RAW FILE

DISABILITY:IN
FEBRUARY 27, 2025

INCLUSION WORKS SEMI-ANNUAL VIRTUAL MEETING
SESSION 11
TECH INDUSTRY BREAKOUT
4:45 PM ET

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>> LEE RUBIN: Hi, everyone. We will get started in just a minute. I see the numbers rising, so ‑‑
28. Well, welcome, everyone. This is something new we are trying. This Inclusion Works meeting. The Tech Industry Breakout. I am Lee Rubin, and I am one of your hosts today.
I am going to give a visual self‑description. I am a white man in my late 50s. I am wearing a blue Disability:IN shirt, and I would like to ‑‑ oh, and I am an Inclusion Works Consultant for Disability:IN.
I am joined by Dana. Dana, would you like to introduce yourself?
>> DANA VANDECOEVERING: Sure, I am Dana Vandecoevering, the co‑host with Lee, serving in the role. My pronouns are she and her. I am also a Disability:IN and Corporate Consultant. My physical description, I am a white female with a green sweater, shoulder‑length brown hair, and I am wearing glasses.
So, we just wanted to thank all of you for joining us this evening, I guess late afternoon, evening, depending on where you are. I am West Coast, so I still have a lot of energy left.
You have learned a lot today. You have heard ‑‑ it has just been a long day of so much inspiration and so much key learnings.
As Lee said, we are trying something new this year doing this Breakout Session. This will give you the opportunity to have more personal conversations with your peers. The idea in these Breakout Sessions is to share your challenges. Maybe somebody has been through that.
Share your Best Practices, so others can learn from you. Network, meet other colleagues. Giving you that opportunity for things to be more personal.
So, with that, we have four amazing moderate officers, and I am going to ask them to introduce themselves and their description as they are listed on the slide, so, Weslie, take it away!
>> WESLIE RICKS: Hello, everyone. My name is Weslie Ricks, Manager, Accessibility, Equinix. I am a white woman with brown hair pulled back, wearing a black shirt, and I am super excited to be leading our Neurodiversity Session today. 
>> LEE RUBIN: Giselle, would you like to go next?
>> GISELLE MARTINEZ: Yes, I got muted all of a sudden. My name is Giselle Martinez, Global Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Johnson Controls. My pronouns are she and her. I am a proud Latina with tan skin, dark, straight hair with highlights, and I am wearing a purple sweater with a matching purple and black head band. Today I am excited to moderate the accommodations breakout. We will share Best Practices and challenges we may encounter in the Workplace, but ultimately share Best Practices in how to elevate the employee experience.
I look forward to connecting with each and every one of you. 
>> LEE RUBIN: And Kaylee, would you like to go next?
>> CARA PELLETIER: Sure, hi, everyone.  My name is K‑A‑Y‑L‑E‑E, Kaylee Misch. That is the extent of my Sign Language, so I won't continue with that. Thank you to our wonderful Sign Language Interpreters for covering that for me. I am from TD SYNNEX, a tech organization. I am excited to be here with you today to lead the discussion in the E/BRG roots, so, if you are interested in that topic, pop into our room.
As for a description of myself, I am a white female with dark red hair. Today I am wearing a white top with some pastel‑colored flowers on it. 
>> LEE RUBIN: Great. And Hailee?
>> HAILEE BASTIEN: Hi, everyone, my name is Hailee Bastien, Talent Engagement and Sourcing Lead, Zoom Communications. I will add the caveat that my Technical Support experience is quite low, so, if you are having any issues with Zoom today, I would still encourage to you reach out to some of my colleagues if you need support.
My pronouns are she/her and I am a bi‑racial woman with dark hair, a black crew neck and blue glasses. Behind me is a Zoom background reading imagine what you can create.
I am really excited to host the Breakout Session focused on Talent Acquisition. We have been having a fun day looking at lots of topics related to hiring with diverse talents, so I am looking forward to collaborating with all of you.
>> DANA VANDECOEVERING: Wonderful. We are so excited that you are here, moderating, and we look forward to what is ahead.
