To evaluate the impact of global diversity efforts, we have investigated best practices that correlate to results, measured in increased human-capital diversity and business opportunity. Through 203 data submissions and extensive interviews with 25 companies, we have learned that diversity-and-inclusion initiatives have been mostly focused around gender, while efforts to include ethnic and religious minorities, people with disabilities and LGBT people are just beginning to surface.

We studied all global regions and found the most successful diversity-and-inclusion efforts in Europe, Asia and Central/South America. Virtually all start with initiatives aimed at women that emphasize local cultural values. We found direct correlations between companies that have initiatives for recruitment and talent-development programs for women and increased representation of women in the workplace, management and the senior-executive ranks. We also note correlations between D&I initiatives such as resource groups and mentoring, and increased female representation in management ranks.

Support from corporate and local leadership is especially critical when addressing other dimensions of diversity. Companies in every region with global diversity councils have made far more significant inroads in LGBT inclusion. And companies with regional diversity councils led by local business leaders are far more likely to implement supplier-diversity initiatives.

In this report, we will document which best practices are working through analytical data and case studies demonstrating results. All of the companies we have analyzed tell us these efforts are just beginning and they expect to see rapid advancement in their global diversity efforts and enhanced competition for talent.

I. Methodology: DiversityInc’s Global Diversity Research

This report relies on two years’ worth of data submissions, totaling 203 entries from 46 countries. The submissions represent nine industries—professional services, technology, consumer-packaged goods, pharmaceutical, chemical, manufacturing, auto, hospitality and medical devices. The questionnaire was designed to be culturally competent, capturing and codifying demographics (gender, age and locally underrepresented groups where reportable) as well as best practices (talent and leadership development, resource groups, diversity councils, supplier diversity).

Our thirteen 2012 sponsors helped us determine what best practices to examine locally and globally to implement initiatives with sustainable results. Our interviews, with an emphasis on talent development, leadership pipeline and resource groups for underrepresented groups, gave us perspective on what has worked for different companies in different countries/regions, and how they overcame challenges. The sponsors are: Accenture, BASF, Cigna, Dell, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, Ernst & Young, General Motors, Merck & Co., Medtronic, Pfizer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sodexo and Wells Fargo.

Companies filled out the survey for each country they chose; most also provided information for headquarters. The survey continues to stay open. We add companies, countries and regions to our database with each new submission. The survey has approximately 100 questions and is divided into the following seven sections:

• General Information: Ascertains how long the diversity-and-inclusion initiative has existed, and how it is organized and staffed (full-time, part-time and volunteer).
• Headquarters: Assesses global diversity councils and global support and control of local diversity-and-inclusion initiatives.
  
• Leadership and Values: Examines what diversity and/or inclusion means locally, what the three biggest challenges/barriers facing successful D&I efforts in each country are, what type of internal diversity council has been established, the support of local business leaders, how D&I is integrated into the local business goals, what metrics are used to assess D&I success locally (i.e., what is the business case?), and how employee engagement is measured.
  
• Human Capital: Measures workforce, management and senior-management representation by gender, looks at the age of the workforce in each country, and probes whether the local organization has specific recruitment and leadership-development efforts for women and other underrepresented groups.
  
• Best Practices for Global Diversity: Looks at local efforts to implement global diversity strategies and initiatives that include resource groups, mentoring, training, outreach to LGBT people (where legally permissible), outreach to people with disabilities, work/life benefits (especially flexible workplaces), and website communications about D&I.
  
• Supplier Diversity: Studies whether local supplier diversity exists and, if so, what groups are targeted and what best practices are in place to support growth and impact.

 II.  Major Global Diversity Findings 

Our findings show significant correlations between established best practices and human-capital results, primarily measured in recruitment and promotions of women. The data and interviews support specific and proven approaches to recruitment, leadership development, flexible workplaces, formal mentoring, resource groups, generational issues and global executive diversity councils. Full findings are available to global sponsors and global consulting clients. (See more information on DiversityInc Global Consulting.)

Examples:

• Companies with formal recruitment policies aimed at women reported dramatic increases in female representation in the workforce. For example, in India, companies with formal recruitment policies had one-third more women in the workforce.

