Partnership presenting opportunities to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in OKC’s business community

Over the past year, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber and the Oklahoma City Urban League of Oklahoma City have partnered to create a stronger dialogue and engagement of the Oklahoma City business community around issues of social justice and anti-racism.

The first year of the partnership began with an event series to create a business community conversation about diversity, equity and inclusion. That work was followed with the launch of Inclusion at Work, a coalition that brings together the leaders and managers of diversity programs in companies across the region to identify areas of collaboration and partnership.

According to Jabar Shumate, vice president of community convening and social justice at the Urban League, some of the topics covered throughout the Inclusion at Work program include building out measurement and accountability tools, resources to improve climate, recruiting and retaining diverse talent, training and leadership development, and employee resource groups.

In this second year of the partnership, the work is expanding. “The Oklahoma City business community and city leadership have been very supportive of moving the needle in inclusive economic development. There was opportunity in the midst of COVID because this global pandemic allowed for a larger spotlight to shine on where there were gaps that existed in Oklahoma City in terms of the business community,” Shumate said, noting about 41% of Black-owned businesses were shuttered across the U.S. during the pandemic.

Shumate said COVID 19 actually helped the Urban League and Chamber understand the gaps that exist, setting out guideposts on what we need to do to strengthen some of Oklahoma City’s small and minority businesses.

“I believe we have seen overwhelming success because so many other organizations during the pandemic have taken a more critical look at their workforce, what trends are in the growth of Oklahoma City and assessed what to do next” Shumate said.

Part of the work is an executive-led diversity, equity and inclusion roundtable where more than two dozen CEOs and company executives are investing their time and talent to look at three areas: building strong minority supply chain networks in Oklahoma City, designing a longitudinal data system, or dashboard, that will evaluate where OKC is moving the needle in terms of understanding and tracking those aforementioned gaps, and development of leadership and mentorship initiatives.

“Across the board, cities that have advanced themselves have not grown without having an eye toward diversity, equity and inclusion because it does create the kind of environment that you can recruit, retain and attract the very best talent,” Shumate said.

Inclusion at Work is a group that meets six times a year. If you are leading diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at your organization you are welcome to join. For more information, contact Kaylee McDaniel Cale at [email protected] or 405-297-8955.

This story originally appeared in the December 2021 edition of the VeloCity newsletter.