The 2008 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity®

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DiversityInc announced its 2008 Top 50 Companies for Diversity® today. For the second time in three years, Verizon is No. 1 on the list.

Click play below to watch DiversityInc's Luke Visconti and Verizon's Magda Yrizarry on CNBC.

The annual Top 50 Companies for Diversity listing, now in its eighth year, is an editorial process, entirely driven by metrics obtained in a detailed survey. Companies ranked in the listing demonstrate consistent strength in four areas: CEO Commitment, Human Capital, Corporate and Organizational Communications, and Supplier Diversity.

Details on the Top 50, including in-depth profiles of the winning companies, interviews with their CEOs and their best practices, will be found in the June issue of DiversityInc magazine.

The Top 50 list is increasingly competitive as more companies recognize the need to reach multicultural customers, both domestically and globally. In the United States, the Top 50 companies constantly demonstrate how rapidly they are pulling away from other companies, especially in recruitment and promotion of people from traditionally underrepresented groups.

• The Top 50 hire 44 percent Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans, up from 33 percent five years ago. By comparison, the U.S. work force is 29 percent Black, Latino, Asian and Native American, the same level it was three years ago*
• Twenty-five percent of managers in the Top 50 are Black, Latino, Asian or Native American, compared with 19 percent five years ago. The U.S. work force has 17 percent managers from these groups, compared with 15 percent five years ago*
• Although Top 50 companies employ only 5 percent of the U.S. work force, they employ 17 percent of the college-educated Black, Latino, Asian and Native American workers*
• Top 50 boards of directors are 23 percent Black, Latino, Asian and Native American, compared with 13 percent nationally. Top 50 boards are 22 percent female, compared with 15 percent nationally*

What's the difference globally, where representation by race/ethnicity isn't usually measured?

• Top 50 companies average 48 percent of their revenue outside the United States, compared with 38.5 percent five years ago
• Almost 20 percent of the Top 50 refuse to do business in countries that don't have the same human-rights values. By comparison, only 5 percent of U.S.-based companies have strong global human-rights policies, according to Ethical Investment Research

"Top 50 companies have clarity of their absolute values of human dignity, demonstrating a global adherence to these core beliefs. These sustainable values drive margin," said Luke Visconti, partner and cofounder of DiversityInc.

Methodology

A total of 352 companies participated this year, up 10 percent from last year and up 100 percent since 2003. Fifteen companies went up in ranking this year, while 13 companies not on last year's list earned spots this year.

The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list is determined entirely by a statistical analysis of responses to our 200-question survey. The survey is sent to any company requesting it that has more than 1,000 employees. There is no fee to enter and no requirement to advertise. The methodology is unbiased and is completely independent of business conducted with DiversityInc. For more detailed information on our methodology, please visit DiversityInc.com/top50.

DiversityInc also compiles 11 specialty lists, available upon request: The Top 10 Companies for Recruitment & Retention, The Top 10 Companies for Supplier Diversity, The Top 10 Companies for African Americans, The Top 10 Companies for Latinos, The Top 10 Companies for Asian Americans, The Top 10 Companies for Executive Women, The Top 10 Companies for LGBT Employees, The Top 10 Companies for People With Disabilities, The Top Global Diversity Companies, The Top 5 Regional Utilities and the 25 Noteworthy Companies. For a list of dates when these lists will be released, please visit DiversityInc.com/top50.

Enter Now!

The deadline for the 2009 DiversityInc Top 50 has passed. Results will be announced March 12 at DiversityInc's Top 50 Gala Dinner in New York City. Full details in the June issue of DiversityInc magazine.

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