Watch Now: Progress in diversity, equity and inclusion stressed at chamber State of Inclusion event

Significant strides achieved in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) were spotlighted in the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s annual State of Inclusion event, held virtually Thursday.

Mosaic is the chamber’s coalition of companies and nonprofit partners that celebrates DEI, and its Inclusive Workplace Index surveys annually the region’s business sector to gauge strengths and opportunities for improvement.

Of the nearly 100 companies that took this year’s index, 57% have programs to develop a pipeline of diverse leaders, and 60% have programs to recruit diverse candidates. A year ago, those respective figures were 38% and 30%, a chamber spokesman said.

“Sometimes smaller businesses don’t think that diversity, equity and inclusion really represent a priority for them,” said Rose Washington, CEO of Tulsa Economic Development Corp. “It has to. For the work that we do, it is a critical imperative.

“The work that we do focuses on minority businesses. It focuses on under-resourced communities, and it focuses on other businesses that don’t have equitable access to traditional lending opportunities.”

Washington was on an event panel that included Karl Neumeier, chief operating officer for Hilti North America, and Peggy Simmons, president and chief operating officer of Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO).

“For me, personally, building an economy and building a society and a city where everybody has an equitable shot … is critically important,” Neumeier said. “The reality is that our society is changing, and we need to be able to address those changes by creating an environment where everybody can be who they need to be.

“An executive presence is really important to that because a lot of people, no matter what we think about the importance of individualism, care about leadership. They look to leadership as an example.”

Simmons cited a recent study by the global nonprofit Catalyst, which showed that women hold only 32 CEO positions (6.4%) at S&P 500 companies.

“It starts with leadership, and it doesn’t just end at our companies’ doors,” she said. “It goes out into the communities that we serve. We have a lot of work that we can do and influence there.”

Simmons also talked about a recent McKinsey & Company survey that reflected how the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant economic fallout are having a regressive effect on gender equality. According to that study, women’s jobs are 1.8 times more vulnerable to the crisis than men’s jobs, and while women make up 39 percent of global employment, they account for 54 percent of overall job losses.

“If you take that to another level, there’s more study and research out there that shows that African-Americans, Latinx, as well as Native Americans, when they contract the virus, they’re one to two times more likely to die from it, and it’s related to the disparities in income, health and housing,” she said.

The virtual presentation highlighted the DEI efforts of six local companies: CAP Tulsa, Hilti, Magellan Midstream Partners LP, Morton Comprehensive Health, ONEOK and Swithgear Search and Recruiting.

“Seeing leaders be vulnerable is important,” Washington said. “Even though we are in leadership positions, we are not perfect. We all have hidden biases. If we as leaders have them, that means that the people we lead do.”

She added that “we can’t give up on the strategies and the initiatives to make change happen so that when you look at me, you don’t see curly hair. You see Rose … We cannot stop until we see each other in the eyes of love.”

Throwback Tulsa: Our favorite Tulsa landmark signs