Embedding Equity and Inclusion: Transforming the Employee Life Cycle

Dr. Jim: [: 00:00:00

That is the secret to building an elite team. According to Justina Vechoric, assistant vice president at Lake Superior college . She's been in that role at Lake Superior for a few years. Prior to that role, she was at the Minnesota department of corrections and in the private sector working, HR professional for a number of years, she's got.

fforts, employee engagement. [: 00:01:00

She's tackled multiple initiatives at the organization is deeply involved in labor relations, including ensuring compliance with the interpretation of collective bargaining agreements, managing leadership, training, and development staff and faculty, professional development, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I'm not going to get into right here, because that would take probably the whole length of the show that we have.

Justina. Welcome to the show.

Jestina Vichorek: Thanks for having me.

Dr. Jim: I'm pretty pumped to have your insight and input into this conversation. I think you're the, one of the first, if not the first HR exec from the community college domain that we will have on the show. I know that you are involved in a lot of stuff in your role. I w I'd like you to get the listeners up to speed on anything that you feel is important. That's going to add context to the discussion that we're going to have.

n, we are state of Minnesota [: 00:02:00

That has gotten together to create an agency that has overall goals, such as equity 2030, policies and procedures, and a systems wide approach to create consistency and equity across 33 different college campuses and universities. In terms of what we're trying to strive for and providing higher education to our students within that we have several different collective bargaining agreements that the employees of our colleges and universities fall within and the ones that we work with are AFSCME, MAPE, MMA, and we have a several other plans as well.

different kind of a faculty [: 00:03:00

So it's really. Interesting and difficult to navigate for different types of employment within our agency in knowing that every different type of employment may have a different set of rules within their collective bargaining agreement.

Dr. Jim: I've spent my entire career in the private sector. So when you look at being an HR leader in a union environment, what was the biggest adjustment that you had to make? To effectively administer that population that has both union and non union employees.

le, and then I would have to [: 00:04:00

But then also, if the contract was silent on the particular question, I would then have to approach our system wide human resources team to understand if there was a system wide approach, because sometimes. The collective bargaining agreement is either vague or is silent on certain issues or questions.

And so we have to make sure that we're applying things consistently across our campuses. And then if there wasn't a system wide approach, then we look and see if there's a state statute or a policy or a procedure. So the shift from the private sector was that you can really apply a blanket approach to most of your employees when you're in the private sector.

procedures, and that you're [: 00:05:00

Dr. Jim: One of the things that I'm curious about when you describe that one, the process in the public sector seems much more methodical. I would have an issue in dealing with the pace of play because I'm a creature of the private sector and I'm used to going fast and I'm You know, somebody that's from a startup environment.

So that's even faster than a typical environment. So how did you adjust to the pace of play?

Jestina Vichorek: I would say it was a very difficult shift for me coming from the private sector to the. The public sector. That's what we call ourselves as a public sector and that you're not used to so many materials that you need to reference before you can give an answer in the human resources field. You're a lot of times are able to just come up with something right away.

een around long enough to be [: 00:06:00

It will provide the employee the highest benefit within their collective bargaining agreement and within the applicable contract or the policy or procedure that would also serve the needs of the organization. And I need to make sure that everything that we're doing is in compliance with all of those factors.

Dr. Jim: So really great stuff. And I think your advice about taking a beat and landing on, let me get back to you, I think that's valuable in any context, so that you're making sure that you're serving your audience or your customer well, by giving them the most accurate piece of information.

When you think about all of the things that you've done in your almost four years at Lake Superior, what's the accomplishment that you're most proud of to date?

f is incorporating the Equity: 2030

Dr. Jim: Tell me a little bit more about why that initiative has been such a focus within your environment.

