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.

Results will be announced on April 23, 2013, at our DiversityInc Top 50 Announcement Event. Click here to attend.

Video Minutes

0:00:00 Don’t Wait Until the Last Minute
0:04:15 Movement on the List
0:07:19 Four Areas of Measurement
0:08:35 Tip: Executive Diversity Councils
0:11:02 Tip: Cross-Cultural Mentoring
0:12:29 Tip: Resource Groups
0:15:16 Tip: Multicultural Philanthropy
0:17:04 2013 Survey Changes
0:18:09 Audience Q&A

Follow these links for more about the competition, a description of the survey methodology and FAQs.

Click here to see the DiversityInc Top 50 for every year since 2001.

The post Tips on How to Do Well on the DiversityInc Top 50 appeared first on DiversityInc.

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.

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.

What Is Diversity Management?

Diversity management is the method of implementing diversity-and-inclusion strategies—also referred to as D&I strategies—to maximize benefits of corporate diversity in the workplace. Using best practices in recruitment and retention, resource groups and mentoring, diversity management enhances talent development and workforce diversity through utilization of diversity metrics and diversity benchmarking.

Your Diversity-Management Primer

DiversityInc is in the unique position of assessing diversity management because in 13 years of running The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity, we have collected in-depth data on more than 500 companies. The articles below feature the best practices and strategies needed to get companies’ diversity-management departments up to speed. For in-depth information on diversity-management best practices, visit www.DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

Ask the White Guy: Can Companies Survive Without a Concern for Diversity?
The White Guy says companies that don’t pay attention to diversity face a scary long-term future.

Diversity Management: The Four Stages of Diversity Management
We’ve studied the four stages of diversity management for more than a decade. What stage of managing diversity in the workplace is your company in?

What’s the Key to Diversity-Management Success?
What’s the one factor that determines whether your company’s diversity efforts will succeed or fail?

Ask the White Guy: Can a Diversity-Management Question Kill Your Career?
The White Guy responds to a reader’s inquiry by breaking down how data on retention rates can be analyzed, but he warns about discussing diversity topics in certain professional circles.

Diversity Management’s No. 1 Advantage: The CEO/Chief-Diversity-Officer Relationship
Diversity management at Sodexo centers on a special trust and open dialogue. What can you learn from this DiversityInc Top 50 company?

What Diversity-Management Metrics Are the Most Valuable?
From recruitment and promotions to engagement and retention, here are the best practices your company should use.

Diversity Management: What Diversity Questions Should Be on Employee Surveys?
Diversity-management questions on employee surveys are a key way to gain critical feedback. What questions deliver results?

Diversity Management: Which Diversity-Councils Model Is Best for Your Organization?
Two companies—one with a more traditionally structured council and one with a more integrated model—share their best practices and significant results.

Additional Diversity-Management Training

DiversityInc Training offers an online corporate university designed to provide basic diversity training to professionals whose work is aligned with diversity management.

Four DiversityInc Training courses—employee-resource groups, mentoring, diversity councils and generational communications—provide an in-depth overview of the topic, data-based trends for best practices on how to structure diversity initiatives/programs, key measures for success, and specific case studies from The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity.

For more best practices and case studies on resource groups, mentoring, diversity councils and generational communications, view our diversity web seminars.

The post Diversity Management 101: This Definition of Diversity Management Can Help You Make a Business Case 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.

The DiversityInc Top 50 companies have demonstrated that formal, cross-cultural mentoring programs, with the participation of senior executives, successfully enhance the diversity of human-capital results in management.

In this 90-minute diversity web seminar on mentoring and talent development, Jodi Davidson, director of diversity and inclusion initiatives for Sodexo (No. 2 in The 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity), and Joni Swedlund, lead client service partner, Federal Financial Services Practice, Deloitte (No. 8), discuss how cross-cultural mentoring has increased engagement, retention and promotions at their organizations and what specific programs have delivered success in talent development.

Watch Diversity Web Seminar on Mentoring: 5 Talent-Development Strategies to Increase Diversity in Promotions.

