 I'd like to welcome our viewers to Ignite the Spark. My name is Shar-Spec Pacniak. I am the founder and CEO of an organization called Horizons for Girls. And what we do is we mentor middle school and high school students, really working with them on that journey through their education, looking at potential career paths that they might want to take and really helping them make some decisions that are going to help them get down to that path of where they want to be going. I'm excited about our guests today because I hadn't met this young lady. We've been friends what maybe a couple of months. That's it. And so I'm really excited because I'm going to be able to find out a little bit more about who she is and what she does. And it's going to tie into a topic that's really important to me, which is diversity. And real quickly, recently I met with Dr. Sheehan, who just recently retired as superintendent of the Schwergen area school district. And he had shared with me and I do not remember the exact statistic, but he was talking about the number of different languages that are spoken right here in the Schwergen area school district. And I want to say it was close to or just over 30. And I'm thinking, that's got to be a challenge as a teacher. I mean, you've got to be aware of the languages, trying to communicate with these students, and even then be aware of some of the customs of those cultures that those students are coming from. So that to me is very interesting. But my guest today is Charm, and I'm going to let you, or Charm, is Charm, so you did that side. Charm, Charm, all the same. But Charm, why don't you explain a little bit about who you are and what your connection is to Charm? Okay, so my name is Charm Der, and I am the elected diversity director for Schwergen Area Scherm. And so Scherm is a international organization. It stands for Society of Human Resource Management. And for our local chapter, I am in charge of championing diversity initiatives within the Schwergen area. So it's a very, very exciting role. I have been in this role since January of this year, and I have a two-year term. So two years to turn it all around. Very interesting. And I want to say that many, many years ago, I actually believe I went to one of the meetings. Years ago, I used to be involved in radio, worked in radio for 22 plus years. And hiring was just a piece of what I was responsible for. And definitely wanted to be able to have that conversation with other human resource people. And really found it interesting. The story I always like to share is, and it's gotta be probably 15, 20 years ago, I was the executive director of the Literacy Council. And I had a couple of employees, and I wanted to send them to some training up in Stevens Point, two people. I thought, get into one car, less expensive, you can have some conversations on the way. This was a woman and a man, both of them married two other people. Myrta, wonderful woman, loved her. She is Spanish. I believe she even came from Spain. But she said, well, I can't. I can't write up to Stevens Point with this man. He's not my husband. And I almost got angry, because I'm thinking, okay, it's gonna cost me twice as much in gas. And you could be communicating with each other as you're driving up there and coming back. And she said, I can't. That's not allowed for my culture. And that was the first time it really hit me right in the face. And it's like, wow, wait a minute. I need to better understand and respect all of those cultures that are around me and working with me. And I'm gonna guess that's still a challenge for a lot of employers. It's definitely a challenge. And in this area alone, I guess I can kind of start from the beginning, attracting and retaining talent. That's very, very important because we have a stagnant population here. Once people move here, they stay. And people who grow up here are not leaving. And so we are having that challenge there with bringing people into the community. And also just with cultural competency, making sure that people, when they are welcomed into these communities, making sure that as employers, as managers, we are culturally competent to navigate those complex situations with employees. Yeah. And there's so many of them. I mean, I look at, I still remember when we were working with a lot of refugees coming from the Vietnam, among people that had maybe fought with American soldiers and they were coming to the Sheboygan area. A lot of the churches were sponsoring those families as they relocated to this area. And very active right now is again, a lot of refugees that are coming into the area being sponsored by different churches trying to bring those cultures in. And it's definitely a challenge. I look at my students and very excited because one of the things we're doing is the end of September, we're gonna be doing a 5K to try and bring more awareness to and try and stop bullying. I saw. And it's a challenge because again, if you don't understand something, very often you're making fun of it. And when I pick up students at school and I see students dressed in different, I don't wanna say costumes, but different apparel that's appropriate