DiversityInc recognized the unique diversity-management achievements of eight companies at our 2012 DiversityInc Special Awards & Top Regional Companies for Diversity held in New York City. CEOs and senior executives of these companies discussed how and why they focused on these areas of diversity management and their personal involvement. They also gave specifics on how their businesses have benefited.

We honoring companies in six areas we have noted in the past three years—Community Development, Talent Pipeline, Working Families, Global Cultural Competence, Resource Groups and Diversity-Management Progress—plus one new area: Supplier Diversity. View previous DiversityInc Special Award winners.

These companies demonstrate through their data and their documented achievements measurable results that positively impact both their business goals and their employee/community populations.

Additionally, Dr. Cornel West spoke at the Special Awards dinner. Dr. West is the author of Race Matters and Democracy Matters and is a professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Global Cultural Competence

Ernst & Young
No. 6 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list
Accepting Award: Steve Howe Jr., Area Managing Partner – Americas

As a truly global company, Ernst & Young understands how crucial the understanding and respect of local cultures is, while staying true to the values of inclusion so core to this company. Cultural-competence and harassment/discrimination training are emphasized throughout the organization, as is talent identification and development for underrepresented groups, particularly women globally.

James Turley, chairman and CEO, told DiversityInc last year that it’s best to tailor a company’s initiatives by geography so diversity strategies remain central to local customs and beliefs. Once established, diversity leaders can then look to incrementally push the boundaries.

Ernst & Young has global resource groups for professional women, LGBT employees and Black professionals in several countries. The groups have executive sponsors and meet during the workday.

Ernst & Young is a founding member of WEConnect International, a corporate-led nonprofit that helps to empower women business owners to succeed in global markets. The firm is working with WEConnect on development of a national certification process for women-owned businesses in India, while its employees in Canada and the United Kingdom are actively involved with WEConnect.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Community Development

Wells Fargo
No. 33 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list 
Accepted Award: Michelle Lee, Executive Vice President, Northeast Regional President

“Wells Fargo is only as strong as the communities we serve,” the financial-services company states. The company’s commitment to the Black, Latino, Asian, American Indian and LGBT communities is remarkable for the depth of its efforts to reach suppliers, youth and low-income people. Sixty-five percent of the executives in the top two levels of the company sit on the board of a multicultural nonprofit. Some examples of its philanthropy:

• In 2008, Wells Fargo achieved its goal to lend $1 billion to Black-owned small businesses and extended the goal to $2 billion by 2018.
• In 2010, Wells Fargo provided $61.1 million in grants to nonprofits focused on community development in distressed communities, including affordable housing, homeownership counseling, financial education, workforce development and job creation.
• The company has an online financial-literacy program in English and Spanish and teams with local Latino organizations to host free, bilingual programs on money management.
• Wells Fargo is a founding sponsor of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund. Since 2004, the bank has given $500,000 for scholarships for college-bound students from underrepresented Asian and Pacific Islander communities interested in pursuing careers in banking and financial services.
• In 2010, Wells Fargo invested $219 million in 19,000 nonprofits nationwide.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Working Families

Eli Lilly and Company
No. 29 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list
Accepted Award: John Lechleiter, Chairman, President & CEO

This company has become a model of workplace flexibility for its employees. As Lechleiter stated: “Lilly recognizes the critical importance of work-life integration tools to address the diverse needs, expectations, lifestyles and work styles of employees allowing them to be the most effective.” Globally, Lilly offers a number of programs, varying by location, to assist employees in maintaining work/life flexibility. These include flexible work arrangements, personal leaves, onsite health services/fitness centers, onsite childcare, campus credit unions and dry cleaners, and family-support programs.

Flexibility is a productivity tool that allows for adaptation of how, when and where work is completed. Supervisors discuss with their employees the needs of the individual and the work group, as well as the types of flexible work arrangements that are appropriate for a particular position. For employees, flexible work schedules are about lower stress levels, better health, a stronger focus on work while working and greater trust—all leading to loyalty, inspiration and innovation. For Lilly, flexibility is about being able to recruit and retain the best talent in a competitive marketplace, preparing for the changing environment and reducing the cost structure related to absenteeism, and healthcare—all leading to improved levels of engagement, which drives productivity.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Diversity-Management Progress

Kellogg Company
No. 49 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list
Accepted Award: John Bryant, President & CEO

Kellogg’s progress in all four areas we measure in diversity management has been considerable in the past year and shows every indication of sustainable forward motion. This progress put Kellogg on the DiversityInc Top 50 list this year, in the highly competitive consumer-packaged-goods industry.

The effort starts at the top. President and CEO John Bryant chairs the Executive Diversity & Inclusion Council and has instituted the first linking of diversity-management goals, both quantitative and qualitative, to executive compensation. The council reviews on a quarterly basis the company’s hiring, promotion and turnover activity reports and addresses trends with recommendations and actions.

Bryant and four of his direct reports serve as the executive sponsors of Kellogg’s six resource groups. The company’s resource groups are available to all U.S. employees and are utilized for recruitment, mentoring, talent development, retention, diversity training, marketing and community outreach.