• We note a significant increase in management opportunities and promotions for women in companies that have locally based leadership-development programs aimed specifically at women. In contrast, leadership programs targeted at underrepresented groups are scarce globally. For example, in Brazil, companies with leadership programs for women had almost four times as many women in management as companies without these programs; in Japan, the difference was sixfold.

• Almost all companies surveyed felt that flexibility in terms of hours and location is key to increasing retention, engagement and promotions of women and younger people in general. The degree of flexibility often depends on the local cultural role of women and how strong their home/family duties are. For example, in France, companies with flexible workplaces have almost double the percentage of women senior executives and a third more women in management. They also have double the amount of women in the workforce.

• While formal mentoring and sponsorship programs are just beginning to catch on in most of the world, their impact in areas where they have been in place is dramatic. For example, companies in Australia with formal mentoring had one-third more women executives than companies without.

• Global resource groups traditionally are aimed at women and focus almost exclusively on talent development, but we are beginning to see groups based on age, sexual orientation and, in a few cases, race/ethnicity. There are definite correlations between having groups and increased diversity in the workplace. For example, in the United Kingdom, companies with resource groups had 10 percent more women in management.

• Our research shows a vast difference in the age of workers in various countries, with many Asian countries having very young workforces and some European countries having older workforces. The issues facing them are very different and, therefore, require a variety of solutions. For example, more than half of the workforce of the countries in Asia are younger than 34.

• Global executive diversity councils are increasingly used to set D&I strategies for the organization, which then are filtered to local diversity councils for implementation. They show organizational consistency in values and subsequent messaging, which produces results in the global workplace. For example, in Europe, companies with global executive diversity councils are twice as likely to offer domestic-partner benefits in countries where they are legal and three times more likely to include sexual orientation in training. And companies with global executive diversity councils are also three times more likely to have regional councils to implement strategies. Supplier diversity is a good example of that: Companies with regional councils in Europe are twice as likely to have formal supplier-diversity outreach. (There is virtually no supplier diversity in Asia yet.)

Case Studies:

Global Diversity Best Practice: Developing Female Talent in Australia: Can flexible workplace models and leadership programs provide measurable improvements in gender diversity? Read these case studies from Deloitte and Ernst & Young.

Global Diversity Best Practice: Flexible Workplaces in India: Global companies must combat a “leaky pipeline” of women talent, but these best practices from Sodexo, Merck, Dell and Deloitte can improve retention.

2 European Case Studies: People With Disabilities & Ethnic Minorities: How are Sodexo and Merck recruiting people from underrepresented groups in Europe?

Best Practice: IBM’s Global LGBT Support: How is IBM’s global commitment to the LGBT market reshaping its business advantage? It builds credibility and trust with clients—and increases revenue prospects.

III. Conclusions About Global Diversity

The direct link between diversity-management best practices and sustainable human-capital results is clear from this research as well as from the interviews with executives around the globe.

To highlight the key correlations:

• Companies with recruitment programs for women recruited 20 percent more women in Europe and Central/South America.
• Companies with leadership programs for women had 44 percent more women executives in Asia.
• Companies with flexible work arrangements had 34 percent more women executives in all areas studied.
• Companies with formal mentoring programs had 12 percent more women in Central/South America.
• Companies with global diversity councils were twice as likely to have global LGBT efforts in all regions.
• Companies with regional diversity councils led by local country executives were four times more likely to have supplier-diversity programs in Europe and Asia.

The best practices the companies have detailed for us, and which still are evolving, increase representation, engagement, productivity and marketplace connections. However, the research shows they work most effectively when specifically tailored to local cultural norms and when there is support from both global headquarters and local leadership.

There are demographic differences between regions, which we note in this research, such as the much younger workforce in Asia and older workforce in Europe. There are also varying standards on women’s roles in and out of the home, inclusion of LGBT people, the need for proactive efforts to include people with disabilities, and the importance of supplier diversity.

Global diversity is evolving at different paces in various regions and countries, but all participating companies agree to its increasing importance in having an engaged workforce that relates to the local population.

WHAT’S NEXT? 

