CEO Commitment

Strategies include:

• CEOs personally holding executives accountable for diversity results (supplier diversity included)
• Meeting with resource groups
• Chairing the executive diversity council

Human Capital

We measure race/ethnicity and gender representation of the workforce and management in this section. Strategies include:

• Top levels contain a small number of people, so year-to-year improvements in representation are very beneficial.

Corporate Communications

Companies that rise in the DiversityInc Top 50 make the most year-to-year improvements in this section. Strategies include:

• Mentoring and resource-group participation are critical areas. Companies that rose in the ranking from one year ago averaged increases in mentoring and resource-group participation of 21 percent and 27 percent, respectively. Companies that dropped in the ranking saw average declines in mentoring and resource-group participation of 24 percent and 32 percent, respectively.
• The availability of mentoring and resource-groups company-wide, and having measurable goals and executive participation in each program.
• The percentage of total philanthropy allocated to multicultural groups is also important

Supplier Diversity

• Companies rank higher as procurement spend with Tier I and II women and minority-business enterprises increases.

–Shane Nelson, Director of Benchmarking, DiversityInc

The post Ask DiversityInc: What Makes a Company Rise in the DiversityInc Top 50? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Rather than recant his statement during a follow-up damage-control interview, Mackey reiterated that Obamacare and healthcare reform are the cause of his company’s increasing business costs, which he insinuated would be passed down to employees.

When asked how he thought Obamacare would affect his business in the next few years, Mackey replied:

As the costs go up, you’re not required to provide healthcare for part-time workers, under 30 hours. So there will be a strong temptation for businesses to keep people under 30 hours, so they don’t have to provide healthcare. And you will have a lot of part-time workers and fewer full-time workers, a lot of people underemployed.

Whole Foods … has always had a higher mix of full-time to part-time workers, like 80 percent full-time and 20 percent part-time, which is very rare in retail. But I suspect as our healthcare costs are driven up by healthcare reforms, then we’ll end up gradually lowering our full-time ratio to a much lower number.

Costs go up and high-paid executives let their employees foot the bill? So much for the company’s mission that “companies, like individuals, must assume their share of responsibility as tenants of Planet Earth,” which is outlined on the Whole Foods website.

With that kind of “fairness,” Mackey should be less worried about “crony capitalism” and more worried about crony management—and how it’s going to affect Whole Foods’ corporate reputation. Perhaps if he had watched the news, Mackey would have seen the flack that Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter received for blaming Obamacare for raising pizza costs and handing out pink slips.

For a look at CEOs who embody the values of inclusion and make a personal investment in their commitment to diversity, watch these videos of 8 CEOs Whose Inclusive Styles Change Corporate Cultures.

The post ‘Fascist’ Obamacare Will Cut Workers’ Hours: Whole Foods CEO John Mackey appeared first on DiversityInc.

Why doesn’t DiversityInc extend an invitation to the federal government agencies to participate in the DiversityInc Top 50 Survey as corporate America does in sharing best practices for diversity management? It is much needed and I am sure that if they did, it might ring the alarm and move some mountains.

Answer:

We used to have a DiversityInc Top Federal Agency competition, but there is a consortium of Equal Employment Opportunity officers who decided to not participate, so after a few years of struggling along to get participation, I dropped the effort.

Of the dozen or so agencies that did participate (yours was not among them), results were not on par with the corporate sector. In my opinion, other than in the U.S. Navy (and currently, the U.S. Marine Corps), there is little leadership involvement. Read Retired Admiral Mike Mullen: Trust, Candor & Reliability for more on diversity in the military.

I don’t know how many times I spoke at federal agencies where some under-assistant-deputy-secretary-something-or-other introduced me and then ducked out so he didn’t have to hear my talk (and it was almost always a “he” and I could feel their disdain for the dog-and-pony-show diversity events that stood in for actually doing something).

I’ve observed that diversity management for federal agencies is much about face and little to do with actual work, accomplishments or accountability. Management is squirreled away in the EEO offices, where the leaders of EEO have very little interaction with people who actually run things and there is nothing more than compliance work going on. There is no “CEO commitment” among the majority of agency heads.