The company’s supplier-diversity program, in existence for more than two decades, has experienced an almost six-fold increase in spending in the last 10 years and now supports more than 200 vendors owned by Blacks, Latinos, Asians, American Indians, women and veterans with disabilities. The company recently added businesses owned by LGBT people to its supplier database and will begin tracking them this year.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Talent Pipeline

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
No. 13 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list
Accepted Award: Andre Wyss, President 

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation understands the need for a diverse workforce and pipeline to senior management, both for cultural competency in its product development and marketing and for the most innovative workplace solutions. The company has been actively donating and volunteering to help youth from underrepresented groups reach their full potential, including direct involvement from its most senior leaders. A few examples:

• Each fall, areas of the business and members of the Diversity & Inclusion Councils and resource groups participate in its Disability Mentoring Day. In 2011, more than 100 employees volunteered to participate in the event focused on disability awareness and career opportunities for more than 50 high-school students and 10 college students/veterans who attended. The keynote address was by Rohan Murphy, a double amputee who became a Division 1 wrestler at Penn State University.
• In April 2011, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation brought nearly 150 students from 32 junior and senior New Jersey high schools to its East Hanover campus for its Annual Multicultural Teen Corporate Mentoring Program. Structured activities included a welcome from André Wyss; panel discussions with eight senior leaders; and a mock product-marketing challenge.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Supplier Diversity

Marriott International
No. 21 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list
Accepted Award: Arne Sorenson, President & CEO

Marriott has a long and rich history of creating community wealth by using local minority- and women-owned business enterprises (MBEs and WBEs) to build and service its hotels, especially in urban areas.

Marriott’s Tier I (direct contractor) third-party certified spend is 7.8 percent with MBEs and 9.5 percent with WBEs, more than 25 percent higher than the DiversityInc Top 50 average for MBEs and more than double the DiversityInc Top 50 average for WBEs. Marriott also spends 1 percent of its Tier I procurement with vendors owned by LGBT people, one of the highest percentages we’ve seen.

Supplier diversity is included in RFPs (requests for proposals), procurement-management compensation is tied to supplier-diversity results, and Marriott provides mentoring, financial education and financial assistance in the form of more favorable payment terms to its suppliers from underrepresented groups.

As an example, Marriott partnered with a U.S.-based woman-owned business to help grow her capacity and distribution channels to provide the design, production and fulfillment of training materials for its managed hotels around the world. Marriott also helped her share her expertise with other women-owned businesses.

Marriott has been honored by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, the Women Presidents Educational Organization and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for its supplier-diversity efforts.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Resource Groups

Dell
No. 26 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list
Accepted Award: Steven Price, Senior Vice President, Human Resources

In the past two years, Dell has placed a major emphasis on increasing employee participation in its resource groups, creating and expanding global groups, and using these groups to further its business.

Dell has seven global resource groups. Three have chapters outside of the United States: WISE (Women in Search of Excellence) in the Asian Pacific Japan region and Europe, the Middle East and Africa; PRIDE (for the LGBT population) in Brazil, and True Ability (Employees or Family Members of Employees with Special Needs/Disabilities) in Brazil.

The groups are available to all U.S. employees. Each group provides a charter of its strategy and mission annually, with a strong value proposition for its members, communities and Dell’s business goals. Programs include a Cross ERG Leadership Series and brown-bag sessions to help members learn software and social-media applications.

Business-relevant uses include:

• GenNext generational group providing feedback into product development and packaging. GenNext offered expertise on the launch of internal social-media vehicles.
• Adelante Latino group developed a process in which Spanish-speaking individuals deliver product briefings to prospective Latin American customers.
• The Asians in Motion group translated materials into languages for customers across Asia.
• The True Ability ERG has been engaged in product development for customers with disabilities.

Top Company for Executive Development
Kraft Foods
No. 7 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50
Accepted Award: Mark Clouse, President of the U.S. Snacks Business Unit

Talent development and the use of diversity training, resource groups and mentoring to maximize potential have been priorities for Kraft Foods in recent years—and the results are impressive.

Kraft’s Vice President of Diversity Jim Norman and retired executive Wayne Canty presented the company’s JumpStart program at our winter Innovation Fest! The initiative helps new managers, especially those from underrepresented groups, understand the corporate culture and the subtle signals of bias that can derail a career. For the video and presentation of this innovation, go to www.DiversityInc.com/innovationfest.

As the company undergoes a split this year into two separate entities, the resource groups and talent-development initiatives will be even more critical to its ability to connect with its increasingly multicultural consumer base.

Essential to that connection are its 10 resource groups, which are available to all U.S. employees, including hourly workers. The groups are used for recruitment, engagement, talent development, leadership training, marketplace research/connections, and diversity training. Resource-group members serve as facilitators for Kraft’s “The Power of Differences” internal training.

The groups’ success is measured through increased referral/rate of hires of people from traditionally underrepresented groups, retention of talent from those demographics, and increased promotion rates.

Almost three-quarters of its managers are involved in its formal mentoring program, which includes group mentoring, mentoring for new hires and traditional one-on-one mentoring. Seventy percent of the mentoring pairs are cross-cultural.

–Barbara Frankel