Business Leaders for Michigan launching racial equity survey

The state’s business roundtable is committing to an “intense focus” on eliminating racial inequities in Michigan with key board members at the helm.

Ron Hall Courtesy Business Leaders for Michigan

For the past several months, a subset of the Business Leaders for Michigan board focused on examining how corporations can and should work to reduce racial inequity, and it outlined a scope of work for its members, including identifying foundational metrics for progress measurement.

The work has been co-led by Ron Hall, CEO of Bridgewater Interiors, and Andi Owen, CEO of Herman Miller, along with support from PwC.

Business Leaders for Michigan will survey its membership on several specific targets to analyze how much work already is being done at the organizational level, for example: identifying the percentage of members who are signatories of CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion; the percentage of companies that measure diversity, equity and inclusion in employee hiring, compensation and progression; and the percentage of members who have supplier diversity targets.

Andi Owen Courtesy Business Leaders for Michigan

The board said it recognizes individual member companies are at various points on the spectrum with some doing work in this space for a long time and some acting more recently. Regardless of their current scale, organizations are encouraged to participate now to measure progress. Business Leaders for Michigan expects to release initial data findings in the fourth quarter of 2020 with annual progress reporting to follow.

“Our strategic plan outlines the need to ‘invest in Michigan’s greatest strength: our people.’ But after careful review, it is clear that we have not invested enough into addressing racial inequity, specifically the income and education gaps that exist in our own state,” said Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan.

“What gets measured gets done. Michigan will never be a top 10 state unless all Michiganders benefit from the progress made, but we won’t know whether we’re truly making an impact until we have a benchmark to measure from.”

Doug Rothwell Courtesy PRNewswire

Hall said acting is what defines a contributing corporate citizen.

“Certainly, there is work being done at many levels and by many different organizations to change the inequities that exist, but we must do this on a larger scale to truly move forward and make Michigan a leader in closing the gaps that have been laid bare,” he said.

Andi Owen echoed Hall’s words that some work is being done but more is needed.

“Through this process, we have found that many organizations in our membership are already doing major work to eliminate racial disparity. This initiative is not to suggest that the work isn’t being done,” she said. “We want to celebrate the progress underway while being cognizant that we can do much more.”

In addition to the racial equity work benchmarking it is launching, Business Leaders for Michigan’s annual benchmarking report will for the first time measure several key data points specific to racial equity gaps beginning in January 2021.

Business Leaders for Michigan

Business Leaders for Michigan, the state’s business roundtable, was founded to make Michigan a top 10 state for jobs, personal income and a healthy economy.

The organization is comprised of the executive leaders of Michigan’s largest companies and universities. Its members drive nearly 40% of the state’s economy, generate over $1 trillion in annual revenue and educate nearly half of all Michigan public university students.