#1: Grav

The Original Threat

• "Grav, a scientific glass company, struggled with maintaining the morale of its warehouse workers — mostly Black and brown employees — who continued commuting to work while their office workers shifted to working remotely."

What They Did

• "With the help of Mindy Gulati, a DE&I consultant, the company troubleshot the issue and learned that warehouse workers were worried not only about equity but also about potential negative interactions with law enforcement during their commute."

How They Leveraged DEI Programs and Successes Recorded

• "Knowing this, the company set up opportunities for warehouse workers, leaders, and WFH employees to connect, increased compensation and accommodations for warehouse employees, and ensured that all workers had the paperwork they needed if they were stopped by law enforcement."
• "Morale significantly improved and remains high more than a month later."

Insights on the Impacts of DEI on Company Resilience

• Diversity Science provides evidence-based e-learning services that "create the essential foundation for inclusion, enabling organizations to maximize the positive effects of today’s increasing diversity on organizational resilience and success."
• McKinsey provides that "inclusion and diversity are at risk in the crisis — but are critical for business recovery, resilience, and reimagination. Furthermore, several reports have shown that in the 2008–09 global financial crisis, banks with a higher share of women on their boards were more stable than their peers. Their report also suggested that banks run by women might be less vulnerable in a crisis, as cities and countries with women leaders are thought to be facing the COVID-19 pandemic more successfully than those without them."

Summary

• During our preliminary research, the research team provided a case study of a company that went through a challenging time and overcame it through a DEI initiative. There's a chance that further research would produce a few case studies in addition. However, based on limited information surrounding this topic that may exist, it may be challenging to break the case studies down based on company size.
• We also provided few pieces of qualitative information that highlight the positive impact of DEI initiatives on organizational resilience although there was no hard data to back them up. Further research along this line will likely yield more qualitative data than quantitative data.
• Lastly, due to time constraints, we didn't research any cartoons that portray the resilience of organizations in the context of DEI.