We believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion should be embedded throughout an organization’s culture (and part of its daily operations). Frequent conversations/forums and trainings will help team members understand the importance of DE&I to their professional and personal success. We offer a variety of diversity, equity, and inclusion services such as assessing, developing, and enhancing inclusive environments, creating global DE&I strategies, holding inclusion trainings, building recruitment pipelines, and many more.

The Barthwell Group Approach

The Barthwell Group has creative, proprietary methods to help clients enhance the diversity, equity, and inclusion of their organizations. We focus on understanding the organization’s climate for diversity by obtaining the frank input of its stakeholders, developing an interactive strategy to enhance diversity, creating sustainable pipelines to increase diverse personnel, coordinating the implementation of the diversity strategy, and monitoring progress against quantifiable metrics. As part of our services we often assist our clients in building sustainable, mutually beneficial relationships with institutions and organizations (including minority serving institutions) which consistently yield highly-qualified diverse candidates, and create customized, engaging training programs to ensure “buy-in” among stakeholders.

The Barthwell Group’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Expertise

  • Recruitment Pipelines
  • Inclusive Environments
  • Global D&I Strategies
  • STEM Collaborations
  • Veterans, Persons with Disabilities
  • D&I Summits
  • Recruitment of Diverse Board Members
  • Inclusion Training
  • Inclusive Culture Assessments
  • Recruitment and Retention Strategies

The Barthwell Group Solution’s for Diversity and Inclusion Enhancement:

  • Understand the Client’s Diversity and Inclusion Goals
  • Conduct a comprehensive assessment of the current environment
  • Develop and implement a customized interactive strategy to enhance diversity and inclusion
  • Build relationships with pipelines which provide sustainable pools of highly qualified diverse talent (e.g., minority serving institutions and organizations)
  • Develop tools to measure results

Case Studies

Enhancing the Diversity Recruitment Practices and Inclusive Environment at a Research Division of a Branch of the U.S. Military

Challenge

Although the research division of a branch of the U.S. military had several relationships with Minority Serving Institutions, these relationships were not attracting sufficient diverse candidates to its work force. Annual employee surveys indicated some dissatisfaction among minorities with the work environment, but did not provide in-depth explanations of the causes.

The Barthwell Group Solution

The Barthwell Group developed customized assessment instruments and interviewed over 160 stakeholders from 24 MSIs and four military bases in order to gain in-depth insights regarding: (i) the relationship between the Client and the MSIs, and (ii) the environment for diverse professionals within the Client’s organization. The comprehensive analysis, presented by The Barthwell Group to the Division’s highest governing body, provided the Client with new, substantive insights and actionable recommendations to enhance its relationships with MSIs and the environment for minority professionals. The Division implemented many of these recommendations.

Developing a Diversity Recruitment Program for a Fortune 500 Company

Challenge

Although a division of a Fortune 500 company had longstanding relationships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (“HBCUs”), these relationships were not yielding fruitful business relationships or resulting in an influx of diverse employees. The Client recognized that the relationships had been developed in an ad-hoc fashion as opposed to strategically.

The Barthwell Group Solution

The Barthwell Group identified the capabilities required by the Client to form productive partnerships with higher education institutions. Leveraging government legislation that classified HBCUs as small disadvantaged businesses, The Barthwell Group designed a program where the Client would place contracts with selected HBCUs in order to meet internal and external small business requirements and whereby its employees and high-quality minority students began to build relationships. After conducting a scan of 104 HBCUs, we developed comprehensive profiles of ten institutions which enabled the Client to see the depth, breadth, and alignment of the institutions’ capabilities with its requirements. In less than 30 days, we leveraged our longstanding relationships with HBCUs to enable the Client to issue contracts to the selected HBCUs. All projects were completed on time and within budget. All institutions entered into a second round of contracts, and the Client recruited interns and employees through these relationships.

Creating and Implementing a STEM Collaboration between a Large State University and 12 HBCUs

Challenge

A large state university was unable to attract diverse graduate students in numbers commensurate with its state’s population. In addition, the University was leaving research dollars on the table because it often could not provide the minority partners required by some federal agencies. The president wanted to build mutually beneficial relationships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (“HBCUs”) to address these challenges.

The Barthwell Group Solution

The Barthwell Group developed a multifaceted program designed to provide mutual benefit to the HBCU partners and the Client. After interfacing with stakeholders at the Client, and executives at HBCUs, the Department of Education, and foundation executives, we developed the concept for a collaboration which would create a partnership between the Client and multiple HBCUs in a multifaceted program to increase minority graduate students and professionals in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (“STEM”) disciplines.

Next, we conducted a comprehensive scan of the 100+ HBCUs to determine those which met the requirements for partnership (previously developed with the Client). We leveraged our longstanding excellent relationships with HBCUs to develop the partnership between the Client and multiple HBCUs. During the first two years, The Barthwell Group coordinated the implementation of the collaboration by ensuring regular communication among the partners. We also monitored the operation of a summer research program involving HBCU and the Client’s students in the STEM disciplines, and assisted in the development of faculty STEM research collaborations among the partners.

Finally, we ensured the sustainability of the collaboration and identified additional funding sources. The highly successful collaboration enabled more than 85 students to engage in intensive research experiences and resulted in 97% of the participants in its Summer Scholars Institute indicating that they will pursue graduate degrees in the STEM disciplines. Participation in the Summer Scholars Institute more than tripled, and the collaboration developed research relationships among the faculty of the partners.

Creating a Dynamic Diversity Recruitment Program for a Branch of the U.S. Military

Challenge

A branch of the U.S. military was unable to recruit sufficient numbers of officer candidates from underrepresented populations. Recruitment efforts previously had focused on campus visits, college fairs, and limited sponsorships.

The Barthwell Group Solution

The Barthwell Group developed a creative, dynamic, and engaging diversity recruitment training program for all of the military branch’s officer recruitment officers. The program demonstrated tangible methods to build relationships with higher education institutions (including Minority Serving Institutions) and organizations which would be sustainable pools of diverse talent. In addition, our training team included representatives from multiple potential diversity pipelines thereby enabling the trainees to build relationships on the spot. We provided the trainees with approximately 90 profiles of potential recruitment sources and each participant developed a customized diversity recruitment plan.

Enhancing Employee Diversity at a Fortune Global 500 Corporation

Challenge

The U.S. subsidiary of a Fortune Global 500 company was not having the desired success in creating an environment where all persons regardless of differences would be able to contribute maximum value. In addition, although its customer base was becoming increasingly diverse, its work force did not reflect this diversity. Although the company had recently formed a Diversity Council comprised of top leadership, the council did not have a clear strategy to carry out its mission.

The Barthwell Group Solution

The Barthwell Group developed a phased approach to assist the Client. During Phase I, we conducted an assessment to obtain feedback from Diversity Council members regarding the key challenges which needed to be resolved to enhance inclusion and the actions which the Council should undertake. We then engaged the Diversity Council in successfully developing its strategy. During Phase II, we used the assessment and other tools to implement an effective strategy to ensure an inclusive environment which enhanced its competitiveness as it underwent substantive organizational changes.