Read more about these best practices in our event coverage, 4 Ways CSX Increased Its Diversity-Management Progress.

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Diversity and inclusion research shows that understanding local cultures is key to creating inclusive workforces globally. But how can companies actually do it? Global diversity is an increasingly complex issue: Organizations must sustain their corporate values, often U.S.-based for multinationals, while respecting local cultural nuances. DiversityInc addressed this issue at our event in Washington, D.C.

DiversityInc Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Barbara Frankel presented initial findings from the DiversityInc Global Diversity survey of 17 countries, which surveyed more than 100 companies in 17 countries (in Europe, Asia and BRIC countries) on global diversity-management challenges and best practices.

Read the complete 1,008-word article Best Practices to Overcome Global Diversity Challenges, with full-length session videos, on DiversityIncBestPractices.com for more detail on how to implement these best practices at your organization.

Key findings include:

• Efforts to value and measure difference, including gender, are challenges in most countries and are illegal in some European countries. Differences are not valued across the board
• Disability recruitments are increasingly government-mandated in some countries (France, China, Brazil)
• Corporate LGBT efforts are rare globally, except for IBM
• Supplier-diversity efforts are minimal outside of the United States, even for gender

Leaders from five of The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity also provided case studies during the two-day event’s sessions. Attendees heard from Ron Glover, vice president of diversity and workforce policy, human resources, IBM (No. 17 in the DiversityInc Top 50) and a panel of global-management experts: Billie Williamson, partner, Americas inclusiveness officer (retired), Ernst & Young (No. 6); Sharon Wright, vice president, human resources, international division, Prudential (No. 9); Hitomi Fukasawa, human resources and general affairs, Dryden Customer Center, Prudential (Japan); Deborah Dagit, vice president and chief diversity officer, Merck & Co. (No. 16); and Eugene Kelly, worldwide director, global diversity and inclusion, Colgate-Palmolive (No. 10).

They discussed the strategies needed to successfully leverage cultural differences among employees and the markets they serve, and how to increase business from a talent and performance standpoint. Their best practices include:

1. Align diversity goals with core business values
2. Communicate those diversity-infused business goals to local regions
3. Be consistent across all regions and management levels
4. Hold leaders accountable for diversity goals

Read the complete 1,008-word article Best Practices to Overcome Global Diversity Challenges, with full-length session videos, on DiversityIncBestPractices.com for more detail on how to implement these best practices at your organization.

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CSX Corp. has remarkable CEO commitment and has made huge strides in diversifying its workforce and management ranks by race/ethnicity and gender, which is particularly tough for a railroad company headquartered in the South. CSX also has a remarkable record of community philanthropy. Some specific achievements:

• Major efforts to diversify workforce and management. Of managers with less than five years of employment, 42 percent are women, Blacks, Latinos, Asians and American Indians. Two of the top six executives now are women, and CSX has the first woman chief transportation officer in the rail industry.
• Growing emphasis on employees with disabilities, including having a website designed for people with disabilities and being the first company in Northeast Florida certified as disability-friendly.
• Close affiliation through Chairman, President and CEO Michael Ward and the company with the Wounded Warrior Project as its first corporate partner.
• Strong veterans employee-resource group and overall program for veterans, including support of the National Guard and reserves, recognized recently with the Freedom Award from the Department of Defense. CSX is the only company to win this award twice.

Award accepted by Michael Ward, CEO, chairman and president, CSX:

“This is a tremendous honor, on behalf of our 30,000 employees, to receive this award from DiversityInc. As I look around this room, my guess is everyone’s looking to make a positive difference in the lives of others. I want to thank you all for this award and I assure you we will continue to work hard, and we expect to be here every year in the future.”

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In 2010, Southern Company introduced several changes to its benefits program to align with other large employers and to better meet the diverse, multi-generational interests of employees and recruits. One significant change was the addition of domestic-partner benefits, which DiversityInc had been urging the company to add, to create more equality for LGBT employees.

Other changes included parental leave, maternity leave and adoption reimbursement. The company has increased its relationships with external multicultural organizations, for example, serving as a sponsor for the 2011 Atlanta Human Rights Campaign Gala Dinner. Southern Company also has been working hard to increase the diversity of its talent pool. For example, this year, the company hosted two interns with visual impairments for a three-month rotation as a result of a partnership with the Center for the Visually Impaired in Atlanta. And recent efforts in military recruiting led to Southern Company being one of 15 recipients of the 2010 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award. Southern Company’s leadership clearly understands the importance of diversity management in terms of talent development, innovative work solutions and the ability to connect with customers. The company has escalated its efforts in recent years and shows every indication of doing even more.

