RENEW Year One Qualitative Report

RENEW YEAR ONE QUALITATIVE REPORT

JUNE 2022 RENEW FIRST YEAR QUALITATIVE REPORT: OPERATIONALIZING THE CULTURE SHIFT TOWARDS WORKFORCE EQUITY - PREPARED BY SAMANTHA SCHWARTZ

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to the supervisors in this project, Ronnell Hampton and David Price of the Civil + Human Rights and Equity Department (LA Civil Rights). Many thanks to our LA RENEW partners for their enthusiastic participation and their valuable contributions to this report, and the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development for spearheading the RENEW program, with special appreciation for Andre Herndon, Ricardo Vazquez, Ron Frierson, and Leila Lee. Special thanks to the Annenberg Foundation, Gensler, SoLa Impact, Relativity Space, and Boston Consulting Group. Because of the generosity and commitment of each RENEW participant interviewed for this project, the RENEW program will continue to improve workplace equity in the city of Los Angeles

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY MISSION The RENEW Pledge, or Racial Equity and Newly Empowered Workplaces Pledge, aims to secure commitments from employers in Los Angeles to make concrete steps toward hiring more Black and Latinx employees and paying workers equitably.

VISION The Office of Mayor Eric Garcetti initiated the program in 2020 with an exclusively quantitative focus on measuring racial equity progress along six metrics to reach specific group-level goals by 2025.

GOALS 30% Black and Latino new hires (15% YoY

14% of total vendor spend with minority-

average growth from baseline)

owned

16% Black and Latino leadership (15% YoY

growth from baseline)

average growth from baseline)

12% of total marketing or BD spend (15%

100% Black and Latino pay equity (0% pay

YoY average growth from baseline)

gap to White like-for-like compensation)

2x contributed to equity-related causes

vendors

(15%

YoY

average

(15% YoY average growth from baseline)

REPORT OVERVIEW AND METHODOLOGY

PAGE | 03

Where We Are

REPORT OVERVIEW AND METHODOLOGY

Following the completion of one year of RENEW Pledge implementation, this report aims to provide

an

overview

of

the

experiences,

challenges, and insights of both the RENEW Task Force and participants. At this juncture, the Task Force is redesigning their partnership with the RENEW participants to incorporate a stronger

qualitative

focus

on

participant

programming and engagement as well as recruit an expanded cohort. To inform the details of the redesigned partnership, this report analyzes interview data collected from seven 30-minute semi-structured interviews (see interview guide in Appendix A). One interview was conducted with each RENEW Pledge member.

participant Interview

anonymously anonymously.

and

and

each

data will

Task was

be

Force stored

conveyed

PAGE | 04

LITERATURE REVIEW

Past and ongoing initiatives to advance racial equity on local and national government levels as well as in the private sector all emphasize the importance of data collection, to measure baselines and progress, as well as community partnerships. Two organizations with nationwide presence, the National League of Cities and the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, outline best practices for government leaders looking to advance racial equity in their jurisdiction.

The National League of Cities emphasizes the creation of a home for equity work in the city government structure to designate folks responsible for equity programs and budgeting funds for racial equity to support the office’s work in various relevant realms, including business, education, and health. Once a city has built capacity for racial equity work, the NLC advises data collection on established targets that assess the need for and effects of any programs and investments. Finally, the NLC outlines the implementation of training programs on institutional racism and implicit and explicit biases for elected officials and staff (National League of Cities, 2017).

The Government Alliance on Race & Equity echoed many of the NLC directives in an issue brief on advancing equity in the government workforce. The first strategy recommended in the brief is to conduct rigorous data analysis on the status of workforce equity to illuminate specific challenges at which programs should be targeted, followed by qualitative data analysis to understand all culture shifts resulting from programs. The second key strategy is to support, engage, and organize others via workshops for skill development and infrastructure to implement institutional changes toward racial equity (Nelson & Tyrell, 2016). The remaining strategy recommendations emphasize a focus on both concrete change and large scale culture shifts. These shifts require long-term progress tracking to ensure accountability and feed community partnerships that support upward mobility and career pathway development for underrepresented demographic groups.

A Brookings Institute report corroborates the strategies recommended above for private sector leaders aiming to advance racial equity in their workforces and local economies. The report outlines a three-part framework for meaningful progress that includes 1) demonstrating a credible commitment to equity via company actions, 2) acting as a regional coalition with other business leaders for a broader economic impact, and 3) leveraging influence through partnerships with civic organizations and public sector departments to support change within local institutions (Liu & Dinkins, 2021).

