Michele C. Meyer-Shipp
Michele C. Meyer-Shipp has been named vice president and chief diversity officer of Prudential Financial, succeeding Emilio Egea, who retired. In her new role, Meyer-Shipp is responsible for leading and directing all diversity-and-inclusion initiatives for the company, and for ensuring ongoing compliance with federal and state equal employment opportunity/affirmative action laws and requirements. Prudential is No. 9 in The 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity.

Meyer-Shipp joined Prudential in April 2010 as vice president and counsel in the Employment and Labor Law group. She has also been general counsel for the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, vice president and diversity manager in Merrill Lynch’s Global Wealth Management division, and director of the state of New Jersey’s Division of Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action. Prior to that, she was a practicing attorney.

Meyer-Shipp is an active member of the Association of Corporate Counsel, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, Corporate Counsel Women of Color and the National Employment Law Council. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Rutgers School of Criminal Justice and her juris doctor at Seton Hall University School of Law.

R. Fenimore Fisher
R. Fenimore Fisher has been named a deputy commissioner and the chief diversity and EEO officer for the City of New York. He is responsible for the leadership of the Office of Citywide Diversity and Equal Employment Opportunity, and will design and implement strategies to position the city as a world-class leader in diversity and inclusion. Prior to his appointment, Fisher was managing partner of the R. Fenimore Fisher Group, a global D&I and alternative dispute-resolution firm. Fisher previously served as vice president of diversity initiatives and analysis for Walmart and as executive director of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition’s Wall Street Project.

A member of the New Jersey State Bar Association, Fisher serves on the national leadership council for GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) as well as the corporate advisory council for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Fisher holds a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University, a Juris Doctor from Ohio Northern University and a labor-mediation certification from Cornell University.

Jennifer “Jae” Pi’ilani Requiro
Jennifer “Jae” Pi’ilani Requiro has been named national manager of diversity and inclusion at Toyota Financial Services. Her responsibilities include diversity-and-inclusion education and executive scorecards, mentoring and Toyota Business Partnering Groups. She also develops strategies to increase market share, capture more multicultural customers and increase partnerships with diverse suppliers. Requiro has a bachelor’s degree from UCLA.

Barbara Frankel
Barbara Frankel, senior vice president and executive editor of DiversityInc, has been named to the newly established global advisory board for WEConnect International, a corporate-led nonprofit that facilitates sustainable economic growth by empowering and connecting women business owners globally. Others named to the 22-person board include Kathleen Matthews, executive vice president and chief global communications and public affairs officer, Marriott International; Julie Oyegun, chief diversity officer, the World Bank Group; and Catherine Rodgers, vice president, Global Opportunties and Business Development, IBM.

Margaret E. Burke
Margaret E. Burke has been admitted into PricewaterhouseCoopers’ partnership. In her ongoing role as U.S. Advisory human-capital leader, Burke oversees the strategic development, direction and implementation of the Advisory practice’s recruitment, development, talent management, rewards and retention programs. Burke holds a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College. PricewaterhouseCoopers is No. 1 in the DiversityInc Top 50.

Tracy Nolan and Pushpendu Pal
CVS Caremark has appointed Tracy Nolan and Pushpendu Pal to new positions, Nolan to vice president of strategic product delivery and Pal to senior vice president of the information technology division within the company’s prescription benefit management (PBM) business. Nolan, who comes to CVS from WellPoint, is responsible for operationally expanding flagship product offerings and for newly developed products and programs. Pal’s promotion is a reflection of his work in leading the division in delivering stable and robust internal-application services and deploying information technology.

Terrez Thompson
The Coca-Cola Company has promoted Terrez Thompson to vice president of global supplier diversity. She will lead and promote the company’s efforts to maximize procurement opportunities with diverse businesses as suppliers, contractors and subcontractors. Thompson has held a variety of roles in more than 25 years at The Coca-Cola Company, including controller of The Coca-Cola Trading Company. The Coca-Cola Company is No. 46 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50.

Kevin Jennings
The Arcus Foundation, a leading global foundation advancing pressing social-justice and conservation issues, has named Kevin Jennings as executive director. Jennings was previously CEO of Be the Change Inc., where  he was instrumental in launching the Opportunity Nation campaign to promote economic opportunity and social mobility in America. Jennings has also served as assistant deputy secretary of education under President Obama and founded the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Jennings has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and master’s degrees from Columbia University Teacher’s College and New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Jesus Soto Jr.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has appointed Jesus Soto Jr. to further solidify the leadership team charged with building the nation’s safest natural-gas delivery system. He will serve as senior vice president of gas transmission, operations, engineering and pipeline integrity. Soto is responsible for overseeing four major functions: public safety and integrity management; project engineering, design and management; gas transmission; and gas system operations.

