WORCESTER, Mass. - The City of Worcester released its racial equity audit report for city government Friday.

It looks at a range of issues like hiring and retention processes and how the city approaches public health.

The report comes from a 2021 executive order to assess and address institutional and structural racism and comes as the city looks to hire its fourth chief diversity officer since the role was created in 2016.

Acting City Manager Eric Batista said the city will work to create strategies to change to the city's business practices, like looking at centralizing its hiring process.

It's one reason this audit focused on the city's human resources and health and human services departments.

"The HR department was selected because it is the heartbeat of any organization, any company, in terms of all the management policies that go through it,” said Batista. “HHS was selected because at the time, we were going through a global pandemic, which we kind of still are a little bit in, so we wanted to understand and look at the issues related to public health, and what are some of the challenges that a department like HHS encounters."

Batista said this work will lay the foundation necessary for hiring the next chief diversity officer. He said it's important the city is transparent when talking about its processes and the challenges it faces.