Literature

REVIEW

RENEW First Year Qualitative Report: Operationalizing the Culture Shift Towards Workforce

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Each set of recommendations for advancing racial equity through both public and private initiatives combines a data collection and analysis emphasis with the facilitation of programs and workshops that build awareness and urgency around the initiatives. The latter of these recommendations often involves partnering with community organizations that have expertise in leading programs to educate key stakeholders on how to identify and address systemic racism in public and private workforces. However, such community organizations on the front lines of the fight for equity are often led by those who are directly impacted by injustice (Hampton, 2021). Therefore, workforce equity initiatives must uplift their work to support the capacity of those community leaders these initiatives rely on for substantive cultural shifts.

Furthermore, two reports from the Georgetown University Law Center support that initiatives to increase workplace diversity are most effective when they are framed as civil rights efforts, rather than efforts to benefit the business financially. One report condensed several studies revealing that “the common ‘business case’ emphasizing profit and performance gains made decision-makers less likely to select a Black job candidate than emphasizing civil rights law” (Bowman Williams, 2022). These findings suggest that workplace diversity initiatives would benefit from association with the Civil Rights Department. The second report adds that workplace diversity initiatives framed within the aforementioned “business case” result in greater “principle-practice gaps,” meaning those who promote the initiative for business outcome purposes are less likely to take action than those who promote it because they value diversity (Bowman Williams & Cox, 2020).

This body of research suggests that an effective program to promote employment equity across the private sector in Los Angeles ought to balance quantitative and qualitative data emphases and justify commitment by promoting the inherent value of workplace diversity.

Literature

REVIEW

RENEW First Year Qualitative Report: Operationalizing the Culture Shift Towards Workforce Equity

WHAT IS THE RENEW PLEDGE?

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WHAT IS THE RENEW PLEDGE? The RENEW Pledge, or Racial Equity and Newly Empowered Workplaces Pledge, aims to secure commitments from employers in Los Angeles to make concrete steps toward hiring more Black and Latinx employees and paying workers equitably.

PILLARS RENEW was launched by Mayor Garcetti’s office, and the pledge aims to catalyze change along six pillars: Build and shape an inclusive pipeline and equitable hiring process across all levels and functions.

Create equitable development opportunities for retention and promotion.

Reduce and eradicate any like-for-like racial compensation gap.

Build a diverse procurement and vendor network that supports and promotes equity.

Include minority groups with an equitable company portfolio and brand.

Support organizations and communities advancing equity through communication, donations and action.

METRICS To measure this progress, the RENEW Task Force is responsible for regularly tracking the metrics specified below or comparable equivalents:

The Racial representation (%) in new hires across all functions Racial representation (%) in managers & executives Gap in like-for-like employee compensation % of total spend with suppliers with minority-ownership Racial representation (%) in marketing or business development spend RENEW First Year Qualitative Report: Total resources contributed to equity-related causesOperationalizing (e.g. resource $ the value or $) Shift Culture Towards Workforce Equity

WHAT IS THE RENEW PLEDGE?

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GOALS The RENEW Pledge outlines the following group-level goals that participants are expected to aim to achieve by the end of 2025:

The 30% Black and Latino new hires (15% YoY average growth from baseline) 16% Black and Latino leadership (15% YoY average growth from baseline) 100% Black and Latino pay equity (0% pay gap to White like-for-like compensation) 14% of total vendor spend with minority-owned vendors (15% YoY average growth from baseline) 12% of total marketing or BD spend (15% YoY average growth from baseline) 2x contributed to equity-related causes (15% YoY average growth from baseline)

DATA TRACKING AND SHARING The RENEW Pledge document notes that “all external reporting will be an aggregation of all data from every participating Task Force member company so that any metric publicly shared would be for the Task Force as a group.” It adds that while RENEW members are not required to share specific metrics, progress indicators along the pillars are expected.

Individual company data on these metrics “is anonymized before it is sent to the City, will not be shared to the City or RENEW members in any identifiable manner, and will never be shared unless explicitly allowed for by the company.” Similarly, this report on the first year of the RENEW program maintains the anonymity of all qualitative data collected during interviews with participants and Task Force members, meaning interview data was not stored in connection with any identifiers.

