Mobilizing Action in the Workplace with Diversity, Equity & Inclusion - Interview with Camille McMillan

Published
19th April, 2023
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion within our workplaces has gone beyond being just a “nice to have”. It is the core to which our organizational values must stem from.

Today we have the pleasure of interviewing Camille McMillan whose mission is to make workplaces safe, respectful, and dignifying.

As a target of Workplace Bullying and Harassment, that inhumane and traumatic experience created an avalanche on Camille’s mental and physical health, marriage and relationship with her 3 beautiful children leaving chaos and a struggle to find a way out of this silent epidemic.

With a decade of combined experience as a Career Development Practitioner, Mentorship Specialist and a Certified Personality Dimensions®️ facilitator, Camille builds people up. She’s known for providing workplace training to clients (youth and professionals) with potential barriers to employment. In particular, Camille was part of a team who developed strategic interventions for professional immigrants as part of British Columbia HR Task Force on recruitment strategy for its skilled immigrant recruitment and retention for the BC Mining Industry project.

Today we at Beaconforce are proud to have her share her experiences with us and provide a guide on how to truly mobilize action within our workplaces with DEI.

Moving from employee to advocate was the most impactful experience in my Diversity, Equity & Inclusion career. I was writing a profile update and saw I had the amazing experience of working and being married across cultures, raising mixed children in a multicultural environment which was of itself discriminating, and being fully exposed to the brunt of discrimination and management avoidance. It was not only important but essential as a Black and marginalized woman to be given the opportunity to be heard and speak for respect and human dignity, equality in the workplace, fairness and fair access.


Put simply- hate and greed saw some as owners and some as laborers. Caste. Apartheid. Segregation. White supremacy. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion has to battle a history of colonization and institutional racism embedded in national constitutions and national psyches with marginalized groups being silenced by the fear of speaking their truth.
People of color share their lived experience of inequality and injustices are not only dismissed but are also made to feel like they should be grateful for working at the organization or that they’re being ‘troublemakers’ and have their complaints turned around on them (victim blaming). Even the institutional entities put in place to protect such workers - are also programmed to see their systemic lenses - leaving workers more despondent and sometimes more traumatized.



To listen. Listen with the intention of truly trying to understand even if it's an “uncomfortable” conversation to have. My experience however is that managers and HR are there to protect the employer and not the employee which is a contradiction of everything Diversity, Equity & Inclusion employers boast about on their social media platforms and yearly reports.
Managers must always be aware that racism doesn’t only mean Whites against People of Color. There are also the dynamics of other ethnic groups against each other: caste, tribalism, religious factions, ethnic strife and geopolitics. For instance in some cultures people of color are considered (and treated less than) to be below everyone else so they face multiple sources of hate.


Standing up and speaking out has been my biggest success. It helped me to consistently hold employers accountable including my own employer for workplace bullying, harassment, and discrimination. This has caused me to continue to stand up and speak out against Non-Disclosure Agreements, opaque policies, racism, retaliation, intimidation, and online stalking - in spite of their highly paid all-white legal hires.

Camille, as you know, Beaconforce is a deep listening tool, based on solid scientific foundations, which helps companies translate people's voices into insights and predictive analysis, creating more engaging, sustainable, and performing work environments. The companies that choose us are innovative and cutting-edge, they care about the well-being and mental health of their people.

Software and tools such as Beaconforce allow both employees and employers to:

- Be serious and sincere about DEI
- Identify DEI champions among the leadership
- Ensure that DEI isn't just a check-off box
- Be open to being part of the change
-Be mindful that in their DEI that everyone is “included” eg: it can’t be “season greetings” for those celebrating Christmas but the name of other diverse groups' religious celebrations are named and celebrated
-Have a diverse group in leadership and in the boardrooms
-Anonymous reporting with step by step options reporting employee(s) can follow
-Being Transparent with employees
Thank you very much for this interview, Camille!

If you're interested in improving or creating a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion strategy that is both effective and ongoing check out our plans!
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