My 2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Trainings and Offerings

Doing what I love most on my 64th birthday – teaching a DiversityFIRST certification best practices session in Chicago (2019) prior to attending my 40th MBA class reunion.

This blog has lots of links to explore!

As we head into 2022, I thought it might be good to summarize in one of my blogs my growing portfolio of diversity consulting and training offerings.

Like the previous two years, I will continue to serve as the National Diversity Council’s Vice President of Training, where I facilitate several of their educational and certification offerings as well as serve as a consultant on staff; and I will also offer my services through my own consultancy, Total Engagement Consulting by Kimer.

Please contact me at any time to line me up to work with you in 2022, or with any questions about my National Diversity Council offerings.

My work with the National Diversity Council in 2022 will include:

• Continuing to serve on the faculty of the National Diversity Council’s intensive 5-day  DiversityFIRST™Certification Program, which prepares professionals to create and implement highly successful diversity and inclusion strategies. I will facilitate best practices in inclusive recruiting, diversity councils, employee resources groups and diversity awareness / training. The NDC plans to offer 14 virtual and 2 in-person sessions throughout 2022. You can view all the dates using this link and scrolling down.

• Facilitating our ERG Academy three times in 2022: February 15, May 17 and September 27. The sessions are ideal both for organizations that want to start ERGs and for those who have them and want to make them more effective. The target audience includes ERG leaders, HR teams supporting ERGs, ERG executive sponsors, and ERG members who want to help them grow. We also offer private ERG Academies if you want to engage all your leaders in your own customized session. Check out the ERG Academy page for information and to register using the schedule tab.

• Facilitating two of our half-day DiversityFIRST™ Virtual Suite offerings: “LGBTQ in the Workplace and Marketplace – Strategy and Execution” on May 11th, and “Inclusive Recruiting, the How and the Why” on August 17th. Link to the entire 2022 Suite description page … scroll down by date.

• In addition, continuing to consult with NDC clients on overall diversity strategy, customized DEI training, forming and growing employee resource groups, forming and training diversity councils, and more!

And my own Total Engagement Diversity Services include:

• Wholistic diversity consulting services including engaging your senior leadership, doing a diversity-focused employee survey, building a diversity strategy and DEI strategy and plan execution.

I frequently do workshops on the leading edge topic of gender identity and expression, and use of pronouns

• Customized DEI training that can be delivered in person or via zoom. Training and speaking topics include Introduction to DEI, Unconscious Bias, Diversity in Language and Communications, Inclusive Leadership and more.

• Leading-edge topics in the LGBTQ+ diversity realm including supporting gender transitioning employees in the workplace, supporting non-binary employees and use of pronouns.

• Customized training for your HR teams and managers around mitigating organizational unconscious bias and inclusive recruiting.

Please do get in touch … I look forward to enthusiastically working with you in 2022!

An innovation in Diversity Recruiting!

Raymahl Sutton, CEO & Founder of Applyable, Inc.

Since I facilitate the module on Best Practices in Diversity Recruiting for the National Diversity Council’s DiversityFIRST Certification Program, I am always on the lookout for innovations in this space. And last month at the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce’s first annual Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Conference, I found one; Raymahl Sutton, Founder of Applyable Inc., a panelist in one of the sessions I attended. His points were so compelling that I later I met him in some shared office space of a Raleigh Think Tank facility to discuss his venture to address implicit bias in hiring.

Stan: Raymahl, thank you for sharing your story at last month’s event. So was that the catalyst for forming this company?

Raymahl: Yes! After I graduated from NC State with my degree in Polymer & Color Chemistry, I circulated my resume with no bites for 9 months. A recruiter I scheduled a meeting with reviewed my resume and suggested I change my first name of Raymahl on the resume to Ray, and within 2 months I had an offer. I then realized that there could truly be implicit bias in resume review including impact of ethnic sounding or non Anglo-Saxon names.


Stan: So what was your journey after starting work in the pharmaceutical industry?

Raymahl: Yes, I had seven successful professional years. But then in 2015, I saw a television special about issues with diversity hiring in Silicon Valley on CNN, and I felt that this was an issue that needed to be addressed and that I could do something about it.


Stan: So what happened next?

Raymahl: In my little bit of spare time, I researched issues in implicit bias in the recruiting process – how things like names, colleges attended, previous companies worked for, etc., can introduce bias in applicant evaluation, and even trump key skills or ability to succeed in the position. I then took some computer programming courses so I could prepare myself to design software that could evaluate resumes while removing these biasing factors. Eventually I left my Project Manager position so I could full time launch my new company, Applyable.


Is your recruiting process helping or impeding building a successful diverse workforce?

Stan: How will the Applyable system work?

Raymahl: First, when companies post their jobs on our site and applicants submit their information and responses to screening questions, our system creates a decluttered resume that removes names, ties to gender, ethnicity, age etc. Second, our system evaluates the decluttered resume to present the hiring companies a strong diverse list of qualified candidates to interview. The names, schools, etc can then be provided later, but now we’ve neutralized the human error of the unconscious mind in these preliminary stages.


Stan: So what is next for Applyable? Are you looking for clients?

Raymahl: Right now we are in a pilot program with the county and city of Durham, North Carolina and working on creating an early adopter program with several smaller and medium size enterprises to collect more user feedback and fine tune our solution for a broader launch. I’ll eventually be seeking some venture capital for this next step in growth once we prove our value.


Stan: How can my readers learn more about your work and keep up with your progress?

Raymahl: Yes, they can check out my website, https://www.applyable.io And of course I can be emailed at [email protected] or called at 910-284-1304. My web site is a great place to start since it explains the business case for a diverse workforce, human error and the cost of bad hiring, and more about the Applyable approach.

Stan: Raymahl, thank you for your time. You are indeed addressing a huge business need with your venture, and I look forward to following up as you prepare to launch on a larger scale.

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Please also read my earlier two-part blog series on implicit or unconscious bias:

Seven Biases in the Workplace – Let’s Be Brutally Honest About It!

More About Unconscious Bias – A Guest Blog by John Luecke