Impact of DEI in Workplace

Cheryl Kern, Vice President, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, MillerKnoll

Cheryl Kern is the Vice president, of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at MillerKnoll. An experienced executive with cross-disciplinary expertise in the manufacturing, distribution, and consumer packaged goods industries, Kern is now leading strategy development and alignment of MillerKnoll’s key priorities related to driving business results, maximizing the contributions of people, and fostering supplier and community engagement.

Prior to MillerKnoll, Kern was Corporate Director, Global Diversity & Inclusion at Lockheed Martin, where she set and advanced diversity and inclusion as a business and talent imperative. Kern has been recognized as a Top Diversity Executive in Corporate America by Black Enterprise, was a Champion of Diversity Award recipient, has been honored with the Diversity Salute Award, and was named one of the 2022 Top 10 Influential Women in Diversity by the Diversity Global Magazine. As a thought leader, she has partnered on designing in-country inclusion solutions with stakeholders in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Australia.

What difficulties do enterprises have when implementing DEI?

When it comes to implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, we observe that businesses struggle with problems that fall into two distinct categories. The first obstacle is the traditional challenge of getting buy-in or acceptance, which continues today. Second, incidents such as the external racial awakening caused by the death of George Floyd and the mid-COVID impact on the Great Recession, have added another level of complexity to the issues we previously faced with diversity, equity, and inclusion.

What are some of the recent trends impacting DEI space today?

To be successful, one needs to help employees do well by thriving financially but also do good for society as a whole and take care of people and the planet. Companies first need to understand how to differentiate themselves from the rest to attract the best talent.

“We’re on the journey toward creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization. To be impactful, we must foster safe spaces for our employees, ensure their well-being, give back to our communities and create pathways for underrepresented groups.”

I believe it is crucial for today’s market to engage employees and listen while getting as close to the source of the truth as possible. Therefore, the marketing brand team at MillerKnoll regularly travels across the U.S. to meet with various stakeholders representing a variety of business divisions and conducts listening sessions. This allows our organization to get as close as possible to the source of truth of what really is being felt and perceived by our partners. In addition, we, as a company, are driven by the mission and vision of designing for the good of humankind. 

What are some of the projects that you have recently worked on?

Recently, we held a series of candid conversations focused on deepening empathy and increasing understanding across differences with our employees.  We believe that efforts like this help us attract talent because people nowadays expect to come to an organization that is serious about diversity, equity, and inclusion and be able to actively participate in the work. There is such fierce competition for talented people right now. We devote a lot of time and focus on DEI programs with our employees. We value their contributions to our DEI work, and we want our employees to feel that they have a place at our company and that they can stay and grow their careers.  

What would be your piece of advice for budding professionals in this field?

We all need to use a “multiplier effect” by leveraging skills and inspiring others in our organizations to get involved, support the work, and say, “I can own and drive this.” The DEI team, the leadership team, the HR leadership team, and the communications team all help make that work possible, but we won’t be able to make the long-term, systemic changes if we can’t bring champions along with us - that multiplier effect is really needed for this work.

Leveraging technology in creative ways is key to getting others to participate and reach people wherever they are. Technology is a huge multiplier effect that will help advance DEI initiatives in the future to improve and expand all the impacts it can have.