The mission of the Conexión ERG is to promote diversity and inclusion at Cincinnati Bell by connecting our employees and fostering engagement with local organizations and the broader community. Our ERG will focus primarily on opportunities around the Hispanic community internally within Cincinnati Bell, and externally within our company’s geographic footprint. Conexión ERG welcomes ALL employees. The group seeks to include any employee with interest in diversity and inclusion, the Latinx and Hispanic culture or language, or the advancement of Hispanic professionals at Cincinnati Bell.
We use Hispanic Heritage month (which runs from Sept 15 to Oct 15 every year) to bring to light the contributions of Hispanic culture to our society. We have featured special guests, such as NFL Pro Bowl Member Anthony Muñoz, that highlight high-achieving Hispanics. We have also offered education programs that define what Hispanics are, how Hispanics fit into the immigration history of our area, and even run cooking classes to create delicious Hispanic foods.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we quickly realized we had a huge issue in our community: children from underprivileged Hispanic families that couldn’t afford basic Internet were basically locked out of an education. We worked with the community leaders and the company’s executive team to introduce the “Connect Our Students” program, which offers basic Internet at an affordable price. The program has been so successful that close to $1 million has been raised, which has offset the cost for the 5,000 families that have been connected to date at no cost to most of them.
Given that Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnicity in the U.S., Conexión worked together with various teams in the company to introduce improvements in servicing our Spanish-speaking customers. The call center introduced a Spanish-only telephone number where customers can interact with our team in their native language. We translated various installation guides into Spanish, and now offer dual language instructions going forward. We also created some short installation videos in Spanish that walk customers through installation of their Internet.
We use Cinco de Mayo as a fun way to highlight the popular Hispanic traditions in the U.S. and Canada. We have offered dance classes, taco lunches, salsa-making classes, Spanish classes, and various other activities that show Hispanic culture in a fun light. The goal is to promote the various aspects of Hispanic culture (diversity) while also proving that any employee can take part and feel right at home (inclusion).
