Black History Month 2023: Make a commitment for change
The MFHA's Fernandez advises executive teams to listen to what employees tell them, like why they're staying or leaving, and make changes to improve their experiences.
February is Black History Month, and each year we celebrate the achievements of people who have made important contributions to the restaurant industry and our country.
This year, we’re kicking off that recognition by exploring the significance of diversity in the workplace, and how embracing it creates a positive business environment and gives employees a sense of value.
At a time when the restaurant industry continues to recover, still faces a shaky economy and battles to recruit and retain talent, Gerry Fernandez, president and founder of the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance, says recent research has uncovered a clear gap between how diverse and inclusive businesses think they are and what their employees actually experience.
“We know that a genuine DEI culture enhances retention,” he says. “Today’s workforce has changed, and if businesses want to attract and keep top talent from every race, gender and orientation, their cultures have to change, too.”
In 2022, the MFHA, a division of the National Restaurant Association’s Educational Foundation, released a new study on diversity in the restaurant industry as well as ELEVATE, a companion program that helps restaurant businesses incorporate a step-by-step DEI framework into their operations.
The study sought to discover some of the industry’s biggest challenges regarding diversity, while the ELEVATE program shared ways to alleviate some of the problems and deliver solutions that create a stronger culture of belonging.
Fernandez says the research, conducted by the MFHA, in partnership with the National Restaurant Association and Cornell University, found a wide disparity between how employers and employees view their companies’ diversity initiatives.
Employer respondents tended to claim they were effective in recognizing and addressing the needs of multicultural employees; employees largely disagreed. The study also found that Caucasian males were satisfied with their employment experiences in the industry, but people of color reported much lower levels of satisfaction. And when the latter group left their jobs, they often left the industry for good, seeking opportunities elsewhere.
“It's important for us to understand what the data is telling us,” Fernandez says. “Businesses must learn how to deliver solutions that create a culture of belonging, a workplace where people feel valued, respected, and heard. If they can do that, employees will bring their entire selves to work.”
In a webinar on the ELEVATE program, Fernandez highlighted five important steps restaurant owners and operators can take to improve their diversity plans.
- Collect your data. Your information could come from employment engagement or other surveys. Analyze the information and look at the gaps. Understand what you measured, what you’re doing well, and what you didn’t.
- Listen and learn. Fernandez says the three Ls of leadership are Listen, Learn and Love. Listen to what your employees are telling you, why they are staying or leaving. Learn from what they've told you and implement changes to improve their experiences. Do things that show you care about your workforce. If you don’t do that, you have little chance of winning the hiring battle, he says.
- Create a healthy corporate culture. If you can’t do that, your employees will leave. If you exhibit a strong, inclusive culture, your people will stick around for years. Ask yourself how many of your employees are still on the team after five or 10 years. If they’ve left after the first two years, you may have some cultural issues that need to be addressed.
- Ask questions. Talk to your people, especially those from underrepresented groups. Ask a person of color on your team to tell you what his or her experience has been like, what it’s like working for the company, whether or not what they were told when first hired is part of their current experience. Ask them if they feel supported, or if the rules and current work procedures support their ability to do their best work.
- Establish buy-in. This is important at every level—the lower, middle, and top tiers of your organization. Not everyone will get there at the same time, of course. It is extremely important that senior leadership, especially the CEO, has committed to supporting your diversity plan. Not only does he or she have to ‘get it,’ they have to make sure the team is buying in. If it’s just your diversity officer doing all the work because it’s his or her department, it will fail.
“Diversity is like a contact sport,” Fernandez says. “You can’t get good at it by sitting at your desk. You have to play. When you create a place where people feel valued, respected, and heard, they’ll feel like they can participate. They’ll feel like they belong.”
ELEVATE: A menu for change is a new framework designed to drive positive change in DEI strategies for organizations of any size. Based on landmark research indicating a gap in how enterprises and employees view DEI policies, ELEVATE provides step-by-step tools that set the foundation for effective program development, implementation, and success measurement. It is free to MFHA and Association members. Download your copy now