Increasing Diversity in Talent Development
More than three-quarters of the companies DiversityInc benchmarks, including most of the DiversityInc Top 50, are concerned about getting more racial/ethnic and gender diversity in their senior-management ranks and in the lower levels as a sustainable long-term pipeline to the top.
While “talent development” is the phrase that everyone uses to emphasize maximum engagement and realization of full potential, it remains elusive in many cases as employees—especially those from traditionally underrepresented groups—leave or just bide their time without fully contributing.
In this 3,160-word article, DiversityInc offers best practices and insights from a panel of chief diversity officers from five DiversityInc Top 50 companies with the highest scores in talent-development initiatives and results. We also present our data findings and recommendations.
The roundtable participants include Debbie Storey, senior vice president, talent development, and chief diversity officer, AT&T (No. 4 in The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity); Beth Brooke, global vice chair of public policy, sustainability and stakeholder engagement, Ernst & Young (No. 6); Deborah Dagit, vice president and chief diversity officer, Merck & Co. (No. 16); Sylvester Mendoza, corporate director, workforce diversity & EEO, Northrop Grumman (No. 42); Pat Crawford, senior vice president and head of diversity and inclusion, Wells Fargo (No. 33); Luke Visconti, CEO, DiversityInc; and Barbara Frankel, senior vice president, executive editor, DiversityInc.
Readers will learn:
- The three key areas that most benefit efforts to improve engagement, retention and promotions of people from traditionally underrepresented groups
- How to use resource groups as a recruitment resource
- Why increased participation in these groups leads to increased engagement
- Why cross-cultural mentors are important to nurture talent, especially among women
- How to build mentoring relationship across business lines
- The impact that strong CEO commitment can have on diversity efforts
For more best practices, case studies and results, read the full 3,160-word Increasing Diversity in Talent Development article.
12:39 pm
It is interesting and encouraging, to a point, to see more focus on training and development of minority talent. I say to a point because as long as the approach is one pronged, the needle will move too slowly. Real commitment to diversity requires a multi prong approach including promoting and recruiting minority talent at the C-suite and board level. Yes there is a lot of discussion about diversity but yet women on corporate boards have plateaued at 15% and Hispanics are an anemic 3%. We do need to educate, train and develop young talent to increase the minority talent pool but a pool of minority executives does exist today. The needle can be moved at the most senior levels by changing the way executives and board members are recruited and tapping into the pool of existing minority talent. Once companies across the board implement and execute a strategy to tap into the existing pool of executive minority talent we will begin to see real movement in minority representation and influence in corporate America