What is the Workplace Inclusion & Belonging Unit?
The Workplace Inclusion & Belonging unit works collaboratively across UC Agriculture & Natural Resources to prioritize and integrate strategies throughout the organization to support equitable and inclusive policies, programs and partnerships to create opportunities and environments for belonging for all colleagues.
Goal
Our goal is to prioritize and integrate strategies throughout the organization to support policies, programs, and partnerships which enable UC ANR to equitably serve every California community by 2030.
Proposed Solution
Since UC ANR's mission success requires intentional work to support every member within our California communities, our workforce must possess the historical knowledge, cultural agility, and communication competence to meet the needs of the communities in which we work. Accountability and responsibility for creating intentional spaces where we value teamwork, unity of purpose, and respecting the value of every team member's contribution are the responsibility of each member (personnel and volunteers) in our organization. The development of aligned actions, decisions, policies, and norms with an emphasis on growing a connected community will be fostered by knowledge/skill-building training and by hosting bi-annual focus groups to elicit input that will be analyzed to assess priorities and facilitate data-driven decisions and actions.
Key Strategies
- Facilitate biannual focus groups of employees to identify causes of employee experience (as noted in the ANR@worksurvey) and utilize information to inform a strategic and accountable action plan, including training and accountability metrics by June 2026 to be delivered starting July 2026 and ongoing.
- Formalize and establish regional community advisory boards – focusing initially on the UC ANR Native American Advisory Council by Spring 2026 to enhance stronger partnerships and cultural learning to support diverse communities in California.
- Implement the operationalization of the Principles of Community with specific yearly actions for all units/counties/RECs across UC ANR by June 2028 and embed them across the organization and incorporate into staff and academic performance evaluations by June 2029. (WIB Unit, ELR & HR, AD/CDs, Academic and Staff Assembly)
- Establish an annual workshop series focused on developing the skills to implement community responsive engagement tools and protocols to support diverse CA communities by June 2028. (WIB, L&D, Publications, IT, HR).
- Increase and expand the impact of Affinity and Employee Resource Groups through enhanced understanding of current and future experiences for leaders/members, elevating infrastructure and best practices, and organizational engagement on key priorities year over year through June 2030.