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

The post Diversity Management: 2012 DiversityInc Special Awards appeared first on DiversityInc.

DiversityInc presents the story of two chief diversity officers: John Zamora at Deloitte and Shaun Hawkins at Eli Lilly and Company, Nos. 29 and 39, respectively, on The 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list.

Key themes discussed in the exclusive 2,137-word article, “Why Do P&L Guys Head Diversity at Deloitte, Eli Lilly,” include:

• How their backgrounds, access to the top of the company and emphasis on business goals are helping their efforts succeed more rapidly—and with more sustainable results
• Why becoming chief diversity officer puts P&L executives in an even more advantageous position

Deloitte’s John Zamora attests that his company wanted someone who understood how diversity management fit in with the business objectives. He reveals why he decided to take on the additional responsibilities and how his background gave him instant credibility, as well as why he focuses on mentoring and its impact on retention and engagement.

Eli Lilly’s Shaun Hawkins’ background was definitely not in HR, and he was surprised when Lilly’s top-level management approached him with the chief diversity officer’s job. He took the position, understanding that a big area of development for him would be the chance to learn to speak publicly to large crowds. With three primary areas of focus—the marketplace, the workplace and supplier diversity—Hawkins stresses the need for accountability to generate sustainable results.

Read ”Why Do P&L Guys Head Diversity at Deloitte, Eli Lilly” at DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

The post Why Do P&L Guys Head Diversity at Deloitte, Lilly? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Q. I read your story about Secretary Clinton pushing for global LGBT rights [www.DiversityInc.com/secretary-clinton]. In your story, you stated: “In the United States, several corporations on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list have led the way in establishing domestic-partner benefits and advocating for same-sex marriage and the end of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.” My question is: How can corporations actually support same-sex marriage?

A. Corporate advocacy of civil rights has a long history in the United States. As recently as 2003, more than 20 corporations filed briefs supporting the use of affirmative action as a factor in college admissions in the Grutter v. Bollinger University of Michigan case before the Supreme Court.

In the civil-rights battle for marriage equality for lesbian and gay couples, several companies have taken activist roles. Most notably:

*Eli Lilly and Company, Cummins and WellPoint, Nos. 29, 18 and 34, respectively, on The 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list, have actively battled the Defense of Marriage Act in Indiana, where all three are headquartered. In a 2007 letter opposing the legislation, Eli Lilly’s senior vice president of human resources, Dr. Tony Murphy, wrote: “Given the great lengths Lilly takes to attract and retain top talent from around the world, we oppose any legislation that might impair our ability to offer competitive employee benefits or negatively impact our recruitment and retention. Beyond this, we are concerned that the proposed legislation sends an unwelcoming signal to current and future employees by making Indiana appear intolerant. As a result, we believe this amendment works against Indiana’s stated desire to broaden its appeal to attract new businesses to the state.” Read our coverage on DOMA in Ruling Against Defense of Marriage Act Is Major Diversity Victory.

*Several California-based companies publicly worked against Proposition 8, the amendment that was approved in November 2008 to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in that state. Proposition 8 recently was overturned and is being appealed in the U.S. Supreme Court. Among the companies opposing it were PG&E, No. 1 on The 2012 DiversityInc Top 5 Regional Utilities list, and Levi Strauss. Read our coverage on Proposition 8 in Gay-Marriage Ban Struck Down: Why Your Company Should Care.

Nancy McFadden, PG&E senior vice president of public affairs, made this statement in July 2008 about Proposition 8, according to the Human Rights Campaign: “We are proud to join NO on 8 and Equality California to protect the freedom to marry for all Californians. For years, PG&E has advocated for equality and fairness in the workplace, and across California. In that same spirit, PG&E is honored to be a founding member of the Equality Business Advisory Council and urge our business colleagues to join us as we work to guarantee the same rights and freedoms for every Californian.”

And just this year, several New York–based companies publicly supported the decision to allow same-sex marriage in that state. These companies included McGraw-Hill and Xerox, as well as former Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons, according to the Empire State Pride Agenda.

Progressive companies stand up publicly for their values, even when there’s risk of negative repercussions. 

