TOP COMPANY FOR TALENT PIPELINE
KPMG
NO. 29 ON THE DIVERSITYINC TOP 50 LIST

KPMG has demonstrated a strong commitment to building an inclusive future workforce, one that has racial and gender diversity. Specifically, the firm has been the co-creator and presenting sponsor of Major League Baseball’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program, in which KPMG provides financial support for college-bound student athletes participating in an RBI league. Scholarships are awarded on the merits of financial need, academic achievement, leadership skills and community service. The KPMG Foundation also started The PhD Project in 1994, which has helped more than 1,000 Blacks, Latinos and American Indians become business-school professors.

The organization is now serving more than 400 doctoral students. Led by Bernie Milano, former head of recruiting at KPMG, The PhD Project is now a separate 501(c)3 that has more than tripled the number of Black, Latino and American Indian professors in business schools. In addition, KPMG is a leading supporter of other youth-based organizations, especially GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) and INROADS. KPMG has extremely strong employee-resource groups and was honored previously for its efforts to increase employee involvement in those groups. The company has done an excellent job of using them for recruitment, engagement, retention and talent development.

Award accepted by John Veihmeyer, chairman and CEO:

“As a special-services firm, all we have is our talent. If we don’t get it right from a talent and inclusion standpoint, we are not going to be very successful. Good intentions are good, but they don’t take you where you want to go. It takes a layering of accountability. This [award] is a tremendous encouragement to keep plugging in the direction we are going … We need the right diversity in our partnership. On some metrics, we are doing a good job, but we are woefully short of where we need to get. We have a number of things to make sure that we eventually right that.”