Richelle Parham
Richelle Parham, chief marketing officer of eBay North America, has been elected to the board of directors of Scripps Networks Interactive. At eBay, Parham directs the company’s core marketing functions. She is also responsible for brand engagement, driving eBay’s seasonal marketing calendar and leading its customer-insights and marketing-analytics functions.

Richard Mark
Richard Mark has been promoted to chairman, president and CEO of Ameren Illinois. Mark’s responsibilities include the company’s natural-gas and electric delivery business, customer service, natural-gas and electric supply, community relations and government relations. Prior to joining Ameren in 2002, he spent five years as COO and six years as president and CEO at St. Mary’s Hospital in East St. Louis, Ill.

Daisy Auger-Dominguez
Daisy Auger-Dominguez joined the Disney/ABC Television Group as vice president of organization and workforce diversity. Auger-Dominguez focuses on helping the company attract, develop and retain diverse talent in support of business objectives, and is responsible for continuing to develop the company’s diversity-and-inclusion strategy, goals and plans. She previously served as a diversity executive at Time Warner and Moody’s Corporation. She has a bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University and a master’s degree from New York University.

Ramona G. Blake
Ramona G. Blake has been appointed director of diversity and inclusion at TIAA-CREF Financial Services. She is responsible for diversity-strategy design and implementation, special initiatives and training in the following areas: marketplace, supplier, workforce and workplace. Previously, Blake was manager of diversity and inclusion at PSEG. She has a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a Certified Diversity Professional certificate from Cornell’s ILR School.

Dermot J. O’Brien
Dermot J. O’Brien has been named chief human resources officer and corporate vice president at Automatic Data Processing. In his new role, O’Brien works with ADP’s senior leadership team to develop workforce plans and programs that align with ADP’s overall strategic objectives. His responsibilities include forecasting ADP’s global talent needs; implementing initiatives that effectively attract, develop, deploy and retain a diverse talent population; overseeing succession planning and management development; and improving ADP’s already strong levels of employee engagement. Prior to joining ADP, O’Brien was executive vice president of human resources at TIAA-CREF. A Dublin, Ireland, native, O’Brien has a bachelor’s degree from Pace University. ADP is No. 27 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50.

Dr. Antonio Flores
Dr. Antonio Flores, president of the Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities (HACU), invited DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti to become a member of the organization’s 17-member Corporate & Philanthropic Council. The council’s goal is to provide guidance and assistance to Dr. Flores and the association’s development division and public-affairs office to ensure its mission, programs and events receive support and that its strategic plans are realized. Other council members include: Raymond Arroyo, Aetna; Alma Guajardo-Crossley, General Motors; Jim Fjelstul, Sodexo; Jerry Gattegno, Deloitte; and Angel Herrera, ARAMARK.

Anthony Salcido and Mónica Gil
The Hispanic Scholarship Fund inducted six new members into its Alumni Hall of Fame on Oct. 17 in New York City. The 2012 inductees are: Dr. Yolanda García Romero, professor of history, North Lake College; Mónica Gil, senior vice president, public affairs and government relations, Nielsen Company;  José P. Chan, MIT Sloan Fellow in Innovation and Global Leadership and adjunct professor, Parsons the New School for Design; Cyrus Amado Salazar, equal opportunity manager, U.S. Air Force; and Gilbert and Jacki Cisneros, president and vice president, The Gilbert & Jacki Cisneros Foundation. Additionally, Melanie L. Healey, group president, North America of HSF partner company Procter & Gamble, accepted an honorary recognition on behalf of P&G for contributing more than $4 million to HSF since 1986.

The post Prudential’s New CDO, Plus Toyota Promotes Diversity Leader [Slideshow] appeared first on DiversityInc.

Generating buy-in from white men is a challenge in some companies, especially for middle management. Even the DiversityInc Top 50 companies are split on strategies, with some choosing to directly focus on white men as a demographic group while others insist they are included in all workplace-diversity efforts.