Old-School & Overwhelmed?

In my observation, President Obama’s executive order “Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce” has resulted in no substantial change in behavior. I get the impression that most of the old-school federal executives are waiting to see what the presidential election will bring.

I must have had hundreds of visits to dozens of agencies over the years; I’ve been struck by the awkward and stilted manner that people interact with senior management. There’s a lot of pointy hierarchy and obsessive, starchy regimentation. I’ve never seen those attributes connected to productivity—and, indeed, I have the impression that if half of the federal workforce quit tomorrow, most Americans wouldn’t know the difference.

I had to laugh out loud when I read in The New York Times about the investigation into Google causing “one of the biggest violations of data protection laws that we had ever seen.” Michael Copps, who last year ended a 10-year term as a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, said regulators were overwhelmed. “The industry has gotten more powerful, the technology has gotten more pervasive and it’s getting to the point where we can’t do too much about it,” he said.

Here’s the best part: Aside from admitting that his agency couldn’t keep up, the fine for the “biggest violations of data protection” was (hold on to your hats) $25,000. With that stunning level of organizational accomplishment, do you think someone’s going to care about diversity?

Innovation From Diversity Management

In a meeting in Washington, I heard the best explanation for why things are the way they are: A very wise man posited that you can’t help but avoid hiring 2 percent incompetent people every year. But if you don’t fire anyone, 2 percent becomes 4 percent, which becomes 6 percent—and soon, the incompetents are running the roost and figuring out how to squeeze out the competent people.

I won’t out you or the agency you work for, but it’s been in the news quite a bit lately; it has fallen behind the times and is now a drag on the budget. This is a management issue, and diversity management falls into that category.

Your “alarm bell” idea isn’t going to “move any mountains” until the first “mountain” gets scooped into bags marked “fertilizer” and trucked away by someone in authority. There is no perceived reason for change, so no change is happening.

There is no such thing as a trickle-up diversity effort. Your wistful desire for change at your agency is not matched by a perceived business reason or accountability to improve effectiveness via diversity management, which would have all sorts of benefits.

These include organizational effectiveness, higher-quality recruiting, improved productivity, meritocratic promotions, improved supply chain, multi-culturally competent interaction with citizens (marketing and sales of your agency’s services), nuanced understanding of problems and opportunities, etc.

Watch the video below to learn how cultural competency through diversity management helped Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, No. 13 in The 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity, save millions in marketing costs. The company, along with nine others, presented innovations at our Innovation Fest! diversity event.

All those things that corporations know are a competitive edge lead to innovation, a subject which around which your agency has consistently lagged.

Good luck to you.

Luke Visconti’s Ask the White Guy column is a top draw on DiversityInc.com. Visconti, the founder and CEO of DiversityInc, is a nationally recognized leader in diversity management. In his popular column, readers who ask Visconti tough questions about race/culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age can expect smart, direct and disarmingly frank answers.

The post Ask the White Guy: What Is Wrong With the Federal Government? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Clockwise from top left: Clay Jones, Joy Fitzgerald, Sharon Harvey Davis, Tom Voss

DiversityInc Top 50 data shows a direct correlation between a CEO’s visible support of diversity—and emphasis on accountability—and results, measured in human-capital demographics and marketplace gains.

To explore successful CEO best practices on diversity management, we asked two chief diversity officers–Joy Fitzgerald, director of Diversity and Workforce Effectiveness at Rockwell Collins, and Sharon Harvey Davis, vice president and chief diversity offer at Ameren–to tell us about their relationships with their CEOs: Clay Jones, CEO of Rockwell Collins (No. 43 in the DiversityInc Top 50), and Thomas Voss, CEO of Ameren (one of  DiversityInc’s Top 5 Regional Utilities).

Synopsis: Why They Are Exemplary Diversity Leaders

Both of these CEOs are very public in their belief that diversity drives business gains. Clay Jones, chairman, president and CEO of defense contractor Rockwell Collins (who was interviewed in our last issue), vowed to earn a spot on the DiversityInc Top 50 two years ago and has succeeded, personally driving initiatives throughout his company. This year, the second in which Rockwell Collins made the list, the company is No. 43. Read our Q&A interview with Rockwell Collins’ Clay Jones and watch the video below to hear Jones speak about his diversity journey.

