Union Pacific promotes diverse and inclusive work environments within Omaha community

mhm I learned at a very young age that you don't necessarily know the impact of your presence and that is something that I also say to our people here as well, You do make a difference. It makes me feel really good that we can inspire others to think about diversity, equity and inclusion. If you have a workforce that comes from different backgrounds and different perspectives, you're going to get more challenge to decision making, you're going to get different thinking about how you approach problem solving and you're gonna get more creativity in order for us to have a diverse workforce we need for Omaha to welcome and include that diversity. Omaha Nebraska is really considered the birthplace of telemarketing and I started in a contact center when I was 18 years old and it literally took me around the world. There are oftentimes misconceptions in minority communities that people are not educated, that they don't have work ethics and that they don't want a job. And the reality is we were intentional about placing north and teleservices at 24th in Hamilton in order to bring jobs to the community. Omaha can strengthen the relationship between the business, community, educational institutions and government through a variety of ways. I think education is the most important thing that we have going for ourselves, The young people that we serve at the Latino Center, What we have found is a heightened interest in exploring careers. They can go through one of our internships and evaluate if they like it or not and continue going down that road or decide that's not for me, let me do something else. We have a mission of creating jobs and changing lives and union pacific is not only our partner from a contracting standpoint, but they are also our partner in doing that as well. Every job that is created through north and teleservices has a direct impact on our local economy. I'm a firm believer in a rising tide, lifts all boats and so, you know, creating a job and contracting with a company like mine has impact, far, far, far beyond just the contract itself. In the job itself, tough times tend to vary, disproportionately impact people who are already disadvantaged in some way. If we don't start addressing that as a community, we're never going to make progress. But I'm also proud of the things that we're doing to try to address diversity inclusion and frankly, I'll be disappointed if I leave my career here whenever that is having not made a difference.