Increased employee training, participation in a range of civic and organizational events and outreach with specific community groups are among the highlights of Naperville’s ongoing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts as 2023 gives way to 2024.
Dr. Geneace Williams, the city’s diversity, equity and inclusion manager, provided the city council with a recap of some of her office’s highlights in the second half of 2023. She also provided council members with a snapshot of what’s in the works for the upcoming year.
DEI highlights from the past six months
Williams, who is providing the council with twice-annual DEI updates, said a number of initiatives took place within the past six months that are all wrapped around bringing as many voices to the table as possible.
Internally, Williams touched on a new employee engagement program called passport. It is designed to give new hires the opportunity to have a broader understanding of how the city functions as an organization, from one department to the next.
“The feedback was so positive that the passport program is increasing from two times per year to three times per year,” Williams said.
In the hopes of bringing in broader representation, the city also has been refining its processes as requests for proposals are sought from outside vendors for assorted products and services that are integral to day-to-day activities.
Externally, Williams also shared with the council some of her outreach efforts, which have included roles in a number of local and regional activities. For instance, she took part in the Embrace Naperville event in October that was held in conjunction with Naperville School District 203, Indian Prairie School District 204 and North Central College.
What’s ahead in 2024
As the DEI office gears up for a busy year ahead, Williams outlined with the council four key strategic priorities that are on the docket in 2024. Increasing employee learning opportunities remains a focus, she said, as does leveraging additional community partnerships to broaden the office’s impact.
Additionally, Williams said updates with the human resources office are in the works to hone in on further recruitment and hiring processes. Lastly, she said new metrics are being developed with the city’s HR and vendor procurement offices to gain a deeper understanding of some of the outcomes.
“Internally, with HR and our internal training vendor, we will update our inclusion survey from 2022 to guide how the training materials and metrics are developed,” Williams said as she illustrated the last point.
Councilman urges greater steps with vendor engagement
At the conclusion of Williams’ report, councilman Benjamin White urged for greater strides in broadening the representation of vendors who contract with the city.
“It’s not as diverse as I think it should be, as far as what our city looks like.” White said.
Director of Finance Rachel Mayer said there have been — and will continue to be — efforts to engage as broad a range of vendors as possible, while also ensuring participating bidders have the necessary qualifications to carry out the task at hand.
“We did conduct a vendor open house and tried to get people signed up through our e-bidding process,” Mayer said, adding another open house event likely will take place at some point in the first quarter of the upcoming year.
White said he remains concerned local vendors might not be fully aware of the city’s interest in working with them. But, he added, “It sounds like we’re making some progress in that area.”
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