Lovely Ann M.

de Guzman
HTIS, BA 507
Mr. Juan Guasch
Narrative Report
Webinar

BUILDING INCLUSIVE WORKPLACE CULTURES

Aligning HR Practices With Metrics to Drive Sustainable Change
Wednesday, October 07, 2020, 11:00 pm

This is a one-hour online session, practices and metrics that are integral to building
an inclusive culture were discussed by the panel of Associate professors of HR Studies
of Cornell ILR School, JR Keller and Rebecca Kehoe, Associate Professor of Cornell
University, John Hausknecht and Senior Director, Human Insights and HCM Evangelism
of Ultimate Software, Jarik Conrad.
The webinar started with the first discussion point asked by Mr. JR, “What are the
HR’s greatest challenge to building a holistic integrated system to reinforce inclusive
practices in time, resources, support and something else?” Mr. Jarik stated the credibility
issues, language barriers or the communication gap and the business performance. He
said that the HR should be crafted to motivate and act as the role model for the employees
and everybody needs to feel they belong. Ms. Rebecca discussed that diversity inclusion
goals should incorporate and prioritize how we can manage talents broadly. For Mr.
John’s insights, aligning practices with evaluation and data, and bottom line organization
should resonates senior level for them to have an excellence performance.
The second discussion point is, “How HR practices have been re-engineered and
how they support the culture inclusion?” Ms. Rebecca stated that it should focus on ideal
and reality, focus on the diverse candidates’ efforts on selection process and evaluate
fairly.
 The third discussion point is, “Where do most organization’s shortage in delivering
the promise of inclusivity and belonging and how can you turn it around?” Mr. John
detailed that understanding where we are, educating people how we got to this point, go
with people, and recognize and reengineer process outside organization like the
shareholder and stake holder, needs to check the box for deep profound and to generate
will to change.
The next discussion point is about HR data collection. Mr. John said that you need
to understand the root cause, see how organization touching places not just about
tracking and reporting, it is more of a mere thought and intervention, it needs to be
understand deeply. For Mr. Jarik, technology helps in sentiment analysis, in emotional
intelligence and sum up that right emotion turns to a quantifiable data.
The discussions’ next point is about HR practices portfolio. As for Ms. Rebecca,
HR investment will be more effective in focusing in customer service training for
improvement. This matter will increase in diversity, such as mentoring program, training
and development of formal skills for the advancement of employees. By letting them to
have a voice and meaningful contribution needs alignment. In formal such as recruiting,
selecting, training and development and informal is the relationship with their leaders and
having a supportive leader and giving them a voice.
The following discussion point is about diversity and inclusion, Mr. Jarik explained
that diversity is the recognition, the works need to be done and a place where the
employee belongs. Informal process is hard to measure gap that you need the presence
of the disciplinary council. As for Ms. Rebecca, different norm in the organization and
culture variation is the inclusivity. To measure DEI, John stated that it is track and track
but seeing no result, it should be in a deeper understanding that will resonates the quality
of data. Mr. Jarik added that data won’t be enough, it should hit emotional sides to
emotional peace, travelism will help in human condition and organization should have a
united mission and vision.
Mr. JR questioned how to overcome some issues in the organization. Mr. Jarik
detailed that it is the emotional reaction, needs to identify the root cause and some issues
like insecurity, psychology happening how to deal with it and how to feel secure.
 Another discussion point stated by Mr. JR is the potential challenges of work from
home and other issues happening as of today. Explained by Mr. John, owner cannot
touch everything in the room especially the employees, they should need a data collection
techniques and thinks of alternatives. As for Ms. Rebecca, organization needs to
simultaneously reach out and grab this opportunity to make meaningful connection with
the employees. Mr. Jarik agreed with Ms. Rebecca and added that there’s the feeling of
isolation that they must learn from that perspective.
Mr. JR asked about the important data. Mr. John discussed that it is the
insensitivity, the mentoring matrix, open conversation, by starting small and something
and technology to fill this gap. As per Mr. Jarik, the important data are addressing issue,
people openness to share and the open communication. For Ms. Rebecca, being
understanding is the most important data.
The next discussion point is about, “Is DEI same with other organization?” Mr. Jarik
stated that it is the common language and the baseline of belonging of an employee. The
following discussion point is about solving the problems. Mr. Jarik explained when a
problem occurs, they need to uncover the root cause or the root problem. As per Ms.
Rebecca, the thing to do is to think of the context. Another discussion point is how to be
an effective manager. For Mr. Jarik effective managers traditionally follows other
managers and build relationship with them and for the HR, they should be the source of
support for the employee to connect with.
The webinar ending discussion point is about the overall organization. As per Mr.
John, trust, relationship and third party play a vital role in the organization, they need to
understand how people feel right now. Mr. Jarik said that it is the retention, to avoid setting
wrong benchmark and peer support. For Ms. Rebecca, it is the benefits of using algorithm,
it can contribute to bias and lastly is the holistic HR approach.
The webinar objectives are: key HR practices that support a culture of diversity,
equity and inclusion (DEI), alignment of HR practices to optimize the effectiveness of an
inclusive culture, data collection and analysis that inform DEI strategies, the value of
developing a DEI index and how to engage, inform, and troubleshoot DEI strategies with
senior leadership. The resource speakers tackled all of these objectives very well and
very informative and much related to today’s scenario. As the discussion goes, I’ve
learned that company leaders should understand that inclusion is about ensuring that
everyone’s voice is heard, opinions are considered and value to the team is evident. Every
organization should value and respect differences, and create an environment where
people can feel comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work. They are required to
identify the needs of underrepresented groups and give them necessary support and
resources by providing them with a safe space to voice their concerns. Benchmark key
aspects of the organization’s culture and understand the employee experience before
making changes to promote inclusivity. The successful building of a culture of inclusion
requires a serious commitment from the leaders of an organization and participation at
every level. As the world demands greater diversity, inclusivity and equity, go beyond the
constraints of age-old bias and prejudice, evaluating people assets based on merit,
potential and basic human goodness.
Mr. John as the host, has a technical issue. His voice is not clear because of the
audio problems, there’s a feedback. Mr. John’s perceptions are all about theory relating
to his studies and researches. Ms. Rebecca and Mr. Jarik always agreed on their insights.
They both focus on the reality of the dilemmas in the workplace and within the
organization. Ms. Rebecca aligns human resources strategies and practices on the HR
systems as of the moment. Lastly, Mr. Jarik showcased how a true and effective leader
or manager should be. He is a people first leader.