Page 10 - BusinessWest Macrh 6, 2023

EDITORIAL >>
Losing More Than Population
The numbers are alarming — on many levels.
From July 2021 to July 2022, more than 57,000 more people moved out of the state than into it, one of the high- est rates of what is being called ‘domestic outmigration’ in the country. And if you go back to April 2020, the number soars beyond 110,000.
That’s a lot of people who decided they couldn’t make in Mas- sachusetts anymore, or didn’t want to try. And these numbers should get everyone’s attention, because these departures are not good for individual cities and towns, or for the Commonwealth’s technology-driven economy.
It’s enough of a problem that Gov. Maura Healey made it one of the focal points of her inaugural address last month, stating “this is greatest state in the union, but people are leaving at some of the highest rates in the country — giving up on the Massachu- setts story.”
It’s possible that some people are giving up because of the cold (and we don’t even have as much of that as we used to), or the traffic (in the Boston area), or the decidedly liberal nature of the State House, or even the ‘millionare’s tax.’ This might explain why more than 20,000 of those who have left have moved to New Hampshire, where taxes are much lower and elected leaders are much more conservative.
But it seems clear that most are leaving because they simply can’t afford to live here anymore.
That’s especially true in the eastern part of the state, where taxes are sky-high, home prices are through the roof, and other costs, including childcare, are becoming increasingly prohibitive.
“Affordability in Massachusetts has dropped dramatically,” Nadia Evangelou, senior economist for the National Assoc. of
OPINION >>
Realtors, told the Boston Globe recently.
We have a few thoughts on this problem. First, state leaders
need to do something to address the housing problem here. The term ‘affordable housing’ has a shifting definition in Massachu- setts and other states where there are plentiful, attractive jobs, but however it is defined, the state simply needs to create more of it. If it doesn’t, more people will leave or, in the case of graduating college students, settle somewhere else.
In the meantime, economic-development leaders in Western Mass. should double down on their efforts to try to convince people that if they want to escape the high prices (if not the cold), they don’t have to leave the state; they just have to look west of Worcester.
Indeed, while some communities in this part of the state are expensive, most are quite reasonable. And there isn’t nearly as much traffic. And the costs of childcare are considerably lower. And with the advent of remote work, you can have all of this and still work for IT and financial-services companies based in Boston or Cambridge.
Those of us Western Mass. know all this, and most people living in Newton, Wellesley, or Lexington know as well, but it wouldn’t hurt for this region to market itself more aggressively, especially in the eastern part of the state.
Doing so would benefit not only the Western Mass. region, where many communities have lost population and professionals of all kinds are needed, but the state as well.
Indeed, until ways can be found to somehow make this state, and especially the Boston area, more affordable, we need to focus on ways to inspire people to move from one end of the state to the other, instead of out of it altogether. BW
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Moving DEI Initiatives Forward
BY MEREDITH WISE
DEI Initiatives are very much in our conversations. However, the HR Trends 2023 survey by McLean & Co. show that actions on these initiatives have stalled for the second year
in a row.
This study highlights human-resources priorities and challeng-
es, comparing current-year results to prior years. In 2021, DEI efforts jumped from eighth place in 2020 to fourth place largely due to national and global conversations and actions around equi- ty and social justice. In 2022, these efforts fell to fifth place, and this year they have dropped to sixth on the HR priority list.
In our work helping companies develop roadmaps for DEI, a handful of key areas are lacking: dedicated time to focus on DEI, leadership support, training, and resources.
According to the study, governance, leadership buy-in, strate- gic discussions, and data collection are the common roadblocks to moving DEI efforts forward. Actions and planning can refocus your organization’s initiatives.
Leadership: Senior leaders should model DEI behaviors in
all their interactions and communications. Training alone will
not move your goals along. Moving beyond awareness training to competency learning opportunities will help elevate the support from leadership. The data in the study demonstrated that the 40% of organizations that leverage competency-based training are more likely to be high-performing in DEI compared to those lever- aging awareness-based training.
Communications: DEI-related topics and performance should be woven into regular communication cadences from leaders and HR functions. Active communication and discussions about initia- tives, actions, and challenges need to happen.
Formal DEI Strategy: Sixty-three percent of respondents indicated they did not have a formal or documented DEI strategy. This percentage has remained stable over the past three years. Policies and practices document how DEI programs will oper- ate in the organization. These policies should address how DEI considerations are integrated, including the employee experience, performance management, recruiting, retention, advancement, compensation, and more.
Data: Understanding that time is at a premium for HR teams and professionals, initiatives in 2023 may best be focused on data collection and analysis. This data will shape strategy, dem- onstrate gaps and urgency to the organization, and allow for informed decisions on a formal strategy and governance.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution; however, with a combina- tion of leadership support, resources, and a dedicated team, orga- nizations will more likely become high performing versus those without this focus.
According to the study, recruiting is once again the number- one priority on HR professionals’ minds for the third year in a row. Although DEI has fallen further down the list, this work does not exist in a silo — maintaining momentum on DEI efforts will support other priorities, including talent attraction and retention.
It’s also good news that embedding DEI into organizational culture and processes does not require a degree in advanced physics. All that’s needed to operationalize DEI is the right com- mitment, planning, and structure. BW
Meredith Wise is president of the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast. This article first appeared on the EANE blog; eane.org
10 MARCH 6, 2023
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