So, next slide, we will go through quick tips here.
Again, it is up to you. Pick the topic you are interested in. There will be about 25 minutes, then we will return to the main room. I wanted to share that none of the session ‑‑ learn, et cetera, so, no recording.
There are four rooms, everywhere shared which room they are moderating. I wanted to also provide information. The ASL and CART will be provided in the Neurodiversity Session only. So, they will be moving to that room with everybody else, and without further ado, one more slide.
This will just tell you how to get to your Breakout Room. There is an icon at the bottom of the Dashboard that displays the rooms. Go ahead and select the room you are interested in, then at the end of that 25‑minute timeframe, everybody will be sent back to the main room, and the Moderators will do kind of a summary of key highlights that you shared, and then you can enjoy the rest of your evening, or afternoon!
So, take us away!
>> WESLIE RICKS: Hello, everyone. We are going to give it a couple of moments for others to join.
>> LEAH RITZ: If people would turn their cameras on, that would be great.
>> WESLIE RICKS: Yes. Whatever you are comfortable with.
Okay, I will give a quick intro ‑‑
>> WESLIE RICKS: And share my screen. So, as I mentioned in the introduction, my name is Weslie Ricks. I am a white woman with brown hair pulled back, and I am very, very passionate about Neurodiversity. I lead Accessibility initiatives at Equinix, which is the leading Global Data Center provider, about 98% of internet traffic goes through the Equinix Data Centers. I also founded a consulting firm called divergent talent consulting focused on helping people who are Neurodivergent and have other disabilities find Meaningful Employment.
I recognize we might have different levels of familiarity with Neurodiversity, so I wanted to just give some quick definitions, and then we can dive into some of the conversation.
And I am hoping whoever is comfortable, we can really have good dialogue.
But Neurodiversity, this concept really emerged in the '90s, and historically, people have looked at those who have Autism or ADHD as having deficits, or needing to become more normal. Quote unquote.
And Neurodiversity kind of just flips the script on this, and essentially says, any differences are normal. We all have different hobbies after work. We all have different genders, different ways of living our lives, so, it makes a lot of sensuous we all might process information and communicate differently.
So, neurotypical people are your idea of what has historically what people have seen as normal, and people who are Neurodivergent will do those things differently.
Some of the conditions under the umbrella most commonly are Autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, Dyscalculia, ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
I have OCD and anxiety. I have three children who have varying visible and invisible disabilities, including Autism and ADHD.
And when we combine these two groups of people, Neurotypical people and Neurodivergent individuals, that is where we get Neurodiversity. A lot of companies have really started to recognize that is a competitive advantage.
What I wanted us to really dive into today is Neuroinclusion. There has been a huge focus on Neurodiversity. The term spiked 6,000% on Google in the year 2021, and with a lot of, you know, areas in diversity, up‑front we spend a lot of time talking about awareness, but we are really passing that point now, and we need to start talking about Neuroinclusion. Not just how do we educate people on these things, but how to we actually bring people who are Neurodivergent into businesses and make them feel empowered.
So, what I was hoping we can discuss today, and I am to let the conversation go wherever feels right for everyone is, first of all, just identifying what are the main barriers that you all have seen, or experienced?
And then, moving on to, you know, what can we do now to move to Neuroinclusion, and to have people from this community be set up for success. So, to start, I would love to knowledge‑share so you can share whether you yourself are Neurodivergent or a practitioner or know somebody with these experiences. What are the main blockers that you have seen that are not setting Neurodivergent people up for success in the Workplace? I see a hand raised.
>> Yes. I must apologize. My setup doesn't work with the camera showing very well. So, just for those that are visually impaired, I am Hispanic, a Latino, short brown hair, pretty tan skin, and dark eyes.
So, for me, we have, actually, quite a bit of Neurodivergent individuals on‑campus at Hewlett‑Packard. I am part of the Disabilities Global Organization, the research group that we have.
This year we are actually focusing a lot on doing kind of a panelists, and a lot of conference ideas for individuals to feel more comfortable, because there are a lot of individuals that do fall under the umbrella, including myself and several of the other leaders on the Worldwide Board.
