Aspiration to Impact: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging for Utilities and Communities

Introduction

In today’s dynamic utility landscape, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) are not just aspirations but essential components of a thriving organization. Yet, the challenge remains: How can we define an effective DEIB program? How can companies transcend buzzwords to establish a cohesive DEIB vocabulary that resonates across every level of their organization? Moreover, how does fostering a profound sense of “belonging” enhance the DEIB framework, creating an environment of genuine acceptance?

CHA Consulting, Inc.'s (CHA). strategy is built on encouraging meaningful dialogue, building a robust DEIB vocabulary, and accentuating “belonging” to nurture a culture of acceptance and inclusivity. For CHA, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are not just trendy terms; they form the foundational ethos of our workplace. CHA’s DEIB value propositions delineates its essence and its boundaries, and present paradigms of introspective and extrospective programs. This comprehensive approach enables CHA to seamlessly integrate DEIB throughout the organizational hierarchy, our workforce, and the wider community, integrating it within our corporate identity and the core values of our team.

We prioritize encouraging meaningful dialogue, where terms are applied thoughtfully and practices are well understood. Our robust DEIB framework empowers individuals to express their true selves, creating an environment where every voice is heard and valued without apprehension of exclusion.

Creating a DEIB Landscape

The principle of psychological safety permeates our daily operations, helping us seamlessly move from aspiration to action from a DEIB perspective. Our strategy revolves around creating a DEIB canvas that encourages interactions across diverse business sectors, generations, regions, work modalities, and organizational hierarchies. What was once a philosophical concept has evolved into a cornerstone of our daily operations. This commitment to DEIB is not only integral to our internal culture but also consistently recognized by our clients in every interaction and decision-making process.

An Introspective View

At its fundamental core, CHA embraces and celebrates the diverse perspectives and identities of our employees, clients, partners, and communities. Our approach is not top-down but rather an organic, employee-driven commitment to behavior, actions and dialogue. To support these values, we deploy thoughtful and focused attention in an organized way that filters DEIB principles into every aspect of the company, our people and our communities.

Our DEIB work has evolved and grown as the company has expanded and as our industry changes. Our methodology values small actions that yield significant impacts when deployed in mindful and strategic ways.

DEIB Council: A Bottom-Up Approach

Our DEIB Council, formed in 2020, is voluntary, employee-driven, and comprised of 25 staff from across the company and from diverse backgrounds, age groups, and career levels. Our executive leaders actively participate in DEIB initiatives, fostering transparency and cultivating a resilient and inclusive culture where everyone feels heard, valued and respected. The council activities nurture a culture of humility where leaders and employees – together – embrace learning from diverse perspectives in an environment of mutual respect.

The council work groups focus on three areas: training, community engagement, and expanding our external partners. These groups meet regularly to set priorities, share experience and knowledge, bring in expert advisors from across the company, and lead annual plans of action in each area.

In addition, the council maintains a library of over 100 external resources on DEIB topics. These resources are regularly updated and available to all CHA employees for personal and professional growth and for managers and leaders to deploy across teams.

Small Actions, Big Impacts

Outcomes from the council work groups manifest in thoughtful and targeted ways—in communications, resources, training opportunities, and additions to our daily workflows. These “small actions” nurture a robust culture of understanding and appreciation of diverse viewpoints, driving meaningful change within our organization.

We seamlessly integrate diversity and inclusion into our people processes, from recruitment to talent management and development. This holistic approach ensures that DEIB values are infused in every stage of the employee lifecycle.

Below are recent achievements showcasing our DEIB initiatives in action:

• Over 430 voluntary registrations were recorded for DEIB lunch & learn programs within one year from program inception.
  • These sessions are co-facilitated by DEIB Council members and non-members, all CHA employees drawn from the ranks of both seasoned and early-career professionals.
  • Members of CHA’s leadership and executive teams join all of these topic discussions in some way, contributing as speakers, panelists, and audience members.
  • Lunch & learn sessions, many of which have “standing room only” attendance, aim to develop our collective vocabulary around DEIB topics, including microaggressions, micro-inequalities, psychological safety, multicultural competency, age diversity, women in STEM, and intentional inclusion.
• Every new CHA hire and intern completes a comprehensive course on unconscious bias.
• A session focused on psychological safety and conscious inclusion has been integrated into our “Manager’s Essentials” program.
  • “Being a Consciously Inclusive Leader” uses engaging activities, storytelling, dedicated space for reflection and reset, and suggested follow-up reading to explore the impact of bias in the workplace, understanding and practicing psychological safety, and being consciously inclusive.
• CHA has significantly increased workforce diversity across sectors and career levels. In 2022, the percentage of total hires in a protected category was 51.8%, rising to over 60% by 2023. We are proud that in an industry that is traditionally not diverse in these categories, CHA has achieved a diverse makeup in our staff of more than 25% female, 22% who identify as a minority, 3.5% veteran status, and 6% who identify as disabled.
• Our 2023 summer internship class included 75 individuals–nearly 50% female and 41% who identify as minority. Given the AEC services sector currently sees 3% of engineers are women; 20% of engineers are disabled; 19% of engineers are underrepresented minorities; and 2% of engineers are women of color, CHA is proud of the diversity of our program and our work to welcome everyone to the industry at the start of their career.
• The DEIB Council, in collaboration with Marketing and Human Resources, leads efforts to plan and organize companywide celebrations of holidays and events promoting inclusion and diversity both internally and externally throughout the year. To enhance participation in these events, the DEIB Council launched a companywide community and events calendar on our intranet, fostering awareness and engagement among all employees.

