Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Scion Executive Search – A Dedicated Nonprofit Diversity Executive Search Firm
At Scion Executive Search, we believe that diverse teams are not only a strength, but an essential part of success for any organization. Creating diversity in nonprofit foundations and organizations from the top down is a critical part of this belief. This is why we recognize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as one of our core values. At the core of our organization as a socially conscious diversity executive search firm, we are passionate about making sure that our clients do everything possible to promote and ensure that their entire search process, from applications to interviews, is thoughtfully equitable, inclusive, and beneficial for all applicants, including those from a diverse background. Our nonprofit executive search firm maintains the willingness to ask questions and make best practice recommendations to our clients, candidates, and vendors to achieve this goal.
Building Strong Nonprofit Leadership Teams with a DEI Lens
At Scion Executive Search, we understand the importance of empowering our clients’ goals to build, maintain, and cultivate exceptional leadership teams with a lens for diversity, inclusion, and equity. Today’s landscape is more competitive than ever, so focusing on the opportunity to build leadership teams with the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion is more than just a strategy. When your organization makes the decision to focus on building diverse, equitable, and inclusive leadership teams, it has been proven to not only lead to success, but also improves the overall culture of your workplace environment. These positive business practices and ideals can help attract top talent to your organization and create an avalanche of impact for your mission.
Our market is continuing to become more competitive, and each employer is racing to attract the top executive talent available in the talent pool. Scion Executive Search is committed to creating business relationships that are both meaningful and impactful. This is why our executive recruitment and interview process are all critical parts of our diversity search services. Our team is proud to connect our clients with a broad range of qualified and proven professionals that represent many different diverse backgrounds and perspectives. We don’t see diversity, equity, and inclusion as “buzzwords” or a box to check. We practice diversity recruiting as a transparent process to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce internally and within the relationships we build as a firm. The combination of DEI with our proven executive recruitment process is what makes Scion Executive Search specialists in diverse and equitable nonprofit executive search.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Executive Leadership
In today’s competitive environment, every organization is looking for the best way to maximize their potential. Creating diverse leadership teams is one of the best ways to improve company culture and create a workplace that harbors success. However, most organizations see DEI as a way for them to check a box rather than finding the most qualified candidates to lead their organization. Based on recent studies, nearly 75% of executive directors in the United States identify themselves as being white, while only 9% identify as African American or black, 6% identify as Hispanic or Latinx, 8% identify as Asian/Pacific Islander, 1% identify as Native American or Alaskan Native, and 4% identify as multiracial or other. 60% of the surveyed executive directors identified themselves as female, according to this report. We know that diverse teams lead to successful missions and impactful work.
Internal Diversity and Ongoing Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Scion Executive Search
Since 2006, Scion Executive Search has remained committed to building and employing a diverse team of professional recruiting experts. Today as a firm, more than 50% of our internal team self-identifies as being an individual from a diverse background. As an employer, we remain steadfast in our commitment to facilitate continued growth with an emphasis on DEI as our core practice. We are always looking for innovative and creative ways to continue to enhance our own company by striving every day to become a more welcoming and inclusive place to work, as well as offering continuous DEI learning opportunities for our entire team. As proven executive search leaders in the industry, we are proud of the hard work and shared knowledge of our own internal diversity, equity, and inclusion committee. We utilize the knowledge shared by our DEI committee to support the ongoing development of our diversity executive recruiting and search methodologies as well as enhance our collective understanding of best practices specific to diverse and equitable recruiting. This has created a positive experience in finding outstanding candidates with a wide range of skills for a number of executive roles in a number of nonprofit organizations and foundations. In doing so, our knowledge is evolutionary, always improving, and a tremendous benefit to our nonprofit client partners. While we cannot provide legal advice, our search leaders proactively answer questions and provide guidance that supports the pursuit and achievement of your unique equitable, diverse, and inclusive recruiting goals. As part of our client relationship, you will benefit from the significant internal resources we leverage on your behalf to facilitate the buildout of incredibly diverse talent pipelines.
Meet the Scion Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
Joshua Steele – Chair
I am proud to say that the growth and impact of the Scion Staffing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee is having a multiplier effect on the interest and passion that our team brings to our work and clients. With DEI, there is an inherent, wide spectrum of where peoples’ interest and passion is.
Candice Zemina
Embracing diversity, equity, inclusion, representation, and an overall sense of belonging can significantly change perceptions of the world around you. Letting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging be a foundational part of how you approach others in your personal and professional life creates an environment that people want to be a part of.
Sarah Kurhajetz
There are many benefits of incorporating DEI strategies into the workplace, but for me, the most important is creating a sense of belonging for employees. For employees to do their best work and to expand their professional capacity, it’s critical that they feel a sense of belonging with their colleagues. With a sense of belonging comes a feeling of trust and safety. When trust and safety are present, employees feel comfortable asking for help, taking risks, making mistakes (and learning from them), as well as providing support to their co-workers.
Scion’s Internal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
At Scion Executive Search, we believe that our work in the world of executive recruiting has a major impact, not only on the amazing talent and clients that we partner with but with our internal staff who make help us reach our DEI goals every day. In the last year, Scion Executive Search has made tremendous strides in the diversity front and as we continue to grow, bigger strides will be made to make the working world a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive place where people of all ethnicities, religion, and abilities will be able to find work and success.
Some of the amazing accomplishments of our DEI Committee include:
Partnership with a DEI Consultant Firm SPARK Equity in Action
Find out more information about our DEI Consultant Partner here.
Our staff is trained in DEI areas such as:
- Building on DEI Foundations
- Microaggressions 101
- DEI and Belonging
- Moving From DEI Awareness to Accountability
- DEI and Unconscious Bias Foundations
- Cultural Sensitivity
- The Intersection of DEI in our Daily Work
- Giving and Receiving Feedback
- Diversity Candidate Search
- Equitable Strategies and Communication
Diversity Candidate Search Blueprint Guide and Diversity Inclusion and Equity Communication Tips for Our Services
We have committed to a DEI Audit of our Processes and Services Every Two Years
Scion has added Juneteenth as a Company-Recognized Holiday
We Established DEI Subcommittees:
- Charter Committee
- Communications Committee
- Strategic Plan Committee
- DEIC Application Process Committee
- Core Committee
- Internal Resources Committee