However, our colleagues are uncomfortable. It is not something at work we suppress at all. A lot of people come in with these, you know, culture mindsets of society, like, oh, this is bad.
It is not until they see us on the panel saying, hey, we have it and we are perfectly fine. Nobody cares. Not in a negative sense, but it doesn't detract from who we are. It adds to how we do things.
So, my question to everybody is, how do you make individuals more comfortable reaching out for those resources, whether you self‑identify or not. Feeling comfortable asking for the accommodations you need. Whether it is windows of quiet time, so they can focus, all of our little ADHD attention can go into the task we want to focus on.
Or, you know, for the autistic individual that has both. Sometimes certain group settings are difficult. So, what do you all do to make people comfortable?
>> WESLIE RICKS: I would love to open it to the group first, before I respond. Great question.
Colleen, go ahead.
>> COLLEEN: Up until 6:00 this morning I was working for the smallest tech company in the world, and just got acquired by IBM literally several hours ago, so, now one of the largest tech companies in the world, this morning.
I think, you know, for us to speak to that question that just came up, the fully remote culture has really attributed, you know, to our ability to be able to serve as many people with various needs across the company, right?
That virtual environment really takes care of some of ‑‑ a lot of those sort of things that happen in office destinations.
So, we have been able to meet people where they are, because we are all over the world, and in a virtual environment.
But a lot of it also had to do with just setting the right framework, right? So, making sure that particularly those that fall into the Neurodivergent category are feeling valued, respected, seen and heard, which sounds very cliche, and it is probably the thing everybody wants to accomplish, of course!
It is how you do that, and then how you communicate what you are doing in those spaces to the people that it matters for.
So, giving access ‑‑ making sure there is access to every system, process, benefit, within the company, right? Hiring, promotion, performance‑management. All of it, right? Accessibility to conferences. Everything. How we accommodate. Not just what we accommodate, but also how, and how that process works to make it as seamless as humanly possible in a way that makes them feel value and respected.
Not in a way that we get to serve you, but how do you really want to be served. So, to try to create a place where everybody can see what we are trying to do. Everybody gets to contribute to making it better. And then we communicate all of the things that we try to do with the rest of the company so that they know that we are constantly working on this.
I think the other piece to this is also having just visibility around leadership, right?
One of the highest leaders in the entire company that runs R&D for the company, first day, disclosed, of having ADHD, and most of the people in his family have Autism, talked about it from day‑one.
That opened up the flood gates around people feeling more comfortable, but we had already laid the groundwork.
So, it wasn't just this one person that said the one thing, and now you feel comfortable. It can't be that, right?
We had laid the groundwork for five years to make sure that people can still see what we are trying to do, so that you feel safe to disclose.
I think that the last piece was the executive, that really was, like, whoa, you are not kidding. You really do respect us, right, when you hire somebody for one of the highest levels of your company who just happens to be neurodiverse. So, that is just a couple things of what we have done across the business.
>> WESLIE RICKS: Thank you so much for sharing that. And a follow‑up to what Colleen just said. That top‑down type of approach is so important. An interesting Case Study, where during COVID a lot of mental health resources were invested and quickly realized not a lot of people were utilizing them, so they started this series called let's talk, where they had leaders at the company essentially volunteer to send out videos talking about their mental health, talking about times in their career they needed more support.
Then all of a sudden utilization of the offerings skyrocketed, because we know people look to their leaders for norms. People will only take the amount of PTO that they see their leaders taking.
So, having that type of executive representation and sponsorship is so important. But it is also possible to manage‑up, as well.
Kristin? Kristin, did you have a comment? I think you might be muted?
>> KRISTIN: Muted, yes. Good call there. so, hi! I am from Dell. Last year's Disability Inclusion meetings made me realize we have an opportunity for a Neurodivergent branch in our Employee Resource Group.
So, I founded that, and we have monthly support meetings, and it is, you know, like everybody else, is open to anybody.
But we have really seen a lot of participation and excitement because myself and my Co‑Leader are both Neurodivergent, right?
