To best serve the needs of all Minnesotans for healthy air, sustainable lands, clean water, and a better climate, the MPCA has committed to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce that reflects the many people who call the state of Minnesota home.
Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion benefits our workplace by increasing our creativity and innovation. Our employees feel welcome to bring their whole selves to work when they feel included and respected for their ideas.
Diversity, inclusion, and equity are therefore essential core values and top priorities to achieve One Minnesota.”
A diverse workplace that is committed to equity both inside and outside of our agency also brings with it better understanding of differing communities and their needs and allows us to better communicate with people in environmental justice areas and people in communities impacted by long-term pollution.
Our belief that diversity, equity, and inclusion is integral to our mission is reflected in the fact that we made it one of six goals in the agency’s current strategic plan.
Diversity in our workforce
The demographics of the labor market and of the communities we serve are changing, and the MPCA must change with them to effectively represent Minnesotans. We are updating our hiring and selection practices to attract and retain a skilled, diverse, inclusive, and respectful workforce.
In 2020, we set three overarching goals:
- increase the diversity of our applicant pools to be representative of Minnesota's workforce.
- increase the diversity of our new hires to have no underrepresentation of protected groups (including people of color, women, people with disabilities, and veterans).
- keep turnover of those protected groups below rates at which each group is represented in the agency.
In purely demographic terms, we have increased the percentage of all four of those protected groups in our workforce since then, most notably people with disabilities, who now make up 14% of MPCA employees.
That said, we continue to identify ways to improve our workforce diversity. Both women and people of color remain underrepresented in professional roles at the agency, and the number of veterans working at the MPCA remains low compared with Minnesota's workforce.
To boost our recruitment of diverse candidates, we attend more diversity-related job fairs; host participants from the Pathways Program, Right Track, and Urban Scholars; and participate in Increasing Diversity in Environmental Careers, a college-to-careers pathway program for underrepresented STEM college students interested in pursuing a career in environmental and natural resources.
Becoming more inclusive
In addition to updating our hiring practices, we want our employees to understand why inclusion matters. We believe that encouraging our employees’ personal DEI journeys contributes to the agency’s DEI journey, so with the help and support of the agency’s Equity Committee, we provide equity education events and require all employees to build cultural competency by completing DEI training courses.
Our employees can also participate in statewide resource groups for Black employees, employees of Asian descent, employees with disabilities, employees of Jewish heritage, LGBTIA+ employees, and more.
Careers with the MPCA
Looking for a career in environmental work? Search our current job listings.