for their culture. I look and I say, are they being accepted? I know that's a challenge again for the teachers to try and understand all of those cultures and all of those habits and behaviors because even communicating again with the families, maybe they can communicate with a student, but are they able to understand and communicate with the parents? And that's true. It's gotta be a challenge. And Shar, I don't know. I think that it probably lies and when people hear the word diversity, it's automatically, they tighten up and I think that's because they don't understand what it encompasses. And I think that people shy away from difficult conversations and you worry about being politically correct or not. And sometimes you just have to have those conversations be them awkward or not. So that you can learn more. I think that there is comfort and commonality. And so people, they like to stay in the realm that they're used to being in, but you grow in diversity. And a lot of times I hear people say, well, what can I do about diversity? You can just get started because the change has to happen at this level. It's not a top down change. The change has to start with us. So kind of back to what you were saying, having those conversations and learning how to communicate and just recognizing and appreciating and respecting our differences. Not tolerating differences, but respecting and acknowledging them. That's where we all can grow. Well, and again, say as an employer, I think by having that diverse workforce makes you a better employer to compete in a global market. I'd agree with that. I just came across the term neurological diversity. And so that speaks to just the diversity of having different mindsets, right? So if you have the same group of employees with the same experiences, you're gonna kind of create an echo chamber of ideas and your organization can't grow from that. In this area in particular, even my friends are surprised when they come and visit, but this is a global market here in Sheboygan. We have top-notch companies, we have coal or we have rock line. We have so many top-notch companies that have services that are distributed across the world. And so it's very important for our employees to be recognized, yeah. Yeah, because they're not just competing in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Exactly, exactly, right. There is so much more out there and they really need to understand that. One of my mentors, her husband works for Coal Company and he is, I think he's in China right now. Again, those companies are out there all over the place and they have to be able to understand and communicate and really get it. At Coffey was a friend this morning and we were talking, we happened to be talking about non-profits and she was sharing with me a company that she's working with that is a startup, a lot of entrepreneurs getting together and we were talking about the fact that the people that are working together are most of them are Sheboygan Wisconsin natives but they're also still coming from a very diverse background. So you've got somebody that's involved in marketing, you've got somebody that's involved in accounting, you've got somebody that's involved in engineering. So again, yes, we might all be white Caucasians from Sheboygan, Wisconsin but we're still very often coming almost from a different culture. The accountant's not gonna think the same as I am because my background has been for many years marketing. And I love to be visionary and think of a big picture and think of, oh, I think I can sell it this way and that accountant is saying, black and white, okay, does that balance? So we have to understand each other even at that level. So take it further and compare it to culture. Yeah, I know, I agree. And with diversity, I think it's, to your point, you could define diversity in the lens that's given to you, right? And so we all have these different identities. I'm African-American, I'm a female, I'm in an interracial relationship and so these are all the different things that identify me and being able to work in an environment where all of those different identities can thrive with your different identities and your lenses on diversity, that's where people can really grow. Yeah, I mean, you're gonna become so much stronger, so much more intuitive. If I don't understand something, I can go to somebody else and I can say, this doesn't make sense to me, but maybe you understand what he's talking about because I don't get it. I'm not getting it, right. So that to me has a huge value. And I think, again, it starts at a very early point and I can personally look back and I love my parents, I haven't gone a long time, love them to death, but my father was awful. I mean, he didn't like black people, he didn't like Jewish people. If you weren't German, it was ruined through there had to be something wrong with you, you know, that good German background. And my mother, oh my God, my mother was French, Italian, German, and all this other stuff, well. And my mother was Catholic and my father was illiterate. Well, again, that was also a separate culture. Those are multiple cultures within itself. Yeah, that's