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70 is counterproductive and sometimes right-out detrimental to meet arbitrary quotas. Another point to note: Although diversity and inclusion initiatives need to be promoted and encouraged by the highest corporate echelon, most of the progress will actually come from the diverse individuals who make up a company's workforce, as they're the ones who will actively be participating in molding the culture. And everyone needs to be involved. ALIGN WITH OTHERS LIKE YOU Companies should also engage with and do business with other diverse companies and have a continuous dialogue to broaden horizons and find different ways to make their companies more diverse and inclusive to their employee population. Organizations such as the American Mortgage Diversity Council (AMDC) can be a great resource for companies to turn to. "Efforts are underway by the Supply Chain Diversity Subcommittee in the research of state and federal set-aside requirements that have an impact on supply chain processes," said John Golden, Executive Director of the AMDC. "A centralized reference tool is a missing component within the industry. Further, best practices on methods to measure supply chain diversity are being researched. Additionally, the Workforce Subcommittee is engaged in the development of a diversity scorecard that includes best practice for noncertified, nonminority majority-owned companies to exemplify and benefit from their intentional building of diverse organizations." STAY ON TAP Finally, transparency, accountability, and publicity (or, TAP) will help to ensure that companies are keeping their promises—holding up to what they say they'll do. It's one thing to say you have a diversity program—it's another to create a successful one. And, while these may seem like broad and unspecific standards, they can be implemented in a variety of ways that have tangible, real- world results, according to James McGee, Senior Compliance Analyst at Colonial Savings. "Create a platform and programs within your company where employees know that diverse perspectives are welcomed and where leaders actively seek diverse viewpoints as part of their everyday business. In addition, provide cross- cultural access for managers and employees such as mentoring, reverse mentoring, social events (i.e., company picnic, sports leagues), employee resource groups, community involvement, employee engagement, and transparency," he said. He also advises taking these guidelines a step further. "I would like to encourage mortgage companies to consider hiring Chief Diversity Officers. Companies in other industries have had CDOs for a number of years." But, of course, no great endeavor is without its roadblocks. DEFINE AND CREATE ere are many challenges to creating a diversity program. And, like diversity itself, these issues will forever be unique to each individual company. As such, each organization needs to examine itself internally. According to Sheri Crosby Wheeler, VP of Corporate Social Responsibility at Mr. Cooper (Nationstar Mortgage Holdings), this self- examination is paramount. "e first hurdle is simply to define what diversity and inclusion means," she said. "e second is starting an open and transparent dialogue. Discussions regarding diversity and inclusion in the workplace can be sensitive, so you have to create an environment where people begin to feel comfortable expressing themselves on the topic. At Mr. Cooper, we've taken advantage of an enterprise social networking tool called Yammer to facilitate sharing and communication. Since our launch earlier this year, we've found hundreds of team members are interested in learning more about diversity and inclusion. Additionally, oftentimes, employees see all of the activity when a company is first implementing a diversity and inclusion program and expect to see immediate results. However, a culture shift takes time and energy and sometimes moves at a glacial pace." Crosby Wheeler continued, saying, "We started with the bedrock principle that in order for an organization to be culturally fluent and more diverse and inclusive, everyone should participate. Regardless of the resource team we are creating, we encourage participation in our diversity and inclusion programs across the board. For example, at our Women's Resource Team meetings, we want male colleagues joining in. By being inclusive, we are making real progress towards a better understanding and appreciation for our differences and similarities. at's why our diversity and inclusion programs are open to each and every team member." Woodworth echoes this sentiment, stating that a lack of education on the benefits of having a diversity and inclusion program, as well as a misunderstanding of the pitfalls of not having one are the main challenges presented to companies. "e common thread could be a lack of understanding or education about inclusiveness and diversity and the business benefits that result from authentically embedding diversity into organizational culture," said Woodworth. e most important thing to remember is "One of our core values is to be cheerleaders for our team, and our diversity and inclusion program is a natural extension of that value. We also know that happy team members lead to happy customers, which is great for business. With diversity and inclusion, our team members feel more connected at work and more comfortable being their whole, authentic selves. In such an open and welcoming environment, their satisfaction with their workplace rises, which then positively impacts their work, their teammates, and their customers."

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