Our consulting practice can help build your global diversity initiative and successfully implement it on a local level. This service includes: Making the business case to local leadership; in-depth assessment of organization/current initiatives; roadmaps and specific plans of action; situational analysis; written and verbal debriefs.

Our next round of global research will start in the spring of 2013, and will focus on increasing our knowledge database, especially in emerging-market countries where there is significant business-growth potential. Sponsors will be able to shape the best practices we study and will receive data analysis of their submissions compared to the competitive set.

For more information on consulting and research sponsorship, visit DiversityInc Global Consulting or contact consulting@diversityinc.com.

The post Global Diversity Research Executive Summary: 203 Data Submissions in 46 Countries appeared first on DiversityInc.

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.

Recognizing Results: Diversity-Management Strategies That Worked

We honored companies in eight areas of diversity management:

• Talent Pipeline
• Global Cultural Competence
• Working Families
• Supplier Diversity
• Community Development
• Resource Groups
• Diversity-Management Progress
• Executive Development

Congratulations to our 2012 Special Awards recipients. Read more about how each company demonstrated measurable results that positively impacted both their business goals and their employee engagement at DiversityInc.com/2012specialawards.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Talent Pipeline

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
No. 13 in the DiversityInc Top 50
Accepting Award: André Wyss, President

“I believe [our Disability Mentoring Day, Multi-Cultural Teen Corporate Mentoring Program and Suburban Cultural Educational Enrichment Program] provide an overview of our commitment to participating in and supporting meaningful programs at the intersection of community-based outreach, philanthropy and education. They say it takes a village to raise a child. We believe that NPC has an important role to play in that responsibility.”

Novartis understands the need for a diverse workforce and pipeline to senior management, both for cultural competency in its product development and marketing and for the most innovative workplace solutions. The company has been actively donating and volunteering to help youth from underrepresented groups reach their full potential, including direct involvement from its most senior leaders. >> Read more

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Global Cultural Competence

Ernst & Young
No. 6 in the DiversityInc Top 50
Accepting Award: Steve Howe Jr., Area Managing Partner – Americas

“Global cultural competence—for us, it’s critical. It helps us seize opportunities all that much better, and we believe that driving multicultural teams is a must. Diverse teams need that inclusion ‘glue’ to hold them together. We pride ourselves on true globalization and delivering high-performance teams, as well as exceptional customer service. All three require inclusion. We set a tone at the top. … It’s a business imperative.

As a truly global company, Ernst & Young knows how crucial the understanding and respect of local cultures is, while staying true to the values of inclusion so core to this company. Cultural-competence and harassment/discrimination training are emphasized throughout the organization, as is talent identification and development for underrepresented groups, particularly women, globally. >> Read more

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Working Families

Eli Lilly and Company
No. 29 in the DiversityInc Top 50
Accepting Award: John Lechleiter, Chairman, President & CEO

“Helping employees integrate work and life is more important than ever as we look for ways to continuously improve productivity. … Early in my tenure as CEO, I made a decision to cut back on our flexible work programs, and our employee engagement suffered. [Bringing those programs] back is one of the best decisions I’ve made.”

This company has become a model of workplace flexibility for its employees. Globally, Lilly offers a number of programs, varying by location, to assist employees in maintaining work/life flexibility. These include flexible work arrangements, personal leaves, onsite health services/fitness centers, onsite childcare, campus credit unions and dry cleaners, and family-support programs. >> Read more

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Supplier Diversity

Marriott International
No. 21 in the DiversityInc Top 50
Accepting Award: Arne Sorenson, President & CEO

“Diversity and inclusion is deeply rooted in our company’s purpose. It includes opportunities to build a career, own one of our hotels or do business with us as a supplier. … We are very proud of our partnerships. They have made us successful and, in turn, we enjoy watching these businesses grow and investing in their communities. In 2011, these suppliers totaled 17 percent of our total spend, and we will continue to reach higher.”

