Globally Sodexo is one of the largest companies in the world operating in 80 countries and employing nearly 420,000 employees. While the decentralized nature of our business model allows Sodexo to operate with agility and speed, it poses a challenge with regard to employee engagement.  As a service company, employee involvement and enthusiasm are essential components to delivering the optimal products and services Sodexo is known for.

Research has shown that companies who disregard diversity as a component of their business strategy have a higher percentage of disengaged workers. Organizations that effectively capitalize on the strengths of all employees and leverage their differences and unique values have the most engaged employees. In addition, employees with the highest level of engagement perform 20 percent better and are 87 percent less likely to leave the organization, according to a survey by TowersPerrin. A study by the Hay Group found engaged employees were as much as 43% more productive.

Over a decade ago Sodexo embarked on a journey to drive employee engagement through a sustained and comprehensive commitment to diversity and inclusion. Employee Business Resource Groups, Mentoring, Training & Development, Flexible Work Arrangements and Recognition all became instrumental in fostering a culture of inclusion and engagement. Sodexo held itself accountable for progress through various measures and metrics. The result has been systemic culture change that has differentiated Sodexo for our clients, customers and employees.

Measuring the impact diversity and inclusion has on engagement is key. Sodexo conducts an enterprise-wide Employee Engagement Survey as well as special surveys targeted at Employee Business Resource Group members and mentoring participants.  The results of these surveys clearly demonstrate improved engagement as a result of participation in diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Sodexo’s Employee Engagement Survey has reflected increases in the engagement of women and people of color since the survey was first conducted in 2006.  In fact, 2012 results show that diversity is one of the top two key engagement drivers for employees.

Despite several years of economic challenges, Sodexo’s total management population reached an engagement high of 69 percent, which represents an increase at a time when most companies experienced a decline in overall employee engagement.   According to Aon Hewitt, this is considered Best Employer Range.  In addition, 83 percent of employees believe “At Sodexo, employees who are diverse are valued for the differences they bring to the workplace.”  That is up 16 percentage points since 2006.

Engagement for women and people of color also experienced increases that are at or above Aon Hewitt’s Best Employer Range.  Qualitative research findings revealed that both groups feel good about being able to bring “all of themselves” to work.  One of the most interesting findings was with regard to white male managers who said that they were proud to be a part of a company that is committed to diversity and inclusion.

Employee Business Resource Group members were also recently surveyed about their level of engagement and 65% said that Resource Groups enhanced their engagement and connection to the business.  Results from this survey are incorporated into Employee Business Resource Group’s strategic plans. Participants indicated Networking, Engagement and Opportunities as the three top reasons for increased engagement.  Participants also noted their performance improved and they were more likely to stay with Sodexo due to their involvement with a Resource Group.

Sodexo has experienced firsthand the link between employee engagement and business results.  When employees feel valued and empowered to focus on their strengths and honor their differences, diversity becomes one of the organization’s strongest competitive advantages.

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Ernst & Young
Get on Board: Driving Action Through Gender Parity
NEW YORK CITY—Ernst & Young hosted “Get on Board: Driving Action Through Gender Parity,” a Forté Foundation event about woman representation in corporate boardrooms at which Forté released its list of Global Board-Ready Women. Nancy Altobello, Ernst & Young’s Americas Vice Chair, People, opened the program by discussing key data from a new E&Y report on the number of women on U.S. boards, and Karyn Twaronite, E&Y Partner and Chief Inclusiveness Officer, participated in a panel discussion. In attendance was DiversityInc Vice President, Consulting Debby Scheinholtz. Ernst & Young is No. 6 in the DiversityInc Top 50.

Forest City
Real Estate Associate Program (REAP)
BEACHWOOD, Ohio—DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti spoke at a session of the Real Estate Associate Program (REAP)—a 13-week series of courses that exposes professionals from underrepresented groups to the commercial real-estate business—at the headquarters of DDR. The session, titled “Career Workshop,” was facilitated by Andrew Passen, Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Forest City; Mark Floyd, Executive Vice President of Employment at DDR; and Daniel Gold, Vice President of Human Resources at Associated Estates. Forest City and DDR sponsored the program, which had only been held in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C.

