Workplace Diversity
Carmen Jandacek is the Director of Ethics at Arizona Public Service.
PUF: What is your role at Arizona Public Service?
Carmen Jandacek: I have the privilege to do a job for the organization that ensures we act in an ethical manner. I am a steward of the culture and our values, ensuring that our organization adheres to our values. I serve as a resource to leadership, and teams that require ethics guidance. I do a lot of training in this space.
I run a hotline where people bring concerns to my office, and we investigate those concerns. We help employees get resolution on their concerns.
It's making sure that our employees always know that there is a place to go if they have a concern, or if they feel that our values aren't being upheld in the way that we have articulated. I help enforce our Code of Ethics and Business Practices, and it is wonderful that I am able to help employees every day.
My entire career has been in either HR or ethics, so I have been part of diversity efforts and initiatives with this company as long as I've been an employee here, since 1996. From a personal perspective, I am the chair of one of our employee network groups. I see how important the efforts that companies make toward diversity and inclusion help engagement.
PUF: I hear about these network groups or specialty groups. They're important because once you hire a certain kind of person, you want them to feel they're accepted, and they have role models.