Marriott has a long and rich history of creating community wealth by using local minority- and women-owned business enterprises (MBEs and WBEs) to build and service its hotels, especially in urban areas. Marriott’s Tier I (direct contractor) third-party certified spend is 7.8 percent with MBEs and 9.5 percent with WBEs, more than 25 percent higher than the DiversityInc Top 50 average for MBEs and more than double the DiversityInc Top 50 average for WBEs. Marriott also spends 1 percent of its Tier I procurement with vendors owned by LGBT people, one of the highest percentages we’ve seen. >> Read more

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Community Development

Wells Fargo
No. 33 in the DiversityInc Top 50 
Accepting Award: Michelle Lee, Executive Vice President, Northeast Regional President

“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.”

The company’s commitment to the Black, Latino, Asian, American Indian and LGBT communities is remarkable for the depth of its efforts to reach suppliers, youth and low-income people. Sixty-five percent of the executives in the top two levels of the company sit on the board of a multicultural nonprofit. >> Read more

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Resource Groups

Dell
No. 26 in the DiversityInc Top 50
Accepting Award: Steven Price, Senior Vice President, Human Resources

“I’m really proud of the work our company has been doing around diversity and inclusion because it’s authentic. It’s core to who we are as a company. Our purpose is to bring technology solutions around the world that help everyone. No one grows and thrives alone; we all need relationships. That’s why our resource groups are so important … to develop a sense of community.”

In the past two years, Dell has placed a major emphasis on increasing employee participation in its resource groups, creating and expanding global groups, and using these groups to further its business. Dell has seven global resource groups. Three have chapters outside of the United States: WISE (Women in Search of Excellence) in the Asian Pacific Japan region and Europe, the Middle East and Africa; PRIDE (for the LGBT population) in Brazil, and True Ability (Employees or Family Members of Employees with Special Needs/Disabilities) in Brazil. >> Read more

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Diversity-Management Progress

Kellogg Company
No. 49 in the DiversityInc Top 50
Accepting Award: John Bryant, President & CEO

“As we look at the Kellogg Company we have a very special bond with our consumers: Every day people bring our products into their homes and feed their children. Our goal is to help us understand our consumers so well that every day we’re in an even better position to bring our best to those consumers. And to do that, we need not just a diverse organization, but an environment which is inclusive, where the ideas of that organization can come into our products, so we can create even better products for our consumers.”

Kellogg’s progress in all four areas of diversity management that we measure has been considerable in the past year and shows every indication of being sustainable. This progress put Kellogg on the DiversityInc Top 50 list this year. >> Read more

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Executive Development
Kraft Foods
No. 7 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50
Accepting Award: Mark Clouse, President of U.S. Snacks Business Unit

“One of the hallmarks of Kraft is a belief in healthy dissatisfaction. The world in which we live changes on a daily basis: If you stop moving forward, you’ll find yourself behind. … Any program of diversity that’s built into a company needs to understand that it starts from day one and travels with those individuals throughout their career. The representation of the collegues working with us will reflect all of the countries working with us.”

Talent development and the use of diversity training, resource groups and mentoring to maximize potential have been priorities for Kraft Foods in recent years—and the results are impressive. Following a recent split into two separate entities, the resource groups and talent-development initiatives will be even more critical to the companies’ ability to connect with its increasingly multicultural consumer base. >> Read more

The post 2012 Special Awards: What Makes These 8 Companies Best at Diversity Management? appeared first on DiversityInc.

We honoring companies in six areas we have noted in the past three years—Community Development, Talent Pipeline, Working Families, Global Cultural Competence, Resource Groups and Diversity-Management Progress—plus one new area: Supplier Diversity. View previous DiversityInc Special Award winners.

These companies demonstrate through their data and their documented achievements measurable results that positively impact both their business goals and their employee/community populations.

Additionally, Dr. Cornel West spoke at the Special Awards dinner. Dr. West is the author of Race Matters and Democracy Matters and is a professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Global Cultural Competence

Ernst & Young
No. 6 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list
Accepting Award: Steve Howe Jr., Area Managing Partner – Americas

As a truly global company, Ernst & Young understands how crucial the understanding and respect of local cultures is, while staying true to the values of inclusion so core to this company. Cultural-competence and harassment/discrimination training are emphasized throughout the organization, as is talent identification and development for underrepresented groups, particularly women globally.

