How will your ERG and company involve the next generation in faith@work?

This multi-company panel will share their experiences at a recent nation-wide Case Competition held at BYU for MBA students from across the country competing to provide the best solution for making interfaith initiatives at work sustainable. See their PPT presentations here.

This American Airlines organized panel will describe their roles and responsibilities as ERG leaders to help equip, encourage, and empower the next generation. There will also be a student representative from the BYU case completion on the panel to reflect on its impact from an MBA student’s perspective.

• Fr. Greg McBrayer
  Chief Flight Controller, Chaplain
• American Airlines
• Millicent Rone
• Senior Diversity Specialist
• American Airlines
• Becky Pomerleau
• Senior Director, SOX Program
• Global Co-lead Believe, Interfaith@PayPal
• Ismael Rivera
  Legal Global Operations Senior Analyst
• Equinix

• Sumreen Ahmad
• Principle Director, Accenture Talent and Organization
• Interfaith Executive Sponsor
• Accenture

• Matt Young
  MBA Candidate ’23
• BYU Marriott School of Business

See more about the pan-ERG initiative spearheaded by DELL’s interfaith ERG here.

Why workplaces and organizations need chaplains

Luke McCollum will keynote the final session of Dare to Overcome on the morning of Wednesday, May 24, in Washington DC. His talk comes immediately as the two final tracks of the conference conclude: (a) Workplace Chaplains and (b) Global Dimensions of Faith and Work.

As a leader who has served at both the highest level of the U.S. Navy and corporate America, Luke will speak on his personal experiences with the chaplaincy and it’s role in helping teams become more resilient and high performing.

About Luke McCollum

Luke is a seasoned senior Executive Leader with 30+ years leading large organizations in both public and private sectors. He has lived and worked internationally leading milestone events including building coalitions with allies and partners. He has launched new formats and platforms, enabled international expansion, including product and engineering transformation of omni-channel supply chain operations.

U.S. Senate confirmed to serve four years as leader of America’s Navy Reserve Force (Chief of Navy Reserve) as a 3-star Admiral, Luke led operational readiness, training, and sustainment of over sixty thousand personnel across the globe in support of national security objectives. He was accountable for strategy development, operational planning, and resourcing which included regular Congressional testimony.

Luke recently completed a 25 year corporate career with the retailer Walmart, where he served as a Corporate Vice President in multiple capacities including technology, international, and supply chain.

Register for Dare to Overcome

What will your ERG Dare to Overcome as a result of this year’s conference?!

At Dare to Overcome 2022, Equinix’s Marsie Sweetland heard the story of how Dell Technologies was able to work with A21 to make significant strides in combatting human trafficking. She was immediately inspired and decided to work to unite all of Equinix’s employee resource groups (ERGs) and executive sponsors in a similar campaign.

Equinix’s FaithConnect hosted three global calls with over 600 individuals and raised more than $30,000 to assist A21 in continuing their work. “Equinix’s FaithConnect ERG allowed me to have the kind of social impact I thought I wouldn’t be able to have until I retired,” said Marsie (see her reflections on this at a recent Women’s CEO Roundtable).

At Dare to Overcome 2023, Marsie moderated a discussion by Equinix panelists on Impact/Service Work and how to take your faith-based ERG to the next level (recording above).

EQUINIX PANELISTS

• • Sujata Narayan
    Director, Community Impact and The Equinix Foundation
  • Community & Belonging
  • Dale Konrad
  • Vice President, Global Technical Sales Team
  • Co-Founder, FaithConnect
  • Ismael Rivera
  • Legal Global Operations Senior Analyst
  • FaithConnect Ambassador Americas
  • Marsie Sweetland
    Sr. Client Executive, Global Accounts
  • Founder, FaithConnect

Hear Marsie tell Equinix’s story:

In our previous conferences, participants have heard Dr. Andrew Abela speak about the role of virtue in business. In this year’s talk, he showed how virtue can be considered as the ‘human operating system’.

Dr. Abela discussed how extensive empirical research points to a set of “superhabits” that make up this operating system, how they underlie all human achievement, and how identify your highest priority habit and acquire it.

He introduced the “Anatomy of Greatness,” the 50 habits underlying all human achievement, based on his analysis of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Treaties on the Virtues.

See more at Dare to Overcome.