So, we are out here being our authentic selves, then bringing really good documentation to the table to say, hey, this is normal, here are ways to cope with it.
It is just nice to have that kind of acknowledgment on a formal level within the company, right?
So, we are getting some leverage there. And sharing Best Practices, how to access our accommodations, and today with went over what stemming is and why we do it. The fact you shouldn't be ashamed of it.
I have verbal and physical ticks, and I lead by existing amongst the masses, right?
So, simply being your authentic self attracts the same, and I think it is very important to say, you know, hey, I am different than you, but I am still cool, too, right?
And to expand that research to your peers who may find value there, as well. Is.
>> WESLIE RICKS: Thank you so much, Kristin. Community is so big. I completely agree.
And, Joel, I saw you might have had your hand raised. Not to put you on‑the‑spot or anything, but Joel is also an Equinix employee that founded our Neurodiversity, Disabilities and Caregiver ERG at Equinix called ConnectAbilities. Joel, do you have a comment?
>> JOEL: Yes, first off I don't know that I can fully claim credit for founding it. But I was a contractor at a company‑wide event and asked if we had a Neurodiversity Program.
That said, my experience has been, even in the cascade that founded our ERG ‑‑ and I apologize, I am a little off‑camera here because I have some vertigo right now. Essentially my openness and honesty about my experience was what started ‑‑ what kind of opened the flood gates. I would say it is more a trickle than a flood still, but my experience has been I felt like I didn't have any secrets because as a corrector, I felt that if I could not fit in for who I was with the company, I would not want to work there anyway.
So, just my experience of opening up to people, and talking about not just my experience before diagnosis, but after diagnosis, and how that changed my understanding, has led to other people reaching out to me, whether through word of mouth, or just by encounters and conversations that they will even seek their own diagnosis, or ask me for advice on how to take care of their kids, how to even just communicate with me.
That whole experience of just honesty and openness has really managed upward. My Manager is fantastic.
When I joined his team a couple years back, he asked, how can I learn more about Neurodiversity? And the initiative he has taken has been fantastic, as far as I had a book to suggest to him. I always keep a list of resources on‑hand that I can suggest to people who are interested.
He bought the book on‑the‑spot, which I wouldn't expect many Managers to do. I got on the Amazon app and bought it.
Beyond the honesty, I think it really comes down to representation at the leadership level, like somebody else mentioned ‑‑ I forget who.
The leadership really needs to be the ones representing, ultimately, because I don't even manage anybody. I am an individual contributor, but that ability to ‑‑ the ability to represent even as an ally at a higher level really makes a difference for people like me who I get sort of nervous speaking in public.
This is a little bit of a smaller group, so it is fine. But at a certain point I don't need to be the one advocating for myself. I would love other people to take that role, if they are in a position of strength, to advocate for me, instead.
>> WESLIE RICKS: Thank you for sharing, Joel, especially not feeling well.
So, what I am hearing, all great things. Community, Executive Sponsorship, allies. These are so critical, and these are all things that we have seen at Equinix and other organizations I have consulted for.
Unfortunately, there has become a problem in the Neurodiversity world where some companies have realized people who are Neurodivergent have really good pattern recognition, or higher productivity, and organizations have wanted to invest in that without actually having everything in place to set people who are Neurodivergent up for success.
So, I really want us to knowledge‑share with the ten minutes we have left, on what type of meaningful actions you have been able to implement, whether it is in your team environment, or across a company environment, in order for people who are Neurodivergent to be set up for success?
I want to start by just sharing one thing that we have done, and have seen as successful, is through our disability hiring program, we have an Employee‑Manager kick‑off forum. The employee fills out one side, the Manager fills out the other. It is questions like, you know, where do you want your career to go? Or, what are your communication preferences? All the way down to, how do you prefer to receive feedback?
And we have noticed with all the managers who have utilized this, they start using it with all their employees, because it allows them to understand how to best support their employees, how to best encourage their employees, what everyone's skills are so that for certain projects they can combine people using their skills that they have.
