Our challenge at Restaurant Technologies was that because we did not have a history of racial or diversity conflict, we assumed we did not have a diversity ‘problem’. But we missed the fact that we had a diversity opportunity. We recognized that we were underrepresented by people of color at senior levels of management, but it was not seen as a burning platform as we had diversity in entry level positions that fed our internal promotion pipeline. An opportunity, yes, but not a company or cultural priority until 2020 when we reviewed our diversity situation under a new, harsher, more educated light.

We educated ourselves with external experts, articles, books, and conversations and communicated to our company that we had a problem and opportunity. We formulated a Diversity Advisory Team (DAT), a very diverse team of 17 representing all ages, genders, ethnicities and levels in the organization. The DAT was supported by our CEO and Chief People Officer and charged with helping prioritize how we could achieve our vision, i.e., that every person in our company will experience workplace belongingness and have equal opportunities for challenging work and career advancement and that we bring our full selves to work each day and candidly and courageously contribute our perspectives. As a data gathering starting point, we had CEO lead town hall meetings with our Black, Hispanic and Women teammates; and we did a pulse survey on equity and inclusion with 71% participation. All of these activities confirmed we did not have a racial or diversity ‘problem’ with consistent feedback that our people enjoyed our culture, workplace and opportunity, without differences in regard to ethnicity, race, our gender.

The DAT focused diverse slates and ensuring career advancement conversations were occurring at all levels, highlighting internal courses and other opportunities to create a path for advancement. These actions have had an impact on increased diversity in our management ranks.

Our next step is to hire a senior DE&I Partner, to lead our efforts from within, in an organic yet intentional way. As CEO, I will continue to own our DE&I efforts investing my time, energy and company resources.

We have improving trends in diverse hires, internal promotions and management hiring. Our DE&I partner will lead our efforts by first diagnosing our opportunity and formulating our plans. Our initial focus will be to improve equity and inclusion internally, then positively impacting the 41 communities where we have operations and into our supply chain. This is a journey that is both good for our company and our communities.