2022 Best EDI Workplace: Jacobs
Accepting on behalf of Jacobs is Dan Kirby and Ellen Patterson.
In 2022, the Executive Committee, with assistance from the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee, created the Chapter Award for Best EDI Workplace. The recipient must demonstrate achievement and commitment to expanding equity, diversity, and inclusion as a planning agency or firm in Florida. For this award, diversity should be interpreted broadly, including age, race, disability, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, and/or veteran status.
The criteria for the Chapter Award for Best EDI Workplace include:
- Diversity of employees;
- Diversity of management;
- Equity/inclusion practices;
- Budgeted or pro bono service to under resourced communities, community, or student associations, and/or educational institutions; and
- Other efforts to promote a culture of inclusion and belonging.
This year’s recipient is Jacobs.
Jacobs is creating a culture of belonging where everyone can thrive, and they call that culture TogetherBeyond. Jacobs has actively implemented TogetherBeyond by:
Instituting in 2020 its Action Plan for Advancing Justice and Equity. The plan’s critical components are:
- Amplify culture of belonging.
- Recruit, retain, and advance Black employees based on merit to achieve proportional representation in Jacobs to the overall external population.
- Contribute to structural change in the broader society.
Requiring Conscious Inclusion Training for all employees.
Supporting Employee Networks, including:
- ACE for employees living with disabilities, neurodiversity, and long-term health concerns.
- Enlace, which links with Latino communities.
- Prism, a LGBTQ+ and allies network.
- VetNet for veterans and allies.
- OneWorld, which celebrates all cultures.
- Women’s Network, which promotes gender inclusion.
Supporting employee involvement in local community activities, such as its Jacksonville Office’s Bikes-n-Bytes Program, through which employees have donated (for the past 18 years) bicycles and computers to students and families in Northeast Florida.