Jestina Vichorek: The intention is to weave equity and inclusion into both the learning and the working environments. And the challenge of course, is that we as a state entity have. Certain statutes that we must follow in our employment and with our student and educational side, we also have again, our collective bargaining agreements and other policies and procedures that are fairly set forth.

graphics and their needs. We [: 00:08:00

Dr. Jim: You mentioned something earlier where you said that part of this initiative is to embed it across the employee life cycle. And then you mentioned that some of the ways that this shows up has it shows up in your recruitment and hiring practices. Tell me a little bit about some specific examples of how you're embedding equity and inclusion into the Application process into the hiring process.

Jestina Vichorek: We're really in the early stages of this, but there's a lot of different things that we've started to do and that we are going to continue to do. So the very 1st thing that we did was we started looking at our policies and procedures to include our onboarding and our hiring. policies to use inclusive language and eliminate any language that was creating a barrier for certain demographic groups, because that's not the intention.

really did a thorough scrub [: 00:09:00

And we also took a look at our interview questions and made sure that we were using inclusive language. And asking specific equity, diversity, and inclusion questions to ensure that the staff that we're hiring has the same mindset that we do in order to meet our overall goals.

Dr. Jim: One of the things that I'm unclear about, and maybe this is unique to Minnesota, but why was this such a focus for the organization and for you?

s a way that You could solve [: 00:10:00

Jestina Vichorek: I think this is a very old problem that's not unique just to higher education. However, one of the ways that we can break barriers and become more diverse and equitable and inclusive is to provide access equitably across different demographics. So what we're saying is that everybody should have access to higher education.

And that is our goal. And I think that. Mindset, hopefully will carry over into other sectors, not just the public sector but the private sector as well in order to create equal opportunities for all. So I think we've been talking this talk for many years, but now this is walking the walk, right?

So we're talking to talk and we want to walk the walk and we want to do the work. We want to bring equity. And we want to be inclusive and we want to provide opportunities to all.

But when you look forward to: 2024

Jestina Vichorek: So this is, that's an interesting question. We were just talking about this as a campus leadership team with the president and the vice presidents across our specific institution, Lake Superior College. And we've we've deemed equity as something that we'd like to incorporate into our. climate and our culture for our staff, faculty, and our students as what we're deeming as a lifestyle change.

So if you think of it in terms of somebody who's going on a diet research is showing that fad diets are not always successful. They go up and down, but if you make a lifestyle change and you choose to live a healthy lifestyle, that could make a difference. And so what we're trying to do, what our moonshot goal is just to, to incorporate this and embed it into something that our faculty and staff and our students, they just do.

view. It's something that we [: 00:12:00

Dr. Jim: I really like the focus that you have on making this an embedded part of the day to day of not only students, but faculty as well. How has that shown up in any changes that you've made to mission, vision, values, those sorts of things, because oftentimes it's a trickle down from that level down.

Jestina Vichorek: That's a really good question. We did actually embed it into our mission. So Lake Superior College, as its own entity, is, in its mission, it wants to serve students and the community that we live and work in, and provide high value, accessible higher education in a supportive, inclusive environment to prepare the skilled workforce for the future.

mbedded equity and inclusion [: 00:13:00

So we have it in our classrooms. We have it in our syllabus. We have it in our. position descriptions. We have it in our day to day conversations and how we're speaking and the things that we're saying and the things that we're doing and the things that we're not doing and not saying

Dr. Jim: I'll call out that if any organization's looking at making any any wholesale transformation you first have to start at the mission vision value stuff, because that should be the North star. And then all of your actions are guided by whatever that North star is.

So I really like how everything's tied together there. You've been in leadership for a little while and you've been in HR for a while as well. When you think about all the different leadership myths and HR myths that are out there, what's the one myth that you wish would just go away?

ature, collective bargaining [: 00:14:00

So I do believe that. Those should be there and sometimes that does clash a little bit with equity. And so we have to try to work within those. I wouldn't even say confines, because again, they're really there to ensure fair and equitable employment and practices and for our students. I would really like to dispel the myth that we hold any processes up and that we have red tape.

