How To Use Diversity and Inclusion to Grow Our Business with Charlene Parlett
July 5, 2022
Even if we don’t realize it, and perhaps just like any other industry, the automotive space is traversed by biases that determine how we treat and expect our internal customers to be and, above all things, how we attract and retain them.
In this episode, Charlene Parlett visits us to raise awareness over the importance of thinking more about diversity and inclusion when writing our hiring ads, during our daily conversations, and how we can make our businesses more appealing to the needs of the modern working class.
Charlene is an Executive Coach and Speaker at the Automotive Training Institute, Managing Shareholder of IRS Assistance, and a Master Certified Business Coach and Owner of Seamless Coaching Service. She is also part of the Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion & Advancement (CADIA), an organization created to promote inclusion and diversity in the automotive industry, help minorities advance in their careers, and reach C-Suite level positions.
Throughout our conversation, Charlene explained the multiple benefits of thinking more inclusively and using this skill to attract the perfect fit for our business and create a space where internal customers can offer their best version and decide to build a career. We also discuss parental leaves, religious holidays, how to attract younger people to the industry, and much more.
In this episode, you will learn:
- Why it is crucial to understand the role of inclusion and diversity in our business growth and evolution (2:04)
- Charlene talks about why she joined CADIA and the work they perform (4:13)
- Charlene talks about some of the automotive industry’s most common biases (8:45)
- Charlene talks about how society shifted how they see parenting and the industry’s need to adapt to it (10:11)
- Charlene shares an exciting idea on internal customers and transportation (16:19)
- Charlene talks about flexible schedules and how companies should think about it (24:10)
- Charlene explains how to write appealing ads to attract the right people to work with us (31:51)
