At the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), we embed the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) into everything we do, to live out our mission: To empower the growth of the Minnesota economy for everyone.
We recognize that DEIA are vital to organizational development, especially in today’s evolving business environment. Our agency continuously gains value from DEIA efforts as we experience transformation our workplace culture, increase employee engagement, and ultimately improve organizational outcomes.
To bring our mission to life, we begin with ourselves. Here’s how we actively weave DEIA principles throughout our agency to build a culture of belonging—one that equips us to provide culturally responsive services to all Minnesotans while addressing systemic economic barriers.
Over the years, we’ve explicitly named DEIA as core organizational values. We’ve reimagined our hiring and personnel practices, created leadership and employee-led workgroups, invested in staff learning opportunities, and implemented accountability systems—all alignment with our DEIA goals.
The three primary pillars of this work include culture, talent, and education. These key focus areas are broken down below and highlight examples of how we are creating a culture of belonging for our employees:
Culture
We actively build a positive internal culture that makes DEED an extraordinary place to work. We support our employees, value their unique talents and perspectives, and unite around our shared mission, values, and goals.
- We launched Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to bring together employees who share common identities (e.g., ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status) and their allies. These groups foster belonging, support, and community while advancing DEIA across the workplace.
- We create community spaces where employees can address societal issues that impact them. These include Community Reflections, Critical Conversations, and Listening Circles. We listen to our colleagues' voices and provide the support they need to feel seen and valued.
- We engage in open conversations about identity, intersectionality, and related topics during monthly Diversity Spotlights, town halls, and small group discussions. These dialogues help us improve how we serve Minnesotans.
- We host a monthly community of practice for managers and supervisors to learn and share best practices for leading diverse teams. Since leaders shape workplace culture, we prioritize their learning and development.
- Our employee-led DEIA Committee collaborates on agency-wide communications and shares resources that recognize culturally significant dates and events, helping all employees feel appreciated and helping us improve service delivery.
- We conduct annual employee surveys that include DEIA-specific questions. These insights inform our strategies and investments. Results show our DEIA work consistently improves employee satisfaction, as reflected in rising Net Promoter Scores.
Talent
We actively seek talent from underrepresented communities, aim to diversify our leadership, and retain a workforce that reflects the Minnesotans we serve.
- We strive to attract diverse applicant pools so we can hire the most qualified candidates while representing the full diversity of our communities.
- We track representation among individual contributors and leadership to ensure our workforce aligns with state demographics. Currently, our workforce meets or exceeds Minnesota’s representation of underserved populations.
- We’ve enhanced our hiring processes with evidence-based practices that reduce bias and increase inclusivity.
- We now include DEIA commitments in job postings and require cultural competency qualifications for many roles.
- We embed Inclusive Behavior Responsibility Statements in position descriptions and evaluate employees on how well they demonstrate DEED’s value of Creating Inclusion during performance reviews.
Education
We actively support employee learning to build the skills needed to advance economic equity across Minnesota.
- We redesigned new employee orientation to include 'Living DEED’s Values,' which explains how we expect every employee to contribute to an inclusive workplace.
- We offer agency-wide learning on systems change and targeted training for leaders on creating psychological safety.
- We developed an Equity Framework that employees use when making recommendations. This tool ensures our decisions align with equity goals. We require staff to answer questions such as:
- Does this expand opportunities for historically underserved or underrepresented employees or clients?
- Does this remove barriers based on identity (e.g., race, gender, disability)?
- Did we include community members in designing, analyzing, or reviewing this action?
- We launched an Intercultural Skills Development Program to help managers lead diverse teams and deliver accessible, culturally responsive services. As part of this effort:
- Nearly all managers and supervisors completed the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI).
- We provide report debriefs and support to create individual Intercultural Development Plans.
- Employees own their growth and pursue relevant intercultural learning opportunities.
Final Note
We believe that no aspect of identity should determine a Minnesotan’s chance to thrive economically or in employment. The strategies we’ve outlined help DEED employees collaborate, innovate, and deliver the best possible services. As we expand our understanding and intentionally grow together, we commit to proactively building an inclusive workplace and continually upskilling our workforce to serve all Minnesotans with cultural responsiveness and respect.