The post How Can Corporations Support Same-Sex Marriage? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Today, as Eli Lilly and Company’s senior vice president, human resources and diversity, and a member of the executive committee, he is instrumental in helping the company focus on its internal and external diversity goals. Eli Lilly is No. 29 in The 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity.

His transformation from a member of a homogenous group following in expected footsteps to a worldwide leader in inclusiveness is an example of the value of cultural education. He didn’t have one startling epiphany; he had gradual exposure to those who were “different.”

Higher Education

Fry was the first in his family to attend college. He chose the University of Indianapolis because it was close enough to home so he could still help at the farm and because he hoped to play basketball. He also had a job working part time as an auto mechanic.

“I expected I would still be a farmer, but I thought if I didn’t get an education then, I probably never would,” he recalls.

Growing up, almost everyone he knew was white and Christian. When Fry was in seventh grade, he attended a basketball camp, where he was paired with a young Black boy. “I was intimidated at first because I didn’t know any African-American kids, but we became friends that week,” he says.

When he went to college, he was placed in a dorm where many of the students played sports. The demographics in the dorm were different—of about 37 men in the dorm, around 30 were Black.

“It was my first time being the minority, and it was intimidating. Then I realized we all had the same goals. We wanted to be in school and get an education; we wanted to succeed. We had more in common than we had differences,” he says.

His basketball career didn’t get too far (although he has enjoyed a pickup game with Lilly’s Chief Diversity Officer Shaun Hawkins). His experience as an auto mechanic, however, also changed his view since he experienced for the first time the challenges of keeping very diverse (by class, occupation, personality) customers satisfied.

“It changed my abilities to listen and understand,” he says. “I learned that one of the most important things you can do as a leader is know that you don’t have all the answers.”

Global Perspective

After college, Fry first went to work at another company and then tried Lilly, joining in 1987 as a scientific systems analyst in Lilly Research Laboratories. He planned to work for three years and then go back to the farm. Along the way, he discovered he loved the company and the eye-opening experiences it provided. He started in IT and was tapped for leadership experience, which led him to various HR and operational assignments, including stints in the United Kingdom and Australia, where he was managing director for the Australian affiliate from 2004 to 2007. His last job was vice president of human resources, supporting the bio-medicine and emerging-markets business units.

His global experiences broadened his views considerably, he says, noting he was often the only white person in the room.

“If you are sitting in Indianapolis and have no knowledge of Japan, you won’t understand the process and how to be able to connect with customers,” he says, citing an example: Five years ago, Lilly would launch new products in the United States and Japan simultaneously. Japan, however, had a more stringent governmental approval process and, because the company didn’t use enough Japanese in its clinical trials, launches there were being delayed. “Now we are launching simultaneously because we have people in Japan who get it,” he says.

“We are a truly global company. HR helps drive cultural change in a company,” he says. He’s proud that Lilly’s leadership has recognized the value of diversity and has been aggressively improving its diversity-management processes.

“There’s a real understanding of why it’s important, and our leaders’ behavior matches their talk. The place where we need to continue to improve is to literally integrate diversity in our thinking so it’s never an afterthought,” he says.

When Hawkins started his position earlier this year, Fry, who is his boss, had these words for the new chief diversity officer: “You cannot be accountable for diversity by yourself. When we think about diversity and succession planning, it has to happen naturally and continually.”  

For more on global diversity best practices and challenges, read Why Is Global Diversity So Difficult?

The post ‘My First Time Being the Minority Was Intimidating’ appeared first on DiversityInc.

In DiversityInc’s work/life diversity web seminar, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Barbara Frankel moderates a panel of executives who discuss how top-performing companies are using work/life strategies to improve business, improve workplace diversity, and attain their diversity and inclusion goals.

The panel consists of Barbara Adachi, national managing principal, women’s initiatives, Deloitte (No. 8 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50); Shaun Hawkins, chief diversity officer, Eli Lilly (No. 29); and Charlotte Hawthorne, consultant, work life and diversity, Eli Lilly.

