Also:

• No. 2 in The DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for Blacks

The commitment at this company definitely starts at the top. Chairman, CEO and President Wes Bush personally signs off on executive compensation to diversity. He chairs the diversity council, which meets quarterly. He also signs off on goals and achievements for supplier diversity and regularly uses the company’s intranet to personally communicate diversity commitment.

Northrop Grumman has 30 resource groups that are available to all employees. The resource groups regularly communicate with each other, and benefits to joining them are communicated internally. The company uses the groups for recruitment, to identify and nurture management talent, and in the on-boarding process for new employees. Senior executives are members of each group.

The company also uses its resource groups to assist in diversity-training initiatives, such as providing heritage and cultural events to increase awareness. Its diversity training is company-wide and mandatory for all managers. Training is offered monthly, and there is formal follow-up. To assess the success of its diversity training, the company uses employee-engagement surveys.

Fifty-one percent of its total philanthropic endeavors were directed toward multicultural nonprofit groups. Northrop Grumman is especially interested in attracting more Blacks, Latinos, American Indians and women to the engineering field. Nonprofits the company works with include the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers and the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering.

U.S. Headquarters: Falls Church, Va.

Global Employees: 75,000

Last Year’s DiversityInc Top 50 Ranking: No. 37