[ad_1]
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / 10 November 2022 / Earlier this year, the National Diversity Council honored Virginia Nguyen, Chief Diversity Officer of Qurate Retail Group.SM, as one of the top 100 diversity officers in the United States. The National Diversity Council is a leader in convening the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to advance a multicultural environment.
We spoke with Virginia about how the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) space has evolved over the years and where she’s headed in this important journey.
1. What does Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) mean to you?
DE&I is about thriving as individuals, as a team, as a business and as a community. At work, it represents a sense of security and empowerment to bring your work to life, to do your best work, and to have equal access to the resources and opportunities that enable personal and professional growth. I’m here. It’s not only about acknowledging who is being seen and not being heard and understanding why and how to address these issues, but also about being seen and heard. Ultimately, DE&I is characterized by cultural and structural change, which requires a degree of daring and pushing boundaries. Uncomfortability with others – where we can hear and absorb their experiences, beliefs and perceptions – is a powerful experience and a space where meaningful progress occurs.
2. Why is DE&I important for everyone?
DE&I is not a zero-sum game. DE&I benefits everyone as a person and as a company. In short, DE&I is everyone’s responsibility. It takes a collective effort to create the culture we want, and we all have an inspiring role to play in modeling and driving the behaviors that foster empathy and belonging, engagement, collaboration, and high performance. is responsible for
3. After an impressive tenure at DE&I, how has the field changed since you first started?
When I entered the field over 15 years ago, most DE&I programs centered around compliance-led initiatives, gender diversity strategies, and US-centric initiatives. Since then, the definition of diversity has broadened to include other aspects of identity, and a growing body of research articulates the business case for DE&I. In addition, the DE&I space is increasingly shifting to the importance of inclusion and the need to explore and redesign systems and structures to reduce bias and ensure equitable outcomes.
In May 2020, the murder of George Floyd and the growing call for racial justice changed the entire DE&I conversation on a global scale. Especially for the corporate world, Floyd’s murder exposed longstanding inequalities in America and abroad. Organizations can no longer ignore these issues, so a focus on DE&I is no longer an option.
During the summer of race reckoning, we saw companies take public stances and declare their commitments to social, racial and economic justice – many for the first time. It reflects the recognition that there is not only a business imperative, but also a human and social imperative.
4. Two years on, is this deeper focus on DE&I continuing?
Sustaining this momentous change takes time, effort, perseverance, and dedicated resources, but as a society, we are finally on the path necessary to drive meaningful and long-awaited change. In addition, expectations are changing among employees, job seekers, customers and investors. Everyone is paying attention to what companies are doing more than ever, not just within DE&I, but on all important environmental, social and governance topics.
Accountability is now baked into the conversation as well. Stakeholder groups pay attention not only to what the organization is trying to say, but also to the organization’s transparency in measuring progress and impact. This is a positive change that ensures companies don’t just take action, they deliver on their promises.
5. How are you and your team helping Qurate Retail Group navigate its DE&I journey?
Our DE&I team is a strong group of talented individuals, but we are keenly aware that this journey requires everyone to be involved. DE&I cannot be delegated to a few people. Our team works closely with other teams across the organization including Talent Acquisition, Learning and Development, Workforce Analytics, Legal, Communications, Merchandising, Brands, Procurement and Corporate Responsibility. Everyone plays a key role in driving the company-wide DE&I agenda. Real change depends on collaboration between teams and comes from the great work and input of everyone.
We are also very proud that our culture has been recognized. He has been included in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index for several years and joins more than 400 other his companies in his Bloomberg Gender Equality Index. This year we were also named a Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion by Disability:IN.
6. Which Qurate Retail Group initiative are you most excited about?
We continue to make good progress against our 5-year DE&I goals and commitments and our team is excited to continue building momentum. I am particularly proud of some initiatives. Our Team Member Resource Group (TMRG) is a voluntary group run by team members to advise and work on topics that are important to our community. We have significantly expanded our DE&I learning programs on topics such as unconscious bias, microaggressions, allyship and racial equality, and are getting closer to achieving our goal of 100% participation by our leader and team members. . We are implementing diverse candidate list requirements for leadership roles and finding new ways to better reflect and resonate with our diverse customer community.
In other words, we are just getting started!
Virginia Nguyen was appointed Chief Diversity Officer of Qurate Retail Group in January 2022. In this role, she leads the company’s global initiatives to foster and promote an inclusive environment that provides fairness and belonging to all stakeholders. This includes guiding the leadership of Qurate Retail Group to her team and their commitment to supporting and advancing underrepresented groups across their employees, vendors/suppliers, customers, and communities. She joined Qurate Retail Group in September 2020 as Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I).
Virginia has over 15 years of experience managing DE&I initiatives for a variety of organizations. As her Director of DE&I for Nike, she has prepared and delivered testimony to the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) in support of the Employment Discrimination Act (ENDA). She also served as Director of her DE&I for Activision Blizzard and led her own DE&I consulting firm supporting startups and her brands National.
See additional multimedia and other ESG storytelling from Qurate Retail Group at 3blmedia.com.
Contact Information:
Spokesperson: Qurate Retail Group
Website: https://www.qurateretailgroup.com/newsroom/
Email: [email protected]
sauce: Qurate Retail Group
[ad_2]
Source link