The Pledge also acknowledges that, for some companies, even the 2020 average baseline numbers are infeasible to achieve within 5 years, while for other companies, the 2025 goals may fall behind their current racial equity status. Consequently, the Pledge promises that participants will face no penalty related to their progress, and encourages all participants to make a concerted effort toward improvement on all 6 pillars.

WHAT IS THE RENEW PLEDGE?

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TIMELINE Companies and organizations participating in the RENEW Pledge signed off on their commitment on October 5, 2020. The commitment period ends December 31, 2025, but may be extended at the will of associated City representatives and the RENEW Task Force. As part of this commitment, participants agreed to attend Task Force-related meetings, engage with other members to share best practices and discuss challenges, and contribute materials such as templates, case studies, and other resources to the Task Force initiatives and the Racial Equity playbook.

CREATION & IMPLEMENTATION

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RENEW PLEDGE CREATION & IMPLEMENTATION On June 19, 2020, in response to racial justice demonstrations that “laid bare the urgent and overdue demand to end structural racism,” Mayor Garcetti issued Executive Directive No. 27 to draw attention to racial inequity in city government (Garcetti, 2020). The Directive outlined the Los Angeles racial equity plan that introduced various programs and positions to facilitate a commitment to combating systemic racism throughout the city. The RENEW Pledge arose as a component of that action plan that would involve the private sector in the city’s commitment to racial equity.

According to the Mayor’s Office, RENEW intended to “to share best practices, create a peerto-peer mentorship network for task force members, and promote the pledge for wider adoption by other companies” (RENEW Task Force, 2021). The city envisioned that RENEW would help companies operationalize the commitments to racial equity they made in response to heightened public discussion of systemic racism in the summer of 2020. Yet, at the outset, the RENEW program was rather skeletal, providing access to a data collection and reporting service, a playbook of implementation methods, and 5-year racial equity goals.

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CREATION & IMPLEMENTATION

The formation of the RENEW Task Force foreshadowed many of the challenges that occurred over the first year. Because the RENEW Pledge originated in the Mayor’s Office, the Task Force originally included several L.A. Mayor’s Office representatives and two members of the L.A. City Civil, Human Rights, and Equity Department (CHRED) joined to support the implementation of the Mayor’s program. The Mayor’s Office identified a philanthropic partner to fund the data collection software and technical assistance component. These are vital functions to the program, but had the effect of launching RENEW before connecting with CHRED to develop an action plan that delegated the functions of each department and created the infrastructure for both qualitative and quantitative data collection and reporting. Eventually, all but one Mayor’s Office representative left the project, so a smaller team that included two CHRED representatives continued to manage the RENEW program.

Initially, the RENEW program had an entirely quantitative data focus. Within the functioning RENEW Task Force, CHRED absorbed the responsibility of ensuring that participants collected and reported the relevant data by the appropriate deadlines. However, due to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which requires the city to make any data, it collects available upon request, the program needed to maintain a firewall between participants’ quantitative data and the city, meaning that the city-employed Task Force members should not have been responsible for quantitative data management.

Thus, this report is the first step in the reboot initiative to incorporate a stronger qualitative focus by collecting data on the experiences of participants and facilitating programming to support their progress toward the benchmarks. The reboot will also delegate the roles of RENEW leadership to delegate qualitative responsibilities (programming, engagement, etc.) to the city, and quantitative responsibilities (software provision, technical assistance) to the Mayor's Office's chosen philanthropic partner, Annenberg, and Pluto.

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VISION AND INITIAL CONCERNS

TASK FORCE VISION AND INITIAL CONCERNS The RENEW Task Force envisioned that RENEW would make use of the city’s convening power to fill a need they identified in many private sector organizations: operationalizing their commitments to racial equity. As one Task Force member explained: "Back in 2020, our corporate partners were trying to figure out how to respond to the needs of communities that have been marginalized... and because our residents were looking at the city to come up with decisions, we had the power to convene that space."

(TF2) The Task Force saw the RENEW program as providing companies with an opportunity to improve both their internal racial equity and, in turn, their service delivery by implementing long-term data collection that drew attention to the demographics of their hires, pay structure, and promotions. They emphasized beginning the process of improving racial equity via collecting, tracking, and reporting data on a company’s internal metrics because such data “shows both quantitatively and qualitatively" which areas are improving and which demand greater attention (TF2).