Tom Voss, chairman, president and CEO of St. Louis–based utility company Ameren (interviewed in our spring issue), has literally changed his organization’s corporate culture to create an inclusive and supportive environment, including LGBT rights. Read our Q&A interview with  Ameren’s Tom Voss and watch the video below to hear Voss speak on diversity and innovation.

You can read an excerpt of the 1,700-word article below. Visit DiversityIncBestPractices.com to read the full ‘Diversity Is a Leadership Expectation’: Case Studies of CEOs of Ameren, Rockwell Collins article, view the charts and watch additional videos from the roundtable.

CEO Best Practice No. 1: Holding Direct Reports Accountable
Both of these CEOs ensure their direct reports are equally supportive of diversity-management initiatives.

Rockwell Collins: It is our CEO’s commitment that diversity is a leadership expectation, not a choice. If you are going to be a leader at Rockwell Collins, you will demonstrate inclusive behaviors.

CEO Best Practice No. 2: Be a Role Model of Visible, Personal Support
These two CEOs, along with the CEOs at the top of the DiversityInc Top 50 list, are public and very personal in their consistent support for diversity as a business driver.

Ameren: Tom Voss is involved in a way that is genuine, sincere and credible. What that looks like at Ameren is that we have four female vice presidents and Tom has personally promoted three of them. We have one African-American CEO in our company, the first one. Tom personally promoted him.

CEO Best Practice No. 3: Uphold Values at All Times
When there is a fear of a backlash, some CEOs back down. These CEOs remain true to the values of inclusivity at their company.

Ameren: We have had some pushback on our support of LGBT rights. Tom not only shows up at a dinner for a local LGBT organization but he chaired the dinner and invited his direct reports to sit at his table.

CEO Best Practice No. 4: Chief Diversity Officer Has Frequent Access
Whether or not the chief diversity officer reports directly to the CEO, he or she must have frequent access and the ability to weigh in on crucial business strategies.

Rockwell Collins: I report to the senior vice president of HR, who reports to Clay Jones. I have access to Clay; he’s actively involved, not through emails or voicemails but face-to-face in his office.

CEO Best Practice No. 5: CEO Leads Executive Diversity Council
The CEO’s personal leadership of the diversity council, as well as holding senior executives accountable for company-wide results, has a direct impact on the success of the council’s goals.

Rockwell Collins: Our executive diversity council is comprised of the leadership team. Clay is very involved in helping set the strategies on a yearly basis. They meet quarterly to assess these strategies.

CEO Best Practice No. 6: Succession Planning and Continuous Support for Diversity
These CEOs know the diversity efforts must be sustainable, even after they leave the organization. They are ensuring that their successors have as deep a commitment.   

Ameren: Tom is in his 60s, and we know he will retire in the relatively near future. He has identified the potential next CEO to lead the diversity council so that if that person succeeds him, he will have a strong diversity footing in place.

Read the complete 1,700-word ‘Diversity Is a Leadership Expectation’: Case Studies of CEOs of Ameren, Rockwell Collins article at DiversityIncBestPractices.com for in-depth best practices, data charts and additional videos from our roundtable. The article is available to subscribers for free.

Not a subscriber? Request subscriber information and pricing for DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

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Papa John’s profits are up 25 percent—that’s why CEO John Schnatter’s threat to cut workers’ hours and raise the price of pizza by up to 14 cents to offset the company’s cost of Obamacare resulted in a widespread boycott of the pizza chain.

“I got in a bunch of trouble for this,” Schnatter said. “That’s what you do, is you pass on costs. Unfortunately, I don’t think people know what they’re going to pay for this.” The Affordable Care Act dictates that companies with 50-plus full-time employees must provide healthcare coverage to those workers. That means some companies will need to cut back on employee hours to avoid added healthcare costs, according to Schnatter.

Earnings Increased But You Can’t Afford to Offer Healthcare?

