Delivering Innovation: A Blueprint for Diversity and Inclusion
Arc Aspicio’s mission is to enhance the future of our nation by creating bold ideas and bringing them to life. As a professional services and solutions company, we support our clients in their missions by being the hub of creativity where people take action to change the world. To achieve this vision of creativity, Arc Aspicio must continuously promote diversity, equity, and inclusion to help all employees play a role in cultivating our culture of innovation and action every day.
To be role models in diversity, equity, and inclusion, we developed a diversity Blueprint in 2020 and put an Action Plan for 2021 into place. At the center of our approach is community and culture that supports how we work and collaborate. Our approach also informs how we connect with each other professionally through fairness, diversity, and inclusion. To properly support this Blueprint, our company launched support projects and company operations geared towards internal and external promotions of diversity and inclusion at all levels.
The Blueprint provides an overall framework for the areas that employees must take to have an active role in fostering an outstanding employee experience. Starting with recruiting and onboarding, and continuing throughout an employee’s career at our company, we consistently emphasize the need to be keenly aware of ways to promote diversity and inclusion. With the sponsorship of our Leadership Council, employees can navigate this role and play a part in creating an environment we want to work in for the long term.
Our approach emphasizes innovation, a clear benefit of our company’s commitment to diversity and equity. To achieve this, the Blueprint maps out the role of employees at all levels. Here are some highlights:
Communication and Stewardship: Promotes transparent communication from leaders and respectful dialogue among all employees. Encourages employees to be leaders at all levels and include all employees to help them reach their potential
Culture: Empowers employees to collaborate and seek out diverse perspectives and new ideas, and then turn those ideas into action and outcomes for our clients and the company
Engagement: Encourages employees to be proactive in developing relationships with colleagues by reaching out to new joiners to help them navigate our company, processes, expectations, and culture. Encourage employees to provide ideas to the Leadership Council on an ongoing basis to enhance the Blueprint and Action Plan and then help implement the actions
Professional Development: Promotes learning and a growth mindset, asking employees to develop new skills and to equally share their knowledge generously. Encourages leaders and emerging leaders to model the growth mindset
Finally, our Blueprint helps us hold all employees, especially our leaders, accountable for results through our performance management system and culture. The Blueprint asks employees to hold each other accountable for a fair, equitable, and consistent performance management process and to support other employees far beyond direct supervisees through coaching, mentoring, and teaching.
We are excited to put the Blueprint into action. Our communications, brown bags, orientation, and peer groups have already been exchanging ideas and taking action to implement them to achieve our goals – for our clients and the company.