In Do White Men Really Need Diversity Outreach? DiversityInc’s Barbara Frankel, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor, addresses this issue head-on in a 3,124-word analysis. Frankel interviewed 20 companies to learn how they handle including white men in their workplace-diversity efforts.

Companies include: Sodexo (No. 2 in The 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity), PricewaterhouseCoopers (No. 1), The Coca-Cola Company (No. 46), Merck & Co. (16), CSX (No. 23), Aetna (No. 24), Health Care Service Corporation (No. 19), AXA Equitable (one of DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies), Harley-Davidson, Ameren, Comerica, Choice Hotels, Staples and the Army & Air Force Exchange.

Readers will also receive need-to-know answers to key questions in workplace diversity including:

• Can white men be diversity leaders in the workplace?
• What aggressive workplace-diversity efforts are companies, such as Coca-Cola and PricewaterhouseCoopers, making?
• Why do you need to keep senior management accountable for diversity efforts in the workplace?
• How can you make a business case for workplace diversity to middle managers?
• How will creating an action plan help make workplace diversity meaningful?
• Should white men have resource groups?

Read Do White Men Really Need Diversity Outreach? at DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

Watch the video below to hear DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti discuss the business case for workplace diversity and why it is important for ALL groups to be included in diversity efforts.

Read DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti’s Ask the White Guy column, Can a White Man Speak With Authority on Diversity?, for more on this subject.

The post Workplace Diversity: Do White Men Really Need Diversity Outreach? appeared first on DiversityInc.

We asked Jim Norman of Kraft Foods, No. 7 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50; Raymond Arroyo of Aetna, No. 24; and David Casey of CVS Caremark, one of DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies, for their views on the DiversityInc Top 50 process. We came away with the three main areas in diversity management that they cite as having received value from the process.

If you would like to participate in the DiversityInc Top 50 survey for diversity management, click here for more information.

• They use the survey to create an overall diversity blueprint and determine areas of focus for their diversity management  

Jim Norman of Kraft: The survey can be used by a chief diversity officer as a strategic tool to create conversations with partners in the organization that he or she has not had or has been dying to have, and to put some parameters around what “best in class” looks like. It’s work that you’re doing for yourself and the organization to get better and to monitor your progress each and every year. 

Raymond Arroyo of Aetna: We have quarterly reports that mimic the DiversityInc Top 50 methodology so that we know whether we are making progress against the goals. This relates to the methods DiversityInc is going to measure, and the survey tells us that. We get all the data around new hires, retention and promotions.

David Casey of CVS Caremark: When I sent the CEO Commitment section to our head of communications (she’s kind of the CEO’s keeper), she started scratching her head, saying, “Wow, these are really the things we should be having them focus on.” It’s another way for me to get best-practice information out there in front of different parts of the business. 

• The survey captures trends and best practices across various organizations that become the standard for diversity management

David Casey of CVS Caremark: What does the Top 50 really mean? It gives you a data point. It gives you a data set. It’s one thing to go into your board or to your CEO and say, “X percent of our workforce is people of color or women, and we’ve spent this much on supplier diversity,” but unless you give them an anchor and some kind of relative sense of what that means, it doesn’t work, and that’s what DiversityInc provides.

Jim Norman of Kraft: I know there could be criticism around any survey, and people get confused about why they’re doing it or why they would be involved. We have strategic plans. They’re about creating a better organization. The survey, then, is a tool for me to mark progress against a journey I’m already committed to. It holds me accountable. It’s a very usable tool. It asks questions that are critical to driving the kind of deep, sustainable organization change that I need to drive.

• The survey forces companies to track important data and understand how the results affect diversity management

Raymond Arroyo of Aetna: The survey asks the questions in a very, very specific way that every single time requires us to look at the data in a very sophisticated way. I love the stuff about human capital because it’s something that we should be doing ourselves anyway.

David Casey of CVS Caremark: Before the DiversityInc Top 50, there were not a lot of robust, true surveys or measurement tools for diversity management. There was just a lot of affirmative action and EEO recognitions and awards. DiversityInc’s Top 50 is by far the most robust analysis of what a company does in diversity management.

About the DiversityInc Top 50

The survey measures four key areas of diversity management: CEO Commitment, Human Capital, Corporate and Organizational Communications, and Supplier Diversity. Participation is free, and companies that do business with DiversityInc have no advantage. Each company that completes the survey receives a free report card assessing its diversity-management performance overall and in those four areas.

