Author: Manager

The Culture of Equality in the Workplace

sumbitted by Colleen Brannan, Branstorm PR

Presented by Caroline Dudley, Managing Director of North American Recruiting for Accenture, our May virtual luncheon was based on recent Accenture research, The Hidden Value of Culture Makers. During this one-hour interactive Zoom session, Caroline kept a group of CREW Charlotte members engaged by making participants apply study findings to their own beliefs and company cultures.

According to the study, the majority of leaders surveyed (68%) believe an inclusive workplace environment/culture is vital to the success of their business but just 21% say it’s a priority (76% cited financial performance.) Interestingly, two thirds of leaders (68%) feel they create empowering environments in which employees can be themselves; raise concerns and innovate without fear of failure. However, just one third of employees agreed.

While it seems we have a long way to go on culture as a priority, Caroline said we can all do our part to create a culture of equality no matter what your role is in the organization. Some suggestions included:

• incorporate culture into personal goal setting for yourself and those you manage
• create employee incentives related to culture to celebrate culture makers in your company
• remember cultures of equality extend outside the workplace to our roles in the nonprofit community and professional organizations like CREW.

When culture makers lead, organizations grow twice as fast. Here’s the Culture Makers video to get the conversation started at your company.

Other Accenture studies, such as Getting To Equal 2017: Closing The Gender Pay Gap and COVID-19 The Industry Impact of Coronavirus can be found at www.accenture.com

Circular Charlotte

submitted by Sivilay Xayasaene with Gresham Smith

Our virtual June luncheon presented by Amy Aussieker, Envision Charlotte Executive Director, highlighted Charlotte as the first in the US to take on the challenge to become a circular city. Circular Charlotte’s model is designed to produce zero waste simply by adopting a comprehensive waste diversion strategy while also creating more than 2,000 jobs. Amy identified business cases of textiles and food waste that can be diverted from landfill and be reused or upcycling food waste into compost.

The Innovation Barn will be the hub for circular economy, housing many case studies. Within the barn is an incubator lab, plastics lab, 3D printer, chipper, extruder, aquaponic garden and hydroponic garden. The labs are open to the public and provide opportunity for entrepreneurs to develop their circular economy ideas. People will have the ability to bring in plastic and make a new phone case or rapidly prototype products straight from the lab. In addition, Electrolux will have a teaching kitchen that will also supply the Café and serve refreshments. Maintained by Envision Charlotte, the Barn is designed by Kim Marks’ team at Progressive AE, constructed by JEDunn at 932 Seigle Avenue and schedule to open late fall.

Members who attended the luncheon expressed excitement to tour the new facility as well as volunteer. More information on the Innovation Barn and what can be recycled can be found here.

To see Amy's complete presentation, please click here.