Schnatter’s announcement came right after President Obama’s reelection (Schnatter hosted a fundraiser for Mitt Romney), which signals that the Affordable Care Act should remain intact.

In the summer, Schnatter said he would have to raise the cost of pizza by 11 to 14 cents per pie because of healthcare reform, yet the company recently reported a 25 percent jump in earnings and is proudly touting that it will give away 2 million free pizzas during the NFL season.

Never mind that CNN refuted that figure, pointing out that many of Papa John’s employees already are part-timers who are not guaranteed company-sponsored healthcare coverage. The company’s own 2011 annual report states that “most restaurant team members [of which there are 14,400] work part-time and are paid on an hourly basis,” suggesting that only the approximately 2,100 full-time employees—who presumably already have coverage—would be impacted. Moreover, many of the chain’s restaurants are owned by franchisees who may not have 50 full-time employees and thus are not responsible for providing coverage.

But even if Schnatter’s estimated cost increases were accurate, this is a company whose adjusted earnings per share for the third quarter of 2012 surpassed the numbers from a year ago by 25 percent. Moreover, Papa John’s third-quarter total revenue jumped 6.5 percent year over year to $325.5 million and domestic company-owned restaurant revenue improved 11.3 percent to $143.4 million. Per its annual report, the company’s 2011 revenue was $1.22 billion.

Consistency in Messaging & Accountable Leadership

Schnatter’s comments recall this memo from David Siegel of Westgate Resorts, the CEO who is building the largest private residence in the U.S. In October, Siegel suggested that his employees vote for Mitt Romney because “if any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company. Rather than grow this company I will be forced to cut back. This means fewer jobs, less benefits and certainly less opportunity for everyone.”

Siegel seems to have changed his tune post-election. He told Bloomberg Businessweek that not only had he not laid off any employees, but he “gave everybody in the company a raise this week—the average was 5 percent. I wanted to help them handle the additional burdens the government will put on them.”

The big difference between Schnatter and Siegel and CEOs who have inclusive workplaces is that the latter’s messages don’t vary and they stay true to values.

Schnatter likes to portray himself as a generous fellow who uses the profits he makes selling pizza to help others. After he made his recent comments in Naples, Fla., he told the audience that he was headed to a telethon to raise money for Hurricane Sandy victims, and his company pledged to donate $1 from every pizza sold last Wednesday to the American Red Cross.

But by using his political views to raise prices and slash employee benefits, he hurts his company’s image. In fact, online tweets are now calling for a boycott of Papa John’s.

To understand the importance of clarity of values—and communicating that consistently—see Ask the White Guy: Decision Making, Clarity of Values & What to Do When It Goes Horribly Wrong.

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André Wyss, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation:

“Now more than ever, our customers and patients we serve are counting on us for innovative breakthrough medications for increasingly complex medical needs. These include cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease, and many others. The communities in which we work are relying on us. These are our business goals as well as a mission to do good. We also were recognized as a DiversityInc Top 50 company and are committed to doing what’s necessary to attract, retain and motivate the diverse talent we need to succeed now and in the future.”

John Bryant, Kellogg Company:

“The Kellogg Foundation gives away $360 million a year to children’s education and healthcare around the world. So we are very honored—and indebted to our founder—but honored to be part of an organization where so much of what we do goes back to kids in the communities in which we serve.  That’s in our past, but it’s also what we want to make very much true today and in our future. As we look at the Kellogg Company, we have a very special bond with our consumers. Every day around the world, millions of people bring our products into their homes and feed our products to their children. That special bond between us and our consumers, we take incredibly seriously. And our goal is to help us understand our consumers so well that every day we’re in even better position to bring our best to those consumers.”

Michelle Lee, Wells Fargo:

“Reinvestment is an integral part of our culture, and it’s one of the things I enjoy most about my job—giving back to our communities, engaging as a volunteer and serving on nonprofit boards. It’s my responsibility at Wells Fargo as a leader. Last year, we invested over $213 million in 19,000 nonprofit organizations, and 165,000 Wells Fargo team members are involved in community-development activities across the country.”

