Company: Epiq Global
Innovation Title: Cultivating Inclusion: An Epiq Culture
Company Website: www.epiqglobal.com/en-us
Year Introduced: 2021
Executive Summary
As a leading alternative legal services provider, Epiq distinguishes itself in a unique industry by serving prominent clients, including 93 of the Am Law 100, half of the Fortune 100, nine of the top 10 U.S. banks, seven of the top 10 U.S. insurance companies, five of the top five U.S. health insurers, four of the top five global pharmaceuticals, and six of the top 10 global tech companies.
We recognize that a one-size-fits-all approach to DEI will fail. We value our employees as the heartbeat of our organization, understanding that their engagement is pivotal to our success. Inclusion is at the core of our engagement strategy, and we take pride in our innovative DEI program. This program encompasses employee resource groups, inclusive policies, comprehensive employee education, targeted leadership development, transparency, and access to senior leaders.
Our goal is to cultivate inclusion through intentional change management that leaves no employee behind. As a result of our work, we have achieved the following:
- Launched an award-winning ERG program with six Employee Resource Groups: API@Epiq, Black@Epiq, Gente@Epiq, Epiq Belonging, Epiq Pride, and Epiq Women.
- Completed the U.N. Global Compact Gender Equality Program
- Participated in the U.N. Roundtable discussion on male allyship alongside corporate and world leaders.
- Launched our educational podcast “DEI is Epiq”.
- Senior leadership, H.R., and ERG leaders completed a mandatory monthly interactive Inclusive Leadership training program.
- Introduced our Annual DEI Report with transparent demographic data and annual programming and commitments details.
- Our employees undergo a progressive educational roadmap year with complimentary leadership development, ERG programming, and on-demand educational resources.
- In 2021, we focused on foundational DEI concepts; in 2022, our theme was Cultivating Inclusion and featured education on gender and pronouns in the workplace.
- In 2023, we’re thrilled to partner with legal innovators Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow, leveraging their influential book, “Say The Right Thing: How to Talk About Identity Diversity and Justice.” Yoshino holds the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professorship at New York University School of Law, while Glasgow is the Founding Executive Director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. This collaboration empowers our employees to champion allyship in the legal industry and beyond.
- Elevate the voices of our employees through regular listening sessions with senior leaders to gather feedback and guide strategy.
- Provided eight hours of paid volunteer time for employees to give back to our communities.
- Established a Trans Resource Committee to review benefits, policies, and procedures to support employees and their managers throughout their transition.
- Pay transparency and compensation education as we work towards pay equity initiatives.
As a result of our efforts, we have seen the following outcomes:
- Reduction in voluntary turnover of POC by 11.27 percentage points
- 6 percentage point increase in response to “Epiq has created an environment where people with diverse backgrounds can succeed.”
- Improved employee engagement and retention by 7 percentage points among ERG members.
- 3.5 percentage point increase in women in the global workforce
- 2.08 percentage point increase of POC in the U.S. workforce
