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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Diversity: Yes, It Is a Valley Thing

Diversity in the workplace. It means different things to different people. And the subject brings up lots of buzzwords and vague phrases. “Inclusive” is a word that is often thrown around by diversity directors at large companies that have formal programs that promote a “diverse” workplace. That means getting as many people of different ethnicities, religions, genders, sexual orientation, cultures and physical disabilities included among the work force. Our issue this time features a special report on how diversity is promoted among businesses in the greater Valley area. It’s the first time we’ve done this and we thought it was about time. You may agree or disagree with the honorees we selected to feature in our special report as companies that do a great job in maintaining a diverse workplace. These are 15 companies that our editorial staff here at the paper felt had some programs that were models of how companies can become more “inclusive.” They’re mostly large companies that have the resources to be truly diverse. Oh, yes, the Valley is diverse believe it or not despite its reputation as being kind of a white-bread family type place. And that is one of the reasons I felt we should do this report. It’s not all a white-bread family type place. It’s an incredibly diverse place. There are many Latinos, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, gays, lesbians and transgenders, disabled and people of many, many cultures. I forgot a lot of different diversity classifications here I’m sure. And that’s the point. There is no majority population anymore even though in the business community the power may still be largely held by the white guys. Oh, yeah. We’ve included women in discussing diversity. Because women, no matter what color they are, still haven’t achieved equality in many companies. Our special report hopefully sheds some light on the fact that diversity is very important to maintaining a productive and happy workplace. And, yes, that’s good for the bottom line. But better yet, including everybody is the right thing to do. What is a truly diverse company, you may ask? My response is: There probably isn’t any truly diverse company out there. But there are companies striving to come really close. They are attempting to do the right thing. And that is a huge start. At our event last week honoring the 15 companies we selected to feature as diversity awardees, I was approached by an attendee who felt that some of these companies weren’t really as diverse as we were making them out to be. I essentially told him that they were striving for diversity and that we should feature that in our newspaper. I told him to write a piece for our newspaper disputing our event and special report. I’m open to publishing views of people who feel that we didn’t honor the right companies or didn’t quite get it right. Hopefully we’ve put it on the agenda of Valley-area business. Business Journal Editor Jason Schaff can be reached at (818) 316-3125 or at [email protected] .

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