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Spartanburg Water System and Spartanburg Sanitary Sewer District (SWS/SSSD), located inSpartanburg, South Carolina, along the Interstate 85 corridor between Charlotte, North Carolina,and Atlanta, Georgia, became concerned in the mid-nineties that its workforce predominantlyconsisted of white males, particularly in management areas. Moreover, both females andminorities accounted for only 10% of promotions and newly hired employees. Since both theCity and County of Spartanburg are culturally diverse, the governing boards of both SWS andSSSD recognized an immediate need to improve the level of diversity within the utility and alsoto bring about change in the workplace culture.Beginning in 1996, SWS/SSSD embarked on a process aimed at increasing the number of femaleand minority new hires and promotions, and perhaps more importantly, implementing a changein the workplace culture that would allow diversity to be embraced as well as to flourish. Thisprocess consisted of three critical elements:diversity education/training;job recruitment efforts aimed at specific groups; and,evaluating/removing internal barriers that impeded workplace diversity.Each of these elements was critical in changing long-standing cultural beliefs and behaviors. Anatmosphere open to new suggestions, meaningful dialogue, and change was necessary to effect awholesale utility-wide cultural change. More importantly, there was an overwhelming desire tohave the composition of the staff mirror that of the community it serves with regard to race andgender.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Number of Pages: 4File Size: 1 file , 110 KB