Let’s Talk About Race: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace

Last year while we were all ordered to shelter in place and work from home during the Great Pandemic, millions took to the streets to protest against racial injustice. HR professionals grappled with how to navigate these difficult conversations and address these issues in the workplace. Companies are now rethinking how to foster these important discussions and HR and leadership’s role to ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are enshrined as core values and are achievable objectives in our respective workplaces. This presentation will raise awareness of unconscious bias and provide guidelines for supporting employees of diverse backgrounds and bystanders when incidents occur in the workplace.

The learning objectives for this workshop are to:

What does the lack of diversity in the workplace and especially in leadership roles in corporations tell us about our collective commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion? The numbers don’t add up, all the way up the corporate ladder.
What are different unconscious bias types, and how “color blindness” has hindered our ability to change what others are blind to? You can’t change what you don’t see.

Do HR professionals believe that their organization is doing enough to advance DEI and feel comfortable speaking up about these issues?
How should HR professionals respond to employee concerns about bias (that may not necessarily rise to the level of harassment or discrimination)?
What not to say—what are some conversation non-starters and what are some common pitfalls for HR to avoid? How to show support for the target/victim of offensive behavior or comments? How to encourage bystanders to speak up without fear of repercussions?

What are new CA laws that address workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion, and what steps must HR take to comply with these laws?
Our speaker, Jane Kow, has practiced employment law and provided human resources consulting services on behalf of employers for over 25 years. Following graduation from NYU School of Law in 1993, she practiced at prominent law firms, where she represented employers of all sizes and across industries in employment disputes. She also served as Senior Counsel and the sole employment lawyer at a Silicon Valley-based company with 75 locations worldwide before founding HR Law Consultants in 2002.

Her practice focuses on advising, training, auditing, and investigating workplaces to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local workplace laws. Jane Kow has testified before the Commissioners at the EEOC headquarters in Washington, DC, on employer best practices on preventing and investigating workplace harassment and how to conduct effective workplace investigations.

Legal Advice and Compliance Audits for Employers On Personnel Policies and Practices

Jane Kow routinely advises and trains workforces on all aspects of workplace laws, including sexual harassment prevention, investigating and resolving workplace complaints, legal issues of supervision, regulating employee’s social media use, documenting employee misconduct and performance issues, managing employee medical leaves, and providing reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities, and conducting internal audits of wage and hour practices, and a variety of other employment law compliance issues. She has been retained as a trial expert to provide consulting services and to testify in a number of cases on human resources best practices, workplace investigations, and workplace disability accommodations. She has also conducted comprehensive audits of workplace practices, policies, and procedures to ensure compliance with a variety of employment and wage and hour laws, including an examination of a company’s pay practices.

Customized, Interactive, and Practical Training On A Variety of Workplace Topics