The United States dedicates every February, Black History Month, to the celebration of African American achievements, influences and history, which are too often overlooked. This year, Poly launched several programs to honor racial diversity and promote a sense of belonging. With these programs and the results from a recent Poly survey, we are reexamining internal representation.
Poly recognizes its role in creating and upholding an equal, equitable workplace where everyone feels they belong and are represented. We acknowledge that we have work to do in this space. Just three percent of Poly employees identify as Black or African American. When compared to our competition’s minority representation, Poly lands in the middle of the road but we are going to change that.
By setting ambitious hiring goals around underrepresented minorities and growing an internal sense of belonging, we will improve racial representation and retention at Poly. The work is already underway and many inspiring people within our business propel us forward. Thanks to their efforts, Poly is home to a new Employee Resource Group, called Hue, which launched this February.
Hue promotes the growth, engagement, success and retention of Poly’s ethnic minority employees across all job functions, professional levels and locations to serve as leaders and valued contributors to our success through recruitment, mentoring and career development. This group helps build clear pathways to support underrepresented minorities personally and professionally.
Poly also recently hosted webinars based on Subtle Acts of Exclusion by Michael Baran and Tiffany Jana, addressing seemingly under-the-radar behaviors that impact a sense of belonging in the workplace and outside of it. Led by Michael Baran, we learned not only to identify subtle acts of exclusion in our daily lives, but also to confront them in healthy ways. These skills are especially important as we work together to create and maintain inclusive teams where everyone feels they belong.
With programs that teach us to identify and challenge, we are able to make progress, promoting authentic, internal dialogue about race, backed by action and real-life examples. We want all voices to be heard, opinions to be shared and to celebrate the things that make us unique. As a business, we have a responsibility to help create safe spaces for everyone to be their authentic selves and learning the ways that each of us can contribute to this is an essential step.
Our goal is not only to advance diversity, inclusion and gender equity at Poly, but to lead the change as a destination employer. We may have a long distance to travel, but we will continue to push forward. Follow our progress in our transparent, external facing Corporate Social Responsibility report, publishing in May, under Inclusion, Diversity, Education and Awareness.