The United States dedicates every February, Black History Month, to the celebration of African American achievements, influences and history, which are too often overlooked. This year, Poly launched several programs to honor racial diversity and promote a sense of belonging. With these programs and the results from a recent Poly survey, we are reexamining internal representation.

Poly recognizes its role in creating and upholding an equal, equitable workplace where everyone feels they belong and are represented. We acknowledge that we have work to do in this space. Just three percent of Poly employees identify as Black or African American. When compared to our competition’s minority representation, Poly lands in the middle of the road but we are going to change that.

By setting ambitious hiring goals around underrepresented minorities and growing an internal sense of belonging, we will improve racial representation and retention at Poly. The work is already underway and many inspiring people within our business propel us forward. Thanks to their efforts, Poly is home to a new Employee Resource Group, called Hue, which launched this February.

Hue promotes the growth, engagement, success and retention of Poly’s ethnic minority employees across all job functions, professional levels and locations to serve as leaders and valued contributors to our success through recruitment, mentoring and career development. This group helps build clear pathways to support underrepresented minorities personally and professionally.

Poly also recently hosted webinars based on Subtle Acts of Exclusion by Michael Baran and Tiffany Jana, addressing seemingly under-the-radar behaviors that impact a sense of belonging in the workplace and outside of it. Led by Michael Baran, we learned not only to identify subtle acts of exclusion in our daily lives, but also to confront them in healthy ways. These skills are especially important as we work together to create and maintain inclusive teams where everyone feels they belong.

With programs that teach us to identify and challenge, we are able to make progress, promoting authentic, internal dialogue about race, backed by action and real-life examples. We want all voices to be heard, opinions to be shared and to celebrate the things that make us unique. As a business, we have a responsibility to help create safe spaces for everyone to be their authentic selves and learning the ways that each of us can contribute to this is an essential step.

Our goal is not only to advance diversity, inclusion and gender equity at Poly, but to lead the change as a destination employer. We may have a long distance to travel, but we will continue to push forward. Follow our progress in our transparent, external facing Corporate Social Responsibility report, publishing in May, under Inclusion, Diversity, Education and Awareness.

On Oct. 22, the Biden-Harris Administration publicized the National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality. This document outlines the United States government strategy to guide our work on gender equity and equality as a nation. This policy position signifies a momentous step toward advancing the rights and opportunities of girls and women.

COVID-19 exacerbated the preexisting economic, health and caregiving crises that disproportionately impact women and girls in the United States. As noted in the strategy, women’s participation in the workforce has plummeted to its lowest level in over 30 years, meaning economic insecurity for women and girls has increased and their fundamental rights remain at risk.

Poly supports the new national strategy and is committed to creating equal opportunities and an equitable workplace for all. We hold ourselves accountable for doing the right thing in the right way, every time. To drive meaningful action, we have set goals to progress gender balance in leadership roles and improve female representation at all levels. One of our goals is to increase gender diversity by 10 percent year-over-year by the end of the 2022 fiscal year, and we are pleased to be exceeding this goal based on our hiring as of November 2021, with a 28 percent year-over-year increase in female hiring.

By engaging, empowering, retaining and promoting more women, we will create better gender equity in our business and exemplify the change we want to see. In the past year, Poly has made progress at the most senior levels of the business, gaining another female board member as well as adding another female member on the senior leadership team in the C-Suite. Our Sales organization also improved its gender balance by five percent in just over one year by adjusting their hiring process.

In 2021, we partnered with AWE – Advancing Women Executives to provide career accelerator workshops that help elevate our next generation of senior leaders, who were nominated by the executive team, ensuring a robust pipeline of diverse talent is moving up through the Poly ranks.

In addition, supporting internal initiatives like Inclusion, Diversity, Education and Awareness (IDEA) and modifying hiring processes to mitigate bias and improve diversity are critical steps toward a better future. To foster internal dialogue and continue making progress towards Gender Equity, Poly maintains an active Women’s Leadership Group – an open forum that focuses on women’s development and success in the workplace, with an emphasis on awareness, empowerment and diversity among associates. 

Our goal is not only to advance diversity, inclusion and gender equity at Poly, but to set the standard as a destination employer, leading the change. Poly recognizes its role in creating and upholding an equal, equitable workplace for all people, and we are proud to be making meaningful, measurable progress.