For background on the history of the DiversityInc Top 50, click here. For more information on our upcoming diversity-management event, click here.

Note: Since this article was written, Raymond has taken a new role as the head of Alternative Distribution, Aetna.

The post Diversity Management: Top 3 Reasons to Participate in the DiversityInc Top 50 appeared first on DiversityInc.

In this exclusive, 90-minute Diversity Web Seminar on Resource Groups, diversity leaders from Aetna and MasterCard Worldwide (Nos. 24 and No. 15, respectively, in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50) discuss why organizations need to have resource groups in place if they want to stay competitive. They share case-study examples that illustrate some of the significant results that resource groups can provide in bringing diversity to the workplace and the marketplace.

Panelists include DiversityInc’s Barbara Frankel (moderator), senior vice president and executive editor; Meghan O’Brien McNamara, director of diversity, Aetna; and Donna Johnson, chief diversity officer, MasterCard Worldwide.

Readers will learn:

• The top four best practices for resource groups that all companies should utilize
• Five new and innovative types of resource groups that are on the rise
• Why MasterCard’s resource groups each have a unique brand identifier and mission
• How global and regional committees provide structure to resource groups and deliver results
• How Aetna used its resource groups to boost its engagement levels to 86 percent

Access the  Diversity Web Seminar on Resource Groups presentation, available as both a video and downloadable PDF, at DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

The post Diversity Web Seminar on Resource Groups: How to Produce Results You Can Actually Measure appeared first on DiversityInc.

Employees Make the Case for Resource Groups

After four years with Aetna in customer service, Cyndee Ward was at a crossroads familiar to many women. She had a toddler son and a newborn daughter and had every intention of becoming a stay-at-home mom. Then came the call.

“It was from someone wanting me to work on a project. Half-kiddingly, I said, ‘The only way I’m coming back is if I can work from home.’ And he said, ‘No problem,’” she recalls. Ward became chair of the company’s Telecommuting Network resource group.

Stewart Anderson of HP has a very different story. He joined the tech company in 1999 in product development. A gay man, he had lost jobs at other companies after being outed. Since his partner had children from an earlier marriage, Anderson was very leery about coming out at HP.

Then in 2004 he was asked to attend a company weekend workshop called White Men As Allies. “It was cathartic on so many levels. I came to understand that, being a white male, I had so many things attributed to me that I had no knowledge of. I came out that weekend to the organization and it changed everything,” he recalls.

Anderson joined HP’s Pride group, which he believes at 30 years old is the oldest LGBT resource group anywhere. Working in the organization, he developed his leadership skills and today is a business operations manager in consumer products.

“I started out with the company as an individual contributor,” he says. My ability to think systematically and globally is largely because of my involvement in the resource group. There was reciprocal mentoring. I was able to interact with other senior leaders in a non-threatening way.”

For Ward, Anderson and thousands of employees across the United States and, these days, globally, membership in a resource group has been critical to their retention and development and often has made the difference in their career trajectories. For their companies, resource groups play a rapidly increasing role in the recruitment, retention and talent development of ALL their employees and in their marketing efforts aimed at traditionally underserved communities.

Four Business Benefits of Resource Groups

• RecruitmentAll of the DiversityInc Top 50 companies use their resource groups to recruit new members. Five years ago, only 75 percent of them did this best practice, but they’ve realized quickly how valuable an asset resource groups are for recruitment.

Specifically, they use resource groups to attend job fairs, host networking events for both recent college graduates and more experienced professionals, connect with their alma maters (especially HBCUs, Hispanic-serving institutions and women’s colleges) and offer testimonials on websites. Most importantly, they meet with potential recruits and talk to them about the cultural fit in the organization. They also spread the word to friends that this company is an inclusive place to work.

The resource groups can be used for very targeted recruitment. At CSX, for example, the Military Affinity Group worked with the staffing department on a specific recruitment strategy aimed at veterans. They recruit veterans in 23 states covering 108 military installations. The results? In 2008, 26 percent of total hires at CSX and 19 percent of management employees were former military.

• RetentionWhat are the key reasons vital employees leave? They feel disconnected and/or they feel as if their careers are stalled. Resource groups can address both aspects and improve retention, identifying cultural gaps that can prevent employees from realizing their potential, providing “safe” spaces to discuss them, offering mentors to guide them and giving constructive feedback.