So, things like this. What are the type of proactive accommodations, or even accommodations that have been requested by individuals at your organizations, that you feel like are really lowering the barriers for people who are Neurodivergent?
>> KRISTIN: I can speak to that. We also have a Neurodivergent hiring initiative, but I think what is cooler is we have a very well developed Assistive Technology site, this which you go, and you request, anonymously, you know, basically, it doesn't go through your Manager or your Manager's Manager, or HR, or any approval process ‑‑ you go straight to the AT team, and say, hey, I can use help with this. They are, like, that is great. We have these things we can help you with. Did you also know we have these offerings?
So, it is partly, you don't have to go into Workday and self‑identify. You just have to say hey, man, I take calls for a living and I am having problems understanding my customers. Well, we happen to have this cool software called SonicCloud that can amplify the volume and change the way the consonants and vowels sound. It helps with my Auditory Processing Disorder, right?
But you really do, once you have it available there, as long as you can self-serve, I have really seen a lot of my peers go through and do the same. Based on having it available.
>> WESLIE RICKS: Yeah. That is such an important point. I think during COVID we all saw this. People who are Neurodivergent and People with Disabilities in general were seeing more participation in the Workforce, they were thriving in their roles, and across industries with return to office mandates, I have heard lots of stories of people who are Neurodivergent going back to work, and there is no quiet place for them to be able to work, and to be productive.
And then even just requesting noise‑canceling headphones, or an alternative to having a quiet work environment, is very difficult.
So, having those Assistive Technologies ready, and allowing it to be a safe space for people to disclose, where they don't have to go through a management chain of additional people that they are disclosing to, is very, very cool, and I actually would love to connect with you after this, so that we can kind of knowledge‑share on that.
>> KRISTIN: Absolutely. For sure.
>> WESLIE RICKS: Anyone else? We have about five minutes left. I would love to hear any other experiences or Best Practices you all have seen.
>> JOEL: I will speak up boldly if somebody else doesn't want to speak first.
>> WESLIE RICKS: Take up space, Joel ‑‑ unless it is because you are not feeling well. (Chuckles)
>> JOEL: No. I know we had a session on AI earlier today that I think is worth noting, as much as AI is a buzz word, that AI can be particularly helpful to people who are Neurodivergent because of executive function challenges, especially those who are ADHD, but also autistics, and, for example, people who are dyslexic, because if you are able to get an AI Assistant to summarize a call, you don't need to take notes. You can focus on listening.
If you are able to ask an AI Assistant, can you draft this email for me? Then make some quick edits to it, it saves time for people who are not writer, which I happen to be one.
Or, if you are able to ask an AI Assistant to transcribe a meeting, which, again is helpful for people even who are trying to host a meeting, but also need to have a note‑taker and don't have one available, Universal Design Principles really play into it. And offering AI assistance to employees can be a really big help for everybody investigators especially Neurodivergent employees.
>> WESLIE RICKS: Thank you. Yes, all of that is so fascinating to me. Inventions put in place for People with Disabilities actually end up benefiting everyone, and we have seen that.
Like, Microsoft implemented Closed Captioning in all their meetings and then found out 75% of their employees, whether they were Neurodivergent, had hearing impairments or not, were all improved with clarity in their meetings.
So, everyone benefited from it. We have seen that at Equinix, as well. We started implementing quiet rooms, and quickly recognized that people who have to pray throughout the day for their religions, or needed time to decompress, also benefited from those rooms. So, thank you so much, Joel.
Any other last thoughts from anyone?
>> KRISTIN: I did have one more. The person who is in charge of our Neurodiversity hiring shared that every single time they trained a Hiring Manager on how to ask a neurodiverse questions in order to learn about them, they completely switched their interview‑style. No one chooses to stick with the old stuff, tell me about a time when...
Because the knowledge gained is so much more significant when you ask a neurodiverse question a direct question, they will give you a direct answer. If you ask them a vague question, they may flounder in analysis paralysis indefinitely.
You know, tell me about yourself? Full blank, right? Does that apply to my role? No. Tell me about how you manage Virtual Machines when they are over‑burden and it is causing your user‑base to suffer, right?