The diversity web seminar also provides comprehensive information in talent development on:

• What metrics your company should measure for program success
• The philosophies and outcomes of sponsorship and mentoring at Sodexo
• Why measuring mentoring progress should be a key priority for your organization
• How Deloitte makes a business case for its mentoring and sponsorship programs, and how you can, too
• Why sponsorship helps women at Deloitte progress up the ladder to senior management and get promoted

Watch Diversity Web Seminar on Mentoring: 5 Talent-Development Strategies to Increase Diversity in Promotions.

The post Diversity Web Seminar on Mentoring & Talent Development: 5 Strategies to Increase Diversity in Promotions appeared first on DiversityInc.

Question: I hear a lot these days that diversity is not just about diversity in ethnicity and gender. It is also, to a great extent, about diversity of thoughts. I agree with that. My question is: How do we measure success in diversity of thoughts? A company can hire only white men below 40 and claim total diversity in thought.

My concern is that focus on diversity of thought may derail the need for increasing diversity in terms of ethnicity and gender. That, in my opinion, does greatly contribute to diversity of thought.

Do you consider diversity of thought in your ranking of the DiversityInc Top 50?

Answer: You’re right; these days, “diversity of thought” is a big topic in diversity management. I also think you’re right in that diversity of thought can be disconnected from diversity as defined by race, gender, orientation, disability and/or age.

In my observation, the dominant or “majority” culture is defined by superior access to the governmental process, access to education and access to capital. In our country, this has been sharply defined by white, Christian, heterosexual men with no disabilities. Despite the Voting Rights Act (access to the governmental process), Civil Rights Act (access to education), the Community Reinvestment Act (access to capital) and the Americans with Disabilities Act, we see a constant battle for the majority-culture-dominated state and federal legislatures to pass retrograde action. Examples are:

• Voter photo-ID laws (passed inGeorgiawhile simultaneously shutting down motor-vehicle offices in poor areas, preventing people from getting a photo ID)
• Societal acceptance of the absolute failure of the majority of public schools that serve the poor
• The subprime crisis, which created record gaps in household wealth between white households and Black and Latino households (a theft of wealth that is unprecedented, yet no major perpetrator is in prison)
• College-educated people with disabilities having the highest unemployment rate

In practically all American organizations, the dominant culture is readily apparent. When I am invited to speak at a corporation that is just starting out in diversity management, I often create a presentation slide that has photos of the people listed as senior executives and/or on the board—disproportionately white men. The visual makes an impression with the audience every time. I make the point that there are probably no overt bigots, sexists or homophobes, but their culture produced a certain outcome that valued conformity over quality.

Unless you can tell me how white men are so magical that they’re superior to everyone else (and genetic research shows that there is no scientific rationale for “race”), then it’s impossible to think that the most talented people are running corporate America, the federal, state and local governments, religion and charity. The most basic cut—college education—shows that an equal number of men and women in the workforce have bachelor’s degrees. Women outpaced men in four-year degree achievement in the late 1980s. There is now an eight-point difference between four-year degree attainment between women and men, yet women have far fewer corporate positions of power (by any measurement) and still earn 23 percent less than men.

In corporate America, there are differences in diversity we can absolutely measure—race, gender and age—because that data is required to be collected by the federal government. We cannot make absolute measurement-driven comparisons of differences that are voluntarily disclosed, such as orientation and disability—but they are just as important in my mind. In the differences we can measure, we can see that there are discrepancies in talent development across gender and race, with the DiversityInc Top 50 companies having made far more progress than the average Fortune 500 company.

I find it impossible to believe that an organization can have optimum diversity of thought while maintaining segregated talent development.

But there is an opportunity for any organization wishing to develop diversity of thought as they ramp up diversity of those factors we can measure. White men are diverse too. But the dominant culture, regardless of who it is or where it is, is driven to value conformity. The whitest management group in the country has white men who have differences in their perspective that derive from their personal history—growing up poor, wealthy, rural, city, large family, single parent—whatever the differences, they drive a different way to approach problems and opportunities. Being nimble in the marketplace demands opening the aperture for ideas. The primary factors of diversity management—mentoring, resource groups, diversity councils—can be adapted for utilization with any company, but often we see only non-white people and/or women being called “diverse,” and “inclusion” ends up being a segregated channel for everyone who isn’t a white man to discuss among themselves. Big mistake.