For example, Accenture‘s Pedro Suriel said the company’s Hispanic group made members realize that a failure to speak up in a meeting “because I was brought up to respect people in positions of authority” is not a reason to leave but an issue to address that can lead to a successful career path.

• Talent DevelopmentResource groups are among the best sources of finding leadership talent and nurturing it. Many employees who might not have the “right” credentials to move up in management get a chance to shine as they develop into leadership roles in their resource groups. 

The groups also can identify potential talent and set up external and internal talent-development programs to develop them. At CSX, the African-American Inclusion Group has sponsored nine Black, female employees to be part of the National African-American Women’s Leadership Institute.

• Market OutreachAt many companies, especially consumer-facing ones, employee-resource groups serve as vital focus groups and innovators in terms of products, product placement and understanding the marketplace.

“The networks very much want to be connected to the business plan, and it also gives them lines of exposure to the business that they may not work in,” says Kerrie Peraino, former chief diversity officer at American Express.

On a global level, in 2008, Merck & Co. created 10 global-constituency groups, part of whose mission is to connect with their local markets.

“Historically, in the pharmaceutical sector, we haven’t really asked our employees to step out of their professional, technical subject-matter expertise and have their knowledge as healthcare consumers form our strategy,” says Deborah Dagit, chief diversity officer at Merck. “So this actually gave people a level of permission to do that, which they got really excited about. And it’s really helped us to be on the leading edge with our new commercial model approaches, the way we’re approaching research and clinical trial inclusion, and our strategic alliances.”

The post The Business Benefits of Resource Groups appeared first on DiversityInc.

In Role of Chief Diversity Officer With Diversity Council, diversity leaders from five of The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity—Aetna (No. 19), AT&T (No. 4), Automatic Data Processing (No. 38), Cox Communications (No. 20) and Sodexo (No. 2)—discuss their roles and responsibilities with their organizations’ diversity councils.

Readers will learn:

• How often these diversity councils meet to discuss goals and progress
• Which companies have multiple councils to better focus on strategy versus implementation initiatives
• Which metrics rank the highest on companies’ scorecards and are discussed at meetings
• How companies bring in external support to help devise action plans

Read Role of Chief Diversity Officer With Diversity Council on DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

For more on diversity-council best practices, read Why Diversity Councils Move the Needle for Business Results and Effective Diversity Councils: A DiversityInc Roundtable.

The post Diversity Councils: Who Should Set Meeting Agendas? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Diversity metrics are vital to improving diversity-council effectiveness. It’s challenging to hit a bull’s-eye if you don’t have a target in sight. Similarly, your diversity council can only be successful if there are defined goals and diversity metrics to achieve. These diversity metrics can be demographic, but improvement goals also can deal with areas such as procurement, diversity training, participation in resource groups and mentoring.

In the 2,687-word Effective Diversity Councils: A DiversityInc Roundtable article, Jennifer Christie, chief diversity officer and vice president of executive recruitment at American Express (No. 14 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50); Raymond Arroyo, chief diversity officer, Aetna (No. 24); and Kathy Hannan, national managing partner, diversity and corporate social responsibility, KPMG (No. 22), discuss the best practices of effective diversity councils and how diversity metrics play a pivotal role in diversity management.

Among the best practices, readers will learn:

• The different types of diversity-council structures and how diversity metrics and goals are developed
• How involved the CEO should be in diversity-council initiatives and why visibility is a key component for success
• Why 60 percent of DiversityInc Top 50 companies link compensation to diversity goals and what pushback and challenges are common when instituting this practice
• Why resource-group leaders should be included on the council in rotational roles

Additionally, watch the diversity web seminar on diversity councils for a comprehensive presentation of diversity-council best practices from IBM (No. 17) and jcpenney (No. 35).

The post How Diversity Councils Use Diversity Metrics to Set Goals That Get Results appeared first on DiversityInc.

Made possible with a $210,000 award from the Aetna Foundation, Tour for Diversity in Medicine aims to provide college students of color with a wide range of information and advice to plan for careers in medicine and dentistry and ultimately diversify the health care profession. Although minority populations comprise more than 26 percent of the U.S. population, African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans combined represent only about 6 percent of practicing physicians and 5 percent of dentists.

