Belonging Initiative Sees Opportunities That Need to Be Seized

New Council of advisors to build upon foundational work.

Gregory Miller
President/CEO Penn-Mar Human Services

If you’re up on the news, you know that the whole DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) world has been turned on its head by the new administration in Washington.

When I follow what’s going on I’m even prouder of how we went about crafting our Belonging initiative. We chose to identify what we are doing well and consider changes to the things our team members perceive we can do better. All in an effort to ensure that the culture we envision and promote at Penn-Mar reflects the actual day-to-day experiences of our team members.

The Penn-Mar story is about the power that comes by celebrating the differences of our team members and not looking at those differences as problems that need to be solved, but rather opportunities that need to be seized.

In addition to my leadership role at Penn-Mar, I serve on several non-profit Boards. All strong organizations will engage in healthy conversations around diversity and inclusivity. What programs are we planning to sustain? What is the end game here? How can you say you believe in something and turn around the next day and say you no longer do because you don’t have to. In other words, who are we really? What does our heart really look like when we consider our differences?

In the case of Penn-Mar, regardless of the political ramifications or the ebbs and flows of popular culture, our Belonging program focused on doing exactly what we were supposed to do, not because we had to, but because it was the right thing to do for our workforce.

And the right thing to do is to build teams with respect and dignity, ensuring that every person at Penn-Mar feels valued and heard and has ample opportunity to express themselves in a way that reflects who they are.

Well into the Belonging program’s Discovery process, we created three Workgroups to focus on Connections, Consistent Practices, and Leadership Engagement.

We are continuing to press forward by creating a newly formed Belonging Council of advisors whose main role is to create a workplace where all team members feel respected, valued, heard, and empowered. 

The Council is being co-chaired by Bobbi Snyder, Sr. HR Business Partner and Jen Skelly, Director of PA Operations. It will continue to build upon the foundational work of our three previous Pilot Groups (Connections, Consistent Practices, and Leadership Engagement), and oversee and guide new workgroups addressing team member connections through Socialization, Learning, Consistent Practices, and Communications.

I will continue to meet with team members and provide opportunities for direct access and open communications with myself and our Leadership Team so we can regularly address important issues impacting our organization.

Additionally, there will be future communications from the Council and/or workgroups regarding activities for team members and the people we support, as well as team member-exclusive events. We also plan to share a formalized process for addressing identified inconsistent practices within the organization. 

At the end of the day, the Belonging initiative is designed to ensure that what we say and do is congruent.

We don’t expect our team members to say things are good if they’re not.

And what I find so awesome is that we’re not just hearing “Yeah, I think the organization is doing a good job.” Instead, team members are sharing stories of where they are seeing positive processes and changes in action.

That’s what makes our uniquely designed cultural program so powerful, so real, so successful, so Penn-Mar.