Baltimore employers expand workplace inclusion efforts

It started with a few co-workers at Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price, who got to know each other because they all had children with autism.

Word of their informal support group spread. When the money management firm adopted a disability inclusion strategy last year, the parents formed THRIVE, a group to foster inclusion of people who are neurodiverse — those on the autism spectrum or who process information in an atypical way — or have other disabilities or chronic conditions.

Such “business resource groups” bring together people who share life experiences or characteristics, allowing them to pool resources and increase awareness. Other T. Rowe groups focus on veterans and military families, the LGBTQ+ community, multicultural workers and women. More than half of the firm’s associates have been involved in at least one such group.

Nearly four years after George Floyd’s death sparked calls to address societal injustices, businesses are refining their approach to diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — in the workplace. Companies are, in many cases, broadening their inclusion efforts.

The diversity umbrella is expanding as the war for talent heats up and employers become more open to “nontraditional” candidates, said Trevor Bogan, regional director of Americas for Top Employers Institute, a consultant in leadership and diversity.

“It’s no longer just about gender and race. It’s gone further than that, and it needs to,”  Bogan said. “What employees want right now is to work in diverse organizations. They want to work in places that look like their communities.”

Expansion — and backlash

The group’s World of Work Trends report for 2024 sees the broadening of the DEI horizon as one of the top workplace trends. That means looking to older generations, people with neurodiversity, those with criminal records or who are on nonlinear career paths, and skilled people returning to work after unemployment or stints as family caregivers.

Even as some employers double down on DEI efforts, others are cutting such initiatives amid a backlash. Critics argue such programs are unnecessary, ineffective and counterproductive. Billionaire Elon Musk posted on his X social media platform in December that “DEI must DIE. The point was to end discrimination, not replace it with different discrimination.”

But many employers say they look at diversity broadly, not as something that benefits any specific demographic.

“What we’re fighting for is to level the playing field … for everybody,” said Ed Evans, director of DEI for Baltimore-based Cordish Gaming Group, which operates casinos at Arundel Mills in Hanover and in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. “Everybody should get a fair shake and a fair opportunity to grow.”

In Maryland, officials are experimenting with ways to make workplaces more supportive for people in recovery from substance abuse. The state Department of Labor is recruiting employers to be part of a federally funded pilot program to create “recovery friendly” workplaces. Such workplaces would hire recovering substance users, offer overdose response training to employees and run programs to reduce stigma.

In the pilot, Susquehanna Workforce Network and other workforce development groups will hire specialists to help an initial 25 businesses create such models. Susquehanna works with employers in Cecil and Harford counties, a region with one of the highest overdose rates in the state.

Some employers have expressed preliminary interest, particularly in the health care field, said Jamie Mangrum, a state labor department spokeswoman.

“What employees want right now is to work in diverse organizations. They want to work in places that look like their communities.” — Trevor Bogan, Americas for Top Employers Institute

At T. Rowe, the first business resource groups began forming several years ago. They make workers feel valued and included, said Julie Lewis, the company’s business resource manager. Lewis said workers who are more comfortable tend to be more motivated and effective.

“If you have an environment where you feel like, ‘I’m the only person here who’s like me, and I’m not sure how I’m being received,’ you’re kind of reticent to raise your hand and say, ‘I have an idea,'” she said. Instead, “they don’t have to be focused on subterfuge or covering up some part of who they are, they can really focus on just their job.”

T. Rowe’s groups plan events that might be tied to Veterans Day, Black History Month or International Women’s Day. They bring in speakers, offer professional mentors and share resources. One panel featured two combat-wounded veterans talking about coming home with a life-altering injury and restarting a career.

Resources and recruiting

Cordish Gaming has become more intentional about what diversity and inclusion means in its workplace, Evans said.

It starts with company leaders getting involved in casino communities to better understand residents’ and workers’ needs, as well as barriers to employment, Evans said. Then practical solutions can be applied in the casinos.

Community outreach has led the gaming company to help with child care, health care and transportation. The company offers rideshare services, has negotiated with providers for late-shift child care and offers on-site clinics for workers and their families. The casino operator said it looks at recruiting and hiring through a diversity lens. And it has begun making training on unconscious bias mandatory for directors and other upper managers, linking completion of training to compensation.

One of the greatest recruitment tools has been “our ability to offer a safe space to be your authentic self,” said Evans. That helps the company “because that’s how I’m going to get 100% out of you.”

Womble Bond Dickinson, a law firm with offices in Baltimore, recently said it is starting a U.S.-based Differently Abled affinity group to help increase opportunities and promote inclusion for those with disabilities in the workplace and community.

“We are committed to fostering awareness and positive change around visible and nonvisible disability for our colleagues and communities,” said Nicola Cannon, chair of the group and the firm’s real estate lease administrator.

‘The ripples carry on’

T. Rowe launched its first business resource group, PRIDE, around 2013 with a focus on the LGBTQ+ community.

Christopher Vaeth joined PRIDE about five years ago, soon after starting at T. Rowe, where he is a sales capabilities manager in global distribution. He has served as co-chair and chair. Knowing the firm was committed to such ideas attracted Vaeth, who said such support at previous employers had been critical.

“It’s because I was able to have those frank and open conversations about what was happening at home and how that was affecting my work life that I was able to end up being successful in that role,” he said.

The group has organized panels, discussions and other events during which members of PRIDE and other resource groups and external speakers tell their stories. After one event, Vaeth said a worker confided to him: “I’ve never heard anyone use the term bisexual in the workplace, and it makes me feel seen.”

During a Pride Month storytelling event, members of a number of the resource groups collaborated.

“That was particularly moving, because the stage was full of people and every single one of them represented multiple layers of identity that have tentacles throughout all our [business resource groups],” Vaeth said. “It was a stark and important illustration of the intersectionality that we all have.”

Afterward, he said, “we could see the ripples carry on for weeks and months. At the end of the day, I want to know that someone feels better about coming to work, feels better at work or is inspired to make the workplace a better place for other people.”

THRIVE has drawn interest from workers with disabilities or chronic conditions, including non-apparent disabilities, as well as employees who are parents or caregivers of people with disabilities.

Shelley Bliss is a T. Rowe vice president and director of strategic initiatives, which leads large scale technology projects. Bliss, who has been involved in DEI work during a decade at the firm and chairs THRIVE, has a son with severe food allergies.

Bliss said the group hopes to promote awareness and acceptance of a broad spectrum of apparent and non-apparent disabilities and chronic conditions in its first year. So far, it’s held a workshop for parents and caregivers and is planning a fireside chat between two employees about what it’s like to live with depression.

Sometimes, it’s just about being there. Bliss said a co-worker she didn’t know recently asked for someone to talk to about coping mechanisms for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

“This moment in time is so powerful, where people are finally saying, ‘I can talk about this,'” she said. “There’s so many people here who might have been nervous to speak out or to share their personal journey, and now they’re starting to.”

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