Alden Landry, M.D., an emergency room physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and co-director of Tour for Diversity in Medicine, said, “Our goal is to increase interest in health care as careers for students from minority populations and help them overcome perceived barriers to medical and dental school, such as high tuition costs, long training and a challenging application process. By offering workshops with established health care practitioners from similar backgrounds to theirs, we believe we can open the pipeline for talented young people of color who can make a significant difference in improving health care in the U.S.”

Landry noted that research has found that patients who receive care from physicians of the same race rate their medical visits as more satisfying and report being more engaged in their treatment than do patients who see physicians of other races.

Gillian Barclay, D.D.S., Dr.P.H., vice president of the Aetna Foundation, said, “As our nation’s population becomes increasingly diverse, we need health care providers who have the cultural competency to engage their patients fully with their treatment and ensure good health outcomes. Multiplying the number of men and women from underrepresented minorities is a fundamental strategy to achieving health equity in the United States. The Aetna Foundation is pleased to be the Tour’s founding sponsor and support this innovative initiative as part of our portfolio of programs aimed at developing health care leaders from underrepresented communities.”

The five stops for the inaugural Tour for Diversity in Medicine will be:

• Monday, February 20 Hampton University, Hampton, Va.
• Tuesday, February 21 Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, N.C.
• Wednesday, February 22 South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, S.C.
• Thursday, February 23 Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Ala.
• Friday, February 24 Jackson State University, Jackson, Miss.

At each school, about 150 students are expected to participate in the full-day program. Session topics range from the application process and admissions tests to choosing the right specialty to an overview of health disparities. Students will have the opportunity to interact with the presenting physicians, dentists and medical students and hear their stories about how they overcame obstacles to pursue a career as a health care professional.

“Without the assistance of mentors over the years, I would not be a doctor today,” said Kameron Matthews, M.D., J.D., co-director of the Tour for Diversity in Medicine and a family physician in Chicago. “We want to connect students with physicians and dentists who are dedicated to their growth and their future.”

Planning is already underway for two more tours, one in fall 2012 to colleges with large Latino populations and another in spring 2013 to colleges with significant Native American populations.

Landry, Matthews and other health care providers on the Tour for Diversity in Medicine plan to blog, tweet and use other forms of social media on their weeklong February trip to the HBCUs. People are invited to follow on Facebook and on Twitter @Tour4Diversity or visit tour4diversity.org.

The Aetna Foundation supports multiple programs to create a diverse group of health care leaders from today’s young people, including the AcademyHealth/Aetna Foundation Minority Scholars Program, Four Directions Summer Research Program, the Aetna Foundation/National Medical Fellowships Healthcare Leadership Program and the National Academy Foundation.

About the Aetna Foundation

The Aetna Foundation, Inc. is the independent charitable and philanthropic arm of Aetna Inc. Since 1980, Aetna and the Aetna Foundation have contributed $394 million in grants and sponsorships, including $15.6 million in 2010. As a national health foundation, we promote wellness, health, and access to high-quality health care for everyone. This work is enhanced by the time and commitment of Aetna employees, who have volunteered more than 2.3 million hours since 2003. Our current giving is focused on addressing the rising rate of adult and childhood obesity in the U.S.; promoting racial and ethnic equity in health and health care; and advancing integrated health care. For more information, visit www.AetnaFoundation.org.

About Tour for Diversity in Medicine

The Tour for Diversity in Medicine (TDM), a project of Hip Hop Health Inc., seeks to educate inspire and cultivate future physicians of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds by forming local connections in order to fulfill a national need. Conceived by former medical student leaders, TDM will bring premedical enrichment activities to underrepresented minority undergraduate students in order to assist with the diversification of the health professions workforce. TDM is a grassroots effort, with its inaugural tour in February 2012 across five Southern states. Visit tour4diversity.org for more information.

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The panel was the kickoff event at an inaugural Affinity Group Leadership Development Summit sponsored and organized by American Express, Aetna and Johnson & Johnson. The panel also featured Michel Paul, company group chairman of the Diabetes Care Franchise at Johnson & Johnson.

More than 230 diversity managers and employee-resource-group leaders and members from across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, the Netherlands, India, the United Kingdom and Dubai attended the summit at 3 World Financial Center in New York.

Kerrie Peraino, former chief diversity officer and current senior vice president of international human resources and global employee relations at American Express, told the audience that the idea for the ERG summit was sparked after she and fellow chief diversity officers from Aetna and Johnson & Johnson attended a DiversityInc event.

