Thank you so much for joining me for this second week of the Equity Toolkit for your business. This week we are looking into compensation and your company's practices around pay.
I started really working on equity in pay about four years ago through an association with Restaurants Advancing Industry Standards in Employment (RAISE) while I was the Human Resources Manager at The Glass Jar Restaurant Group. This group of over 800 progressive restaurants advocates for sustainable business models that champion living wages, basic benefits, promotion policies and other high road employer practices as recipes for success.
This week I provide you with some resources I used then to help me make measurable changes in equity at The Glass Jar which helped us to advocate for change industrywide.
I welcome your comments on this work. If you would like me to clarify anything or would like to participate in a conversation about this work, please consider commenting in the blog post. I will be addressing questions from this week in next week's video.
Racial Equity Toolkit
The purpose of this Racial Equity Toolkit is to provide management with practical resources for assessing, planning, and implementing steps toward racial equity at your business. There is no step too small: every action you take helps your business thrive and fosters stronger local relationships with your workers and consumers.
Project Equity
Are you considering closing or selling your business? Have you considered selling to your employees?
Project Equity is a national leader in the movement to harness employee ownership to maintain thriving local business communities, honor selling owners’ legacies, and address income and wealth inequality. Project Equity provides hands on consulting and support to companies that want to transition to employee ownership, as well as to the new employee-owners to ensure that they, and their businesses, thrive after the transition.
What is a High Road Employer?
High Road companies see their employees, the communities in which they operate and the products and services they provide as equally important to their financial success. These companies hold a long-term perspective and view the workplace as a means to create significant business and social impact. They reject low-road business models that exploit employees and disregard the environment as the basis for success. High Road Employers know that, logically, their businesses are likelier to thrive and grow when they strengthen their marketplace by operating responsibly and compensating employees fairly.
Provides Family-friendly Benefits
Offers Flexibility
Pays a Livable and Fair Wage
Invests in Employee Development
Cultivates Inclusion
Governs Fairly and Transparently
Engages with Communities
Manages the Supply Chain Responsibly
Drives Environmental Sustainability
Promotes Health and Safety
Santa Cruz Community Organizations
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With the killing of George Floyd and the protests happening around the world in support of fairness for all people, I felt like June 2020 was a good month to focus on equity in our organizations. Many people felt a responsibility to do something at this time, but were not sure what exactly to do. Fortunately each of us has a sphere of influence in our businesses and organizations where we can implement practices locally that create positive change regionally, nationally and globally.
In this series we focused on four areas of our companies where we may have made decisions by default rather than through careful decision. Many times we create systems of inequity through our reaction and inaction, rather than willfully. This month we will look at hiring practices, compensation, training and corrective action planning. The goal is to see what is there, what has already been created, and to see how we may adjust these systems to create more equity for our employees.
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