Steve Howe, Ernst & Young:

 “I can tell you that we truly do believe that inclusiveness is critical. It’s critical to us performing at a consistent, exceptional level all around the globe. It makes us better, more insightful; it helps us solve problems, manage risk and seize opportunities that much better. And we believe that driving multicultural teams is an absolute must.”

John Lechleiter, Eli Lilly and Company:

“Now, since I’m among friends this evening, I have a confession: Early in my tenure as CEO, I made a decision, based on a variety of reasons at the time, to cut back on our flexible work programs. And employee engagement suffered. In fact, when I commissioned a small team to find creative ways to strengthen employee engagement, their first recommendation was to bring flexible schedules back. At least I was smart enough to listen. And I did, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made.

Arne Sorenson, Marriott International:

“Marriott’s approach to diversity and inclusion is deeply rooted in our company’s purpose, which is to open doors to a world of opportunity. This includes the opportunity to build a career, the chance to own one of our hotels, or to provide products and services as one of our suppliers. For 85 years, we’ve said, ‘Take care of our associates, and they’ll take care of our guests.’ This core value of putting people first underpins our commitment to diversity, but we also believe that it drives our profitability. Hospitality is by definition a diverse industry. A couple of recent statistics: Obviously, people come from all over the world to visit New York. Last year, 2 million Mexicans came to the United States; 1.5 million Brazilians; over 1 million Chinese—and those numbers from each of those countries are up about 50 percent year-to-date from last year.”

Steve Price, Dell:

“Our purpose is to bring technology solutions to the world that enable people everywhere to grow and thrive. The one thing we know about growing and thriving: No one grows and thrives alone. We all grow and thrive in relationships. That’s why our employee resource groups are so important because this is where people come in from all walks of life and become part of a community. They get connected and become part of a relational community, irrespective of where you come from or what part of the globe you sit on. You can come to this company and you can be your best and you can do your best work.”

Mark Clouse, Kraft Foods:

“The beauty of splitting a company like Kraft into two is that we have two organizations born of the same value of understanding—the power of diversity. Two organizations that understand that, in a world of global connections, our ability to reflect the consumers we serve—and the people and colleagues that work with us—is paramount to our success.”

The post 8 CEOs Whose Inclusive Styles Change Corporate Cultures appeared first on DiversityInc.

Question:

At the company my husband works for, he was told in less-than-explicit terms that although he is great at people management, unless he has a mentor who will stick by him, he should forget about growing in that role. If he does want to grow in the company and not stagnate, he should consider a technical track. Full disclosure: We are Indian Hindus. After doing some analysis, we noticed that 95 percent of people managers at my husband’s company are white and Christian and go to the same church. The couple of Indians who were people leads were told they were not doing a good job and that they would be better off on the technical ladder, then they were pushed aside.

My question is: How do you grow in a company that encourages this religious casteism and racism? And how do you deal with a situation where you really do want to manage people and are great at it but will not be given the opportunity to do so?

Answer:

I feel that culture within companies changes from the inside. There are examples of companies that change due to market pressure, but this is rare. Most companies go out of business rather than upset the status quo. Change almost always occurs when inspired leadership either overhauls the governance policies or enforces policies that are already in place.

Your situation is difficult­—you’re not the CEO, so you’re stuck with trying to change the culture of the organization using the governance policies that exist. Is this possible? Here are some things you should evaluate, as if for a report card:

1. Does your CEO have a quote about diversity on your company’s website? If so, does it read as heartfelt? Or do you think it came from the public-relations department?

2. Is his/her picture in that area? Does it look like the business part of the website (serious), or is it full of pictures of multiracial hands clasping, flowers and different-looking shoes (what I call diversity clichés).

3. Are there pictures of the board and senior executives? Are they scowling? Do their bios reflect community engagement and charitable work? Or do they look like the kind of people you’d avoid if you saw them coming? A lack of diversity among board members is typical but should be balanced by a statement of intention on diversity (see below points).

4. Is there a diversity council? Does it have significant representation of race, gender and position? How often does it meet? Does the CEO chair the diversity council?

