Employee Resource Groups Foster Community

Employee resource groups at ISAIC were formed to engage employees on the company’s mission and collaborate with each other to ignite open dialogue to brainstorm and execute ideas to foster innovation and creativity to solve challenges in the workplace. Our CEO, Jen Guarino, describes the inception of the employee circles by stating: “when we first started, we were so focused on PPE because it was a dire need in the community, so when we got our head above water—we wanted to formalize a place where worker voice would be heard on regular basis.”  

Thus, ISAIC brought to life three employee circles to create official channels for communication and decision making. Learn about each of the resource groups below: 

The Creative Better Business Practices Committee  

The purpose of this group is to give employees the opportunity to gather and discuss the topics that matter most to ensuring a successful business. Lionel Vargas Cruz, our Director of Manufacturing and Innovation, says “the mission of this group is to identify areas in the organization that can do better for the employee experience and create a better industry.” The committee focuses on improving processes and policies related to the manufacturing environment, while using employee research to compare practices with other industries to understand where new and enhanced strategies could be implemented. For example, operators recognized a need for production-friendly chairs, and they presented two different ergonomic options to pilot on the production floor. As a team, they voted on their favorite and the winner was subsequently purchased. 

The Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee 

This committee started in 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd, after the whole organization gathered to determine how ISAIC would respond. “At the time, no one wanted a social media post—instead they wanted to make a real impact within the organization”, explains Justin Mckinstry, the Chair of the DEI committee. A real change meant implementing a team of employees to focus on improving diversity, equity, and inclusion among ISAIC employees. The first meeting focused on the inequities of the criminal justice system from the perspective of a criminal justice lawyer. As ISAIC evolved, so did the committee—today, it focuses on topics relevant to employees in the workplace, like; ageism, ability discrimination, and working with diverse communities.  

The Social and Arts Committee  

You can think of this group as our culture committee; they focus on celebrating and uplifting diversity through art and cultural celebrations. This committee is focused on uplifting employee morale, increasing community engagement in metro-Detroit, and highlighting the creativity of local artists and creators. ISAIC has a beautiful gallery of artwork and photographs, lent by WBET Detroit, that speaks to the ingenuity and diversity of ISAIC and Detroit’s culture. The committee frequently plans events for employees to get to know each other outside of work to help stay abreast of everyone’s endeavors beyond ISAIC and build relationships to strengthen the community. Most recently, the committee organized a blessing bag donation for the Eastside Mutual Aid non-profit organization, which aims to create a self-sufficient, empathetic, and educated community out of the east side of Detroit.