I think what we're wanting to do is to partner and to say, hey, these are here for a reason. And here's how we can work. Within them. Here's how we can create equity, even with these statutes and collective bargaining agreements and policies and procedures that we have to follow.

choice, if you're looking to [: 00:15:00

Jestina Vichorek: One of the things that we what we've realized is that when you build. a community where your staff and faculty or your employees overall feel like they have a voice, feel like they are getting all of the information that they need for their job, but they're also their opinions matter, their work matters in the big grand picture of everything.

hey feel like they can bring.[: 00:16:00

information forward to improve processes and procedures.

Dr. Jim: So how is that related to moving away from some of the transactional activities of HR and and leadership?

Jestina Vichorek: I think a lot of times we get stuck in the here's why you, here's a list of reasons why you can't do that. Here's the no's. This is why it's a no. Instead of making decisions based on how can we make this a yes? Within all of the policies and procedures and systems and collective bargaining agreements, how can we make this particular idea yes.

Sometimes the answer is no, and sometimes it's a, okay, we can actually do it this way. So it's that constant conversation between the employees and administration and human resources, and it's the working together versus the immediate stop of an a no answer.

pell out why having that yes [: 00:17:00

Why is having that yes mindset important?

Jestina Vichorek: I tell the leadership that I work with and a lot of the hiring supervisors we need. Perspective employees more than they need us. Our perspective. Employees are either gainfully employed or they're looking only because they're looking for more flexibility. Perhaps they're looking for a culture that they can feel comfortable in, like the one that we're trying to create here at Lake Superior College that really values diversity and equity and inclusion.

of jobs and there's a lot of [: 00:18:00

There's a lot of flexibility and we do offer as many opportunities for flexibility and things like remote work as we possibly can. But at the end of the day. Our goal is to serve our students. So we do require faculty and staff to come on campus and be in person. So we have to work within what we can offer our prospective employees.

Dr. Jim: I'm going to play devil's advocate a little bit. And I've spent time on the town acquisition side in an agency context. I think, I don't think this will surprise you when I say it. Throughout this conversation, we've been talking about embedding equity and inclusion and diversity into the employee life cycle. If I'm in town acquisition, I'm dealing with a scenario where. I can't find enough candidates for the roles that I have open. It would seem to some people that even, looking at the talent landscape with a DEI lens. You're actually going to be looking at a much smaller pool than what you already have.

bridge that gap. Why is that [: 00:19:00

Jestina Vichorek: So I also had this mindset when I began working in. Minnesota State Colleges and Universities at a community and technical college, a very good colleague of mine who's devoted to equity, diversity and inclusion as part of her role in Lake Superior College, help me understand that we need to change the things that we are doing in the way that we are attracting talent.

To get those diverse pools and then it has to be a priority. So if we're not getting those diverse candidate pools, we need to answer the why question because it's an easy, it's an easy thing to say we're not getting them. So without looking into it, then you're just stopping that conversation. So let's continue the conversation.

you're not putting it on the [: 00:20:00

Or perhaps you're requiring an in person interview and a person in that community doesn't have the ability to get to campus for an interview, but they could get to the job in the end. They just can't come right now. But if they got the job. They could make it there. So it's switching our mindset to understanding the why you're not getting those diverse candidate pools.

And I can tell you when we started doing that, we did get more diverse candidate pools. We put a lot of work and effort into the verbiage that, that we were using, the language changing where and how we were posting, putting specific things in our postings and providing opportunities a little bit more equitable.

And we have been getting more. Diverse candidate pools. And I live and work in Duluth, Minnesota, which traditionally doesn't have a large demographic of diverse candidates.

Dr. Jim: and it's cold.