Real people in a real place, optimistically connecting with genuine respect, warmth and valuable business insights… that’s what will come together in Washington, DC May 22-24 at the 4^th annual Faith@Work ERG conference, Dare to Overcome!

Attendees and presenters will be people of diverse faiths and beliefs, and atheists. Many of them will be representing the most faith-friendly companies anywhere.

Whatever your faith or belief, your presence and voice at this event can help us dismantle the cultural walls that grip many companies today; walls cemented by cynicism, despair, and counter-productive fears of faith-related expression.

Learn from world-class experts about challenges presented by the accelerating use of Artificial Intelligence to facilitate Human Resource decision-making; and what can be done to address those challenges. Learn In all this, get a glimpse of why there’s hope for the future.

Register here, and come join us!

Ethical implications of using AI in HR

On March 28, more than 1,000 tech executives and Artificial Intelligence (AI) experts published an open letter calling for reflection and a pause before continuing to develop powerful AI systems. They said, “Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.” 

Companies are implementing AI in their business processes at a quickening rate. One of the areas for potential concern is AI’s use to facilitate Human Resource decision-making. If such uses are not carefully overseen by real people, the consequences can be destructive. 

Question is: Who should have a seat at the table in designing oversight and tracking mechanisms? Who should companies consult as they consider the possible dangers that should be guarded against? We contend that faith-related perspectives can add a lot of value in this hugely important arena. 

This year’s Dare to Overcome Conference in Washington DC May 22-24 included an expert panel and a separate workshop arranged by our good friends at AI and Faith, a group that includes leading thinkers in the field. The panel and workshop spotlighted the challenges of using AI in HR and illustrate how diverse perspectives of faith and belief can contribute to the needed reflection.  

Speakers include:

• — Kevin Richards, Vice President, Head, Government Relations, SAP
• — Thomas Osborn, COO, Vettd
• — Andrew B. Rogers, Chief Counsel to Commissioner Lucas, EEOC
• — Margot Goodson, Vice President, Head, D&I, North America, SAP
• — Dr. Jared Coyle, Head, Awesome New Stuff, SAP

You can watch the panel above as well as all of the panels on the Dare to Overcome conference page.

“Love your neighbor” – a tenet that cuts across faiths and worldviews, a rule for civil society.

The PayPal Believe Interfaith ERG (employee resource group) recently refocused its mission and branding to be love and light to their customers, communities and co-workers, grounded in a common belief that love is the path to societal and personal healing.

With the theme “Love Heals,” PayPal’s Believe team will kickoff the 2023 Faith@Work National ERG Conference Dare to Overcome on Monday, May 22, at 2:00 PM in Washington DC at the Busch School of Business on the beautiful campus of The Catholic University of America.

Leaders from the Believe ERG will share personal stories of how love has helped them overcome challenges in their lives and share steps we can all take to build bridges between different faiths.

The theme Love Heals will permeate the conference and put to practice what a physician once said, “The best medicine for humans is love.” But then someone asked, “What if that doesn’t work?” The Doc smiled and replied,  “Increase the dose.”

Across the three days of the conference, opportunities to explore what this means will include:

1. Understanding the role of love in healing: Love is a powerful force that can heal emotional and physical wounds. Love can help people overcome their differences and come together, despite their religious or cultural backgrounds.

2. Exploring the connection between faith and love: How do different faiths view love and its healing power? Faith can inspire and motivate people to show love and compassion towards others, even those who may not share their beliefs.

3. Sharing personal stories: Opportunities to share their personal experiences of how love has helped them overcome challenges in their lives. These stories can help to illustrate the healing power of love and inspire others to show more love and compassion towards others.

4. Overcoming barriers to love: How can we overcome the barriers that prevent us from showing love towards others? Fear, ignorance, and prejudice prevent us from showing love and compassion towards those who are different from us.

5. The importance of empathy: Empathy is a key component of love, as it allows us to understand and connect with others on a deeper level. Empathy is important in promoting love and healing in interfaith ERGs.

6. Building bridges across faiths: What steps can we take to build bridges between different faiths and promote understanding and acceptance? Dialogue, education, and outreach are important in promoting interfaith understanding and healing.

PayPal is a Platinum Sponsor of Dare to Overcome.

