No two businesses in Dane County are pursuing the same methods to create an inclusive environment for employees, Brandon said. It wouldn’t be right for community members to judge one company based on the practices of another, he said.
“I would hate for it to be weaponized in a way that says, ‘Well, you didn’t do it this way, and so you must be doing it wrong,’” Brandon said.
Perception matters
However it’s done, creating an equitable environment comes down to employee perception, said Eric Ellis, CEO of management consulting firm Integrity Development. Employees’ opinions matter in identifying inclusive work environments.
“At the end of the day, the people who judge whether an organization is succeeding, it’s not a task force, it’s not even consultants like me,” Ellis said. “It’s ultimately their people.”
Equity and inclusion is often seen as a social justice issue, but employers can also view it as a business issue, Ellis and UW-Milwaukee professor of management Belle Rose Ragins said. Diverse perspectives encourage innovation and growth, so companies should be looking to recruit and retain employees from diverse backgrounds, they said.
Like most employers, Epic doesn’t report demographic information about its employees, so it’s not known to what degree the company is succeeding in that area.
