Diversity:
We respect all voices, all cultures, all perspectives.

What is a diverse organization?

Diversity is about encouraging and enabling all employees to draw fully on their strengths, talents and skills, while creating a healthy, thriving environment for individuals and Compass Health. The broader the range of talents and the wider the sweep of perspectives among employees, the greater the opportunities for Compass Health to flourish.
Diversity takes into account culture, religious beliefs, national origin, ethnicity, age, abilities, gender, gender identity and sexual orientation.
Diversity is also about the environment and culture of our organization, work-site, and one's role within the environment. Diversity seeks to understand the varied histories and experiences that are brought to the environment of the organization.

What is a multicultural organization?

We understand a multicultural organization to be one that values, encourages and affirms diverse modes of being and interacting; and that organizational dialogue occurs in such a way that one culture is not valued more than another; and all cultures are empowered to participate fully in setting goals and in the decision making process.

What is the value of a diverse organization?

We have many kinds of customers: people we serve as professionals; those who contract and pay for services; people in the community who refer; family and friends of those we serve. Each of our customers sees the world from a unique perspective shaped by her or his personal history, as well as ethnic and cultural heritage. Each of us as employees likewise sees the world from a different perspective, bringing a new, creative view to the service work of the organization.

This is the great value of a diverse workforce. We are collectively capable of responding to the varied needs of a diverse community in richly creative ways. The more we as individuals, and as an agency, appreciate our uniqueness and differences, the more we are able to understand and see the world from the perspectives of our many different customers.

Promoting diversity is not a matter of compliance or avoiding penalties imposed by outside entities. Those words reflect a narrow view that has been replaced with a positive, more affirming and appreciative perspective. We believe that the more we can become a diverse, multicultural organization, the more we will thrive as an organization, succeed in our service mission and be financially stable and strong.

This is our perspective at Compass. We will become a more diverse organization only to the extent we take positive action. This is the reason the Leadership Team joined with the Diversity Committee and the staff of Multi-Cultural Services to produce our Diversity Action Plan. The actions we have laid out will touch every part of the organization and require the support and commitment of everyone.

The Compass Health Diversity Action Plan has 10 sections, each with individual action steps. Some of those areas are:

• Diversity training and education
• Diversity in client services
• Recruiting and retaining minority / diverse employees and interns
• Respecting and valuing diversity in personnel practices
• New employee orientation
  
• Evaluation of progress twice a year by Diversity Planning Group