How the New Chief Belonging, Diversity and Equity Officer at UKG Is Making Lasting Changes for All

At UKG — a company that provides HR and workforce management solutions — a people-first mentality has long been a core tenet of the company culture. UKG is dedicated to ensuring that employees feel safe when bringing their whole, authentic selves to work. 

As a result, UKG has won a variety of accolades, such as ranking #6 on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For 2021 list, and has an average employee rating of 4.8 out of 5 on the Fairygodboss site.

UKG’s commitment to “creating more unity, kindness and growth at work and in our communities,” as Andrew Taylor, UKG’s Media Writer puts it, has led them to an important next step — appointing Brian Reaves as its Chief Belonging, Diversity and Equity Officer.

Making lasting changes for all: UKG’s Brian Reaves is working to help strengthen the company’s culture of care.

After over 30 years of working to advance belonging, diversity and equity across industries, Reaves is more than ready to take UKG to the next step. Chris Todd, president of UKG, notes that Reaves’ “leadership, vision and unique engineering mindset will push us to be better in supporting the diverse needs of our 13,000 employees worldwide in ways that will propel UKG to pave the way for other organizations to enhance every aspect of the employee experience — from recruiting practices to resources groups to retirement support — to ensure employees’ voices are heard all along their working journey.”

As for Reaves himself, he states that, “Our purpose is people, and the effort we’re pouring into our belonging, diversity, equity and inclusion strategy aims to ensure that purpose is felt throughout every aspect of our business. Our goal is to prescribe programs and practices that address belonging, diversity, equity and inclusion holistically — ensuring that the many intersectionalities of gender, race, ability, orientation and more aren’t lost in the process. It’s a big goal, but one that we can and must achieve.”

What are UKG employees saying about this next step?

To learn more about what employees had to say about this new step, Taylor reached out to fellow U Krewers. Here are what UKG employees have to say:

“As an Asian American married to a white woman, as an ally for Black and brown people, as a Catholic who supports the LGBTQ (which is probably unpopular at my church, but I embrace that) and as a recruiter yearning for ways to ramp up diversity, hiring Brian to help spearhead the charge here at UKG makes me want to dance in celebration. It doesn’t mean the work is done, but it acknowledges that more work NEEDS to be done collectively. Now.” — Adrian, Recruiter 

“At UKG, our purpose is people. Having a Chief Belonging, Diversity and Equity Officer not only demonstrates that our purpose is for all people, moreover, exchanging inclusion for belonging speaks to the core of who this company is — we don’t just want to be included. We are a community of diverse value, perspective and leadership. I am humbled once again to be a part of it.” — Ali, Sales Executive

“I am thrilled that UKG now has a Chief Belonging, Diversity and Equity officer and even more so thrilled that Brian Reaves is filling that role. For me, this shows that UKG is not only talking about making diversity the center of who we are and what we do, but is actually taking the steps needed to make that statement true. We have some work to do, and we are definitely taking steps in the right direction and I’m excited to see what the future holds.” — Elena, Diversity Communications Specialist 

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