very true. So bringing those together could definitely be a challenge, but the value of bringing them together and communicating, simply communicating, it's gonna make a big, big difference. I'd agree, I'd have to agree with that. It's gotta be definitely, you know, and reflecting again to human resource people that again, even just sitting down and doing a simple interview, right, has to be a challenge all by itself. Yeah, and there's been a lot of research done on implicit bias. And so those are, you know, subconscious biases that we have that everyone has, you know, a preference to the color blue versus the color gray. And so a lot of studies, as I was saying, have been done and there is one study through Harvard. There's a website implicit.harvard.edu that I would encourage people to go to and you can take a survey and find out what you're implicit or what your subconscious biases are. And so again, tying that back to HR in an interview, being conscious of those things, very important for HR practitioner. And so that's one of the things that we try to speak to when we have different programs through SHRM. So, definitely. Well, and then again, you mentioned it, the challenge of the aging population. And, you know, let's talk about age discrimination for a second, you know, I'm 65, okay? You know, that definitely could be a challenge. It used to be a challenge, but now you look around and you see so many people that retire and then go back to work. Right, I am saying a lot of that. To see the value of a senior citizen and their knowledge and their expertise and seeing that pulled back into the workforce to me is exciting. Yeah, no, it's definitely exciting. And I think that that's also an opportunity for companies to grow new talent that they're attracting and trying to retain because that's a mentoring relationship that can be put between the generations, which I've seen a lot of in the HR field. That's definitely something that we're trying to work towards more mentoring programs to help newer employees in the workforce. Well, and as we were getting ready to start, the one thing I mentioned, and we started to talk about a little bit, is the, which I never even thought of, but it makes sense, where human resource people are now going to military bases and they're looking at potential employees that they're able to recruit, okay? You finished your time in the Air Force, the Marines, whatever it might be. Why don't you decide to move to Sheboyk in Wisconsin and get a job here? And that was like, the light bulb goes on. It's like, yeah, why not? Yeah, one of Sherm's initiatives this year is our towards hiring veterans. And so we're encouraging organizations to hire veterans, just because you're in a military doesn't mean that you don't have transferable skills into common workplaces. And it's just trying to teach, again, the HR practitioners, so the recruiters that to not have that bias, maybe this person may have PTSD, there are just different types of biases that people in the military face when trying to move into the civilian workforce. So it's definitely interesting. That's interesting because one of my mentors, she was in the Army. And when she was in the Army, she was fixing medical equipment. Okay. And she said, okay, it was great. It was a skill, you know, I liked it. She decided she wanted to volunteer as a mentor with Horizons. And I saw her working with students and she was great at connecting with these teenagers and talking to them. And she goes, I just don't know what I'm gonna do. And we had coffee one day and I said, you should look into being a counselor, social worker into something like that. Well, guess what? She has, I think she's finished her master's or her bachelor's and now she's working on her master's degree and she says, I love this. So again, being able to tap into somebody that was military and now saying, okay, try something else, see if that's what you wanna do. And who knows where it's gonna lead. And that's what I always tell my students is experiment, get out, job shadow. Now before they tell us we need to shut up and go home, quickly I wanna talk about something both you and I are working on. There is an event that's coming up a little bit later now in September, it's called Coming Together. The Come Together. The Come Together festival unity in the community. And so it's gonna be taking place on September 15th. From noon to 5 p.m. at the Farmer's Market. The Farmer's Park, right? Yep, at Farmer's Park. And it's gonna run concurrently with the Farmer's Market. And so it's a festival so that we can celebrate the diversity that's in our community and bring people together with food and music and art and conversation and just the willingness to learn. I think again, it's an opportunity for people to experience the diversity that we do have right here in Chicago. What I'm excited about is my students are going to be having an ice cream social. And they're going to be, we're working with Culver's, thank you very much, Culver's for supplying the frozen custard. And we're going to be, there's five different flavors, international flavors of toppings that you're going to be able to