James Turley, chairman and CEO, told DiversityInc last year that it’s best to tailor a company’s initiatives by geography so diversity strategies remain central to local customs and beliefs. Once established, diversity leaders can then look to incrementally push the boundaries.

Ernst & Young has global resource groups for professional women, LGBT employees and Black professionals in several countries. The groups have executive sponsors and meet during the workday.

Ernst & Young is a founding member of WEConnect International, a corporate-led nonprofit that helps to empower women business owners to succeed in global markets. The firm is working with WEConnect on development of a national certification process for women-owned businesses in India, while its employees in Canada and the United Kingdom are actively involved with WEConnect.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Community Development

Wells Fargo
No. 33 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list 
Accepted Award: Michelle Lee, Executive Vice President, Northeast Regional President

“Wells Fargo is only as strong as the communities we serve,” the financial-services company states. The company’s commitment to the Black, Latino, Asian, American Indian and LGBT communities is remarkable for the depth of its efforts to reach suppliers, youth and low-income people. Sixty-five percent of the executives in the top two levels of the company sit on the board of a multicultural nonprofit. Some examples of its philanthropy:

• In 2008, Wells Fargo achieved its goal to lend $1 billion to Black-owned small businesses and extended the goal to $2 billion by 2018.
• In 2010, Wells Fargo provided $61.1 million in grants to nonprofits focused on community development in distressed communities, including affordable housing, homeownership counseling, financial education, workforce development and job creation.
• The company has an online financial-literacy program in English and Spanish and teams with local Latino organizations to host free, bilingual programs on money management.
• Wells Fargo is a founding sponsor of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund. Since 2004, the bank has given $500,000 for scholarships for college-bound students from underrepresented Asian and Pacific Islander communities interested in pursuing careers in banking and financial services.
• In 2010, Wells Fargo invested $219 million in 19,000 nonprofits nationwide.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Working Families

Eli Lilly and Company
No. 29 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list
Accepted Award: John Lechleiter, Chairman, President & CEO

This company has become a model of workplace flexibility for its employees. As Lechleiter stated: “Lilly recognizes the critical importance of work-life integration tools to address the diverse needs, expectations, lifestyles and work styles of employees allowing them to be the most effective.” Globally, Lilly offers a number of programs, varying by location, to assist employees in maintaining work/life flexibility. These include flexible work arrangements, personal leaves, onsite health services/fitness centers, onsite childcare, campus credit unions and dry cleaners, and family-support programs.

Flexibility is a productivity tool that allows for adaptation of how, when and where work is completed. Supervisors discuss with their employees the needs of the individual and the work group, as well as the types of flexible work arrangements that are appropriate for a particular position. For employees, flexible work schedules are about lower stress levels, better health, a stronger focus on work while working and greater trust—all leading to loyalty, inspiration and innovation. For Lilly, flexibility is about being able to recruit and retain the best talent in a competitive marketplace, preparing for the changing environment and reducing the cost structure related to absenteeism, and healthcare—all leading to improved levels of engagement, which drives productivity.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Diversity-Management Progress

Kellogg Company
No. 49 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list
Accepted Award: John Bryant, President & CEO

Kellogg’s progress in all four areas we measure in diversity management has been considerable in the past year and shows every indication of sustainable forward motion. This progress put Kellogg on the DiversityInc Top 50 list this year, in the highly competitive consumer-packaged-goods industry.

The effort starts at the top. President and CEO John Bryant chairs the Executive Diversity & Inclusion Council and has instituted the first linking of diversity-management goals, both quantitative and qualitative, to executive compensation. The council reviews on a quarterly basis the company’s hiring, promotion and turnover activity reports and addresses trends with recommendations and actions.

Bryant and four of his direct reports serve as the executive sponsors of Kellogg’s six resource groups. The company’s resource groups are available to all U.S. employees and are utilized for recruitment, mentoring, talent development, retention, diversity training, marketing and community outreach.

