Following the release of the DPBS Black Study Group Final Report and department-wide town hall conversations, department leadership initiated three working groups to develop and support implementation of action plans and recommendations to help us move forward in our efforts to address anti-Black racism and advance racial justice in the department.
The three working groups were:
- Faculty recruitment, retention, advancement, and pay equity
- Staff hiring, career advancement and growth, and pay equity
- Improvements in clinical settings
These working groups were limited-duration bodies charged with identifying and delivering clear plans for actions steps and guidelines for implementation and evaluation to the department chair and its executive committee. After completing their work, the working groups submitted the following recommendations:
Clinical settings
- Develop training to connect dots between racial bias and security response and share training resources across sites and campuses
- Training should establish data and event baselines to determine necessary changes; A3s framework
- Improve assessment practices, including:
- Engagement with patients and communities to increase access and cultural salience
- Improve psychological assessment measures
- Assess racial trauma
- Become a welcoming workplace for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) staff by addressing microaggression and facilitating change
- Address under- and over-representation of BIPOC patients in clinical spaces:
- Recruit, retain, and improve staffing reflective of the communities served
- Support culturally appropriate interventions
- Increase community partnerships and collaborations to address service needs
- Address insurance limitations based on sites
- Daily discussion in morning huddles (or other similar meetings) about the commitment to racial equity
- Assessment and post-hash of de-escalation events to explore potential biases that were enacted
- Create a culture of brave space through inclusion in post-event discussions, not just those directly involved
- Work to ensure security is specialized in healthcare, understands psychiatric crises, and racial and equity concerns
- Have security that do not carry guns or wear police-like uniforms
- Have a de-escalation team focused on addressing bias and one that includes mental health staff and chaplaincy
- Respond to needs of and develop reparative, restorative, and respectful process for targeted staff or patients
- Increase coordination between the Department of Public Health and UCSF at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center and other off-campus sites regarding security plans and addressing disparities
Training and consultation
- Undoing anti-Black racism training
- Addressing racial trauma initiative
- Online resource page
- Safe spaces and pods for Black employees
- Undoing anti-Black racism advisor
Staff hiring and career advancement
- Involve current staff and alumni in recruitment of Black staff to create networking resources and events
- Recruit in historically Black neighborhoods, school districts, colleges, and universities
- Offer incentives towards staff recruitment and retention
- Provide equitable pay across divisions and work sites; review and update contracts to address disparity in funding and salaries of divisions/programs whose core mission is to serve all, regardless of insurance or ability to pay for services
- Increased transparency in hiring, advancement ,and retention of Black employees
- Increased transparency of pay scales, compensation packages, job classifications, and steps
- Expand who is considered faculty to include disciplines that have greater representation of Black staff members (e.g., social workers and other “ancillary” providers)
- Update formula for determining classification/step or stipends to weigh personal factors (e.g., relevant work history before earning a degree or licensure, bilingual skills, life experience, volunteerism, etc.)
- Update formula for determining classification/step or stipends to weigh job-specific factors/responsibilities (e.g., higher safety risks, working with traditionally oppressed and underserved populations)
- De-identify job applications and resumes before forwarding applicant info to hiring manager
- Ensure existing policies are upheld and adhered to in onboarding of Black employees
- Prominently display diversity statements and anti-racist values about how people should behave towards each other
- Provide a career map to all staff upon hire
- Offer videos and visual materials from Human Resources to help staff clearly understand their role and job classification
- Ensure Black employees are recognized for their professional contributions
- Provide appreciation cards that acknowledges people who made extra effort in supporting Black staff
- Honor those who help improve equity
- Create a support network for employees considering resignation due to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues
- Compensate individuals who are covering vacant roles or leaves
- Make exit interviews with Human Resources a standard practice, and include questions regarding Black staff’s work experience and all staff’s input about opportunities to improve DEI in their units, departments, divisions, and within UCSF
- Create a DPBS dashboard that includes metrics from exit interviews and departures (e.g., top three reasons cited for leaving, top three reasons that would incentivize a return)
Faculty hiring and recruitment
- Examine best practices and current recruitment practices to inform strategies to recruit more Black employees (i.e., faculty, staff, clinicians, postdoctoral fellows, and interns/trainees)
- Increase UCSF visibility in Black communities to encourage recruitment of more Black employees
- Include more intentional language in job postings to support increased hiring of Black employees
- Promote positions that incorporate and emphasize anti-Black racism values and cultural responsiveness
- Work with Human Resources and managers/supervisors to expand partnerships and visibility with Black and other underrepresented minority-focused entities and institutions for hiring and job opportunity dissemination
- Leverage existing local and national community-academic partnerships that can strengthen engagement and build trust with the Black community, which can ultimately aid with publicizing and promoting job openings
- Foster ongoing relationships with alumni from the Black community
- Reach out to the Black Caucus at UCSF to strategize on outreach opportunities
- Develop and promote use of DEI hiring tools in DPBS; use the VA’s "DEI-Informed Hiring Toolkit" as possible model to develop something broader
Faculty retention and advancement
- Broaden mentorship for faculty by connecting with UCSF Black Caucus and outreach to other UCSF departments and UC campuses for suggestions and advice
- Promote use of NIH diversity supplements by increasing awareness
- Look at ways to pay or provide credit (or other compensation) to mentors from communities underrepresented in medicine
- Double down on efforts to identify and address pay inequities, specifically in supporting ongoing efforts of the Diversity Committee
- Encourage discussion and necessary flexibility related to the impact of racial trauma on retention and advancement
- Provide guidance to leadership and supervisors on how to encourage open dialogue around faculty experience with racism to determine impact on work and explain how leadership can help
- Consider incorporating the impact of racism and racial trauma in the faculty advancement process
- Ensure faculty contributions to diversity are incorporated into the advancement process and related decisions (e.g., DEI statements)
- Look at ways to promote and uplift community and diversity-oriented research
