Chief Diversity Officer – Summer 2021
Mid-Year CDO Update
What a difference a year makes! This time last year we had just officially created the Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) role at TMB and I was busy working with the executive team to define the role and begin the TMB Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) journey!
And so much has happened since July 2020. In January, TMB took another large step and I added the role of Human Capital Management (HCM) Director to my title, with the intent of ‘Implementing a Human Capital Management approach that expands traditional Human Resource functions with a foundation of diversity and inclusion.’
In March of this year, everything changed, as the TMB family was struck with the unexpected passing of Frank Jolly, who, at the time of his death, was serving as the Finance Task Lead on our PMS 377 Support contract. The Finance Task Lead of 377 is responsible for senior level BFM customer interface and managing a team of over 20 employees providing Business Financial Management (BFM), Earned Value Management (EVM) and Cost Estimating support to NAVSEA. Since I had supported PMS 377 prior to becoming the CDO; Tom, Dan and I decided the best way to support the team and move forward was for me to take over as the Finance Task Lead, while continuing to serve as CDO and HCM Director.
It soon became apparent that these three roles were too much for one person to handle, and TMB began the search for a new HCM Director. After several months of defining and refining, TMB promoted our own Jim Hilson to the role of HCM Director. Jim and I have worked closely together throughout our time at TMB, and we will continue to work closely going forward as I continue to execute the role of CDO at TMB!
So, it’s been a year – what is going on with Diversity? Well, thanks for asking!
I have heard from many of you over the past year as you have shared concerns, ideas and ‘checked in’. I appreciate hearing from all of you. Below are some highlights of 2021 and a look in on our current plans for the near term.
Major Accomplishments so far in 2021:
- Established a new Diversity and Inclusion Statement, reinforcing TMB’s commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the workforce.
- Established a 2021 Charitable Plan, which includes re-engaging with a local elementary school and establishing a partnership with Wounded Warriors, along with a continued commitment to Bedington Elementary School and Toys for Tots.
- In February, as part of our celebration of Black History Month, we heard from an amazing guest speaker, retired Senior Executive Service (SES) Mr. Elliott B. Branch.
- In March, I sent a series of Friday emails highlighting amazing women around the world with an emphasis on women in and around the military but also including several global female leaders.
- In April, we completed our Affirmative Action Plan (AAP) with our consulting partner, DCI Consulting. As we have every year since our AAP was created, we met all of the goals we set for the previous year. The AAP report showed that we increased our number of female managers and our number of veteran hires, two major diversity goals for 2020.
- Earlier this year, we re-established our partnership with Van Ness Elementary, a neighbor of our 100M Street office. So far this year, we have donated over 10 large boxes of office supplies and we will be delivering a large number of laptops in the fall.
- Our 2021 Mentorship Program is continuing to move forward. One of the goals of the mentorship program is to prepare analysts to be ready for promotion opportunities when they become available and we hope to see some concrete results in this area soon. I received excellent feedback from the participants as a result of a mid-year survey and plan to incorporate many of their suggestions into the 2022 Program.
As we head toward Fall, the reopening of schools and hopefully a continued journey toward normalcy, we have several exciting events planned for this year:
- In 2021, Veterans Day is on Thursday, November 11th. TMB will be donating to the Wounded Warriors program. Although it is not on the official race calendar yet (it was canceled last year due to COVID), we are hoping to invigorate employee participation in the Veteran’s Day 10K. Keep an eye out for additional information and details as we get closer to November.
- TMB will also continue to participate with our annual holiday charitable events, including the Bedington Elementary gift donation run by Walt Griffin and our annual Toys for Tots toy donation.
We are planning to continue all of these great initiatives and events in 2022 and are looking for ideas of more ways to engage with our employees and our greater community.
As an example, earlier this year, a TMB employee, Katie Flowers, came to me with an idea to partner with a local women’s shelter as part of our recognition and celebration of Women’s History Month.
It was a great idea and I was quick to offer TMB’s support! We are still in the early planning stages but be on the lookout for more details and information about this new event as we get closer to March.
As always, the most important part of my job as Chief Diversity Officer is to be an advocate for employees. I continue to encourage everyone to reach out to me to discuss any concerns you may have around diversity within TMB, ideas you have for ways that I can engage within TMB or ways that you can get involved with Diversity Initiatives.
~ Richard Parker
Chief Diversity Officer