Those who watch this 90-minute diversity web seminar on work/life (also available as a downloadable PDF) will learn the following about workplace diversity:

• The data correlation between work/life programs and retention and promotion rates
• How Deloitte utilizes a corporate lattice, rather than a corporate ladder, to increase overall engagement to 90 percent and a potential 150 percent growth in revenue
• How employers can begin to tailor flexibility for employees and adapt for enhanced workplace diversity
• What Eli Lilly does to reap the greatest benefits and address work/life abuse and inconsistency
• How to evolve your corporate culture to have a more “flexible” mindset

For more on work/life best practices and workplace diversity, read Successful Career Paths for Women in Corporate Sales and PwC’s Maria Castañón Moats Tells Her Story of Career Redemption.

The post Diversity Web Seminar on Work/Life: How Workplace Diversity Benefits From Flexible Work Options appeared first on DiversityInc.

A panel moderated by DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti, explored the backgrounds and benefits of five chief diversity officers and was preceded by a talk from new PricewaterhouseCoopers Chief Diversity Officer Maria Castañón Moats. PricewaterhouseCoopers is No. 3 on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list. “It’s a unique opportunity to get in front of our 2,400 partners,” says Moats of her new position” to talk about diversity as a critical business issue, respective to the line of service, geography and industry you are in.” 

Moats spoke of how the professional-services firm works to marry the role of CDO with that of revenue-generator. Moats recently took over from Niloufar Molavi. The position at PwC is a rotational role, where the firm’s line partners serve for two to three years at a time.

“I am not an expert,” she says, admitting that the rotational model only works because “I have a terrific team supporting me.” She acknowledges that her team’s knowledge of diversity and its insight into the continuity of business relationships is critical to her success. Read the full-length, 1,039-word What Background Is Best for Chief Diversity Officers? article at DiversityIncBestPractices.com to watch the exclusive videos of her presentation.

Putting Diversity in P&L Terms

“Diversity is hard to measure but having a hard-ended discussion with our leadership is something I have done and am not afraid to do,” says Shaun Hawkins, chief diversity officer at Eli Lilly (No. 39). Hawkins has an investment background and attributes those P&L roots to his success as chief diversity officer. “We really rely on employee engagement, so diversity and inclusion have to be there. We have to be able to translate what we are doing here to some sort of business in an appropriate way.

Hawkins discussed these issues along with three other diversity leaders—Linda Jimenez, chief diversity officer and vice president, diversity and inclusion, WellPoint (No. 36), who is an attorney; Steve Bucherati, chief diversity officer at The Coca-Cola Company (No. 12), who was previously with the Coca-Cola Foundation; and Andrea Snorton, manager of diversity and inclusion at Southern Company (one of DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies and Top Company for Diversity-Management Progress), who has an HR background. Read the full-length, 1,039-word What Background Is Best for Chief Diversity Officers? article at DiversityIncBestPractices.com for more insights and the exclusive video of this interactive panel.

Making Friends with Legal

Jimenez says that her background as a lawyer has helped her in finding solutions and ultimately becoming a mediator for employees and managers’ qualms with diversity issues and goals. “It’s one of the things we like to do as a CDO. It’s about having everyone walk away with a win-win situation,” she says.

Understanding the Community

Chief Diversity Officers with experience in corporate community outreach know the value of these good relationships within and outside the company. Bucherati used to run the Coca-Cola Foundation, which enabled him to see the value in “connecting the dots” and working as a team, especially since CDO’s don’t manage every aspect of the business.

Linking Back to HR 

This is not to discredit those in traditional HR careers, as Andrea Snorton attests that her “background in HR has definitely been an asset, in terms of what our succession slates look like, determining which organizations we’re going to recruit from.” Knowledge of HR gave her the understanding of what the challenges were, allowing her to leverage her relationships and credibility within the organization.

Read the full-length, 1,039-word What Background Is Best for Chief Diversity Officers? article at DiversityIncBestPractices.com for more insight and the exclusive videos of these sessions.

Referenced Articles:
PwC Chairman Bob Moritz Makes Diversity Personal
Why Do P&L Guys Head Diversity at Deloitte, Lilly?
Retention Best Practices
Employee-Volunteer Programs
4 Ways to Overcome Global Diversity Challenges

The post What Background Is Best for Chief Diversity Officers? appeared first on DiversityInc.