“The one thing that we think we’re talking about – but I don’t think we really are – is diversity, inclusion and belonging.”
"So the one thing we should be talking about is how the lack of investment- personal investment- from executive teams is the reason why the needle is not moving on diversity, inclusion, and belonging. This is an issue I regularly get questions about from my colleagues in the business community as they see the substantive and impactful work we are doing at Rehrig Pacific. It is no secret that our executive team has been active and invested in this space and we are seeing the needle move as a result.
“Why haven’t we moved the needle in the last fifteen years? We talk and talk and talk, but nothing substantive happens. And then another person dies and we talk some more…[but] nobody talks about actually doing something different to create the change.
“I think I can tell you from the perspective of what’s not being done is that the leadership team at many companies bless these initiatives and say they’re necessary. And, if it’s a public company, their DEIB point of view and activities are going to be in their annual report. However, many of these leaders are still just assigning the responsibilities and excluding themselves from the process. And then they look around in amazement and think, ‘Well, nothing really changes that much; we can’t seem to move the needle.’ And sometimes they’ll hire this one person, usually a man or woman of color, and then the whole thing is on that person’s shoulders to move an entire organization.
“But the leaders themselves are saying, ‘Well, we hired you to do that, leave me out of it.’ And to me, that’s why it doesn’t change: there’s no investment on the part of the leadership team to demonstrate the journey it takes to create the change, and then taking that to the next level and creating the accountability to create the change. And really supporting the department or sometimes the very small team of people they’ve hired to make this change happen, in a very real way, by using their own time, energy, and journey.”
RORI BARON
SVP, HUMAN CAPITAL
REHRIG PACIFIC COMPANY