THE NALPFOUNDATION
questions and gather feedback. Hieronimus points out that you can implement initiatives that sound good, but you don’t know if they’re making an impact unless you talk to your employees. Blades of Green implemented their Diversity and Inclusion Committee to serve as a safe environment for individuals to come together and discuss
challenges that relate to gender identity, race and ethnicity and ensure the company is not unintentionally leaving out a group of people in their practices.
Photos: SiteOne Landscape Supply
Y ou can
access the free NALP Foundation toolkits here.
SiteOne has multiple associate resource groups (ARGs) that serve as voluntary communities of their associ- ates. These employees meet periodically to discuss how to make SiteOne a better place to work. Ketter says they also help with their recruiting efforts at career fairs and such. Ketter says they listen to the feedback they receive and sometimes things are brought to their attention they weren’t even aware of that they can then correct. Russell says he asks questions and listens. He says being open-minded and valuing the opinion of everyone is an amazing way to conquer challenges. “As a white male, I learned not to be afraid to discuss our lack of diversity and ask people for help,” Russell says. “My advice is not to try and ‘understand’ or ‘know’ what they want or how they feel. Asking for their guidance is a great way to start and it will be appreciated.” Engagement surveys can also be conducted to identify areas that need to be addressed. Employees will be motivated when they see you acting on the received feedback to improve. Pro Cutters focuses on the five Rs: respon- sibility, respect, revenue-sharing, reward and relaxation time. “We strive heavily to make sure our employees are happy and that we care about their well-being,” Morris says. “Giving them ample opportunities to gain more responsibility and experience. Showing them respect no matter the sit- uation. As we grow financially, they know that they can grow along with us. Giving them rewards when they do exceptional tasks and in general throughout the season to let them know we care about
18 The Edge //January/February 2023
them. And making sure they have a good work/life balance with their families. We don’t want to work them into the ground. We want them to be able to take care of their families and get time to spend with them.” Ketter says they also take the time to invest in their top-performing diverse talent and provide the developmental resources so they can be considered for more leadership positions in the future. While your leadership team needs
to be bought in on your diversity and inclusion efforts, it needs to be part of your culture companywide. Ketter says those who aren’t quite getting it should be given coaching, otherwise you’ll never be able to retain the best talent from all walks of life.
ADVICE FOR OTHERS
It’s important to understand increasing your company’s diversity is a never- ending process that takes time, so don’t get discouraged if the strategies we’ve provided in this article don’t produce results immediately. “You just have to have the courage
to do it,” Ketter says. “I think you have to have the patience and be willing to invest the time, energy and effort because you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the right leaders with the right mindset who are supportive of diversity and inclusion, or else it will backfire on you.” When evaluating your own compa- ny’s diversity, make sure you are seeing diversity within all levels of the organiza- tion, not just in your entry-level positions. Employees need to see people like themselves who are growing and have career opportunities, or they will not stay long-term. “We spend a lot of time and energy and effort finding those leaders that excel in our DNA and excel in our values and are performing really well,” Ketter says. “We are celebrating them, recogniz- ing them, rewarding them, retaining them and promoting them.”
Morris says it has taken time for them to find the right people, but they have never given up. “There is untapped potential that you can discover when you diversify your workforce,” Morris says. “Companies shouldn’t want to be discriminatory towards anyone because that shows they don’t offer equal opportunities to everyone. They could be missing something that incorporating diversity could solve.”
Ketter says at SiteOne, they don’t have quotas for their diversity as they feel it doesn’t provide incentives to make the appropriate decisions and behaviors. Russell agrees that you shouldn’t force diversity but look for opportunities. He suggests checking in with all your em- ployees once a quarter to see what their goals and needs are to be successful. For those concerned about their diversity efforts being seen as attempts at tokenism, Ketter says the key is hiring the best candidate for the job. “Do not lower your standards,” Ketter says. “Do not waver on hiring the best person for the job just because of diver- sity because when you do that, no one wins. That goes over in a worse way with diverse populations. If they feel that they are just being promoted based on their race or gender and not their capability and what they’re bringing to the table as a qualified, talented individual, I’ve been told by a lot of minorities there couldn’t be anything more demotivating than that.” Hieronimus also recommends an annual all-hands diversity and inclusion training day as your team needs to understand that diversity is important and what it looks like at work every day. “For example, do you talk to your
technicians about what they are to do if they encounter discrimination from a client in the field, how they report it and what the company is going to do about it?” Hieronimus says. “Does your team understand that diversity is not just about someone’s gender, race or ethnicity, but what gender pronoun they prefer in the workplace? Or, more importantly, does your team understand that diversity is about the freedom to be able to identify themselves in any way that they wish without the fear of being rejected or being seen as ‘less than.’ It is about complete respect.” TE
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