With PFM staff in multiple locations across the country (and, in 2020-21, working virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic), delivering education and training that reaches the entire firm can be challenging. We wanted to offer a variety of learning and development opportunities on diversity, equity and inclusion topics in formats that would allow staff to participate as their schedules and learning preferences allowed.

Members of PFM’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Council partnered with PFM’s Learning and Development team to curate and deliver DEI-centric topics interwoven in the firmwide Learning & Development newsletter circulated month. The content is presented in a variety of formats (articles, infographics, TedTalks, Podcasts, and via partnership with an external learning management system vendor). In addition, in September 2020 the firm offered a weeklong, virtual DEI Summit with external presenters, internal panel discussions, and small group TedTalk / podcast discussions around issues such as racial injustice, mentorship, sponsorship and allyship, mental health and wellness, and how diversity drives innovation. We are actively planning for our 2nd annual DEI Summit to occur in Q3 2021.

DEI Summit sessions were attended by more than 2/3 of the firm, and will now be conducted annually using feedback we’ve received from attendees on the topics and content they want to hear in the future. As of Q1 2021, we are actively crafting a DEI Learning Plan that outlines various DEI-centric learning tracks, topics, and formats for participation.