By Andrew Limouris, Founder, President & CEO of Medix
Juneteenth is a reason to celebrate across the nation. It’s an opportunity to reflect on the significance of this day in 1865, when word of the abolishment of slavery first reached enslaved people in Texas and other southwestern states.
Juneteenth is a corporate holiday at Medix to give our teammates paid time off to be with their families, celebrate, eat delicious food, and observe the day in whatever ways feel right to them. It is also an opportunity for those at Medix who have never had an opportunity to observe Juneteenth to give the day more thought than they might have before.
So for us, observing Juneteenth by respectfully closing our doors for the day just makes sense.
And because we spend a lot of time getting to know our teammates, thanks, in part, to our soft-skills assessment, MyPrint, developed in collaboration with Talentoday, we have a good idea of what matters to our team members. We know that many of our folks value affiliation and belonging and that providing those kinds of opportunities fosters creativity and originality. We believe that most things work, not just from the top down, but from the bottom up, and I am regularly reminded that while I might motivate a teammate, that teammate might also motivate me.
Leaning into our team’s desires for affiliation and belonging, we have created impact groups, also known as employee resource groups (ERGs). Our impact groups are run for and by Medix teammates, and as of 2023, we have seven such groups, comprised of the following:
- Women with Purpose
- African American Network
- Unidos (Latiné)
- PRISM (LGBTQIA+)
- Medix: Mission Military
- Parents at Medix
- Asian American Pacific Islander
With the advent of these groups, teammates from all walks of life have a safe place to meet up, lock arms, and lean in. More importantly, providing these groups and cultivating a culture of acceptance and belonging allows our teammates to show up as their most authentic selves.
Medix’s Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Employee Experience, Cordelia Calderon, is an integral part of the impact groups’ success. As CEO, I was ecstatic when Cordelia was recognized by Staffing Industry Analysts as a 2023 DEI Influencer thanks to her extraordinary work. It’s no surprise that spirits here at Medix soared, too.
This year, two of our Impact Groups, PRISM and African American Network, are collaborating to raise awareness of the importance of Juneteenth and Pride Month as we continue to explore the intersectionality of our team. Together, they are highlighting Black LGBTQIA+ community leaders, talking about the origins of Pride and Juneteenth, discussing the two in relationship to one another, and sharing resources and educational material for our teammates to utilize on their learning journeys.
Over the years, we’ve collected responses from our teammates to what Juneteenth means to them. We’ve seen words used such as freedom, unity, liberation, progression, hope, empowerment, and resilience. But it’s the words of one teammate that reiterate the importance of not only Juneteenth, but of acceptance, compassion, and respect for one another.
“The possibility to evoke change for a better tomorrow.”
Let that sink in for a minute, and then ask yourself what you are doing today to ensure the world is a better place tomorrow.