Topic: HR & BENEFITS

Years ago, a business owner talked to me about his organization’s diversity initiative. The challenge he faced was retaining employees hired as part of the diversity initiative. He was perplexed because he and his team put considerable energy into hiring African American employees only to have them quit within months of being hired. He attributed the poor retention to the assumption that “they just don’t want to work here,” and the diversity initiative was shelved. This conversation stuck with me for many years and pushed me to learn more about creating successful and sustainable diversity and inclusion initiatives.

A successful business is dependent on positive employee relations and as our nation battles racial inequity, it is crucial to understand the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. In trying to keep up with this progressive trend, it behooves any business to work on its DEI strategy. Many business owners would be surprised to learn that DEI is imperative for success and growth. The influential byproducts of DEI include increased overall company performance, positive employee morale, innovation, and financial gain. According to an article in Forbes Magazine, “Companies with a strategic focus on diversity produced higher revenue based on innovation in comparison to companies that did not have the same strategy.”

Many employers carry employment practices liability insurance (EPLI), which provides cost-of-defense and other insurance coverages to employers for covered employment claims. EPLI claims, such as discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination, can be extremely costly and time-consuming to defend. As a result, proactive employers should seek ways to reduce the number of EPLI claims to cut down on business costs. 

PEO industry professionals are in a unique position to experience a feeling of déjà vu around this time of year. That’s because we’re probably following a specific cadence that has been built from years of experience around the usual end-of-year/beginning-of-year processes that apply to our own organizations as well as those of our customers. You likely end up asking yourself, “Didn’t we just do that?” more than once