The Task Force envisioned that, due to both the data they collect on their racial equity progress and the company culture shift that would result, companies would have much to gain from RENEW Pledge participation. Each Task Force member spoke to this benefit: "You pat yourself on the back internally about the work that you're doing, and then reap the benefits of that externally, not by telling people all the time that I've hired another Black person or Native American, but by saying, because of the work culture in the company that I've developed, my products are better, my services (TF2).Report: RENEW First are Yearbetter" Qualitative Operationalizing the Culture Shift Towards Workforce Equity

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VISION AND INITIAL CONCERNS

As this member emphasized, companies with stronger racial equity can better understand the demographics they serve and tailor their products and strategies accordingly. Some members also reiterated that, within RENEW, the data emphasis and the partnership with the city created positive publicity incentives for participants by offering long-term records of their improvements along the program’s pillars as well as the city’s endorsement of their efforts in this area. One member described that this potential aspect of the partnership gave the RENEW Pledge widespread appeal: “Everyone wants to do the right thing, but it's about being able to 1) show that you're doing the right thing and 2) help others do the right thing by showing the way. That's what this partnership is all about." (TF1) However, despite having a positive vision for the potential of the RENEW Pledge, the Task Force had two major concerns with the program at its outset: diminishing participant commitment and undecided data privacy guidelines. Both of these concerns stemmed from a lack of “clarity in the roadmap for the process,” in that the program’s outline lacked specific plans for routine engagement with participants on what kind of support they needed (TF3).

Though the RENEW Task Force met with participants to confirm timely data reporting, the program’s philanthropic partner responsible for the data collection software should have led these discussions, as they are a third party not employed by the city nor bound by FOIA. This would have permitted the Task Force to focus check-ins on programming and crossparticipant engagement. Instead, Task Force check-ins were not focused on supporting participants’ progress toward the RENEW benchmarks. As a result, each participant’s progress remained more vulnerable to variability based on the company’s commitment to the cause, which was not necessarily a reliable motivator to sustain a 5-year project. As one Task Force member recalled.

"The biggest challenge that I foresaw was the political will diminishing very fast. Once people in 2020 took to the streets, there was a clear opportunity for companies to step up. However, when people stopped being in the streets, companies felt like 'well, no one's saying anything anymore, so we can take a step back and just continue in the mode of operation that we're most comfortable with…During these times of righteous anger, companies want to calm people down and show them that they're on the right side. But RENEW First Year Qualitative Report: they're not always aligned. They didn't know why they committed to [RENEW] and Operationalizing the Culture Shift therefore they could not honor the commitment." (TF2) Towards Workforce Equity

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VISION AND INITIAL CONCERNS

The Task Force worried that, without public scrutiny holding participants accountable, they would assign less and less priority to improve their internal racial equity, especially if their initial commitment to the cause was motivated by public image protection, rather than true values. Nonetheless, the initial RENEW Pledge program did not account for these concerns.

Secondly, the Task Force expressed early concerns about “data security, data integrity, and people feeling a sense of ownership about their data” (TF1). Though the program advertised that participants would report their data on the 5 metrics using Pluto, a third-party data collection service, the Task Force initially lacked clarity as to who would have access to the data and what size cohort would be necessary to ensure data anonymization. These unanswered questions worried the legal and risk management teams for most of the companies who were initially interested in signing onto the RENEW Pledge. As a result, the number of interested participants dwindled from 30 down to the four currently active companies.

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PARTICIPANT EXPERIENCES

PARTICIPANT EXPERIENCES

The lack of defined roles and responsibilities of the city, philanthropic, and research partners within the leadership of the RENEW program resulted in a primarily quantitative focus to the exclusion of qualitative considerations such as programming and engagement dedicated to participants’ progress.

This left the onus on company liaisons to facilitate the qualitative shift toward greater value for racial equity in the workplace culture by coordinating with internal stakeholders to build company-wide commitment to the program.

Consequently, the first-year cohort faced a rift in experiences:

companies

who

were

better

resourced, had greater bandwidth to absorb the qualitative responsibilities, and could easily fit the RENEW benchmarks into their company goals fared better than those who had to make significant

adjustments

or

faced

tighter

bandwidth constraints.

RENEW First Year Qualitative Report: Operationalizing the Culture Shift Towards Workforce Equity

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VARIED IMPLEMENTATION READINESS

VARIED IMPLEMENTATION READINESS The four participant companies interviewed reported varying levels of readiness to implement the RENEW data collection methods and begin working toward the 5 pillars. One company reported that the RENEW program filled a direct need, describing that “We had no DEI strategy,” so “RENEW targets became our North Stars” and were essentially embedded and integrated into all of our tools” (P1).