I don’t think it’s possible to measure diversity of thought between disparate organizations. We can measure equitable talent development, supplier diversity, philanthropic spend, success of resource groups and mentoring, though—and that’s exactly what we do in the DiversityInc Top 50 process.

We can also have companies tell us about how they’ve harnessed diversity of thought—and that’s exactly what we’ve done with this issue of DiversityInc magazine. You can witness this live at our Innovation Fest! this September.

The post Ask the White Guy: Can You Measure Diversity of Thought and Innovation? appeared first on DiversityInc.

DiversityInc has been studying companies’ diversity metrics and the four stages of diversity management for more than a decade. Most companies are in the first two stages, with companies that earn spots on the upper portions of The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list in Stage Three. We don’t yet know any companies that are in Stage Four, but a handful of very innovative companies are poised to break through to that stage.

Stage One: Celebration Focused

The company has begun to recognize the value of diversity and begins to have celebrations, such as Black History Month and Cinco de Mayo day in the cafeteria. The danger for these companies is in raising expectations with no corresponding gain in opportunities. They have a high level of regrettable loss (loss of talent, particularly from traditionally underrepresented groups) that could have been developed. They also have increasing difficulty in recruiting people from these groups and all younger people, who want a more inclusive environment, according to Pew Research reports.

Stage Two: Workforce Focused

The company has created a diversity plan—with actions, objectives and milestones. It has begun to show gains in the diversity of its workforce and has implemented resource groups and, often, a structured mentoring program. The company now has a competitive advantage—with talent and reaching customers/clients—over competitors still in Stage One.

Stage Three: Marketplace Focused

The organization has metrics-driven accountability for its diversity-management efforts, often through its executive diversity council. Its human-capital and supplier-diversity metrics are well above average and it assesses and communicates clearly the value diversity management is bringing to the organization. The company exhibits cutting-edge diversity-management initiatives, such as innovative work/life programs that aid in retention and talent development, or clear linking of supplier-diversity efforts to community building. It is outpacing its competitors in reaching and developing talent and creating marketplace solutions. These companies outpace their competitors in raising cultural competency in marketing and sales efforts.

Stage Four: Out-Thinking Competition

These companies leverage diversity management to create, sponsor and nurture innovation. They provide thought-leadership and integrate cultural competency in all they do, from recruiting to customer service.

The post Diversity Metrics Determine the Four Stages of Diversity Management appeared first on DiversityInc.

In DiversityInc’s diversity web seminar on talent development, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Barbara Frankel leads a discussion on the importance of leveraging diversity metrics to drive talent-development programs, in particular those that include formal cross-cultural mentoring.

Amy Munichello, director, diversity and inclusiveness center of expertise, Ernst & Young (No. 6 in the DiversityInc Top 50), and Mohit Misra, executive director, talent management, OD, staffing, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (No. 13), provide comprehensive case studies of how their companies increase the representation in their talent pipelines to drive both business results and professional growth.

In this 90-minute web seminar, readers will learn:

• How to measure the success of a cross-cultural mentoring program
• The top four best practices for talent development in resource groups
• Why Ernst & Young takes a global approach to talent and the three key elements that bring its program success
• The impact and challenge of unconscious bias on talent-development goals
• How Novartis makes talent development about more than traditional training programs

Watch diversity web seminar on talent development on DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

For more best practices, watch DiversityInc’s other diversity web seminar on talent development with The Coca-Cola Company and CSX (Nos. 46 and 23) and read Networking & Sharing on Resource Groups, Diversity Councils, CEO Commitment, Talent Development, Mentoring.

The post Diversity Web Seminar on Talent Development: How Diversity Metrics Help Improve Diversity at the Top appeared first on DiversityInc.