TD Bank
Women in Leadership
MT. LAUREL, N.J.—TD Bank celebrated three years of its Women in Leadership program with a presentation on TD Bank’s diversity initiatives from President and CEO Bharat Masrani, a panel with a number of the company’s most senior women leaders, and a keynote address from Betsy Myers, Founding Director of the Center for Women & Business at Bentley University and former official in the Clinton Administration. The event was attended by DiversityInc General Counsel and Senior Vice President, Transformation Services Lora Fong; Director of Benchmarking Shane Nelson; and Web Editor Stacy Straczynski. TD Bank is one of DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies.

National Organization on Disability
NOD’s 30th Anniversary Celebration
NEW YORK CITY—The National Organization on Disability’s 30th anniversary celebration was held at the offices of McGraw-Hill. Kessler Foundation President and CEO Rodger DeRose spoke about the disability employment field and NOD’s place within it. NOD Chairman Tom Ridge and NOD President Carol Glazer presented awards to founder Alan Reich and founding board members. NOD also screened its 30th anniversary video, featuring board member and actor Robert David Hall (CSI), and highlighted its two signature programs: Bridges to Business and Wounded Warrior Career Demonstration. Members of NOD’s CEO Council, including from DiversityInc Top 50 companies Aetna (No. 24) and MetLife (No. 50), were recognized. DiversityInc Foundation Director Stuart Arnold attended the event.

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Sodexo’s global diversity leader Dr. Rohini Anand analyzed at our diversity event the increasingly critical issue of whether diversity execs should report in to HR.

Sodexo, No. 2 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50, is one of eight leading companies that presented at our “Managing Relationships Between HR & Diversity Departments” diversity event held in New York City.  Watch the video below. The full presentation slides are available on DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

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Diversity management at Sodexo, which centers on metrics-driven diversity goals, has brought the company significant results in human-capital diversity and, most importantly, market share. The company’s secret for success? The all-important communication and accountability between the CEO and the chief diversity officer.

Sodexo’s President and CEO George Chavel and Senior Vice President and Global Chief Diversity Officer Dr. Rohini Anand spoke with DiversityInc Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Barbara Frankel at a DiversityInc event. They discussed the strong professional relationship they have and why their collaboration is vital to business success. The company is No. 2 in the DiversityInc Top 50 for its second year (and was No. 1 in 2010).

Chavel says trust is the integral component to building a successful CEO/CDO relationship. “If you have the ability to create rapport, you can talk about all the struggles and have a strong debate.”

This open dialogue is essential with clients as well, especially in terms of Sodexo’s past. The company’s strong focus on diversity was jumpstarted by a discrimination lawsuit in 2002. “It was a painful time in our history but the opportunity to transform our company and culture,” says Chavel.

The story resonated with clients, and Sodexo began helping its clients with their own diversity goals. “In doing that, our brand became synonymous with diversity leadership as an enabler of business growth and helped us move from where we were and to sustain it in the organization,” he explains.

Anand describes this story as a business marriage. “All CDOs are ambitious about our mission and vision to change culture, but it has to be married to a business reality,” she says. “My job is to convince George. It’s a fine line. We all want to do as much as we can, and we get impatient. At the end of the day, it’s about using the strategy to grow the business.”

Their strategy includes three best practices, all tied to bottom-line results:

Commitment to Metrics

Sodexo set its diversity metrics one year into its journey. It measures everything with a robust scorecard—promotion, retention of women and Blacks, Latinos and Asians, resource-group engagement, results and mentoring promotions, retention, engagement, etc. Sodexo’s mentoring program has been featured on DiversityIncBestPractices.com and in our  Mentoring Web Seminar, with Jodi Davidson, director, diversity and inclusion initiatives, Sodexo.  For more on diversity metrics, watch the Diversity Metrics Web Seminar to learn which diversity metrics are most valuable to companies.

Sodexo keeps a very focused scorecard to measure virtually everything diversity related. For example, for every dollar spent on mentoring, Sodexo gets two dollars back. “It’s very much of a story culture,” Anand says. “It’s important to marry those metrics with case studies and vignettes. You need both to demonstrate the value.”

Compensation Incentives

Diversity metrics are then linked to 10 percent of managers’ bonus compensation, with Chavel and his team at 25 percent. The diversity fund is held apart from the financial performance of the company and is always paid to those who reach their goals. Sodexo was one of three companies featured in DiversityInc magazine as a case study on executive compensation tied to diversity.