However, another company reported that they had less of a need to adopt a racial equity strategy, as their organization’s purpose and location resulted in a naturally diverse staff on the basis of race, but they pledged to RENEW out of support for the cause. As a result, the data entry required additional effort on a platform they do not normally use on top of their own internal data collection, as well as “confusion as to what ultimately is the goal, or what we're trying to really accomplish with this" (P2). Another company described some difficulty discerning how a firm in their industry could accomplish some of the pillars: “The pillars are designed, I believe, for someone that's producing a product. And we're more of a service industry. So just how the questions are worded. It took us a while to figure out, so how does this work for a design firm? How do we fit into this? And we were able to find something that was meaningful” (P4).

Both firms who faced confusion believed the RENEW program could benefit their operation and were willing to figure out how to integrate its methods, but they would have benefited from the greater presence of the RENEW leadership at the onset of their participation. A more engaged partnership at this point in the process could have introduced greater flexibility and understanding.

RENEW First Year Qualitative Report: Operationalizing the Culture Shift Towards Workforce Equity

VARIED TARGET VISIBILITY

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VARIED TARGET FEASIBILITY

The

varying

levels

of

preparedness

for

participation in the RENEW Pledge, combined with

the

leadership

minimalist outside

of

presence data

of

RENEW

collection

and

reporting check-ins, meant that the targets varied in feasibility for each firm. As the initial RENEW Pledge materials predicted, companies with more robust programming devoted to diversity,

equity,

and

inclusion

had

already

exceeded certain metrics. For example, one firm reported that “we actually had an independent firm come in and look at our practices and say, yes, you have pay equity across your different across different genders across and across different races. So I don't think it's changed too much,” (P3).

However, other firms viewed the same metrics as out of the question: “Pillar three, the one that has to do with compensation, our firm isn't ready to do that one” (P4). The low level of engagement from the RENEW Task Force thus far means that, when a firm decides that a pillar is infeasible, RENEW First stagnates, Year Qualitative Report: progress on that metric and the Task Operationalizing the Culture Force does not know whether there is aShift plan to Towards Workforce Equity revisit it in the future.

VARIED STAKEHOLDER ALIGNMENT

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VARIED STAKEHOLDER ALIGNMENT When agreeing to commit to a city program and working to both keep up with the data reporting requirements and make progress on the RENEW pillars,

companies

among

the

had

to

ensure

stakeholders

alignment

responsible

for

permitting or inhibiting this progress. Some companies felt immediate alignment among their stakeholders, namely their Diversity, Equity, Inclusion

teams

or

the

like,

their

human

resources team, legal and government affairs, and executives. As one firm reported, “our government affairs arm and our legal arm are just as invested both because it's what we want to do as a company, and because it’s important to our external stakeholders," (P1).

However, other participants uncovered gaps in knowledge

and

experience

with

integrating

equity initiatives among their stakeholders upon introducing

the

RENEW

Pledge.

One

firm

described "The folks in HR. I can't say that they are necessarily

well

versed

in

DEI,

in

general,

unfortunately. And that's something that we've just kind of uncovered more recently,” (P2).

As

a

result

of

the

lack

of

educational

programming RENEW within First the RENEW Pledge and the Year Qualitative Report:

absence of frequent engagement offer support Operationalizing the to Culture Shift and incentives for Workforce those less committed, Towards Equity companies

facing

internal

disagreements

knowledge gaps fell behind in progress.

or

PAGE | 18

COMMON STRUGGLE

COMMON STRUGGLE: BANDWIDTH STRAINS COMMITMENT Though companies understood and affirmed the importance of tracking their equity data, they faced difficulty sustaining a commitment to RENEW due to time and personnel constraints, exacerbated by a lack of follow-up from the city. Firms with the lowest capacity to create initiatives that would facilitate progress on the RENEW pillars or the least need for a data collection service on racial equity struggled the most with this issue: "There has been no attempt at this point to implement any RENEW benchmark…At this point, I’m kind of disconnected, and because we're not meeting very frequently and outside of the expectation to enter information into that database, there's been nothing else that's been done," (P2).