Jestina Vichorek: And it's cold.

te. About doing a root cause [: 00:21:00

I think what we've talked about so far, Has been really solid. I think one of the things that I'd be curious to understand from your perspective is if other organizations and other leaders, especially in the community college context or higher ed context, are looking to embed principles of diversity, equity, inclusion into their employee lifecycle. What are the things that you encountered? That you wish you had a heads up on.

that it did because it, that [: 00:22:00

I have to drive to campus every day has never been a barrier for me, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a barrier for a qualified applicant who could do this job successfully and bring our organization to where we need to be. It doesn't mean that isn't a barrier for them. So it was a surprise to me just because of my limited life experiences.

So one of the things that I would encourage other individuals to do would be to listen to the people that are very well versed in the diversity, equity and inclusion in terms of how do we break down these barriers and why are they there? Are they necessary? And how do we be more inclusive? Because you might not even be aware that the things that you are doing or saying or placing in your job ads.

Are in fact a barrier to finding a successful candidate in a diverse community.

ortable challenging your own [: 00:23:00

This doesn't mean it's not a barrier. So I think the ability to take a step back and realize that. In most instances, you're probably some version of the except exception versus the rule allows you the right lens to make these sort of changes., this has been a really good conversation. We've explained a lot about. Why this should be a focus for organization, what they should be looking at. I want to close the loop a little bit. And when you think about a listener at a similar type organization that wants to get started on this process, what are the two or three key things that they need to be focused on?

That's going to put them in a position to execute this.

start is do a little bit of [: 00:24:00

And the biggest thing that we need to do is understand that they're there and remove them from the hiring and onboarding process and in really in our practices and employment altogether. And it's really it's once you start down that road. You'll understand that and be surprised maybe at that, of some of the biases that you do have and how they could impact who you're hiring and who you're not hiring and that could be a barrier.

dy wants somebody to come in [: 00:25:00

Is it necessary for them to have 10 years of experience? Could you hire in somebody who has little to no experience, who has less than a bachelor's degree, or perhaps not even an associate's degree, but they could do the job. So really looking at. What minimum qualifications really make sense for the job and what type of individual do you actually need to do the job?

And the third thing would be inclusive hiring practices in asking questions that include diversity, equity, and inclusion. Really evaluating the answers that the individuals are giving to you, because if they've not had any experience in that area, Are they the type of people that you want in your organization?

If the answer is no, that's okay. If the answer is yes, and you feel like you can bring them in and include them in and teach them and help them grow in that area, then that's okay too. It's just understanding what you're looking for in each position.

ng that want to continue the [: 00:26:00

Jestina Vichorek: I am on LinkedIn, or you can actually find me right on the Lake Superior college website and my, my data is public. So you can reach out to me via email or phone or contact me on LinkedIn.

Dr. Jim: Really great stuff, Justine. I I enjoyed you hanging out with us and sharing your insight. When I think about the conversation that we had, and I think some of this can be applied to any sort of broad initiative that you want to implement, there are three things that stand out.

One, I think one of the elements that you talked about was the willingness to do a root cause analysis. You can't look at a problem and just sit with the problem saying this isn't working. You have to do the work of peeling back the layers and understanding what's the foundational issue that exists that you need to work on taking away so that you can have a better outcome.

d out in the conversation to [: 00:27:00

You're at least debunking that myth that exists that HR is solely there to just get in the way of progress. So I think that was an important element that stood out to me. The last thing that I think is worth calling out is your emphasis on language and particularly. The point that language matters, how you embed language in your position, descriptions in your job functions and your hiring process and your interviewing process and your onboarding process, all of those things come into play when you're looking at your overall [00:28:00] employee funnel or talent pipeline.

If you're seeing. Issues in your talent pipeline where you don't have enough people in play. You might be well served by looking at the language that you're using to fill that funnel, because there's probably something in there that's turning off a potential candidate from even starting the process of engaging with you as an organization.

So really strong stuff, Justina, I appreciate you sharing your insights with us. For those of you who have listened to the conversation so far, leave us a review and let us know what you thought of it. Tune in next time where we'll have another leader joining us and sharing with us their game changing realizations that help them build a high performing team.