Award accepted by Susan Story, CEO, Southern Company Services:

“The ability to be named in the same breadth as the companies we have heard from tonight is extraordinary. We believe in a working environment that allows every single employee to develop to his or her full potential … One of the measures we get paid on is how well we do in the DiversityInc survey. We did improve our employee benefits significantly but another thing we’ve improved upon is our military recruiting. At the end of the day, we know that investing in our communities makes us stronger as a company; and when we invest in our communities, they invest in us.”

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American Express has been a leader in both the types of employee-resource groups it has offered and in the effective ways it uses those groups to find and build talent, create an inclusive workplace, promote engagement, retention and productivity, and reach new markets. American Express has 15 employee-resource groups with more than 70 chapters globally. The company has had groups for more than a decade.

Groups are funded through a mixture of funding from executive sponsors, diversity councils and the diversity department. Membership in these groups is available to all permanent AmEx employees. The employee groups provide development and networking opportunities and support key business imperatives.

They play an important role in diversity recruiting efforts, often attending events and providing referrals for top talent. They also frequently greet new employees upon hiring and offer a sense of community. The groups are used for mentoring programs, sponsorship initiatives, development offerings and networking opportunities. They also play a critical role in creating marketing strategies and business solutions that appeal to a diverse consumer audience. Examples include the Felicidades and Lunar New Year gift cards that were created in partnership with the Global Prepaid Business and AHORA and ANA employee networks.

Award accepted by Anré Williams, president, Global Merchant Services:

“Diversity is a business imperative, but not everyone believes that and it’s great to be in a room full of people that do. We [at American Express] recognize that diversity is important but try to think about it beyond the way people normally do—beyond race, religion, gender. We try to think about it globally. We have 15 different networks in 80 chapters throughout the world to create a sense of unity and community. It’s important for talent, not just in attracting people but to find and identify people who might be great assets to the company … Bringing people together gives a sense of belonging and lets people know they can do more. If you don’t see it, you can’t believe it. We are all on this quest to build diversity together and we can learn a lot from each other.”

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KPMG has demonstrated a strong commitment to building an inclusive future workforce, one that has racial and gender diversity. Specifically, the firm has been the co-creator and presenting sponsor of Major League Baseball’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program, in which KPMG provides financial support for college-bound student athletes participating in an RBI league. Scholarships are awarded on the merits of financial need, academic achievement, leadership skills and community service. The KPMG Foundation also started The PhD Project in 1994, which has helped more than 1,000 Blacks, Latinos and American Indians become business-school professors.

The organization is now serving more than 400 doctoral students. Led by Bernie Milano, former head of recruiting at KPMG, The PhD Project is now a separate 501(c)3 that has more than tripled the number of Black, Latino and American Indian professors in business schools. In addition, KPMG is a leading supporter of other youth-based organizations, especially GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) and INROADS. KPMG has extremely strong employee-resource groups and was honored previously for its efforts to increase employee involvement in those groups. The company has done an excellent job of using them for recruitment, engagement, retention and talent development.

Award accepted by John Veihmeyer, chairman and CEO:

“As a special-services firm, all we have is our talent. If we don’t get it right from a talent and inclusion standpoint, we are not going to be very successful. Good intentions are good, but they don’t take you where you want to go. It takes a layering of accountability. This [award] is a tremendous encouragement to keep plugging in the direction we are going … We need the right diversity in our partnership. On some metrics, we are doing a good job, but we are woefully short of where we need to get. We have a number of things to make sure that we eventually right that.”

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As a company that helps others with their HR, payrolls and benefits, ADP makes sure the benefits it offers its more than 30,000 U.S. employees are inclusive and valuable. The company gets a perfect score on work/life benefits on our survey, but its efforts go way beyond a checklist.

ADP was a pioneer in flexible benefits and in allowing employees, especially those with family commitments, to work from home. The company also was an early leader in calling its key employees “associates” to emphasize that they are part of the team. This concept has been picked up by many other companies, especially retailers. ADP continues its emphasis on employees and families with post-retirement benefits, including nine outside medical offices and national wellness programs.

 ADP offers its employees a solid work/life–benefits package, including flexible work arrangements, onsite childcare, tuition assistance, onsite passport renewal, a mobile beauty salon, shoe shiners, onsite DVD rentals, a mobile vision center, wellness/quiet rooms or new-mothers rooms, and free video conferencing to faraway family members during the holidays. The company also operates nine medical clinics that focus on prevention and cultivating a healthier lifestyle for its employees. Those clinics employed more than 30 doctors and nurses.

Award accepted by Edward M. Hurley-Wales, newly named vice president, diversity and inclusion:

“Change is always an opportunity. Our founder’s vision is still the cornerstone for our notions of diversity and inclusion. As our business grows, we also recognize that we must also grow in terms of our families and diversity. People at ADP are not employees but associates, and we offer them a variety of work assignments to balance their work and lives. We place great importance on our community support and philanthropy through the ADP Foundation. Our ability to serve our communities relies on our ability to attract, retain, and develop talent.”

