ebbo has always been passionate about providing an amazing workplace for all our employees and has always focused on its team members and what’s best for them.
We’ve implemented perks and processes and developed our #TEAM philosophy to help us make ebbo a great place to work for everyone. Treat people well, encourage collaboration, aim for greatness, and make a difference.
As we continue to think about new and better ways to best support our people, we established ebbo’s first-ever ERG (Employee Resource Group), which is dedicated to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
While the ERG is in its early stages of development, the group’s objective is to promote training and events to bring awareness to diversity, equity, and inclusion, review and develop policies and ideas that promote workplace diversity and inclusion, and discuss exciting new ways to improve our culture.
Here’s where we are and where we’re heading.
Building DEI Company Strategy
Once ebbo decided to make DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) a company initiative and priority – we assessed our current workplace to see how inclusively diverse we were.
We surveyed our employees to capture what they wanted to see come out of our DEI initiatives. How are they feeling about the current climate? We asked for ideas and input that we leveraged in building our DEI programming and shaping our future.
We wanted our workplace to more accurately reflect the societies and markets in which we operate. We wanted to become more educated and aware around ways we can be equitable, defeat biases, and provide a strong sense of belonging for everyone.
In October 2020, ebbo formed an official partnership with Wayfinding Partners.
Wayfinding Partners is a justice-driven consulting firm dedicated to individual, organizational, and community transformation.
The ERG has been hard at work to building out our verticals, committees and considering leadership roles to solidify the group.
Launching Our Pilot Group
One of the first tasks of the DEI ERG was to participate in a pilot of the two workshops that Wayfinding Partners was preparing to roll out to the entire company.
The two workshops were called, “Let’s Talk About Race,” and “Dismantling Inequity in the Workplace.”
A critical objective of the pilot was to provide feedback so Wayfinding Partners could make necessary modifications before the full program rollout to everyone in our company.
Thus far, our entire company has participated in the two workshops with the Wayfinding team.
Many employees left these workshops feeling informed and inspired. We look forward to future training and learning opportunities with Wayfinding Partners over the next year.
We plan on future training covering topics including LGBTQ+, gender, disability, etc.
Diversity Hiring
We’re always trying to engage with and hire diverse talent to reflect the markets and clients we serve.
Early last year, we hosted Hartford’s first WomenHack event to engage more women in the IT industry.
More recently, forming a partnership with PowerToFly is another opportunity that helps us reach diverse women in technology.
PowerToFly is a mission-based consulting firm that works with companies on their DEI goals. PowerToFly’s services include: Strategy, diversity hiring, employer branding, training, and retention with a focus on diverse women in technology.
On Jan. 13 we had our first successful PowerToFly event which was a chat and learn, hosted by our very own Senior Front End Developer, Peg Scofield!
Peg shared her story as a female working in software engineering, how she’s succeeded and overcome obstacles, and her experience of juggling her full-time gig at ebbo, while balancing a thriving side hustle in web production.
Revamping Our Interview Process
The gateway to diversifying our employee population is through the interview process.
Therefore, we’ve spent some time educating employees and hiring teams on interview best practices.
I hosted an ebbo Classroom on Interview Training that discussed unconscious bias and DEI’s role in recruitment.
Before we start any recruitment process, I share resources with the hiring team that will guide them through an inclusive and fair interview process.
When we hire, we think about things like: Culture add, not culture fit. Is this candidate’s personality and style different than the rest of the teams?
It’s important to look for ways our candidates can diversify the organization and the team we’re hiring for, ultimately making ebbo a better place to work.
Looking Forward
We all know diverse workforces are more successful than homogeneous teams.
DEI is an important initiative for many reasons.
We look forward to training and learning opportunities that will help us continue to evolve into an inclusive, diverse, and equitable workplace.
Laura Esposito
Laura Esposito is our Talent Acquisition Manager. She has years of HR experience focusing on recruitment, employer branding, talent pipeline strategy, campus relations, and D&I. When Laura isn’t sifting through resumes, she enjoys singing with her choral ensemble, being a beach bum, eating, and spending time with family and friends.