Other firms with more capacity or who had more incentives to integrate the RENEW program managed to make more progress but echoed the need for greater engagement from the RENEW Task Force to hold them accountable for inputting their data. Given the length of the pledge period and the amount of data required, one participant explained that they would benefit from “Nudges. It would be helpful if we got an email saying, ‘Reminder, these pillars haven't been filled out yet’ to keep getting it back to the top of our inboxes,” (P4). Even firms that managed to input the necessary data within the program’s suggested timeline felt the absence of the Task Force weighing on their commitment to the program: "I think that proactive reach-out [from RENEW] is a little lacking…I submitted all our data in Q3 of last year. And I figured, once I submitted, someone will reach out to me in a week, and go through the numbers with me, and then someone might reach out to me again in November and be like, “Hey, how's everything?” But, it felt like I was driving it forward. I put our data in, and then I wouldn't get any reach out for several months," (P3).

Despite illustrating such variety in other aspects of the experience, the pledge participants consistently reported that, as a program that they chose to add to their daily workload, RENEW strained their bandwidth at times. Though it is a program bred from a partnership with the city, the participants were largely unsupported in the work required to make progress toward the RENEW benchmark goals. One participant summarized that “as much as RENEW is a priority, it has the tendency to slip, because it's never the most urgent thing for the day, but it is a really important initiative” (P3).

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COMMON BENEFIT

COMMON BENEFIT: RACIAL EQUITY PROGRESS Despite the many bumps in the road, the companies that remained committed to the RENEW Pledge reported that tracking racial equity data through this program helped encourage more honest, fruitful conversations on the importance and status of their internal racial equity.

One firm spoke to the gap that RENEW filled in their company by providing a foundation for their entire diversity and inclusion program and introducing concrete methods to bring their racial equity commitment to fruition: "We didn't have a culture of inclusion, for sure, RENEW kind of set that foundation. It paved the way for us to talk about normalizing inclusion in the workplace, to really focus on our internal culture and define it through the lens of inclusion, as opposed to having inclusion sit out in a silo. RENEW has got our leaders in that mindset of ‘we need to commit to this and this is important and gave the company an additional accountability arm," (P1).

Other companies felt the benefits of the emphasis RENEW places on data collection as a means of highlighting and assigning importance to the real status of racial equity in a firm’s hiring, pay, and promotions: "I think what it's done is shine a light on what our deficiencies are if that's the right word to use in terms of DEI, and where we need to go. And I think that has inspired a more focus on it as an office" (P3).

“It makes us better designers to understand this data, and then be trying to improve it.

We're reaching out to more diverse people, whether it be clients, or people to work in our organization, and that makes us better designers” (P4).

Many companies recounted a sense of recognition that the racial demographics of their firms were not as equitable as they felt, but this information only came to light after pledging to RENEW and making a meaningful effort to collect and track data on internal racial equity. Not only did such data inform the work of designated diversity, equity, and inclusion teams, but it helped the entire company perform better, more informed work based on a more diverse input of ideas and with a better understanding of whom their work served.

REDESIGNING RENEW

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REDESIGNING RENEW Overall, participants are hopeful for what RENEW can offer following the redesign process that will broaden the city’s exclusive focus on quantitative data to include more effort directed toward the qualitative aspects of participant experiences that can facilitate greater progress toward the RENEW benchmarks.

In alignment with the city’s intention for the reboot, the participants agreed that the city ought

to

strengthen

the

public-private

partnership inherent in the program by focusing more heavily on programming and engagement.

They

echoed

one

another

in

making

the

following suggestions for specific programs and support that they would benefit from.

RENEW First Year Qualitative Report: Operationalizing the Culture Shift Towards Workforce Equity

REDESIGNING RENEW

PAGE | 21

REDESIGNING RENEW First, the participants requested more frequent and more structured meetings with both the RENEW Task Force and the other participating companies to create a regular meeting space in which they could share best practices, lessons learned, and current challenges. The participants echoed one another when describing this suggestion: "A quarterly roundtable with all the leaders participating in RENEW will be super powerful because we can literally talk through some of the challenges that we're facing and how we're going about it," (P1).

“What I would say would be really valuable is if you brought together a bunch of business leaders in LA, like myself, that are all signed up to RENEW and we all got to talking about best practices when it comes to retention efforts,” (P3).

Ironically, the Task Force discussed the convening power of the city as one of the facets that made RENEW a program with strong potential. Yet, due to the quantitative emphasis of the first year of the program, the Task Force did not facilitate any communal spaces for “knowledge sharing” among the participating companies.

