Episcopal Retirement Services

"The two main things I learned as an Administrator in Training are that relationships are essential and you must be compassionate.
"During my training, I shadowed team members in different roles and departments. So, compassion and relationships were key."
"When I worked with maintenance, and in the dining room, for example, I got to see how fast-paced those departments were." — Jomiya Coleman

We Can Do Better (WCDB), the Episcopal Retirement Services (ERS) anti-racism initiative, continues to develop more than a year after the staff dialogue began.
The leaders and managers of ERS continue to give team members the tools to learn about being an ally to underrepresented communities through panel discussions and confronting bias. But now, ERS is also taking steps to benchmark our diversity numbers and create new affinity groups to support underrepresented staff success at ERS. ERS defines underrepresented as self-reported black, brown, Hispanic, Asian, and LGBTQ persons.
“It’s been a wonderful year learning from our colleagues and friends about their life experiences and how we can be better allies to our black and brown brothers and sisters. In the next phase of WCDB, we are moving into action, looking at how ERS as an organization can better support underrepresented staff,” says ERS President and CEO Laura Lamb.
The Servant Leadership Team (SLT) formed the WCDB initiative in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and the summer of Black Lives Matter protests that followed. It began in June 2020 as a series of conversations and educational sessions regarding racial injustice and racism.
WCDB exemplifies two of ERS’s Core Values: Inclusion and Relationships, says Vice President of Human Resources & Organizational Development Joan Wetzel.
“If we are going to honor relationships, I think WCDB helps us to honor those even more. Knowing what people are going through and their experiences outside of work makes me a more empathic individual,” Wetzel says.

ERS Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Scorecard
ERS recently released a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Scorecard to take a deeper look into how our organization reflects our community by gender and race. The scorecard is part of the 2021 We Can Do Better goals that also include:
Examining HR practices for systematic biases and updating protocols to make them more inclusive.
Evaluating our resident marketing efforts for Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) and identifying opportunities to increase the diversity of residents in our CCRCs.
Creating a staff scholarship for underrepresented staff in aging services, including evaluating our Next Generation Leadership program.
The scorecard reveals that while our overall demographics show a racially diverse staff (nearly half of the team identify with an underrepresented group), the inclusive numbers shrink in managerial and supervisory positions. (Please see the scorecard online at erslife.info/WCDBscorecard). The goal over time is to have management more closely mirror staff representation.
While gender and racial gaps are prominent on the ERS Corporate Board, equity has improved. For instance, there were no black or brown members on the board in 2016. Underrepresented groups now comprise 22 percent of the board.

Read the latest here: https://blog.episcopalretirement.com/we-can-do-better-scorecard-update

At ERS, our talented team members in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana work every day to contribute to the lives of older adults.
ERS is one of Cincinnati’s Top Workplaces and has been for the past
ten years. At ERS, our mission is to enrich the lives of older adults in a
person-centered, innovative and spiritually based way. Read more about what our young professionals think about their rewarding careers at ERS.

Our core values create an unwavering and unchanging guide for how we advance our mission.

Relationships: Recognizing and encouraging deep and meaningful relationships among all we serve and believing all individuals have infinite worth and deserve respect.

Integrity: Acting under the highest ethical standards with honesty, trustworthiness, transparency, and sincerity.

Engagement: Expecting all to be in a relationship with those we serve and work. Participate in decision-making to improve elders’ lives, our work environment, and the services we offer.

Inclusion: Valuing collaboration and diversity of thought, experiences, and perspective. Appreciating that we are better together, leveraging our strengths and differences.

Person-Centeredness: Restoring freedom, choice, and purpose to those we serve and with whom we work. Leading in an individualized, strength-based way using Servant Leadership principles.

Progressive Thinking: Encouraging innovation and respectfully challenging the status quo to create breakthroughs in thinking, systems, and practices. Encouraging life-long learning.

Take a closer look at ERS and discover for yourself why we are known for offering something special to those we serve. You will find that we have earned our reputation for honesty, professionalism, integrity, and incredible standards of service and caregiving.

At ERS, our talented team members in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana work every day to contribute to the lives of older adults. ERS is one of Cincinnati’s Top Workplaces and has been for the past ten years. At ERS, our mission is to enrich the lives of older adults in a person-centered, innovative and spiritually based way.