“This level of transparency is a critical step in creating greater accountability and identifying those areas where we can have the most significant impact.”
One of the largest Investor Owned Utility providers in California, Southern California Edison, is making massive strides and taking action to address the impacts of racism in the communities they serve in our golden state. First off, as a “workforce advocate” (if you will), SCE’s plan of action is just what we need from large, influential companies in California. Every company or organization’s journey to equity is different and that is perfectly okay. We applaud Edison for their recognition, research, and efforts to listen to marginalized groups and tackle issues head on with their communities in mind.
Leading with “transparency and accountability” are two pillars SCE highlighted in their statement on diversity, equity, and inclusion. These are integral to the future success of SCE’s actionable plans to remain committed to change in their workforce. As part of their journey to a more equitable and inclusive company, SCE publicly released the statistical demographic and information of the makeup of their workforce. “We shared with you detailed data on our workforce and the status of our business partners and our community investment, such as the data derived from our annual SCE EEO-1 report (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) and Supplier Diversity Report.”
Edison also included an important task that I think is being frequently missed in statements from companies and organizations surrounding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Companies often pledge will begin hiring from a more diverse pool applicants or examine new hiring avenues. These are all statements that can make great strides and change the employee makeup, but those that are currently employed by the organization cannot be ignored. Many groups are so hyper focused on future efforts and what they can do to change the trajectory of their organization that they are not looking into what is currently in existence.
Edison is not missing the mark and they are promising to do both. “Going forward, and as part of our broader diversity, equity and inclusion initiative, we will initially focus on supporting our Black colleagues to improve their employee experience… we gained a greater understanding of the experiences of our Black team members through a series of facilitated discussions with Networkers, our employee Business Resource Group dedicated to our Black employee experience. In addition, through our internal survey, we track employee sentiment on trust, engagement, the work itself, growth and development and inclusion.” SCE is working to improve their internal workforce efforts before expanding out to potential, future employees. By facilitating conversations, creating groups, and putting in meaningful effort to understand current employee experience, SCE can better their practices moving forward when hiring or recruiting. Experience of each employee of any company must be valued, just because those experiences differ, it does not make one better than the other. What is important here and what SCE is acknowledging is that critically understanding the different perspectives of each employee is what enhances trust and in turn, equity.
SCE’s choice to put forth a model and plan (see entirety here) is a steppingstone to understand and comprehend the issues the minority groups face when seeking and maintaining employment in the EE industry. In the end, it will be up to SCE to continue to execute and instill the values that are included in this plan, not just put them down on paper. Pushing towards an equitable industry is taking action and sharing our experiences so others can achieve the same.