This is what I need to know to hire you.
So, just reinforcing your effect that you were seeing. We have seen it in interview questions, where the managers are like, way, this is way better. Why were we not always doing this.
>> WESLIE RICKS: Yeah. I completely agree. Skills‑based hiring is the way to go. A lot of the historical behavioral questions are really, more of, would I want to have a beer with this person, and not actually can this person perform the role.
So, we need to leave, everyone. We have just under a minute left. I would love to connect with all of you on LinkedIn, and kind of just continue the conversation of knowledge‑sharing.
I can share from my perspective, and my work at Equinix and the different companies I have consulted for through my business, some of the main systemic barriers are the hiring process, rigid work structures, but especially people who are not willing to communicate in different ways.
Even just having leaders and managers open to different communication styles has completely changed the culture of our organization, so I would love to connect with you all. Thank you so much for joining this session, and we are going to go back to the other room to share what the other groups have learned, as well. 
>> LEE RUBIN: Well, welcome back, everyone. Each of the Moderators from each room will share a little about what your topics were you talked about so we can all walk away with an overall idea of what was spoken on. Weslie, can you kick us off?
>> WESLIE RICKS: Yes. We talked about Neurodiversity awareness and how do we get to a point of Neuroinclusion for people thriving and having a lot of great success.
There were a lot of great examples about having leadership representation, allies, community through ERGs or BRGs, and then very small things that can be put into place that allow people to thrive, and that, you know, can be as simple as being open to different communication styles, being open to people who don't want their camera on because they could be stemming or having different medical issues going on, but being open to different ways of communicating and working with others so that you can actually see the benefits of Neurodiversity, instead of just expecting people who are Neurodivergent to come in, bring innovation, but do it in the way that, you know, the company is structured as and always has been.
>> LEE RUBIN: Awesome. Thank you. Giselle, can you tell us what you spoke about with your group?
>> GISELLE MARTINEZ: Thank you. Yes. Our group was speaking about accommodations. We had a great discussion also.
Some of the key things that we talked about is having meeting employee where is they are. Sometimes the accommodation process can be ‑‑ or sometimes it is a very formal process, recommendation and intake forms and sometimes it just becomes with the simple communication, having communication with the employees, and empowering the supporting Manager, Supervisors, Human Resources, to be able to support in those conversations.
One of the challenges that a few of the participants spoke up about, small teams, that support the accommodations process, of maybe a team of one, for a large organization, probably not uncommon with many organizations, but we talked about how do we ‑‑ how do you make the intake process, the up‑front knowledge process, robust, so that it speeds up the process when an employee raises their request for an accommodation.
So, we talked about that.
We talked and documentation and the need for it. Yes or no, and what some of the companies are doing in their Best Practices.
We ended up saying we always focus ‑‑ should always focus on the support that the employee needs. So, documentation is not necessarily so much about the condition or disability, but about how ‑‑ what the employee needs to be successful.
And then, I think what we also talked about is the application process. Self‑disclosing when you are an applicant at a company, and what are the Best Practices there, and then we just ended with saying at the end of the day, it is a culture of trust, everyone feeling that they can be self‑disclosed and be able the talk about their disability or accommodation need, and how everyone has a part in that to be able to build that environment of trust, so it was a great discussion. Thank you.
>> LEE RUBIN: Awesome. Thank you. Kaylee, tell us what you talked about in ERG/BRG?
>> KAYLEE MISCH: Yes. So, I was the Moderator for a great discussion in what we call kind of generally a Resource Group room, right? Because everybody uses different acronyms.
So, we talked a little about how do different organizations make sure that their ERGs or BRGs are staying inclusive to everybody, and are known as being inclusive to everybody, not just limited to the community that they represent.
So, we had great feedback hearing about ‑‑ it is really always about learning what you can do to make it better. Never stop learning. Gather that feedback from people, and make sure that you are putting that into play, if people are suggesting here is a way you could make it more inclusive.