The company’s supplier-diversity program, in existence for more than two decades, has experienced an almost six-fold increase in spending in the last 10 years and now supports more than 200 vendors owned by Blacks, Latinos, Asians, American Indians, women and veterans with disabilities. The company recently added businesses owned by LGBT people to its supplier database and will begin tracking them this year.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Talent Pipeline

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
No. 13 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list
Accepted Award: Andre Wyss, President 

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation understands the need for a diverse workforce and pipeline to senior management, both for cultural competency in its product development and marketing and for the most innovative workplace solutions. The company has been actively donating and volunteering to help youth from underrepresented groups reach their full potential, including direct involvement from its most senior leaders. A few examples:

• Each fall, areas of the business and members of the Diversity & Inclusion Councils and resource groups participate in its Disability Mentoring Day. In 2011, more than 100 employees volunteered to participate in the event focused on disability awareness and career opportunities for more than 50 high-school students and 10 college students/veterans who attended. The keynote address was by Rohan Murphy, a double amputee who became a Division 1 wrestler at Penn State University.
• In April 2011, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation brought nearly 150 students from 32 junior and senior New Jersey high schools to its East Hanover campus for its Annual Multicultural Teen Corporate Mentoring Program. Structured activities included a welcome from André Wyss; panel discussions with eight senior leaders; and a mock product-marketing challenge.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Supplier Diversity

Marriott International
No. 21 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list
Accepted Award: Arne Sorenson, President & CEO

Marriott has a long and rich history of creating community wealth by using local minority- and women-owned business enterprises (MBEs and WBEs) to build and service its hotels, especially in urban areas.

Marriott’s Tier I (direct contractor) third-party certified spend is 7.8 percent with MBEs and 9.5 percent with WBEs, more than 25 percent higher than the DiversityInc Top 50 average for MBEs and more than double the DiversityInc Top 50 average for WBEs. Marriott also spends 1 percent of its Tier I procurement with vendors owned by LGBT people, one of the highest percentages we’ve seen.

Supplier diversity is included in RFPs (requests for proposals), procurement-management compensation is tied to supplier-diversity results, and Marriott provides mentoring, financial education and financial assistance in the form of more favorable payment terms to its suppliers from underrepresented groups.

As an example, Marriott partnered with a U.S.-based woman-owned business to help grow her capacity and distribution channels to provide the design, production and fulfillment of training materials for its managed hotels around the world. Marriott also helped her share her expertise with other women-owned businesses.

Marriott has been honored by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, the Women Presidents Educational Organization and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for its supplier-diversity efforts.

2012 DiversityInc Top Company for Resource Groups

Dell
No. 26 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list
Accepted Award: Steven Price, Senior Vice President, Human Resources

In the past two years, Dell has placed a major emphasis on increasing employee participation in its resource groups, creating and expanding global groups, and using these groups to further its business.

Dell has seven global resource groups. Three have chapters outside of the United States: WISE (Women in Search of Excellence) in the Asian Pacific Japan region and Europe, the Middle East and Africa; PRIDE (for the LGBT population) in Brazil, and True Ability (Employees or Family Members of Employees with Special Needs/Disabilities) in Brazil.

The groups are available to all U.S. employees. Each group provides a charter of its strategy and mission annually, with a strong value proposition for its members, communities and Dell’s business goals. Programs include a Cross ERG Leadership Series and brown-bag sessions to help members learn software and social-media applications.

Business-relevant uses include:

• GenNext generational group providing feedback into product development and packaging. GenNext offered expertise on the launch of internal social-media vehicles.
• Adelante Latino group developed a process in which Spanish-speaking individuals deliver product briefings to prospective Latin American customers.
• The Asians in Motion group translated materials into languages for customers across Asia.
• The True Ability ERG has been engaged in product development for customers with disabilities.

Top Company for Executive Development
Kraft Foods
No. 7 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50
Accepted Award: Mark Clouse, President of the U.S. Snacks Business Unit

Talent development and the use of diversity training, resource groups and mentoring to maximize potential have been priorities for Kraft Foods in recent years—and the results are impressive.

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

As the company undergoes a split this year into two separate entities, the resource groups and talent-development initiatives will be even more critical to its ability to connect with its increasingly multicultural consumer base.

Essential to that connection are its 10 resource groups, which are available to all U.S. employees, including hourly workers. The groups are used for recruitment, engagement, talent development, leadership training, marketplace research/connections, and diversity training. Resource-group members serve as facilitators for Kraft’s “The Power of Differences” internal training.