“Anthony [Carter, chief diversity officer, Johnson & Johnson] and Raymond [Arroyo, chief diversity officer, Aetna] and I were invited by Luke to sit on a panel where chief diversity officers shared best practices, and as we had our conversation, it became very apparent that we were all on the same page as it related to our [resource groups] and there was an opportunity to do something,” she said. “Today is the realization of that something.”

To frame the panel discussion, Visconti shared some statistics about resource groups culled from The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity.

Among them:

• From 2005 to 2010, the number of CEOs who meet directly with their resource groups climbed from 44 percent to 88 percent

• The number of resource groups meeting during the workday went from 74 percent in 2005 to 100 percent in 2010

Visconti said the reason for the astronomical growth is simple: More and more companies are recognizing the value of using their resource groups for multicultural marketing, talent development and recruitment.

Below are excerpts from the panel discussion:

Visconti, DiversityInc: How do you feel resource groups can play a role in supporting your business strategy?

Chenault, American Express: I think what is very, very important in the development of business strategy is you want different perspectives. Not only different perspectives, but you want engaged, passionate perspectives. If you want to succeed in the marketing of products and services, you want to have people who are personally engaged and really care about the customer segments they are going after and who want to win and feel proud about what they are doing. In our case, I can give you three recent examples. With our [Latino resource group], we were able to create a holiday card that had a major impact. It was a terrific business success and the ERG helped not only with marketing but with the structure of the product and how we positioned the product. The second example involves our Pride network [for LGBT employees]. In Brighton in the United Kingdom, there is something called the Stonewall Equality Walk, and Pride worked with merchants in the Brighton area to create a decal. It allowed us to expand our merchant acceptance in Brighton and got them involved and engaged in a personal way. And the third example is … our Asian resource group just came up with a Happy Diwali card that celebrates the Indian New Year, and it’s off to a great start in the U.S. What is important about all of these examples is we saw resource groups trying to have an impact broadly on society and, in fact, it had a very positive impact on business results. That, to me, is a winning business combination.

Williams, Aetna: For us, it all starts with the values of the company, and the values of the company really start with putting the people who use our services at the center of what we do. One of the core values of the company is employee engagement. The research is very clear that employees who are engaged feel better about the organization. They do a better job. They produce better results. They stay longer. They’re more productive and do a better job taking care of our customers. From a business perspective, it’s really critical to have insight into the different customer cohorts. The different resource groups have given us very substantial insights into ways we can build our products and services. Angle (Aetna’s LGBT network) really helped us build physician networks so those members could go to member physicians who really understood their issues and wanted to build a practice around that. For us, that turned out to be an extremely important marketing initiative that led to substantial growth in our membership and was an example of the business impact. From my personal point of view, it’s really about giving those employees an opportunity to be engaged, to make a contribution, to share with us the insights they have about the special needs of those communities in a way that we actually do a better job of achieving the fundamental values we have as an organization.

Paul, J&J: Diabetes is a global epidemic. On any given day, there are 150 million to 300 million people around the world affected by this disease and there is no end in sight. This is a disease that progresses at a rate of 5-6 percent a year and there is not a region in the world that is not affected by this disease, for which there is no cure. When we talk about resource groups, I see them as strategic business units that are truly aligned with the strategic vision of my organization. This is a volunteer army that comes together with specific intent and we have a huge opportunity for education as well as promoting good habits.

Visconti, DiversityInc: What are the barriers you see to maximizing the effectives of your resource groups and how can senior leaders help break through those barriers?

Williams, Aetna: One of the things senior leaders can do on a continuous basis is sanction the activities of these resource groups and be very clear that they are operating within the cultural context of the company’s values. I chair our diversity council and we assign our senior most staff as executive sponsors and we tend to cross fertilize. So someone might sponsor the Hispanic resource group who is from a different culture. The other thing we do is make them central to the business. If you think about the products we develop, (resource groups)…are a great source of insight and focus groups and ways to make certain that what we think we are doing in the way of meeting a particular customer’s needs is really being responsive to the customer’s needs.

Visconti, DiversityInc: The environment you set as a leader, the empowerment people feel and their ability to bring their ideas and suggestions to the table comes from the top-down. It’s definitely an atmosphere the CEO sets.

