Triangle-area businesses putting focus on health equity in the workplace

Representatives from multiple local businesses participated in the first annual Health Equity in the Workforce Leadership Summit, hosted by the American Heart Association.

The goal was to share information between different companies to help leaders understand the different needs of their employees.

Speakers also discussed the difference between equity and equality and the role each plays in healthcare.

“Employers, they have the right mindset of ‘We want to do something’ but they may not know where to start,” explained Tiffany Gholston, board char of the American Heart Association of the Triangle.

Speakers included representatives from companies like Deloitte, IBM, Lenovo and Advanced Auto Parts.

Faculty from Duke and NC State were also present to address challenges being discussed by college graduates entering the local work force.

Gholston said the idea of the summit is to remind companies healthcare can’t be viewed with a one-size-fits-all mentality.

“When you think about employees, they spend the majority of their time at work. So the American Heart Association wants to make sure employers have the tools and resources to provide for their employees around health equity,” she said.

Gholston expressed she hopes the summit will foster continued communication and action to ensure employees have access to appropriate resources.

“The American Heart Association, we really started working in this space around 2021,” said Gholston. “When you think about what happened in 2020 with the pandemic and what it showed around mental illness for example in the workplace and what employees needed, I think it’s very timely to be here and bring these employers in this space in the Triangle to talk about what can we do to help you provide better resources to your employees.”

The American Heart Association also directed employers to access its online employer resource guide to foster company collaboration moving forward.