A critical component of building diverse and inclusive organizations is around recruiting and hiring, and it often presents one of the greatest challenges. “How can we build a more diverse candidate pool?” “How can we diminish drop off through the hiring process?” and, ultimately, “How can we improve our retention statistics?” The implications are significant, not only relevant to fulfilling a corporate commitment, but fundamentally impacting long-term employer brand.

In June 2020 we connected with Equity consultants and experts, Dr. Kristen Liesch and Anna Dewar Gully, of Tidal Equality following the launch of their Equity Sequence™️. An action-driven alternative to anti-bias training, the Equity Sequence™️ is a series of 5 simple questions designed to drive equality in everyday workplace decisions and actions. Cultivating Equitable and Inclusive Workplaces: A Conversation with Dr. Kristen Liesch and Anna Dewar Gully of Tidal Equity — You can read that conversation here.

As a recruiter at CFW Careers, this Women’s History Month, I find myself reflecting on today’s challenges around building and sustaining diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces, and how different the considerations are from those of decades past. Regarding gender equality, today a major challenge remains setting the conditions for women’s career progression and growing the representation of women in leadership and on boards.

Almost three years ago, I was introduced to Chantel George by Myrna Datilus. As Myrna said to me, “She’s someone you should know…” That was an understatement. Following Chantel’s launch of Sistas in Sales, attending her first big event, and then witnessing how she grew the organization, was awe-inspiring. We’re fans and eager to promote and contribute to her cause, a cause aligned with our mission of building diverse and inclusive workplaces and helping individual careers flourish. We spoke with Chantel via Zoom, to learn more about the upcoming Sistas in Sales Virtual Summit 2020, September 18th-19th, and to learn how managers can best support their employees through this difficult time and beyond.

We spoke to DE&I mavens, Dr. Kristen Liesch and Anna Dewar Gully, of Tidal Equality following the launch of their Equity Sequence™️. An action-driven alternative to anti-bias training, the Equity Sequence™️ is a series of 5 simple questions designed to drive equality in everyday workplace decisions and actions. We were curious to hear more about the Equity Sequence and get their take on additional ways to ensure corporate DE&I efforts are effective and impactful. They had a wealth of tips and information to share

Rabia de Lande Long, our moderator for the upcoming event on Sponsors: How to Find and Manage This Essential Relationship, gives us amazing insight into how this theme was conceived, and why it’s such an important conversation to have.

Last week we hosted our third event in the Changing the Conversation: Empowering Women in Business series. Set in the sleek, open office of eMarketer, a leading market research and industry insights firm, over 70 women of all ages and industries joined us for the morning event.

In case you missed it, we have our semi-annual women’s event, Changing the Conversation: Empowering Women in Business, this Thursday. In anticipation, we want to introduce you to one of our panelists: Liz Elting, CEO, TransPerfect.

We asked Liz to share with us a bit about herself and her background, and here’s what she had to say:

As we gear up for our semi-annual women’s panel, Changing the Conversation: Empowering Women in Business (check out recaps of our events from last October and this April), we wanted to introduce you to one of our panelists: Lori Blinder Barr, Director of Buyer Platforms, Tremor Video.

We asked Lori to share with us a little more about herself and her career. Below are her responses:

With our roots firmly planted in promoting women in business (“CFW” stands for our original company name, “Careers for Women”), CFW has been dedicated to the mission of creating an equal workforce for over 40 years (43, to be exact!). After hosting our event, Changing the Conversation: Women in Leadership, last month, CFW Careers President, Cynnie King, reflected, “the hiring and promotion process for advancing women into higher level positions needs to be intentional.” We’re certainly not alone in our attention to this topic.

We couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate our 43rd anniversary as CFW Careers (originally Careers for Women) last week then by hosting our second event in the Changing the Conversation: Empowering Women in Business series. Set in the spacious and sunlit office of eMarketer, a leading market research and industry insights firm, over 60 women of all ages and industries joined us for the breakfast event.

At the end of October we hosted the first women’s event in our new series, Changing the Conversation: Empowering Women in Business focusing on Planning Your Career with Leadership as an End Goal. Over 60 women (and several men!) joined us for the breakfast event, held in the office loft space of Schoology, a leader in EdTech. With coffee and bagels in hand, our audience took notes, tweeted, and engaged with the guest speakers, women representing different aspects of leadership. Moderated by CFW’s President, Cynnie King, our panelists shared their personal experiences and insights into building a career, facing challenges, managing priorities, and taking risks. By 9 am, attendees were on their way out the door, hopefully feeling refreshed and ready to tackle their daily challenges with a new sense of purpose (we certainly did!).

A few notable takeaways:

WHEN IT’S YOUR TURN TO SPEAK OUT

by David W. King

Originally published in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, December 13, 1979

They marched in small rows in my grandmother’s day. And for short distances. Her name was Marie Louise Arthur: “Molly” to her husband; “Mama” to her children. My generation never met her, my mother’s mother, but we all knew of her.

We were proudly shown the reprint from the newspaper, with the photograph of her ten children pyramided in front of her: one of them my mother, the uncles and aunts. The story was almost too faded to read, but it was fun to see what Aunt Gladys looked like at age 22, and Uncle Dave – the baby – at age three. And all the others in between, except for Uncle Eddie, who hadn’t been born yet. The story was framed and proudly hung on a wall in our living room. She even made the cover.

“The New York World Magazine and Story Section” was dated August 16, 1914, and a crowd of fifty marchers must have been a pretty big deal in those days – in the days before a demonstration was a demonstration. I imagined all 50 to be just like grandmother: big-bosomed, dresses to the ankles, and all with hair piled on top of their heads like dark brown popovers.