
The ETSU Diversity Task Force designed the following standards to provide a framework for creating and strengthening its diversity policies and practices. Organizations that have successful diversity policies and practices allocate time and resources to monitor and evaluate performance under their diversity policies and procedures on an ongoing basis.
Standard for Assessing the Diversity Policies and Practices
(1) Department's Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion: Led by a senior-level official and supported by leadership and key stakeholders, the group work collectively to develop standards that inform how the Department of Athletics promotes diversity and inclusion in employment and contracting and fosters a corporate culture that embraces these concepts. Assessment - The department has a senior-level official, preferably with knowledge of and experience in diversity and inclusion policies and practices, who oversees and directs its diversity and inclusion efforts. Working with stakeholders, this senior-level official leads the group in develop standards that embrace diversity and inclusion in the Department of Athletics' employment and contracting practices. Target Date: January 2021
(2) Workforce Profile and Employment Practices: By the target date, the Department of Athletics promotes the fair inclusion of minorities and women in their workforce by publicizing employment opportunities, creates relationships with minority and women professional organizations and educational institutions, creates a culture that values the contribution of all employees, and focuses on these objectives when evaluating the performance of managers. Uses various analytical tools to assess a wide range of business objectives, the Department of Athletics operates using metrics to track and measure the inclusiveness of its workforce (e.g., race, ethnicity, and gender). Assessment - The department ensures equal employment opportunities for all employees and applicants for employment. It does not engage in unlawful employment discrimination based on gender, race, or ethnicity by utilizing quantitative and qualitative measurements to assess its workforce diversity and inclusion efforts. Target Date: August 2021
(3) Practices To Promote Transparency of Department's Diversity and Inclusion: By the target date, transparency and publicity communicate the essential aspects of diversity policies and procedures with greater awareness and clarity provided to the public. The Department of Athletics publicizes diversity and inclusion efforts through standard business methods, including displaying information on its websites and social media channels. Promotional material is also made available via annual reports to employees, potential employees, customers, and the general community regarding diversity and inclusion efforts. Assessment - the Department of Athletics is transparent concerning its diversity and inclusion activities by making information available to the public. Target Date: January 2022
“When we listen and celebrate what is both common and different, we become a wiser, more inclusive, and better organization.” — Pat Wadors, Head of HR at LinkedIn
Assessing the Initiative
Embracing Diversity and Inclusion
The ETSU Strategic Plan - Diversity Task Force seeks to ensure diversity and inclusion of people and ideas. The strategic plan mandated establishing a Diversity Task Force, charged with developing and implementing a strategic plan for diversity and inclusion. The Task Force, in conjunction with the ETSU Department of Athletics, is committed to achieving a diverse and inclusive workforce by embracing the Bucs Commitment Initiative for Diversity and Inclusion in hiring, retention, and representation. The Task Force recognizes that every organization is unique, so the members considered the specific culture and context of the Bucs Department of Athletics in developing its Bucs Commitment Initiative. The Task Force acknowledges that teams and organizations that prioritize diversity bring together different talents, experiences, and varied skillsets in developing creative and inventive solutions. It also recognizes that inclusiveness fosters increased productivity and employee satisfaction. In a recent study, McKinsey & Company determined that organizations with more diversity were also top financial performers who made better decisions faster, giving them a serious advantage over their competitors. As a result, Departments with a diverse workplace achieve better business results and reap more profit. Lastly, the Task Force acknowledges that implementing a successful diversity and inclusion plan requires a holistic approach that monitors and evaluates performance under the diversity policies and procedures on an ongoing basis, demonstrating the commitment to values of East State University that is evident at every level of the Department of Athletics, including senior management.
References
ETSU (2017). Strategic Plan. Retrieved from https://www.etsu.edu/president/documents/univ_strategicplan.pdf
FDIC (2020). The Standards for Assessing the Diversity Policies and Practices. Retrieved from https://www.fdic.gov/about/diversity/the-standards.pdf
Liopis, G. (2018). Inclusion As A Growth Strategy Part 1: Leadership In The Age Of Personalization. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2018/10/14/inclusion-as-a-growth-strategy-part-1-the-last-remaining-true-growth-opportunity/#7dddd91b7978
Liopis, G. (2018). Inclusion As A Growth Strategy Part 2: Leadership In The Age Of Personalization. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2018/10/21/inclusion-as-a-growth-strategy-part-2-leadership-in-the-age-of-personalization/#4bd7aacd218f
NASA (2017) Johnson Space Center 2017 - 2019 Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Implementation Plan Retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?q=d%26i+implementation+plan&oq=d%26i+implementation+plan&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.11115j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Sans, N. (2020). 10 Recruiter Strategies To Improve Diversity And Inclusion In Hiring. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2019/12/05/10-recruiter-strategies-to-improve-diversity-and-inclusion-in-hiring/#bf227251b8c8