Companies in The 2011 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity all have deep-rooted values. Here are ideas, best practices and case studies from more than 300 chief diversity officers and senior executives who attend our last event. They emphasized that clearly communicating values to employees, customers and suppliers enhances engagement and improves retention.

Participating in this discussion:

Deborah Dagit, Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, Merck & Co., No. 15 in the DiversityInc Top 50
We have an award that we implemented a few years ago from our CEO—the global diversity and inclusion award…We use it as a way to refresh our business case and keep it truly global.

Jim Turley, Chairman and CEO, Ernst & Young, No. 5 in the DiversityInc Top 50
Someone said, “Why don’t we have a chairman’s values award for team members who are living values just to the extreme, if you will?” So we did this. This has been one of the greatest things. We have literally thousands of nominations every year, blue-ribbon panels, along the business units, ultimately culminating in giving out about nine or 10 chairman’s values awards on a global basis.

Susan Hamilton, Assistant Vice President of Diversity and Chief Diversity Officer, CSX Corp., No. 17 in the DiversityInc Top 50
We recognize our top inclusion council (geographically based), our top (employee) group (based on a shared bond or theme) and our individual champion. They’re recognized in front of the kickoff audience with the executive team present. It’s a big deal to them.

Cindy Brinkley, Former Senior Vice President, Talent Development and Chief Diversity Officer, AT&T, No. 4 in the DiversityInc Top 50
We have 10 employee-resource groups. Everybody used to have their own individual kind of annual meetings. Now, we bring them all in together and have one huge conference and tremendous amounts of executive participation.

Read the full article in the May 2011 issue of DiversityInc magazine.