• No. 9 in The DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for Blacks
• No. 7 in The DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for Asian Americans
• No. 2 in The DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for Executive Women

There’s a reason DiversityInc has been showcasing the talent-development and resource-group efforts of Kraft Foods and has asked the consumer-products company to be our 2012 Top Company for Executive Development. Kraft has worked tirelessly to create innovative methods of building an inclusive workplace that maximizes employee potential.

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

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 as well.

Both domestically and globally, Kraft has pioneered the use of innovative resource groups. For example, Kraft has groups for women in sales. The national Women Sales Council convenes annually with more than 80 women leaders. Their goal is to increase representation of women, especially in underrepresented areas, and elevate them in the organization. As a result of this group, promotions of women in sales increased by 39 percent.

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.

Kraft emphasizes accountability of its diversity-management efforts and results. Chairman and CEO Irene Rosenfeld holds senior executives responsible for diversity progress, linking performance to compensation and measuring such factors as executive sponsorship of a resource group, being a mentor, involvement with external organizations connected to diversity, and human-capital and procurement results connected to diversity.

U.S. Headquarters: Northfield, Ill.

Global Employees: 127,000

U.S. Employees: 43,243

Last Year’s DiversityInc Top 50 Ranking: No. 9