Work
Case Studies
/ Corporation
/ The Problem
A multinational software company approached KEDZ because they recognized their leadership team lacked the lived experience and racial equity awareness to effectively serve its diverse workforce. The leadership team was ill equipped to manage the ongoing reports of racial and ethnic discrimination their frontline employees were experiencing. One such instance included a customer service representative with a foreign accent who was berated by a customer who complained they could not understand her. It became clear to the corporation that middle-management lacked the experience and training to handle such situations. Consequently, the software firm was doing a disservice to their team.
/ Our Solution
To help build racial equity awareness in the multinational’s leadership team, KEDZ hosted a series of interactive learning sessions with management over several months. Over the course of the program, sessions were held weekly with three cohorts of managers, allowing for frequent checkpoints and an intimate learning environment. The learning sessions were heavily focused on equitable communication and racial awareness to equip the managers with the tools needed to support their diverse labour force.
/ The Impact
After several months taking part in KEDZ learning sessions the software company experienced a number of positive changes within their organization:
The labour force reported they felt heard and that management could better understand many of their concerns when it came to promotion rates, discrimination and issues faced during frontline customer service.
Managers were empowered to begin implementing policies and strategies which helped the employees effectively deal with discriminatory incidents
/ Education & Institution
/ The Impact
After conducting a thorough Community Impact Analysis and making policy recommendations, the school board communicated to KEDZ there a number of positive changes in the organization resulting from this exercise:
KEDZ helped the school board determine several policies under review impacted the Black community in a negative way; they proposed revisions which ultimately led to building a more equitable association
Upon making KEDZ-suggested adjustments to its school policies, the feedback the board received included a noticeably more equitable work environment that had a profound impact on its members
/ The Problem
A board of education needed a community impact analysis on several policy implementations related to anti-Black racism. The board was looking for key answers and improvements to their policies from an equity lens. Their questions included:
How will the new policies affect the Black community?
Do any policies target one or more equity-seeking communities?
Are any of the policies harmful? If so, how can they be fixed?
/ Our Solution
To help the board further understand the impact of their policies, KEDZ Consulting stepped in to lead the Community Impact Analysis. Each one of the board’s policies were thoroughly examined by a KEDZ consultant and also circulated to community members and focus groups for feedback. Based on this information, KEDZ created recommendations for each policy as to whether it should be eliminated, revised, maintained or promoted.
/ Association & NGO
/ The Problem
A provincial association with over 80,000 members received criticism from their membership for not doing enough to address racialized Black and Indigenous communities. Patrons felt the organization was out of touch with the needs of its community despite the fact the special interests committee served a diverse membership base. Formal complaints about issues of racism, poor accessibility and economic barriers for members from a low socioeconomic background pointed to a history of offenses. It was clear the association’s leadership was ill equipped to address the overt equity challenges. The association launched an equity committee, but lacked the guidance to oversee the decision-making process on equity issues.
/ Our Solution
To help the association’s leadership team develop discrimination awareness, KEDZ worked to oversee the creation of the structure and governance of the equity committee. KEDZ began by developing terms of reference for the committee, including developing the organizational and operational structure. KEDZ then provided training for the association’s leadership focusing on how they could better represent the diversity of their members through management’s decisions.
/ The Impact
Upon developing new terms of reference for the committee and completing training of the leadership team, the association experienced a wealth of positive changes within their organization:
A more equitable association was established which made the members feel heard, valued, welcomed and appreciated
Assistance in establishing equity goals for the association and helping ensure the correct accountabilities and processes are in-place in order to achieve the goals
/ What Our Clients Say
