Elements of Novant Health’s commitment to diversity and inclusion include:
CEO Commitment: Novant Health’s president and CEO engaged in a journey to embed diversity and inclusion (D&I) throughout the organization. The journey began with D&I being added as one of the organization’s five core values and incorporating language into the strategic business imperatives.
Strategy Integration: For Novant Health, diversity, inclusion and equity is a long- term culture change effort. A key strategic component is having the Nominating and Governance Committee of the board serve as the oversight committee for ensuring the success of Novant Health in embedding diversity, inclusion and equity. The EVP and Chief Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Officer is assigned to this committee and has shared the comprehensive, systemwide diversity, inclusion and equity strategic plan with the entire board.
Innovation: Much of Novant’s innovation is focused on how the company embeds diversity, inclusion and equity. For example, the company transcreated a Novant website in Spanish with feedback from the Latino community; made a $4.3 million investment in the economic mobility of its own team members by increasing the living wage minimum for specific job roles and by creating a ‘CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) – to-RN’ program; partnered with an organization called Doctors without Accent Borders which is charged with identifying what rules in patients’ native language may inhibit clear communication.
LIFT (Leveraging Internal Female Talent): Under this initiative, an accelerated leadership development program for high potential women, 45 percent of the participants have either been promoted or increased their scope of work in the organization. Novant Health and Mechanics & Farmers Bank (the second largest minority owned bank in the United States) entered into a joint venture to develop the Diverse Supplier Community Reinvestment Program, a loan program designed to provide working capital to small business owners.
Through a $5-million-dollar investment, Novant Health provides loan guarantees to its diverse suppliers to enhance the financial health of small, diverse businesses.
In the Charlotte market, Novant Health’s contributions include an investment of $8,750 to MeckEd’s Career Pathways. This program is designed to address the increasing college and career readiness gaps facing our most vulnerable student populations. Novant Health’s contribution will assist in providing supportive services to students placed in Healthcare related internships.
In our Winston-Salem Market, Novant Health invested $230,000 in programs that support early education and work to build a pipeline for the future health-care workforce including a partnership with Forsyth Technical Community College to bring cutting edge technology to their health sciences programs and introducing high school students to healthcare careers through an Explorers Post at Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center.