The groups’ success is measured through increased referral/rate of hires of people from traditionally underrepresented groups, retention of talent from those demographics, and increased promotion rates.

Almost three-quarters of its managers are involved in its formal mentoring program, which includes group mentoring, mentoring for new hires and traditional one-on-one mentoring. Seventy percent of the mentoring pairs are cross-cultural.

–Barbara Frankel

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In Why You Need Global Resource Groups, four companies’ diversity leaders reveal the measurable results they’ve seen and why this diversity-management initiative now is crucial to achieving sustainable growth.  

 The panel, moderated by DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti, was featured at our spring 2012 event: Eugene Kelly, worldwide director, Global Diversity and Inclusion, Colgate-Palmolive (No. 10 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50); Jennifer Christie, chief diversity officer and vice president, Executive Recruitment, American Express (No. 14); Sarah Siegel, human resources, social learning developer, Center for Advanced Learning, IBM (No. 17); and Lisa Mink, executive director, Global Diversity and Inclusion, Dell (No. 26). 

Two of the companies featured, American Express and Dell, were last year’s and this year’s recipients of DiversityInc’s special award as the Top Company for Resource Groups. IBM, which last year received DiversityInc’s special award as the Top Company for Global Cultural Competence, is the leading company globally in pioneering LGBT resource groups. 

Read Why You Need Global Resource Groups on DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

The panelists analyzed how global resource groups provide several benefits: 

• Corporate Values But Local Control: The groups provide insight into local culture for improved inclusion at regional offices and improved adherence to local values—for example, respecting laws that oppose “out” behaviors by LGBT people, as Siegel recounts in the full article. 

• Getting Global Groups to Communicate and Share Ideas, Challenges: Global resource groups allow employees the ability to discuss priorities and implementation electronically and plan regular virtual meetings for optimal communication. 

• Work With Other Companies in Region to Share Ideas: The ability to form intercompany networks and gain insights from benchmarking against external factors provides a business advantage.

Additionally, the panelists noted that their companies have leveraged global resource groups to expose local resource-group leaders to senior management; define goals for the groups; encourage employee participation; and increase innovation. These items are further detailed in the full article, accessible by logging into your DiversityIncBestPractices.com account. 

Kelly cites Colgate-Palmolive’s Global Innovation Fund, presented at our February Innovation Fest!, to allow the company to compete effectively in a global market. He gives an example of a recent meeting with the head of the Asian resource group, who was reporting out to a global division president who wanted to know how a product was impacting the Asian dentists in the United States. “They’re going to come back with insights, but they’re also going to have recommended solutions,” he says. 

Read Why You Need Global Resource Groups on DiversityIncBestPractices.com. 

For more on global diversity, read our research: Why Is Global Diversity So Difficult?

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Regardless of company size or industry, resource groups are increasingly becoming critical to business success.

In this 1,531-word article, “How Kraft Increased Promotions of Women in Sales by 39%,” DiversityInc offers the highlights from our exclusive roundtable on resource groups. Four diversity leaders from Kraft, Dell, JCPenney and Toyota provide 12 case studies of how to utilize resource groups in innovative ways to achieve measurable results and improvements in diversity metrics.

Increasing the representation of women in sales leadership roles would have been a difficult task for Kraft Foods without the help of its Women Sales Council, whose efforts at understanding flexible work arrangements and other motivating factors resulted in a 39 percent gain in sales promotions for women.

Other case studies and success stories include:

• How Dell used its millennial generational group to field-test its tablet
• How Toyota’s Latino Business Partnering Group helped develop in-language navigation systems with local accents
• How jcpenney increased its talent pipeline by 150 qualified candidates via an employee-resource-group event
• Why Kraft will utilize its employee-resource groups to sustain an inclusive corporate culture when the company splits into two businesses this year

The article also presents four video clips from the roundtable, so DiversityIncBestPractices.com subscribers can see and hear these case studies firsthand. 

Read “How Kraft Increased Promotions of Women in Sales by 39%” at DiversityIncBestPractices.com

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