2020 was a year that tested all of us. There were a lot of unknowns, with frequent breaking news alerts and public health announcements.
We were asked to stay home, away from family, friends, and co-workers, wear masks, and socially distance
We saw the powerful energy around the Black Lives Matter movement and an increased call for racial justice and equity.
“Pivot” became the word of choice for many organizations as they quickly changed to meet increasing needs with decreasing resources. We saw employees from all divisions, experience levels, and backgrounds shift their roles, operations, and outputs to keep our organizations up and running. These seismic shifts, coupled with the increased call for social justice, inspired people to call on their employers, of all sizes and across all sectors, to create and implement diversity, equity, and inclusion work policies.
We are proud that HERC helped our members stay connected when many aspects of work life went online, and more people grappled with the challenges of work/home balance. We saw an increase of member engagement on HERConnect, with over 760 new users in 2020, 80% of those joining since the beginning of March when shelter-in-place orders were first announced.
HERC produced timely and relevant resources for our members, from the Virtual Recruitment Toolkit to webinars on topics such as “Foundation Planning for Returning to the Campus Workplace During COVID-19” and “Campus Responses to Racial Discord.”
We also adapted our outreach to job seekers, representing your intuitions virtual conferences and job fairs, and providing tips on virtual interviews and how to tell if an institution is truly committed to diversity.
2020 was a challenging year, but it was also a year to celebrate how our connectedness advances our mission-aligned goals . If last year is any indication of what is possible under extreme circumstances, we are excited to see what we can achieve together in 2021.
Happy New Year!
Central HERC team
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