5. Does your company have resource groups? Does your particular resource group have an executive sponsor? A business plan? Report-outs on the business plan?

6. Does your company have structured, disciplined and measured mentoring? Do you have a mentor?

7. Is your company philanthropic? Where does it disburse its charitable spend? What is the percent of gross revenue spent on philanthropy? (The DiversityInc Top 50 companies average 1.6 percent. DiversityInc itself donates more than 2 percent.) Does the charitable area of your company’s website cite hard facts and figures—or is it stale and/or full of public-relations gimmicks such as meaningless statistics, e.g., “Charitable donations rose 500 percent from 2002 to 2006”? (That could mean from $1 to $5.)

8. Is there a mission-and-values statement on your company’s website? Does it include diversity?

If you feel you can score your company positively on more than six out of the eight questions, I’d say you have a chance of inspiring change. The best way to inspire change is to leverage existing structure (diversity council, resource groups, mentoring, etc.) and to communicate in a style that is consistent with how your company expresses its most important financial information (i.e., use the same font and the same colors).

If your company has a mission-and-values statement, make sure you organize your information along the same lines. Use the same order of reasoning in your bullet points if you can. For example, here’s an area on Wells Fargo’s website where the CEO lays out the company’s mission and values. Page through the entire section. You can see how diversity is listed as one of the company’s core values—and there is an excellent explanation of what diversity means to Wells Fargo (No. 33 in the DiversityInc Top 50). There isn’t another company I’ve seen that lists its mission and values so clearly. We just had a senior executive from the company, Michelle Lee, executive vice president and Northeast region president, talk at our diversity event, and she told us that the company’s mission and values are a part of practically EVERY meeting.

I understand that most companies don’t have as clear a path as Wells Fargo, but you should look very carefully at what’s on a company’s website. As Maya Angelou said, “The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.” Your company’s web site is a window into the leadership’s mind and heart. If there’s not much there, well, you may be working for mediocre people—and/or people who simply don’t see how strangling human capital by having unequal recruitment and talent development doesn’t translate to increased human-capital costs, lower brand equity with customers and squashed innovation.

I cannot say if the manager who gave you that reprehensible advice is following company policy or is just a rogue manager. Rogue managers doing bad things can happen at any company; a very smart governmental-relations pro at a company I enjoy visiting once asked me if I thought that it would be fair to say that 2 percent of any population would do something intentionally wrong that day. I thought the number was conservative. He responded that his company had more than 200,000 employees—which means that THOUSANDS of people at his company would do something intentionally wrong.

After all this introspection and investigation, if you feel that your entreaty will be positively received—and not damage your employment situation if you can’t afford that—my advice is to leverage the existing structures of feedback and take your change proposition through the chain of command. In my opinion, good organizations and leaders with a healthy sense of ego respond quickly to evidence that there are situations or actions that violate the stated mission and values of the company. They know that dissonance between values and actions destroys credibility, and that process destroys business because it psychologically detaches people from the satisfaction they derive from their daily work and detaches customers from their brand. Just look at what’s happened to Apple’s stock (down almost 10 percent) since workers at the Foxconn factory started rioting again. Now, there are plenty of things that go into a stock price, but over time, perception of the brand is key. I don’t feel the same way about my Apple products since learning about the abuse of workers at their assembly factories. It’s completely in conflict with their brand image.

I’m sure you know that your path won’t be easy. You will find people blocking your way—many times, petty people block good ideas because they’re not going to get credit for them. In my opinion, the cc field in an email is a little-used but very powerful management tactic.

If you don’t think an appeal to better business practices will find a happy reception, you have three choices: Stay and make the best of it, start looking for a new job—or start interviewing lawyers.

If you investigate legal redress, you’re going to need a very good lawyer, and a class-action suit is far better than going it alone. But keep in mind that settlements usually do not amount to much after attorneys are paid. So your best course of action really is to change things from the inside, if your company passes my report card, or to find another job and recruit all your friends to the new company.