Set Guidelines for your members of your groups to make sure that people are staying respectful, and being responsible and engaging in a responsible way, staying respectful to their peers, then making sure that everybody knows about these groups existing, and that you are really leaning into ways that you can promote your BRGs and make sure people know that it is open to everybody.
So, really, leveraging the communications tools that you have in your organization, multiple tools, right? Whether that is email, Slack or Teams, or getting on Town Hall Meetings to advertise, make sure you are leveraging all those different ways to promote your groups, and that they are open to everybody.
And then, source that feedback, right? Also look for, where are the gaps, what are we hear from other people about what we could be doing better, and how we could be building this awareness even more.
And we talked about the value of cross‑Resource Group collaboration as a way to promote and show they are fully inclusive, and the power of multiple BRGs and multiple affinities come together, we can reach broader audiences and really show great examples of allyship.
So, we heard great examples from our participants in the room, and also incorporating into those events different types of activities to bring people in based on what you are looking for.
If you are hosting a educational event, host a volunteer event so you are bringing in and bringing people in in different levels of impact and engaging in different ways.
And we had a question from an attendee about how do you make sure BRG leaders understand their role, versus Council leaders, versus the DEI Team, versus what is owned by business functions, because sometimes those lines can get blurred and it is not always clear who owns what and who is responsible for what.
So, we had great feedback around making sure people are building Roadmaps and having clear plans and clear ownership and communicating clearly what is in their scope versus what is somebody else's scope. Working to identify not just the problems, but then who is responsible for what parts of the solution are you influencing, doing, and what is kind of your area of ownership, and working tot to get that feedback and that clarified clearly for everybody involved.
So, thank you so much to all who were in our group today. It was great conversation.
>> LEE RUBIN: Awesome, awesome. Hailee, last but not least. Tell us about Talent Acquisition.
>> HAILEE BASTIEN: Last but not least. Thank you, Lee. I know we have three minutes so I will keep this short and sweet. Our group was fantastic. Really good variety of attendees in terms of experience and involvement with TA. We started off by really acknowledging and allowing space for just grace in the journey of inclusion and the hiring process, in the 360 Hiring Cycle. There are many opportunities to make baby steps toward an inclusive process for all.
So, acknowledging there are wins along the journey even though it may seem overwhelming and I am sure it resonates across the groups and topics we covered today.
One of the things we double‑clicked into was the power of driving inclusion across the entire hiring process. Where strategies that have opportunity for impact are not necessarily siloed and separate from how our companies recruit all kinds of talent. So, all talent from all backgrounds.
One of the really strong strategies that kept coming up is really the opportunity for early career, where building relationships with early talent, whether that be an Undergrad or Graduate levels, has a strong strategic element for both Disability Talent, but all early‑career talent that could be diverse and qualified for roles.
And then the second part of that conversation really was around how we share our stories with our organizations. One of our attendees, Melissa, works for a really large Global Company and referenced a lot that her organization puts on. It because great to hear the standards her organization uses to share those wins and progress by really consolidating and having a centralized place for a lot of those stories to be shared so that employees aren't over‑Indexed in terms of texts, notifications and emails, which I know for a lot of our organizations is probably the goal.
So, centering focus around sharing the focuses and wins around Cultural Diversity Day and other impacts, so it is an impact all at once rather than spreading them out. So, I really appreciate everyone's time and participation.
>> LEE RUBIN: Awesome. Thank you, all, so much for joining us. Thank you, Weslie, Giselle, Kaylee and Hailee. Thank you, Dana and Maria, and Jason for our Technical Support. I know it has been a long day with many key learnings, and we appreciate everyone's participation and engagement.
Please have a great night. Thank you for joining us for Inclusion Works. I hope to see you in Orlando in July!
We had put in the Chat just some things to keep in mind. We have an ERG/BRG Committee that you can join by reaching out to your Inclusion Works Consultant, and we also have a Talent Showcase for the Tech Industry, May 14, and May 21. Also, reach out to your Inclusion Works Consultant and they can put you in touch with Bridgette to sign you up.
Again, everyone, thank you so much, and have a great evening.
 
       (Session was concluded at 5:30 PM ET)
                                                       
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