“For our culture, it’s important to have a cause and effect, with us and with our heavily based metrics,” says Chavel. “We are trying to drive change. We’re not just pointing to those metrics but using them.”

Leveraging Qualities

Learning how to become a part of a diverse team is the key to driving innovation. With four generations working side by side, Sodexo recognizes the need to optimize each group’s unique talents and differences. “Mixing that together, that diversity and innovation, that is where we are heading,” Chavel says.

Anand notes, however, that there still are roadblocks to improvement, citing middle management as a key target for buy-in initiatives. Although Chavel is the U.S. CEO, the French-based global company is in more than 80 countries with more than 400,000 employees worldwide and is tailoring its diversity programs across the globe to incorporate local cultures. For corporate best practices to create inclusive workforces, and data points from DiversityInc’s  new global research, read 4 Ways to Overcome Global Diversity Challenges.

“In Asian countries, we are moving very rapidly. The women are hungry for initiatives and the leaders have jumped on board,” says Anand. “We have a strategy for North America and a clearly different strategy outside of the United States. We have to go almost country by country to understand the issues and tailor the initiatives.”

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Rohini Anand is one of those women. Here is her story:

I grew up in India, surrounded by others who looked like me but had variations by socioeconomic status or religion. The determining factor in my life was my move to the United States, when I was first perceived as a minority. A life-shaping experience, it led me to the work I do today.

My childhood was interesting. I grew up in Mumbai, the eldest of three girls. My father was among the first group of Indian students to go to the United States on a scholarship. He had a physics scholarship in the mid-1940s to the University of Chicago, but he hated it because it was too cold, and he wanted to move to California. The only scholarship available there was in film production, and he took it. He ended up doing film production with Clark Gable and Cary Grant. He moved back to India and did some documentaries, including “Spring Comes to Kashmir.” And then he went into his own business. My mother started Bombay International School, founded by expat women.

My parents encouraged me to go to grad school in the United States even though their friends said a woman shouldn’t do this and that I should have an arranged marriage. At 20, with a degree in history, I went to the United States. It wasn’t a well-thought-out plan; the rough plan was I’d get an advanced degree and be even more attractive for an arranged marriage.

But my sisters and I were different. My younger sister didn’t marry until she was 40!

I finally got my Ph.D. in Asian studies at the University of Michigan and decided to stay in the United States. The experiences in North America really shaped me into a different person.

The question I posed for myself was: “If this can be so impactful for me, what must it be like for those growing up in the U.S. who really have the minority identity shaped for them at a very early age?” The research I did was on identifying formation and the movement of people in India.

I met my husband when I was in grad school. He is Indian but it was not an arranged marriage. We met through friends. He is now treasurer of the Smithsonian. We have two daughters, 24 and 21. The older one, Easha, graduated from Yale and works in prisons with death-row inmates. She wants to go to law school. The younger one, Pria, is graduating this spring from Yale and runs a soup kitchen. I have learned so much from them. They keep me grounded.

Early in my career, I toddled between the corporate world, government agencies and education. I was getting tired of not engaging with one system and seeing sustained cultural change. I knew I wanted to go internal. I saw this tremendous opportunity to make a difference. What closed the deal with Sodexo (No. 2 on The 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list) was my interview with Michel Landel. His level of commitment, his vision, his leadership, his clarity on what he wanted to see happen was absolutely unparalleled. In the U.S., Dick Macedonia and George Chavel have gotten rightful credit, but Michel’s big deal has been diversity. He instituted a scorecard for executive compensation (tied to diversity) against the resistance of his entire executive team.

What else really matters to me? Community work. I work with Asian women who are victims of domestic violence. It keeps me connected with the Asian community. In a more ad hoc way, particularly when my kids were in the public school system in Montgomery County, I worked with ESL students—language skills and basic language. This fits because English was not my first language, Hindi was. There also is a men’s shelter where my husband and I cook once a month. It’s been an eye-opener to see the kind of people there, particularly in this economy. And it’s important because I hate to cook. That’s the only time I cook.

Click here to see all of the Women We Love profiles, including Rohini Anand’s, as they originally appeared in DiversityInc magazine.

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