“If we want to really and truly mirror what our city looks like, we should be at 11% and 49%, respectively,” she said.
Over the past four years, the city had held steady at 19% with regards to women being employed by the city, and 5% with regards to ethnic diversity. Today, Pope said, of the 761 people Hamilton employs, 21% are women and 6% are minorities.
“Hamilton is making strides in getting there” as they work to steadily increase the city’s diversity.
“I think if we can continue making small incremental steps, we will be well on our way,” she said. “Our success strategy is to be the thermostat and not the thermometer.”
The plan is to have a multi-prong strategic approach, and it starts with data analysis. Pope said they want to continue to measure a number of factors, including why they want a job with the city, why current employees are staying, and why former employees left.
Another strategy in the plan is education, by looking at outside educators and external and internal resources.
Other strategies include seeking organizational input from employees; developing additional employee resource groups for women and minorities; and reaching out to community organizations about what they’re seeing, hearing, and needing in the community.
Pope said they have seen an uptick in women and minorities applying for positions with the city, and the question now is, “How do we convert the number of qualified and interested applicants into employees?”
Sophia Williams, a junior at Badin High School, is an intern with Hamilton’s CHIPs (Citywide Hamilton Internship Program) and worked on the research of the equity plan.
“Diversity within the workplace provides fresh perspectives and creativity,” she said.
Williams said she was able to connect with several leaders within the community.
Through her work, she connected with Dr. Bennyce Hamilton, the director of the Center of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Miami University, who said, “An equity plan is an effective way to be intentional about diversifying an organization. When done right, it creates opportunities for those who would otherwise be overlooked based on biases (unconscious or conscious).”
Pope said there is work to be done over the next couple of years in implementing this equity plan, as the goal is not just to have the employees that work for the local government reflect the community when it comes to equitable hiring.
“Hopefully, with implementing all of these strategies, we will become the Center of Excellence that we choose to be,” she said.
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