Focusing on Diversity and Inclusion with Punch Bowl Social

I don’t know about you but I’m done dining in. With safe social distancing happening inside  restaurants and many spaces extending their outdoor dining options, it appears that summer may not be void of a tasty meal at the favorite dive or fine dining establishment. So, while I’ve been evaluating where to spend my hard earned quarantine piggy bank, the food and beverages on the menu aren’t all that I take into consideration.

We all know that during Pride season, many brands and companies will slap a rainbow flag on their packaging and call themselves inclusive. It’s called pinkwashing and we’ve seen plenty of places do it. Yet, there are some places which practice a year-round culture of inclusion and focus on creating a diverse community within their staff as just a standard practice of business.

A lot of queer folks and minority groups of people who worked in the service industry, as well as many other industries, recently lost their jobs due to the shut downs during the initial coronavirus outbreak, and I realized that spaces are not just opening up again for foodies like me but also for those who are looking for employment. Ethical standards and inclusivity practices are equally as important when it comes to spending money as it does earning money, and the safety and proper treatment at the workplace of all of our marginalized family members is of the utmost importance.

Punch Bowl Social, a South Broadway staple, recently announced not only that they were re-opening their dining spaces in several cities across the country, but they were also looking to hire dedicated and friendly folks who could serve their patrons well. I decided to speak with Julia Seldon, the senior manager of equity and inclusion at Punch Bowl Social, about how exactly they ensure that their practices of diversity and inclusivity are not just penned in policies but how they keep that culture alive and thriving.

In addition to keeping up with the proper protocols and policies when it comes to making the restaurant safe from COVID transference, Punch Bowl Social has extended their patio and their policies in order to make the space more welcoming for all.

We know you work hard for that money, honey, and we want to make sure that companies treat you right. Here’s what she had to say.

In the role of senior manager of equity and inclusion, what exactly do you do there at Punch Bowl Social?
That’s a good question. Basically my job is to curate and carry out the policy and everyday interactions that enables our dedication to inclusion to function within our restaurants and within our home office as well. So that looks like a lot of different things, it looks like policy writing, training, initiative creation and rollout, data analysis, those kinds of things. It’s all encompassing in figuring out what does being inclusive look like and how can we get there, understanding the structure of our specific team.

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While the restaurants were closed, how did that give you an opportunity to revisit some of those policies and trainings that were in place?
It was a time to really be able to reflect on what our policy was, how was it working, what our training was and how is it working, and how can we make it better. Inclusion is an ever evolving practice for sure, and it was obviously a tough time, but it was an opportunity to look closely at our inclusion practices and make them better.

Was there anything specifically that you were able to adjust or implement?
We definitely adjusted some of our training. We really kind of focused on the shift between equality and equity and and having our training talk about that and be focused on that, as well as the concept of identity. It’s one thing to talk about being inclusive of all identities, but to take a step back from that and talk about identity as a concept, define the concept of identity for our employees, and have them understand their identity a little bit better. That was a big step we’re taking and we’re planning to roll out as far as our inclusivity training.

Why should someone want to work at Punch Bowl Social?
I think that we really try to create an environment that does a lot of things, but having the ability to be your authentic self is at the top of our list. We try to foster a sense of belonging through authenticity, we try to foster a sense of belonging through transparency in our practices, through the ability to learn and grow as a company. We put a lot in the effort to take our team members and see how they want to grow, where they want to grow, and to give that to them; we have a lot of internal promotion stuff happen. I think it’s a fun environment but it’s also an environment that focuses on authenticity and belonging and that is something that I hope is appealing to a lot of people.

Related article: Hilton Focuses on Global Diversity and Queer Inclusion 

How within the diversity and inclusion hiring practices do you instill that culture of belonging?
There’s lots of things that we need to do within our recruiting practices, and I think it’s two sided. The first is looking at our language: what are we saying, what is the language in our job posting, what is the language that we’re using in our interviews? Is it inclusive? The second part of that is, are we doing the work on our end of the integrating process to make sure that the people who are interviewing, our hiring managers, are aware of things like bias, are aware of why diversity is important, are aware of why hiring someone who looks exactly like them every time  might be problematic. Taking a looking at it from both an external and internal lens.

Would you say there is anything unique about Punch Bowl Social when it comes to making it a great place to work for LGBTQ and other minority folks?
Honestly, what makes us unique is our willingness from our executive team down to say, ‘We’re in the process of learning and we’re in the process of making ourselves better every day.’ We know that we can’t be perfect, we know that these are evolving processes, but we’d rather be part of the process, whether it be messy or not, and try and learn and listen rather than just say, ‘Well yeah, we call ourselves a safe space and that’s enough.’ We’re constantly saying, ‘Well what does that mean, how can we make that better, what are we saying and what are we doing that maybe makes that feel not true.’ Letting it be messy, I think that is where a lot of the important work gets done for a company.

To find out restaurant hours, to make a reservation, and how to apply for a job, check out Punch Bow Social’s website.