Inclusive Environments and Your Small Business
INTRO/Rachael: Hello to our listeners! I’m Rachael Eubanks and this is Treasury Talk. Today we are talking with Ashley Kuykendoll, Director of Treasury’s Recruitment, Development, & Inclusion Division.
Ashley began her professional career working in the financial industry before transitioning to state government and has significant experience with navigating corporate structures as a minority. Her current role focuses on recruitment and retention, professional development, cultural awareness, and strategic planning for the Department of Treasury. Welcome, Ashley!
Ashley: Thank you, Treasurer Eubanks. I’m pleased to be here and I appreciate the opportunity to highlight some effective strategies to help build and grow inclusive environments for our Michigan small businesses.
Rachael: What does building an inclusive environment for a small business mean exactly?
Ashley: Creating inclusive environments is the act of considering how others are able to engage with your business and removing any barriers that prohibit them from engaging with you or your products.
As individuals, we often engage in our communities and societies with the understanding acquired through our own lived experiences.
Our lived experiences are shaped with several different factors in mind including our location (urban, suburban, rural) and our immediate exposure to other/different lifestyles than ours.
Rachael: How does a business owner begin to create an inclusive workplace?
Ashley: A business owner can begin to build and grow an inclusive environment by taking the time to step out of their own lived experience and evaluate and remove unintended barriers for their customers. Removing barriers so a product or website is available to ALL people will contribute to a greater consumer base, higher product sales, and increased profit margins for your business.
Rachael: At Treasury, we recognized the importance of an inclusive environment and we’ve been working on the process of evaluation you mentioned.
Ashley: As a State Government Department, with a very diverse workforce and serving a very diverse constituent base, Treasury has a strong value and commitment to Inclusion & Diversity.
It is important to acknowledge, for many people the conversation around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has only focused on race and gender. While those are important and impactful topics that we do not shy away from, we recognize inclusion encompasses so much more.
Rachael: Can you expand on Treasury’s efforts a little, before diving into concrete strategies for small businesses?
Ashley: The State of Michigan Elliott-Larsen Act has ten protected classes including religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, or marital status.
At Treasury, we are intentional in discussing the intersectionality of identity, or in your words, Treasurer Eubanks: “Encouraging people to be their best selves and do their best work” though authentic and meaningful engagement.
Rachael: I believe we’re making positive changes at Treasury to reflect the diversity of our employees and our customers. Will you go over a couple of strategies that small businesses could use to create a supportive environment for their employees?
Ashley: One engagement strategy we have implemented is our Treasury Employee Resource Groups (ERG’s). We currently have six, including the Black History Committee which will be hosting a phenomenal program entitled “Evolution and Expression of the African American Hair Culture” taking place in February to honor Black History Month
Hispanic Heritage, Pride Alliance, Supporting Women at Treasury, Health & Wellness, and the Treasury Veterans Group. In our department all employees are welcome to join any Employee Resource Group -- you do not have to identify with the group in order to be a part of the committee.
Rachael: Creating awareness and opening opportunities for employees to learn from each other makes a work group stronger. How can a small business use cultural awareness to be more sensitive of their customer base?
We’ve also released a 2023 Recognized/Celebratory List that creates awareness of various cultural and celebratory days that allows us to be more thoughtful in how we engage various stakeholders. For example, the list includes Ramadan which is a religious holiday celebrated March 22nd – April 21st where individuals who observe, fast from food while the sun is risen. We encourage our staff to be mindful of scheduling employee lunches during this period where those observing could be unintentionally left out.
Rachael: I imagine that knowledge of cultural or celebratory days would be particularly useful for business owners. For example, we know that Dearborn, Michigan is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States (per capita); a savvy business owner would both respect their Arab American customers and market to customer holidays.
Ashley: Exactly. Awareness of inclusion and diversity is better for business. I would encourage all small businesses to consider a few strategies that can help build more inclusive environments:
As you enter this space I would encourage the business to set realistic expectations and prioritize one – to – two strategies. Evaluate how successful they are over time to make changes as necessary. The goal is to create sustainable change. You may not get it perfect the first time and that is okay. Stay flexible and adaptable.
As a caution – committing to too many strategies at once can lead to feeling overwhelmed with unfulfilled outcomes.
Understand your priorities will vary depending on your business model.
Rachael: During the pandemic, most of us relied on internet shopping. How does an inclusive business environment translate to the web, and what can a small business do to make their services available to everyone?
Ashley: In an E-Commerce space you may want to prioritize having a completely accessible website that can interface well with assistive devices such as screen readers for individuals who are part of the Deaf, Deaf/Blind/ Hard-of-hearing community. Questions you can ask yourself include:
Has alt-text been added to every image? [“Alt Text is an invisible description of a photo that a screen reader can read out loud with audio to people who are blind or visually impaired.”]
Is the language on the site clear and easy to understand?
Rachael: That is so important, and it’s something that able-bodied people don’t often think about. Inclusivity, diversity and accessibility make it easier for all Michiganders to be small business customers!
Ashley: In a Brick and mortar or physical location you may consider how accessible your entrance and exits are for individuals with assistive devices such as wheelchairs. Questions you can ask yourself include:
If I was not able-bodied, would I be able to access the entrance?
Once inside the store, would it be easy to move around and see the products?
If you answer NO to any of the questions, explore what solutions are reasonable for your business model and work to implement them.
Rachael: I like your advice on setting realistic expectations and prioritizing just one or two strategies to begin with. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed, and business owners just don’t have the time or money to ‘start big’.
Thank you, Ashley, for raising awareness and for giving Michigan small businesses advice on implementing inclusive solutions for their employees while offering better service to their customers. I appreciate having your expertise on Treasury Talk!