Luke Visconti’s Ask the White Guy column is a top draw on DiversityInc.com. Visconti, the founder and CEO of DiversityInc, is a nationally recognized leader in diversity management. In his column, readers who ask tough questions about race/culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age can expect smart, direct and disarmingly frank answers.

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The six CEOs and eight senior executives at our event demonstrated how their personal passion and commitment to diversity have become a critical factor in making strategic business decisions. In many cases, this helped gain traction within senior leadership and generated measurable results in workforce diversity, while sometimes improving market share.

The two-day event featured two panels with six chief diversity officers—one focused on best practices for executive diversity councils and the other on using compensation to drive diversity-management results. Additionally, DiversityInc Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Barbara Frankel presented exclusive advice on what companies need to do to improve their DiversityInc Top 50 rank.

Watch all the presentations from this event via the players below or view our YouTube playlist. Videos of all the speakers will be posted throughout the day.

Also, be sure to save the date for our upcoming 2013 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity Announcement Dinner, April 23–24, 2013.

How New York City Drives Diversity Results
R. Fenimore Fisher, Deputy Commissioner, Chief Diversity & EEO Officer, City of New York
How does the City of New York drive diversity metrics and results? Find out from a world-class diversity expert.

Diversity in the Workplace: Leadership Counts
Jorge Benitez, Managing Director – North America, Chief Executive – United States, Accenture
This CEO really values work/life issues. He tells us how he includes spouses and encourages family priorities.

Panel: Best Practices on Executive Diversity Councils
Debbie Storey, AT&T; Rhonda Crichlow, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Michelle Lee, Wells Fargo 
Three companies with the best practices—and results—on diversity councils talk about CEOs chairing the councils, setting goals and accountability.

Building a Strong Diversity Brand
John Bryant, President and CEO, Kellogg
The CEO of Kellogg tells us why his company has invested so much over the last two years in its diversity-management efforts.

Workplace Diversity: The Personal Connection in Leadership
Forest T. Harper, CEO, INROADS 
The son of migrant workers, who went on to be a top Pfizer executive, talks about how INROADS helps Black and Latino college students become corporate leaders. Click here to download the presentation slides.

Corporate Diversity at the Top: Q&A With Luke Visconti
Steve Howe, Area Managing Partner – Americas, Ernst & Young
The U.S. head of Ernst & Young discusses how corporate values drive business decisions at his firm

Diversity & Inclusion: Accountability & Your Business Future
Thomas F. Zenty III, CEO, University Hospitals
The CEO of this Cleveland hospital system tells us how outreach to Blacks and Latinos is driving hospital growth.

Workplace Diversity: Using Leadership to Save Lives & Talent by Creating Inclusive Workplaces
Dr. Eliza Byard, Executive Director, GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network)
The head of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) tells you about young lives saved through the help of corporations like yours.

Panel on Diversity Metrics: Using Compensation to Drive Results
Maruiel Perkins-Chavis, Marriott International; Joy Fitzgerald, Rockwell Collins; Chad Johnson, Sodexo
Three companies with the most effective diversity metrics tell you what’s on their diversity scorecards and how they link goals to compensation.

Corporate Diversity: A Personal Story of Why Corporate Values Matter
Michelle Lee, Executive Vice President and Northeast Regional President, Wells Fargo
This exec shares her remarkable story of how and why she became a banker and the challenges she faced as the only young, Black woman in her management-training program.

DiversityInc Benchmarking: Tips on How to Move Up on the DiversityInc Top 50 List
Barbara Frankel, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor, DiversityInc
See our tips on the best ways to answer questions on The 2013 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity survey. Click here to download the presentation slides.

The post 8 CEOs Prove the Intersection of Diversity, Engagement & Innovation appeared first on DiversityInc.

Executive Diversity Councils: Best Practices From Kellogg Company, Comcast Corporation.

The greatest change that we’ve observed among executive diversity councils is the increasing number of CEOs chairing the council: This is true for 54 percent of DiversityInc Top 50 companies with executive diversity councils, up from 32 percent in 2005.This sends a strong message throughout the organization that this is a business priority and that the council is driving actual results (not just setting strategic direction).

