Olympus recognizes that the Lehigh Valley area has challenges in attracting and retaining diverse talent to this area and at some of our other locations throughout the U.S.

Olympus hosted its 2nd annual Diversity & Inclusion Summit in partnership with three other large, local employers (two of which are signatories of the CEO action pledge). The summit focused on inclusion with sessions on multi-generational workforces and bias and a panel discussion during which participant employers shared best practices. One of the sponsoring organizations was the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, which helped spread the word to all community members about the free summit. Participants experienced some emotional moments in the bias session where the raw content and discussion opened their eyes to the bias they held. Many attendees questioned the keynote speaker about whether efforts to improve Diversity & Inclusion were divisive rather than inclusive and perhaps doing the opposite of what was intended. Video of the keynote address was captured and shared across all of our corporate locations and via a livestream on the Olympus Linkedln account. This is one of the original summits focused on Diversity & Inclusion in the Lehigh Valley, and plans are underway now for a 3rd annual D&I Summit.

By connecting with the content on an emotional level, attendees engaged in the topic of Diversity & Inclusion in a meaningful way. In this way, Olympus increased attendees' awareness and knowledge of Diversity & Inclusion issues. Attendees were able to bring back to their organizations ideas for how to re-assess their Diversity & Inclusion approach.

Kristin Leayman, Mgr. Diversity & Inclusion