Politixia
A growing number of Chattanooga businesses are seeking to promote diversity and inclusion among their workers and suppliers, but a new study says there are still lots of opportunities for improvements that will help minorities, women and the businesses that employ them.
In the first communitywide study of its kind to look at employer diversity efforts, the inaugural Community Culture Index for Chattanooga found that promoting a more diverse staff and leadership is a priority for many of the region’s biggest employers. But even with more than 40% of Chattanooga’s population being Black, Hispanic or Indigenous people, many local employers said hiring and retaining people of color in many jobs remains a challenge, especially in the current tight labor market with unemployment hovering near historic lows.
Among 60 major Chattanooga employers participating in the Community Culture Index, a significant majority said Black and other minority workers were the most challenging identity group to recruit and retain.
“Gone are the days when a fair and supportive workplace was considered a ‘nice-to-have,'” said Wade Hinton, a Chattanooga lawyer and former Chattanooga mayoral candidate who now heads a consulting firm that works with employers on diversity and headed the new Community Culture Index report. “Valuing employees and treating them fairly is a requirement for a sustainable workforce.”
In an interview Thursday, Hinton said younger workers are especially interested in working for employers with a work culture that embraces diversity, and studies indicate many businesses perform better with employees and leaders who reflect the demographic makeup of the population they serve.
Hinton consults on diversity and equity for businesses across the country, including Winnebago, U.S. Xpress, Astec Industries, CBL Properties and the Hunter Museum of Art. Hinton said such initiatives make good business sense.
A Deloitte study found diverse companies had 2.3 times higher cash flow per employee compared with nondiverse companies. Hinton said companies in the top quartile for gender diversity of their executives were 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability.
Growing DEI programs
A year ago, in the wake of the social unrest generated by the murder of George Floyd, The Washington Post estimated that America’s 50 biggest public companies and their foundations planned to collectively spend nearly $50 billion to address racial inequality in what they promised would be the biggest efforts ever made. To help assess what Chattanooga’s business, government and nonprofit employers are doing, Hinton and the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga launched a first-of-its-kind survey in 2022 to find out what local employers are doing to promote diversity and inclusion.
The 25-question poll attracted 60 responses from business, government and nonprofit employers that collectively employ 37,300 workers in Chattanooga. Nearly half of the respondents said they have increased their budgets for diversity and equity programs in the past two years, and 37% of the respondents said their employee base is now as diverse as the Chattanooga population.
“We were really blown away by the response, in large part because we’ve seen so much rhetoric around DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) in the past year,” Hinton said. “I think these 60 organizations indicate that this community really is serious about trying to create more inclusive cultures. We found that these companies and organizations were doing more than just talking about this; they are adopting programs and strategies around DEI.”
‘Woke’ concerns
Focusing on the racial, gender or sexual preference of workers and suppliers has drawn criticism from some leaders like Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, who is pushing his Stop-Woke (Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees) Act in Florida to prohibit educational institutions and businesses from teaching students and employees anything that would cause anyone to “feel guilt, anguish or any form of psychological distress” due to their race, color, sex or national origin.
“I really believe if it hasn’t been for Texas and Florida playing the role we have in this country in recent history, our entire country would be one big woke, neo-Marxist Dumpster fire,” Desantis said during a speech in March on the subject.
Despite such anti-Woke sentiment, Hinton said diversifying the talent pool and cultivating an inclusive culture is more critical than ever to attracting and retaining workers.
“It’s expensive when you lose talent, and communities that are more inclusive are going to do better,” Hinton said.
Hinton said successful employers are finding ways to do more to recruit underrepresented minorities or women to their leadership staffs and to help ensure all employee voices are heard and reflected in an organization.
Diversity challenges
But in a 15-page summary of the initial findings from the Community Culture Index, Hinton said a significant share of boards and senior staff lack diversity.
“Even after organizations have invested time and resources in developing a strategy, too many fall short of implementing change,” the study concluded.
Women comprise a majority of Chattanooga’s population, and nonwhite persons are 40.5% of the city’s residents, but the overwhelming majority of the CEOs and corporate directors of major companies in Chattanooga are still white males. A study in 2022 by the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga found the average household income of Black Chattanooga families is less than half that of their white counterparts.
Hinton said participants in the Community Culture Index are able to see how they stack up against the overall community for diversity efforts, and the report highlights a number of ways to boost the diversity of hiring, staff development and supplier networks to better reflect the demographics of workers and customers. Hinton said he hopes to conduct similar community assessments in other markets and do the surveys in Chattanooga every couple of years.
“We know anecdotally that many employers have a sincere interest in building more diverse, inclusive and representative workforces, but they may not always know what actions will lead to the kind of progress they want,” Chattanooga Urban League President Candy Johnson said in a statement Thursday. “The Community Culture Index creates some transparency into operational trends that exist throughout our region, which allows all organizations to learn from each other. When we grow together, our entire regional economy becomes more attractive to workers and employers alike.”
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.