In our web seminar on diversity councils, Kellogg Company Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion Mark King and Comcast Corporation Vice President of Administration Karen Dougherty Buchholz discuss the strategies and goals their companies used to create and implement effective executive diversity councils—and how they keep their council members accountable for results. (Kellogg Company is No. 49 in the DiversityInc Top 50 and Comcast is one of DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies.)

Kellogg President and CEO John Bryant serves as chair: The nine members of Kellogg’s executive diversity and inclusion council (EDIC) oversee the company’s 12 diversity councils from its respective business divisions.

Comcast’s Joint Diversity Council oversees diversity strategy of 14 councils: Comcast/NBC Universal also leverages an external diversity council for additional guidance.

In this web seminar, you will learn:

• How to create clear diversity-council objectives
• Why resource-group members should be included on the council
• When meeting size and frequency can impact council effectiveness
• How to promote your executives’ diversity leadership throughout the organization

This 90-minute diversity web seminar is available to DiversityIncBestPractices.com subscribers. Click here to watch.

Visit our web seminar library to view our full archive of web seminars.

The post Executive Diversity Councils: Best Practices From Kellogg Company, Comcast Corporation appeared first on DiversityInc.

Don’t: Neglect your homework.

Do: Understand your CEO as a human being first. What is his/her story? Understanding family background, education and values is core to developing a diversity-and-inclusion message that will click. Did an incident, experience or relationship provoke an epiphany? It’s our experience that behind every diversity-passionate CEO is a story.

Don’t: Tell your CEO to emphasize “it’s the right thing to do.” Of course, inclusion is the right thing to do—and we’ve seen a small number of CEOs advance D&I primarily because they feel it’s the right thing to do. But most CEOs already have come to an understanding that it’s the right thing to do for their businesses. In this light, your presentation should have the same format (including font and PowerPoint template) and quality of content as your CFO’s presentations. Avoid diversity parlor tricks like jelly beans or animal analogies (unless your CFO uses them, in which case it’s probably time to look for another job).

Do: Make sure your CEO is given relevant information about how diversity helps your company reach its business goals, and that he or she is encouraged to communicate support frequently and as part of regular business messages. Consider that 94 percent of DiversityInc Top 50 CEOs have a personal quote on diversity on the homepage of their company websites and also communicate regularly on their intranets about the business benefits of diversity. And if you look at those quotes, especially of CEOs whose companies are in the top 10, you’ll see that they are business-focused, not full of platitudes.

Don’t: Tell your CEO that diversity management is about having fewer white men at the top. Since odds are that your CEO and his direct reports are primarily white men, you won’t be sending a message of inclusion at all.

Do: Help the CEO and the senior executives understand through data and facts that by improving the diversity of human-capital demographics, they will expand the business by improving innovation, engagement and outreach to increasingly multicultural clients and suppliers. Emphasize the “inclusion” part of D&I, which means making the business case to white men for their involvement and getting their buy-in from the beginning. And be sure to understand that this group of similarly dressed white men is also very diverse in its own regard.

Don’t: De-emphasize human-capital metrics.

Do: We’ve seen almost 100 percent correlation between a chief diversity officer’s de-emphasizing metrics and a reduction of D&I department staff and budget. At a well-run company, any business project worth doing is tracked very closely to results. Diversity management is no different, and it’s your job to make that connection. Link recruiting and talent-development goals to quality and performance. (Finding the best and brightest from every group is harder than “going with the majority flow,” but it doesn’t set up your company for a more-diverse future—and doesn’t leave a good legacy for the future leadership of the company.) Understanding the trajectory of best practices and outcomes at other companies is key to successful diversity-management initiatives.

Don’t: Think that the objections of senior-management naysayers are insurmountable.

Do: A large-company CEO recently told one of us that he had two naysayers regarding same-gender partner benefits. Both were senior and well regarded. Both “retired” earlier than they had anticipated. As Dr. Martin Luther King said: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Stick to your facts and your principals. We’re on the winning side of history. Keep your chin up, and give us a call if you would like some support.

–Luke Visconti and Barbara Frankel

The post What Not to Say to Your CEO About Diversity appeared first on DiversityInc.