An Extrospective View

CHA’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in our Industry.

We recognize that robust corporate DEIB initiatives have a far-reaching impact that transcends our organizational boundaries and permeates the broader community.

One such focus is expanding our XBE (Minority, Women, and Economically Depressed Communities) partners. Over the past year, we set out to analyze our current partners (vendors and subcontractors) and the types of work we are engaging them in. We uncovered an unexpected wealth of untapped data and information that has opened a significant opportunity for growth in this area. We are now collaborating with teams across CHA to elevate and build out tools to help us understand more and develop a plan to expand our reach and engagement with more XBE partners.

CHA also recognizes the significant influence corporations have in shaping the commercial landscape. Our interactions with smaller, minority-owned vendors are substantive, extending well beyond symbolic gestures. As a result, and in collaboration with our clients, we are actively involved in supplier diversity mentoring programs aimed at nurturing positive relationships among our organization, clients, and a diverse array of suppliers. This includes businesses owned by individuals from minority groups, women, veterans, and those with disabilities.

For CHA, supplier diversity mentoring programs are not just beneficial; they are a strategic cornerstone, yielding several advantages that exceed transactional interactions. Through dedicated mentorship, we empower these vendors economically, bolster the resilience of our supply chain, cultivate enduring partnerships, and contribute to the vitality of the communities we serve. Equally significant is the profound sense of fulfillment and pride our employees experience, knowing our efforts contribute positively to the societal welfare in their communities.

Recent Initiatives and Outcomes

CHA recently had the privilege of participating in minority vendor mentoring programs with a prominent mid-Atlantic investor-owned utility and a leading northeastern public power utility. In the former instance, our objective, aligned with our client’s vision, was to elevate prospective diverse suppliers to the status of qualified tier 1 or tier 2 suppliers. Partnering with a small minority-owned construction firm, CHA provided strategic guidance to refine their business plans and expand their market reach. Through comprehensive coaching, leadership enhancement, and collaborative efforts, we broadened their understanding of market differentiation, competitive edge, risk tolerance, and the establishment of a viable business model. This firm now proudly serves a wide array of markets and clientele.

In a parallel initiative, CHA is guiding a technically adept minority and veteran-owned engineering firm to refine its business operations for sustainable growth. As a mentor, CHA is gaining a more robust network of subcontractors while our mentee gains knowledge and insights about successfully bidding for client contracts. Our joint efforts include scrutinizing business development strategies, refining onboarding and training protocols, and offering project management insights. CHA’s specialists have contributed their expertise to explore expansion into federal projects and have discussed the intricacies of overhead costs and financial analysis. We anticipate these ongoing interactions will empower our mentee to generate employment opportunities and foster economic stability, thereby contributing to a more dynamic and resilient local economy.

CHA’s Vision and Impact

Participating in these mentoring programs aligns with CHA’s overarching goal to cultivate the essential social capital that diversity vendors require for business growth and sustainability. We understand the pivotal role of networks and relationships in business development and recognize that small, diverse business owners often have limited access to such networks. As corporate mentors, we endeavor to bridge this gap by expanding our mentees’ networks, connecting them with other professionals, and unlocking new business opportunities. Serving as a model of success, we aim to inspire our mentees, understanding that observing successful enterprises can serve as an excellent catalyst for their own aspirations.

We firmly believe that our mentorship of small, diverse firms is a promoter of economic expansion and community prosperity. Our commitment to supporting our diverse vendor community is driven not by compliance obligations but by a strategic business rationale that fosters innovation, market growth, cost efficiency, and an enhanced corporate image.

Embracing Diversity: CHA’s Commitment to Inclusion and Social Responsibility

“CHA has and will continue to embrace and celebrate the diversity that our employees, clients, partners, and communities represent. While it begins with our vision of creating solutions, helping people, and improving our world, it goes far beyond that, and our goal of growing and delivering value is based on a path empowering staff to drive change – promoting thought leadership, social responsibility, and diversity in all that we do in our business and in our personal lives. We are committed to the values of inclusion and equality. Indeed, they are at the heart of who we are as an organization.”

Here, Jim Stephenson, President and CEO of CHA, emphasizes the organization’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. These values are not only integral to CHA’s vision and work but also extend into the personal lives of our employees and their communities. CHA aims to foster an environment where thought leadership and social responsibility thrive and where staff are empowered to drive change. This reflects the core identity of CHA as an organization dedicated to creating solutions that help people and improve the world. We invite other organizations to adopt similar approaches and join us in making DEIB an integral part of their corporate ethos.

Frank Peverly, PMP, is the Vice President, Utility Market Segment Leader at CHA Consulting, Inc. With a career spanning nearly 40 years in the energy industry, he has an extensive background in leading complex initiatives and business transformation and providing high-level deliverables to multiple constituencies while managing electric and natural gas construction, project management, operating, and engineering organizations. Connect with Frank on LinkedIn for further discussion on energy and the workforce.

Ishwarya Kumar is an Organizational Development and Learning and Development strategist with over 18 years of experience. At CHA Consulting, Inc., she leads diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) initiatives, integrating these principles into core operations. With expertise in learning strategy and leadership development, Ishwarya prioritizes meaningful dialogue and psychological safety. Her work fosters transformation and growth. Connect with her on LinkedIn for insights into her impactful contributions.