Dover seeks improvement in diversity, inclusion goals

By Mike Finney
Posted 3/2/21

DOVER — When it comes to implementation of the goals and strategies gathered in a Diversity and Inclusion Assessment presented by the Bethesda, Maryland-based IVY Planning Group to members of …

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Dover seeks improvement in diversity, inclusion goals

Posted

DOVER — When it comes to implementation of the goals and strategies gathered in a Diversity and Inclusion Assessment presented by the Bethesda, Maryland-based IVY Planning Group to members of Dover City Council back in January 2020, it appears as if the city of Dover has so far earned a grade of “incomplete.”

Kim Hawkins, human resource director for the city of Dover, said there have been moderate gains, however, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have made it extremely difficult to make large strides as many of the city’s departments have been working outside of their offices for six out of the last 14 months.

“(COVID) has posed some challenges in us reaching and even implementing some of the goals we had set out for,” Ms. Hawkins said. “We will have peaks and valleys. We can’t always be on the incline (when it comes to minority hiring). Nobody here wants to slip back.

“I think we are making progress. I think D and I (Diversity and Inclusion) is still a very active subject on the tips of everybody’s tongues. There’s always work to be done and there will continuously always be work to be done.”

Gary Smith, founding partner of IVY, along with Dina Abercrombie, presented the D&I Assessment to members of Dover’s Legislative, Finance and Administration Committee last year.

“As much as you can incorporate diversity and inclusion as an element, the leadership of an organization, the leadership of an agency, and their commitment to leading and creating diversity, inclusion accountability, goes a long way to determining whether or not a project will be successful,” Mr. Smith said, adding that the city needs to focus on training younger workers to become leaders.

The numbers that Ms. Hawkins presented to members of city council at its most recent meeting on Feb. 2) were far from encouraging.

“When I pulled up the monthly report for January this year and when I look at the number of minority-total workforce, we are seeing an increase – not a large increase – but we are seeing an increase of about 2 percent,” Ms. Hawkins said.

She also noted that in 2019 the recruiting of minority civilian candidates in the city was about 18%, and it increased to about 22% in 2020.

Those numbers did not sit too well with some members of city council, even amidst a global pandemic.

“I didn’t hear anything significant about recruitment,” City Councilman Fred Neil said. “I can go back all the way back to the time that I was first elected in 2015, the gap between minorities and those who are Caucasians remains virtually the same.

“That means the recruitment is not there. I don’t see any sort of a plan to where we’re going to recruit the best available students coming out of our colleges or our high schools. There’s got to be a pool there of competent individuals that we can bring in here.”

It is up to every department

Ms. Hawkins said attracting minority candidates shouldn’t be considered just a human relations department concern, but all departments within the city’s organizational structure need to be held accountable.

“A couple of things I wanted to highlight, typically in conversations with people, the words ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ tend to run together, but I think it’s very important to note that diversity and inclusion are two very different topics,” she said.

“Diversity is about getting a diverse workforce, and the inclusion is, once you get that diverse workforce, make them feel as though they are included in the entire organization.”

Ms. Hawkins said she prepared a memo last June with several suggestions and recommendations for improving the city’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

She said the city “has done some preboarding of its employees, enhanced its onboarding of employees, and are in the final stages of finishing a human trackable analytics report.” It is also now conducting “stay interviews” after conducting “exit interviews” for several years.

Ms. Hawkins set six goals in her memo for the FY 22 budget as it related to human relations, including: implementing a supervisory training program that provides continuous training opportunities for new and seasoned supervisors; increasing citywide employee activities; and creating new employee benefit orientation in an electronic format.

She said her department is also going to be focused on working with local colleges and schools in finding recruits; exploring mentorship and a job-shadowing program with city staff to help build from within; and concentrating on strengthening cultural awareness competence through diversity and inclusion learning opportunities

Dover City Manager Randy Robertson had only been on the job nine days when he attended the virtual council meeting on Feb. 22.

He admitted that he wasn’t exactly blown away by the city’s 2% increase in minority hiring from 1999 to 2020.

“All I’m submitting to you (in my) two-week view (with the city) is changing the culture,” Mr. Robertson said. “Changing the culture is the most challenging thing that we’ll do. I firmly believe and I’ve mentioned to all department heads about this notion that we appear to be good, but we need to move the speedometer to wherever we can.

“We’ve got to make sure that our department heads from the top down understand who you hire is the most important thing you do – who you put on your right and your left – and there has to be a sense of urgency with every hiring action.”

Value ‘each and every person’

Upon hearing the initial Diversity and Inclusion Assessment for Dover back in 2020, Councilman David Anderson noted a major gap between White and minority employment within the city of Dover’s offices, especially in the higher leadership positions.

“We need to value each and every person,” he said. “We don’t want a tug-of-war. This isn’t about a spoil system or excluding anyone, but a truly inclusive environment. We (need to) start to be more inclusive in our diversity of application pool where we understand the process and why we’re losing quality applicants. Not having a good, quality diverse pool of applicants is a bad thing. Then once we get people, are they being fairly treated in the promotion system?

“We have a city that is really a no-majority population, but when you look at the top 20 city leaders,you basically have a reign of minority leadership that is single-digit percentages and you have to ask, ‘Is there some disconnect?’”

Councilman Roy Sudler Jr. didn’t leave the most recent update about diversity and inclusion completely disappointed.

“What I did hear the most and what I really liked was that there’s room for improvement,” he said. “With the Diversity and Inclusion report, there’s definitely room for improvement.”

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