The AlphaGroup announces its Fairness, Opportunity, and Equality initiative
January 14, 2021The AlphaGroup of Medical Communications companies has always operated on principles of equality and respect for all races, religions, ages, nationalities, genders, or sexual orientations. While we are always mindful of these tenets of our philosophy, local and national events and movements have spurred AlphaGroup to take a more active role in promoting equality and respect among our employees and throughout the communities we touch.
As a result, AlphaGroup is proud to announce that we have formed a committee that will be dedicating significant time toward realizing our FOEs Against Discrimination (Fairness, Opportunity, Equality) goals. Interested AlphaGroup staff members were asked to present a pitch, displaying their reasons for wanting to be a part of the committee and offering suggestions for future initiatives.
“As a leadership team, we felt the organization was doing a good job in terms of inclusivity and fairness, until the events in the world led us to take a long, hard look at our approach,” said Managing Director Mike Smith. “We realized that we could and should do much more. We are delighted to be able to launch this important initiative.”
Angie Schaefer Assistant Medical Editor (she/her), Vanessa Borkhoche Account Manager (she/her), and Janel Gluch Account Coordinator (she/her) were selected to be the founding members of the FOEs Against Discrimination, and they immediately set about creating a charter, mission, and vision for what we intend to be a critical cornerstone of our corporate culture.
FOE committee members Angie, Vanessa, and Janel.
To bring awareness of inequality, discrimination, and different perspectives/experiences. To provide preventative education to fight discrimination. To reinforce and nurture positive relationships of employees of different backgrounds. To align internal values/beliefs with external interactions and stakeholders. To ensure the AlphaGroup provides an inclusive, safe, and enjoyable workplace for all employees in order for them to deliver their highest quality.
AlphaGroup’s diversity mission statement.
Their vision is for a workplace that is reflective of our diverse community and clients; a company culture of openness and accountability; individual responsibility for equitable, inclusive, and welcoming practices; and a reputation as a diverse and philanthropic workplace.
“We want to make our FOEs efforts part of our everyday conversations while continuing to educate ourselves and our company on ways we can improve and advocate for change,” Angie said.
The main goals for our committee are to educate, collaborate, promote, and represent these values on all platforms in AlphaGroup’s internal and external communities, including an increased focus on environmental, social, and corporate governance. A few examples of these efforts include a “Safe Space” open line of communication and a SharePoint page offering access to documents, resources, and education.
The AlphaGroup incorporates pronouns in email signatures.
“Our team plans to hold monthly discussions with the rest of the staff on various topics of discrimination and have them coincide with volunteering, education, and team-building activities so that our peers will be able to take what they are learning from our committee and apply it to everyday life both in and out of the workplace,” Janel said.
The first educational efforts that the committee shared during the AlphaGroup’s December 28, 2020, all-staff meeting was a training on Pronouns in the Workplace; the goal of the session was to help colleagues feel comfortable in bringing their whole selves to work and not feeling the need to hide any parts of who they are. The committee will lead these types of trainings monthly and add new modules to the SharePoint page as they find more within their research and from their fellow team members.
“Being a Queer Arab female, I think it is important to work in an environment where I feel safe,” Vanessa said. “We want to open the door to others about the diversity of our community, in the AlphaGroup and our personal lives. Everyone faces a challenge, and our job as a committee is to make sure everyone feels included, heard, and seen. We spend most of our time with our colleagues, so we want to feel at home.”
AlphaGroup and the FOEs committee will be sharing their work via company social platforms. Fairness, opportunity, and equality are at the core of AlphaGroup’s pillars, and we look forward to sharing more initiatives as we grow our FOEs Against Discrimination program. We invite others to join our conversation and help us to learn and advocate as we look to a future of change.