The COVID-19 Vaccine & 2021 Board Priorities

Thank you for yet another productive CDO Board conversation and meeting. We kicked off with a warm welcome to new members Sonia Cargan from American Express, Sharawn Connors from Micron Technology, Alveda Williams from BNSF Railway, and Courtney Johnson from The Dow Company. 

Moving forward, we’d like to start every Board meeting with a key challenge, issue, or information request from one of our Board members. During the January 27th meeting, we shared a Board member ask for best practices regarding the sources used to obtain national/local benchmarking/marketplace data specific to racial and ethnic diversity (R/ED). Additionally, there was a request to share approaches with setting goals/targets as they relate to increasing diverse representation. Several members shared great resources such as GDEIB - Global Diversity Equity Inclusion and Benchmarking and PwC Saratoga benchmarking survey (vendors/pay service). Given this topic is critical to so many, we’d like to host a 1 hour flash call with interested Board members in a couple of weeks. If you’re interested in participation, please send Madeline Borkin a message with your interest by Tuesday, February 2nd, along with the specific questions you’d like to address during this flash call. 

Next, Eric Davis shared the recent i4cp survey The COVID-19 Vaccine & the 2021 Workplace and led a discussion on the findings. To what extent are organizations mandating the vaccine? 

  • Most organizations are still considering many elements of their vaccination policy. Overall, most organizations are leaning towards not mandating, but instead encouraging. Many are creating awareness campaigns, educating, customizing PSAs by population, bringing in community partners, and strongly suggesting that employees take the vaccine. Andres Gonzalez shared a great PSA video with the group!
  • What are some other strategies your organizations are considering to encourage employees?
    • Linking vaccines to well-being programs, offering additional stipends, and incentives like paid time off.
  • Other key challenges and considerations include
    • Access and availability varies by geography.
    • Creating distinct policies by geography.
    • Distribution and scheduling logistics.
    • Employee status – union environments and collective bargaining, remote, telecommute, in the workplace and ensuing we don’t create a 2-class system.
    • Partnerships- with physicians, celebrities.
    • Internal communication will be critical - daily huddles, weekly updates, leveraging ERGs/BRGs. 

Finally, we reviewed and agreed on the 2021 CDO Board Talent Priorities and Predictions. 

  1. Organization-wide DE&I enablement.
  2. Build and maintain cultural cohesion.
  3. Metrics, accountability, and transparency.
  4. Structural changes to increase effectiveness.

An additional area to explore is communications: To what extent are CDOs at the marketing/communications table? We also plan to schedule more flash meetings to collaborate across all i4cp Boards. It might be interesting to interview a group of CMOs. too. Stay tuned for more information. 

The deck with vaccine mandate research insights, CDO Board priorities, and the meeting recording are attached.

Bias audit checklists are available here: go.i4cp.com/auditbiases  

And please take i4cp’s latest Pulse Survey: Political/Social Engagement & Employee Policies (https://www.research.net/r/FBC28NR) by EOD Friday. 

Have a great weekend, 

Jacqui


This meeting is exclusively for members of the Chief Diversity Officer Board. If you'd like to participate, please contact us to see if you qualify. If you are an i4cp member, please log in to access the registration/meeting details.
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