Here’s how you can be considerate to colleagues and clients during Ramadan

Excerpts from article by BY NUSRAT ALI, Gulf Business

Ramadan is one of the holiest times of the year for Muslims and following the tips below will help you show respect and strengthen your relationship with colleagues, clients, and employees.

1. (1) Given the truncated working times, expect longer turnaround times across and plan your schedule accordingly.
2. (2) This year, Muslims will fast for more than 12 hours. Be considerate of those fasting and avoid scheduling meetings near prayer times or late in the afternoon. Mid-morning meetings are ideal. Ask your clients/ employees if a virtual meeting would be more convenient in Ramadan to avoid driving in the heat.
3. (3) Eating and drinking are not permitted in public places (except in designated areas) during daylight hours. As a sign of respect to those fasting, do not offer any food or drink in meetings. If you are in a virtual meeting, do not eat or drink when the camera is on.
4. (4) Modest attire is always recommended in the UAE and this becomes even more important during Ramadan. Avoid clothing that exposes your shoulders or legs. Don’t wear revealing or short clothing.
5. (5) Ramadan is also a time for strengthening relationships. Enhance business ties by inviting your clients for iftar or arranging a corporate iftar for your employees. Attend when you are invited.
6. (6) Charity is strongly recommended during the month making it the ideal time for giving back to the community.

Read the full article.

Photo: Fr. Greg McBrayer, American Airlines Chief Flight Dispatcher, was recognized for his interfaith work in advance of Ramadan 2023 with the Muslim community in Dallas.

In short, “This is the epicenter of what’s happening in our communities and in our corporations.”

The top reasons for coming to the 4th annual Faith@Work National ERG Conference, in the words of participants, are:

(1) It’s life-changing for me to be able to hear all of the other companies and collaborate with all of the other companies and hear about all of the things that they’re doing. It’s amazing to hear the stories. It’s confirming that what we are doing is important and that we’re not alone. We are going to go back home after this conference and we are going to have energy, we are going to have ideas.

(2) It is absolutely worth investing in this. The team that we brought to the table is learning a tremendous amount of what we can do inside our organization to be more effective in helping people express their faith at work. That’s huge.

(3) Anyone that’s a part of a faith-based employee resource groups should be here. This is the epicenter of what’s happening in our communities and in our corporations.

Even if religion is not your thing, the conference is essential because “there are so many people on the planet who express a belief system, and if you want to be able to do business on a global level today, you have to be able to talk to those people and the people here are the people who can help you talk to those people.”

Participants in the videos above & below (and in the bullets below) share more reasons why “this conference is just so full of energy. It’s a breath of fresh air” that provides “thought leadership here that I’ve not found anywhere else in the world.”

Join us May 22-24, 2023, at The Busch School of Business to participate with business leaders from Fortune 500 companies who are stressing how important and useful the Dare to Overcome conference is for anyone interested in helping their company include faith as part of their culture and religious inclusion commitments.

More testimonies:

— I’ve met people from all over the world in numerous different corporations around the world that have a common interest in this just as I do, and they have a passion toward this. This is a true passion in people’s lives and when you can bring them together and they can learn from one another in my face. We call iron sharpening the iron and that’s what happens here. We grow together and we share together, and we get better together.

— It’s comforting, it genuinely is, and it makes you feel like there’s more people fighting the fight that you’re fighting.

— You know, the best part is just seeing what other companies are doing. I’ve seen great things around chaplaincy. I’ve seen great things around companies really empowering their workforce.

— The best part of this conference for me has been really having the opportunity to connect with just really incredible people from around the world. People who are leading Faith ERGs, leading opportunities to really connect with people at a deeper human level and looking at ways of how do we bring our full selves to work? And what does that look like? And so, those best practices and insights have been really, really exciting.

— This is important for companies who really care about their employees who want to be able to build resilience to have an efficient workforce, a very effective workforce.

At this year’s Faith@Work ERG Conference “Dare to Overcome” (May 22-24), we will hear about the growing movement within companies to employ chaplains as spiritual care providers.

Kent Johnson, senior corporate advisor for RFBF, will be on hand at the conference to share his expertise developed over a career as senior counsel and a faith-based ERG pioneer at Texas Instruments.

Kent was just interviewed about the conference and his experience. Listen above.

Join us in Washington DC this May 22-24 to learn more about the encouraging trends in workplace religious freedom.