The participants also widely suggested that the city could take a more engaged role in facilitating companies’ progress toward the RENEW benchmarks by creating publicity incentives

and

offering

strategy

workshops,

both

of

which

would

strengthen

participants’ commitment to the program.

One firm described that “it would be great to see more celebration of this program publicly in the media” because they knew this “would light a fire under our office in terms of making time to gather the data and doing it efficiently,” (P4).

Though the first cohort of participants found strong incentives in the values of the RENEW Pledge itself, future participants may require more overtly or traditionally business-centered incentives such as this one.

Furthermore, companies who felt committed to the ideals of RENEW but struggled to ensure stakeholder alignment or devise strategies for creating progress toward the RENEW First Year Qualitative Report: pillars requested workshops or programs to educate their firm on program’s Operationalizing the the Culture Shift importance and encourage such alignment.

Towards Workforce Equity

Some firms felt their office would benefit from RENEW-facilitated programs, training, and workshops, whereas others said that they were already prepared to lead those initiatives on their own, so workshops should not be a requirement, but a resource.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

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SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

Participant Recruitment and Retention When recruiting the next cohort of participants: The Task Force ought to be transparent as to who will access the data and how it will be used and anonymized.

Involve all relevant stakeholders in the pledging process.

To retain participants: The Task Force ought to increase engagement related to progress and experience.

Hold regular, structured meetings to provide a forum for participants to share best practices and lessons.

Collaborate with community partners to offer racial equity workshops that facilitate stakeholder alignment and progress toward the RENEW benchmarks.

RENEW First Year Qualitative Report: Operationalizing the Culture Shift Towards Workforce Equity

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

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SUMMARY OF RECCOMENDATIONS Division of Responsibilities Quantitative Responsibilities The Mayor’s chosen philanthropic partner and the third-party data collection and technical assistance software provider ought to absorb responsibility for managing quantitative data. The Mayor’s Office ought to make a 5-year investment in this software and technical assistance.

These partners ought to determine at what threshold of participation the aggregated quantitative data can be publicly reported.

Qualitative Responsibilities The RENEW Task Force, consisting of CHRED and the Mayor’s Office, ought to be responsible primarily for qualitative data management on the experience of participants, which can include programs led by community partners, facilitating cohort-wide knowledge-sharing, and other aspects of participant engagement.

The RENEW Task Force should appoint an academic partner to release qualitative data reports on the experiences of participants and community partners every year.

All data, quantitative and qualitative, must remain anonymous, to preserve a firewall between the city and participant progress measurements to comply with FOIA and protect participant data privacy.

REDESIGNING RENEW

PAGE | 24

REDESIGNING RENEW SHIFT IN LEADERSHIP AND A NEW PLAN To ensure that the RENEW Task Force has adequate capacity to enhance the program to meet the aforementioned needs of participants, the program will be housed within the Civic Engagement branch of the new Office of Racial Equity in the L.A. City Civil, Human Rights, and Equity Department. This relocation involves an expansion of personnel responsible for the RENEW program and other aligned city programs, which will enable the RENEW Task Force to engage more frequently with participants for greater accountability. As a component of the Office of Racial Equity, the RENEW Task Force will also have more access to community partners that can facilitate programming for interested participants.

Those responsible for the ongoing build-out of the Office of Racial Equity have devised a RENEW Reboot and Timeline that illustrates how this report will translate into plans for the remaining years of the pledge. The Reboot divides the RENEW Program into two tiers, one focused on supporting micro-enterprises and small businesses, and the other dedicated to larger corporations, firms, and organizations.

Additionally, the Reboot is looking toward recruiting the next cohort of participants, which will require addressing the data privacy concerns that complicated the first round of recruitment. The Task Force is working to determine a threshold below which all quantitative data will remain private to protect the anonymity of all publicly-reported data.

Furthermore, in public reporting, city and academic partners will prepare qualitative reports, whereas third parties such as project donors, Pluto, and trusted community partners prepare quantitative reports. Finally, the experienced pioneer cohort of RENEW participants will help orient and support newer participants.

With this re-envisioned, collaborative structure, the RENEW program will shift from a primary data collection program to a mutually beneficial partnership between the city and the private sector. Over the coming years, the city hopes that corporations can use the program to promote their commitments to racial equity while upholding the values of the RENEW First Year Qualitative Report: LA City Civil Human Rights and Equity Department.

Operationalizing the Culture Shift Towards Workforce Equity

RENEW PARTICIPANTS