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IBM has been a global-diversity leader since the concept first started to gain traction more than a decade ago. For IBM, what global diversity means, besides understanding the cultural complexities of the local population, is maximizing the talent base in every country.

The company has been making groundbreaking strides in doing just that through its employee groups, talent-development programs and global mentoring program. The organization’s cross-geography mentoring program fosters collaboration between established and growing global markets and creates the ability for both innovation and talent development. It cultivates talent by bridging leadership and knowledge gaps, regardless of geography. It focuses on accelerating global leadership of critical skills in growth countries, skills identified as sales, client-facing, technical and project management, for example. It also helps mentors and mentees develop cultural intelligence and cultural-adaptability skills.

 The results of this program: Managers globally increased revenue and the number of deals. Mentees had a higher rate of closing deals than those not in the program. Mentees who executed learning plans booked more business than those who did not. Mentees exceeded required skill levels. A survey of participants showed that almost all felt they acquired new skills, had growing knowledge and awareness of different cultures and related mentoring to career development.

Award accepted by Rod Adkins, senior vice president, systems and technology group:

“In our experience, diversity and inclusion is a spark for greater innovation. We think we should reflect the markets that we do business in and participate in. We are in well over 170 countries around the world. Diversity is important for our future, how we build cultural confidence at IBM and how we focus on future leaders, by putting people in global assignments and partnering with nonprofit organizations around the world.”

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Prudential exemplifies corporate citizenship reflecting its core values. The company’s efforts to revitalize its home city of Newark, N.J., as well as its philanthropic, employee-volunteer and educational initiatives, are changing lives throughout the country.

Specifically:

• Sixty-eight percent of its donations are allocated to multicultural nonprofits, including Boys and Girls Clubs of Newark, Children Defense Fund, and YouthBuild Newark. This compares with 37 percent for the DiversityInc Top 50.
• Two-thirds (67 percent) of its senior executives (CEO and direct reports and one level down) sit on the boards of multicultural nonprofits. The average for the DiversityInc Top 50 is 23 percent.
• The Prudential Foundation spends more than $25 million annually on public education, workforce development, business development, community revitalization, arts and civic infrastructure, and helping neighborhood organizations rebuild.
• The company has invested more than $1 billion in local redevelopment since 1976. Social Investments, an asset-management group for Prudential and The Prudential Foundation, manages portfolios of private placement debt, equity and tax credits, including low-income housing and new-markets tax credits. Current social investments include Newark, N.J.; Los Angeles; San Francisco; New York City; Hartford, Conn.; Philadelphia; Chicago; Boston; New Orleans; Dallas; Houston; Phoenix; and Jacksonville, Fla.

Award accepted by John Strangfeld, chairman and CEO:

“We at Prudential are very proud of what we do in the area of community service. As corporate citizens, we’ve come to realize that this is not always easy. Therefore what we’ve been doing through our foundation has been to build community capacity, strength for initiatives that help nonprofits function better and enhance their ability to be continually effective in the community. It’s not just about having programs: it’s about enabling these nonprofits in making decisions and to use their resources to achieve levels of success that have not historically been achieved. We are all called to be leaders in different ways, to create a hybrid of sustainability.”

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Kaiser Permanente has the most diverse board of directors and management, especially the top three levels of management, that DiversityInc has seen. The company’s board of directors is half Black, Latino and Asian and 36 percent women, and its top level of management is 38 percent Black, Latino and Asian and 25 percent women.

What types of best practices does Kaiser employ to keep its senior levels so diverse? The company has an exemplary mentoring program and is one of only 26 percent of the DiversityInc Top 50 that offer cultural-awareness training for mentors and mentees before they start their formal relationship. Its employee-resource groups are used for diversity training, mentoring, leadership opportunities and talent development.

Kaiser has exceptionally strong diversity leadership from its chairman and CEO, George Halvorson, who leads the National Diversity Council. What makes Kaiser remarkable is the consistency of its diversity-management efforts, as well as the alignment between diversity in the workplace and diversity in the customer base.

Kaiser first participated in The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity in 2005, when it was on the 25 Noteworthy Companies list. It moved to No. 36 on the list in 2006, No. 27 in 2007, No. 7 in 2009 and No. 4 last year. Kaiser’s diversity-management initiatives have jelled in the last five years as a clear reflection of its values and leadership.

Award accepted by Chuck Columbus, chief human resources executive and senior vice president, Kaiser Permanente:

“This recognition helps to remind us of the good work we are doing and why we are doing it. We’ll take this award back and celebrate what it represents, but we’ll celebrate it shortly. There’s still a lot left to do. We still have gaps to address. (In the healthcare world, we call them “disparities.”) For Kaiser Permanente, it’s about carrying on a legacy. We’ve had some long intentional, thoughtful, spirited debates about not just providing the best care but providing the best care for everyone—and that `inspires our work for diversity. It provides a compass for us.”

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