try. There's, I think there's an Italian one. There's one from Greece. There is, I know there's a Mexican one, but there's five of them. And of course, I'm gonna have the standard chocolate and caramel if you're afraid to experiment with something different. But one of my mentors was online and she did a bunch of research and we picked five countries that again, we said, okay, try something different. And hopefully that's a way to encourage people to step out of their comfort zone. And I think they're gonna be surprised because they're gonna go, oh, I guess what you're eating in your country isn't that bad or after all. So I'm excited about that. I think it's a great opportunity for us to do a little fundraising as well as in support, the whole fact that we are celebrating the diversity that we have right here in Chicago. So it's kind of exciting. Yeah, very exciting. Very exciting. Now, how did you end up getting pulled into this? I don't even know. So Katie was the previous diversity director for Sherm and then she got elected into a different role and she connected me with Craig and Sarah and so it just took off from there. It's exciting. Yeah, it's very exciting. And again, it's kind of neat because it's a very diverse committee. It is. A bunch of people from a lot of different places that said, hey, wait a minute, let's do this. This is important to us. Second one that they're doing. It's kind of exciting. And again, it's Saturday, September 15th and that's gonna be really exciting to see people. I know last year they had a lot of fun and it was for a first one. I thought they had a lot of fun. And my students, I'm trying to think, I know they were their face painting, I think. So they have fun with that. And then the other thing that I mentioned before that's kind of exciting, the following Saturday, my organization, Horizons for Girls, we're sponsoring a 5K to try and stop or at least raise awareness of the fact that there's bullying. It's been out there forever and it still goes on. Last month, I was able to interview a mother whose daughter went through some incredible experiences with being bullied and we were able to discuss that topic and how that affects families and students and I know the school system definitely puts in place a no-tolerance policy, but again, let's educate our students and our families. What does that mean and how do we stop it? And again, to me, that's just a critical issue too. It's all part of making Sheboygan what it is and I'm trying to think what the latest title was that they were talking about Sheboygan's always getting recognized for these different things. Best place to raise a family, et cetera, et cetera. I know there's something right now that Wendy Schmitz is working with the city and she's the director of the senior center and they are now working, we've been recognized by AARP as being a place where it's a good place for senior citizens too and it was interesting like travel and getting around town and there were five different areas where they said, okay, Sheboygan is really good at these and how do we grow that and make it even better? And then I watch how the city is really trying to attract the millennium, millenniums, all these different categories to move to the area. Yeah, with all the infrastructure that they're building downtown. Yeah, that's really exciting to see. And then let's talk about the corridor of Indiana Avenue and trying to think what they're calling that, but it's almost like a place where entrepreneurs can start new businesses and that'll be happening along Indiana Avenue. That's exciting as well. Sheboygan's gonna be the happening place, so hopefully all of that is gonna help employers to attract future employees because guess what? I don't wanna keep, I do this as a volunteer, but even this, I don't wanna have to keep doing forever and ever, I wanna turn it over to somebody else. Now question for you before we wrap up. If somebody's interested in SHIRM and how to get more information, maybe I'm a small company and human resource is what I have to be responsible for. How do they find out more about your organization? So they can email me, is it okay for me? They can email me at charmwder at gmail.com and Der is spelled D-E-R like David Edward Robert. They can also visit our Facebook page which is Sheboygan Area SHIRM on Facebook or they can visit our page on LinkedIn. Okay, so there's ways for them to tap into the map? Yeah, there are different ways to definitely tap into that. For Horizons, definitely you can go to the horizonsforgirls.com website. Horizons has a Facebook page and this very quiet little furball that's underneath the table. Faith is definitely again, a great friend of a lot of different organizations. So check out her Facebook page. She even has her own Facebook page. But definitely I want to see everybody coming down to Fountain Park, September 15th at noon. Enjoy the food, the music, the farmers market. Enjoy the fellowship. Yes, just get to find out a lot, find out a lot more about what makes Sheboygan, what it is and I think that's gonna be exciting. I think that's gonna be exciting. Yes, thank you very much for enjoying Ignite the Spark.