Events of 2020 including the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter shined a spotlight on a wide range of topics around diversity, equity, and inclusion in our communities and in the workplace. The need to create a business environment that is representative of communities served and that drives progress toward these important initiatives has become a business imperative for many companies, including Stericycle.
Taking a Concrete Step Toward Progress
To demonstrate Stericycle’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, our CEO, Cindy Miller, is joining the leaders of some of America’s largest corporations in signing the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ pledge. This is the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace, with more than 1,600 CEOs across all industries and geographies participating. Each signatory realizes that fostering diversity and inclusion is a business imperative and a societal issue that senior leaders play a critical role in addressing. Participating companies work together to source solutions and strategies that can enhance workplace diversity, influence the national dialogue, and inspire change.
By signing the pledge, Stericycle is committing to take action to cultivate a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace. Stericycle promises to actively foster a culture where all ideas are welcomed, different experiences and perspectives are respected, and team members feel comfortable and empowered to have discussions about multifaceted societal issues. More specifically, we have agreed to take the following actions:
- Continue making our workplace a trusting environment where complex and sometimes difficult conversations about diversity and inclusion can occur.
By encouraging an ongoing dialogue and not tolerating actions that run contrary to our values of openness and respectful discourse, we are building trust, cultivating compassion, and reinforcing our commitment to a culture of inclusivity.
- Implement and expand unconscious bias education.
Although it is human nature to have unconscious biases, we can and should actively work to overcome them. Unconscious bias training enables individuals to begin recognizing, acknowledging, and therefore minimizing any potential blind spots they may have. By helping our employees, including our leadership, recognize and curtail their biases, we can facilitate more honest and transparent conversations.
- Share best practices…and unsuccessful ones.
Even though we have established programs that foster equality and openness, we are still developing new initiatives. We hope to leverage insights from other companies to evolve and enhance our diversity strategies and, in turn, to share our successes and challenges with others.
- Create and share strategic plans with our board of directors.
Our senior leadership team has committed to work with our Board of Directors to develop, evaluate, and implement detailed strategic action plans to prioritize and drive accountability around diversity and inclusion.
- Create an accountability system to track our progress.
Not only does this allow us to understand where we have opportunities for growth, we can also share regular updates with other companies to catalog effective programs and measurement practices. We believe that by sharing and learning with each other, we can strengthen our existing programs to better serve our employees and society.
Advancing Our Current Efforts Toward Diversity & Inclusion
Stericycle has already implemented several measures to promote diversity, equity and inclusion across the company, including prioritizing the recruitment and development of talent from diverse backgrounds and experiences, fostering employee resource groups made up of diverse populations, and conducting frequent employee training and communication. Stericycle has also developed strategic partnerships with diverse community stakeholders, including Equality Illinois, Ability Beyond Disability, and Hispanic Alliance for Career Advancement (HACE). In 2019, Stericycle was recognized by the Women’s Forum of New York for its commitment to advancing gender parity in the boardroom.
For more information about how Stericycle is expanding its commitment to diversity and inclusion, visit our Culture page.
