This summer the country was re-awakened to deep-rooted institutional racism after the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Aubrey, and Breonna Taylor. It sparked our team to engage in dialogue concerning the systemic issues challenging our local and global communities - racism and the violence that results from discrimination and marginalization. We knew as an organization our concern could not stop with a conversation. We had the responsibility to look deeper, at our own workplace culture, and explore ways to create sustainable change, both within our organization and the local community, that promotes greater equity, inclusion, and celebration of diversity.

As a company, we want to share the steps we’ve taken and the resources available that can assist you, your organization, and your community in this fight for justice and the building of a better future. Our intention is to share what we’ve learned in our “unlearning.” We by no means consider ourselves experts, but we are a group of diverse, passionate, and caring individuals who believe we can do better. We think it starts with taking a deeper look at the structures in place and our own internal biases that continue to allow racism to exist in our world today.  

Here are the steps we’ve taken:

We’ve developed an internal task group that focuses on race and equity.

Eight staff members from different departments within SimplyHome formed REFLECT, a group that meets weekly to discuss how we can incorporate workplace practices that lead to inclusivity and equity. The group has researched ways to engage with the community to increase our awareness of the challenges facing people of color and other marginalized communities.  We also continue to have meaningful discussions with our entire staff about the history and institutional oppression of people of color. So far this has been done by discussing injustice in the sectors of voting and education. 

The group name creates the foundation for the group and brings us back to the reason we started it. It stands for the following:

Recognize areas where we can improve as an organization

Educate ourselves

Foster partnerships and collaboration with local social justice organizations and leaders 

Listen and learn from People of Color and marginalized communities

Embrace an inclusive work culture where all members feel safe and supported 

Celebrate the diversity and individual strengths of each member

Take action within our organization and community to increase racial equity

We’ve received feedback from our team on our current workplace culture and how it supports or might present barriers to diversity and inclusion.

We wanted to gain awareness and understanding of our biggest growth areas as an organization. We utilized a free Diversity & Inclusion Survey by Culture Amp which provided us with valuable insight. Our plan is to continue with this survey each year to view measurable progress in these areas.

To view this free resource, Click Here.

We continue to research best HR practices that promote diversity & inclusion.

During our REFLECT meetings, we review and have discussions around the recommendations from Project Include, a nonprofit that, “uses data and advocacy to accelerate diversity and inclusion solutions in the tech industry.”

We’ve established a “buddy” program for new hires. The primary role of the buddy is to offer advice and guidance regarding the day-to-day working at our company. The buddy may also offer encouragement and resources as they help welcome the new hire into the workplace culture. The buddy/new hire relationship is designed to welcome employees and create an inclusive culture from the beginning. This program was developed based on the guidelines of The Buddy Program at NYU.

We continue to create learning opportunities for our team that can lead to thoughtful conversations and action steps in creating sustainable change.

Each week, REFLECT shares with the entire staff articles and videos from YWCA 21 day Challenge, and at the end of each section, we engage in conversation on the topic during our all-staff meeting.

We welcome local justice leaders in our community to speak to our team on the topic of racial injustice. We were very grateful to have had Libby Kyles, Racial Equity Consultant and former CEO of YWCA of Asheville, join us in September. 

We continue to look for opportunities to build community and find ways for coworkers to connect outside of work.

SimplyHome has started a Book Club that staff can voluntarily participate in. The book club has selected books that challenge one’s thinking, expose the members to differences in the human experience, and encourage thoughtful conversation. The book club has read, “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a book written as a letter to the author's son about the reality of being Black in the United States. The second book the group is reading is, “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” by Matthew Desmond. Evicted follows families struggling to pay rent to their landlords during the financial crisis of 2007-2008. It explores poverty and economic exploitation and the day-to-day reality of what that looks like for people. We look forward to continuing to choose readings that challenge us to think beyond our individual privileges. 

We find meaningful opportunities to contribute through community service, in-kind donations, and monetary donations.

SimplyHome gives its staff Volunteer Time Off (VTO) each year to encourage and provide time for the team to volunteer in the local community. Just this year, our employees have used this time to donate blood, volunteer with the local animal shelters, serve on children advocacy boards, and coach little league sports. SimplyHome has also volunteered as a group, with projects such as Habitat for Humanity, collecting toys each year for Eblin Charities, and volunteering at Manna Foodbank. 

SimplyHome has made financial contributions to support those on the front lines in the battle against injustice and oppression, both in our local Western North Carolina community and nationally. Groups that we contributed to are Black Lives Matter, The ACLU, The Equal Justice Initiative, and The Umoja Health, Wellness and Justice Collective. 

We encourage you to learn more about opportunities in your local area to get involved in and groups on a national level that you or your organization can support in our collective effort to create justice and needed change.

We are looking to include ongoing diversity and inclusion training for new staff and ongoing professional development training for our team.

Here are some resources on diversity and inclusion training:

How to Make Diversity Training Work and Create Effective Inclusion

LinkedIn Free Diversity and Inclusion courses 

Inclusion and Belonging Trainings

Trailant Diversity Training

Additional Resources

15 Activities of Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

Whiteness at Work- Training by the Adaway Group

CoThink

We hope the resources and information about our initiative can provide tools to you and your organization in this effort to implement best practices that are inclusive and just. We believe it is not enough to talk about these issues plaguing our society only when they are front-page news, but we must continue to have the conversation and take actionable steps. As Barack Obama has stated:

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”