We Must Be The Change - Magazine - Page 21
TALENT
Our commitment over the next five years is to increase
and improve outreach, recruitment, hiring and retention
of diverse groups at all levels of the workforce; ensure
equity in leadership development programs; and seek
diverse candidate slates for management roles. Across our
company, each subsidiary and function will establish lawful
and measurable goals in these areas to achieve by 2025.
CULTURE
The Southern Company system is committed to promoting
an actively anti-racist culture and to ensure that all groups
are well-represented, included and fairly treated within
all levels of the organization and that everyone feels
welcomed, valued, respected and heard.
We will continue to organize active listening sessions
to better understand the experience of our Black and
underrepresented employees. We will work to prevent
barriers that may undermine a sense of empowerment for
our underrepresented employees. We also will review and
evolve our internal business practices and policies to ensure
advancement of our social justice goals.
COMMUNITY
The Southern Company system and its charitable foundations
are committing $200 million over five years to advance
racial equity and social justice in our communities. We will
be vocal and clear, internally and externally, about our racial
equity beliefs, and we will align our volunteer, giving and
community investment strategies to three key pillars we have
prioritized for impact: education, criminal justice reform and
economic empowerment.
In all, $100 million will go to promote educational equality
through direct community investments, scholarships for
underrepresented groups and investment in historically
black colleges and universities. At least $50 million will be
dedicated to criminal justice reform organizations working
to reform the criminal justice system and reduce racial
profiling. An additional $50 million will support economic
empowerment through grants and impact investments.
All employees across the Southern
Company system are expected to embrace
these overarching racial equity ambitions
and commit to continuous personal
education on the topic, engage in open
dialogue with teammates and hold each
other accountable for our success.
Guided by the established framework,
we are putting in the hard work
necessary to achieve the kind of racial
equality that we desire for people of
color at Southern Company.
POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT
Southern Company is committed to leveraging our political
influence to advocate for policies that address systemic
racism across education, criminal justice reform and economic
empowerment. We will make political and policy decisions
using a consistent process that incorporate Our Values.
SUPPLIER DIVERSITY
The Southern Company system is committed to a goal of
increasing our Minority Business Enterprise spend to 20%
and total diverse spend to 30% by 2025 and is committed
to developing and doing business with more Black-owned
businesses in our industry and communities. We will increase
business with diverse and Black-owned businesses and
increase our total spend with MBE and diverse suppliers.
To reinforce this work, we will track progress towards our
ambitions with a clear set of metrics and benchmarks. Each
member of the Southern Company Management Council
will regularly report on these metrics to the CEO.
WE MUST BE THE CHANGE
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