Chenault, American Express: Certainly, everything starts and ends with leadership. So, from the top to the bottom, what people have to see is aligned support, not just coming from one segment or level. They have to see it throughout the company if you want sustainable progress. Secondly, what is absolutely essential is for people to see concrete evidence that their ideas and recommendations are being acted upon. (It’s also important) to give examples of where the feedback has been constructive, direct and critical and what were changes in policy as a result of that feedback. I think getting that message out really empowers people. People say, “Boy, I can really raise an issue that I thought was going to be controversial for me and my group and I was listened to and not only was it not hidden, but the company talked about it.”

Paul, J&J: One of the key barriers that resource groups ought to be aware of are the ones that are self-imposed. It’s really how you define your group and what strategic intent you choose to play or not play. There are external barriers, environmental barriers, economic barriers, but I think … the barriers you choose to put on yourselves in terms of what role you choose to play are probably the most detrimental ones. I think these groups should be limitless and they should also be proactive in driving the conversation and causing the conversation with business leaders.

Visconti, DiversityInc: What are business leaders looking for from resource groups?

Williams, Aetna: I think the No. 1 thing is engagement and commitment and passion about what they are doing. This is a huge opportunity to make an investment in something that can have a transformative effect on our business and our customers. I think about the number of initiatives that have resulted in very solid, profitable growth, great leadership opportunities, and often, some difficult conversations where the senior leadership team has really had to sit down and ask, ‘Are we doing what we need to be doing in regard to this cohort?’ and the answer is no and we have to sit down and figure out what we need to do.

Chenault, American Express: I would reaffirm the criticality of getting insights and honest feedback and what I call “constructive confrontation.” Whether it’s issues about the culture of the company or the business issues, the willingness to confront and to know that you will be respected—that type of confrontation is constructive and helpful.

Williams, Aetna: I think many of us can recall in our own work lives where we have been in a meeting and an idea or a topic is raised where you have some unique insight or someone on your team has unique insight. The meeting is held. It’s adjourned and then people go out into the corridor and somebody says, “Well, that was the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.” But, they didn’t speak up in the meeting or have the courage in the moment to bring that unique insight they had or to understand how it really impacts a part of the organization. It’s a lost opportunity to really help the organization do better, based on your unique understanding and perspective.

Chenault, American Express: In the world we live in today, the sense of urgency is critical. We can’t afford to miss these opportunities. When we had market-growth rates of 5 to 10 percent, it was a different story … but the reality is, in the world we live in today, [things can] change just like that. And if you fail to raise those issues, you are really hurting your company, big time.

Visconti, DiversityInc: What leadership skills are you looking for out of your resource-group leaders?

Paul, J&J: I think it’s a great environment for leadership development and for also driving specific outcomes. No matter how often I travel to India, to China, to Latin America, to the Middle East, I will never know these markets as well as the people who have either experienced it or are connected to that culture. I believe leaders of resource groups have an obligation to bring forth those very deep insights that a traditional brand manager just doesn’t have or you have to pay a whole lot of money to get.

Williams, Aetna: One of the examples I like to use with audiences is we process 450 million claims a year. So, if we get it right 99.7 percent of the time, it means we have only upset 1.2 million people. So the standard for tolerance is quite narrow when 99.7 percent doesn’t get you there. But, I think one of the things we talked about is courage. One of the most important things people in resource groups can have is the courage to articulate their point of view and the courage to recognize that we need ideas. We need suggestions. A lot of times, people don’t have that self-confidence. That is part of being a leader and I would encourage everyone in these kinds of groups to make that personal commitment to articulate their point of view to help the organization. Those insights are critical to growth and profitability, and when you are in the zone we are in, with fairly thin margins and a low tolerance for error, we need to have a very rapid cycle of feedback.

Chenault, American Express: One of the greatest sins of modern society is being unconscious. At the end of the day, you have access to information everywhere, and part of what you have to do as a leader is understand how you get access to that information and have people in your organization that have the courage to talk to you about what the real issues are. The worst thing as a leader—the worst thing—is when someone says to me I did not realize the impact. I didn’t realize what I said really caused this problem or I didn’t realize if I didn’t say anything it would have an impact. It has a big impact. What we need is for people to be really conscious of their actions, of their words, of their non-actions. Silence doesn’t work.

Paul, J&J: I think it works both ways. Resource groups have an obligation to cause the conversation, but similarly, business leaders also have to be inviting, right? No one wants to hit their heads against a brick wall constantly and not be heard. We as leaders have the responsibility to create the environment so that these resource groups can be successful and their voices can be heard.

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