Our Strategy
To ensure the Office for Research (OR) excels and exemplifies staff commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, fairness, and belonging. By committing resources and staff, OR has demonstrated a belief in the practice and execution in these efforts which will be met through a multi-pronged approach including:
- 2023: Launch first-ever unit-level DEI Climate Survey completed in 2023
- Results shared and learnings to implemented – starting fall 2023
- Development:
- Curate content and dedicating time weekly, biweekly and monthly with OR leaders to facilitate understanding and move toward creating more confidence and strength around diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging – ongoing
- Invest in OR leaders and beyond to expand foundational DEI+ learning via Northwestern’s Leading DEI Course, Next 250 Program and institutional offered resources in order to move beyond DEI towards practicing anti-racism.
- Integrate inclusion into town halls, monthly communication and dedicated website; intentional integration of DEI+ approach into departmental practices.
- Collaborate with OR Human Resource Administration to create a program to recognize and reward DEI+ advocates/champions.
- Implement DEI+ learning options into employee development. Launched new Leading with Inclusion eLearning module with Training Team.
- Introduce Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) to leaders and teams.
- Launch OR DEI council /Advisory board completed and in progress.
- Implement learning and practices into teams locally.
- Data and Analytics:
- Provide OR leaders with diversity (gender + race/ethnicity) data/metrics to create awareness around current recruitment, retention and advancement information completed with Research & Analytics team and HR.
- Recruitment & Retention:
- Review job requirements for inclusive language and to create more access to employment opportunities.
- Expand access and reach to Northwestern and Research through internship opportunities with local and more diversified academic institutions.
- Empower leaders to view practices, processes and policies to create more equity-informed approaches through stakeholder partnerships with Talent Acquisition.