The Hollaway Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEI+B) Committee's plan for the third quarter of the year is to continuously build off the concepts previously presented to staff as well as define their relevance and relation to our current topic of choice. It is important to highlight how complex diversity is; it is more than what meets the eye and comprises our identity. Diversity represents far more than race, gender, religious affiliation, etc. It is how these aspects of our identity impact our lived experiences, personalities, various levels of technical expertise on staff, and, ultimately, how we show up at work.
Having several different personalities and perspectives on our team means that disagreements are bound to take place. The opposition of opinion and thought births critical thinking, but conflict may arise without the necessary interpersonal skills for harmonious collaboration. By emphasizing the benefits of inclusive communication habits and engaging in behaviors that curate an environment where our psychological safety thrives, we are proactively considering the interpersonal resilience of the Hollaway team by highlighting the necessity of skills to engage in healthy conflict resolution.
In August, members of the Operations Team attended the 2024 Gulf Coast Symposium on HR Issues hosted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). The goals of attending this conference were to stay current on the latest HR industry topics, network and establish professional connections with other HR professionals, and share ideas that may potentially translate into initiatives we could implement within our organization. Every year, SHRM has a dedicated theme for the conference, and this year's focus was the importance of civility in the workplace. A May survey conducted by SHRM found that out of the 161 million people who work in the U.S., "Over half of U.S. workers believe our society was uncivil. U.S. workers collectively experience 202 million acts of incivility per day. U.S. organizations collectively lose about $2 billion daily in reduced productivity and absenteeism."
While the Hollaway team is navigating another year of challenging and dynamic work, the DEI+B Committee intends to remain mindful of how our workplace culture and environment play a part in our individual, departmental, and organizational success and health. In everything we do, we strive to select topics that are relevant, beneficial for our staff, and congruent with our company values. Evaluating conflict resolution as a team is significant because, as business professionals, we will work eight hours per day for 52 weeks, which is about 2,080 hours at work every year (without counting for PTO - How many working hours in a year? Breaking down the American workweek. (usatoday.com))! We often discuss how our differences contribute to our strengths as a team, but we also acknowledge that they can potentially be limitations as well. Our differing outlooks and approaches will not always align, and we want to remain proactive in encouraging communication skills that will empower employees to engage in healthy conflict. Our current DEI+B focus is also meant to positively reinforce internal metrics such as employee retention and satisfaction.
Creating a space to discuss conflict resolution reminds our employees that we recognize that engaging in conflict to any extent at the workplace can be intimidating and daunting. By maintaining transparency in dialogue, relaying educational resources, and modeling leadership qualities, we hope to exemplify courage and show others they can discover creative solutions and grow as people and business professionals.
Our past team-wide surveys, including Insperity's Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness Assessment, encourage self-awareness to help improve how we address conflict and consider our colleagues' personality types. The DEI+B Committee also acknowledges that we must resolve conflict using different approaches with different goals, considering our job titles. Our management team will receive focused conflict resolution training from Insperity consultants due to the authority delegated to them and the need to be mindful of how power dynamics can impact situations depending on how they are wielded. We are also coordinating with Insperity consultants to conduct a team-wide stress assessment to help formally outline how we all handle our stress and how stress may affect how we work alongside each other. We must be accountable for knowing ourselves and 'how we work,' owning our work product and behavior, and empathizing with perspectives different than our own as we come together to resolve disagreements and improve our business practices.
Our goal is to give our employees the resources and professional development needed to accomplish the following in regard to conflict resolution:
We want all employees to feel empowered and assured that they can conquer the hurdle of conflict resolution and continue proactively aiding Hollaway's success and the health of our company culture.