Appendix B
Questions for Discussion
Business Imperatives and Best Practices: Lessons on Recruiting, Retaining, and Advancing Underrepresented Populations in the S&E Industrial Workforce
Section I Getting started (taking on the challenge) |
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A. Why begin? |
What led your company to address the challenge? What change, internal or external, was the impetus for getting started? |
B. Hard choices: |
What trade-offs did you have to make in order to address the challenge? What did you have to stop doing, or do less of, in order to undertake this effort? |
C. Initial approach: |
What was/were your initial program, initiatives, policies, etc.? For example, did you use affinity groups, company-wide goals, manager training, regional or global programs, pipeline (“K-to-Workplace”) programs, quotas, other? Was your approach different for women and underrepresented minorities? |
Section II Under way (on the journey) |
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A. Revectoring: |
Over time, what did you add to or drop from the scope of your program, and why? How, if at all, did you need to change your implementation plan from its original form? |
B. Today’s program: |
What is your current approach/program? |
Section III Lessons from the journey (what you wish you had known when you started!) |
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A. Successes: |
What worked better than expected? What have you found to be the most critical ingredients for success, the most important “best practices,” etc.? |
B. Barriers overcome: |
What unexpected roadblocks did your program(s) have to overcome along the way? |
C. Failures: |
For any part of your program(s) that did not succeed, what caused the failure? What can others learn to increase their own likelihood of success? |
Section IV Results (are you getting anywhere?) |
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A. Metrics: |
How do you measure progress relative to your program goals? |
B. Outcomes: |
Are you achieving your desired outcomes in the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women and underrepresented minorities? |
C. Continuous improvement: |
Do you modify your program structure, content or schedule based on performance results? |
Section V Remaining challenges (what’s still hard?) |
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A. What’s hard? |
What barriers remain – persistent, resistant, and stubborn? |
B. Seeking ideas? |
What inputs would be helpful to get from your industry peers? |
Section VI Beyond your control |
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A. Policies: |
What government policies, US or foreign, could aid or impede your ability to build a diverse workforce? |
B. Trends: |
What new trends are most concerning? |