Synopsis: A Guide to Effective Resource-Group Executive Sponsorship

Written by DiversityInc Vice President of Consulting Debby Scheinholtz, the Guide to Effective Resource-Group Executive Sponsorship is a comprehensive report that features DiversityInc data as well as interviews with chief diversity officers from six companies that excel at managing effective resource groups. Featured companies include:

• MasterCard Worldwide, No. 15 in the DiversityInc Top 50
• Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), No. 19
• Target, No. 30
• Northrop Grumman, No. 42
• Rockwell Collins, No. 43
• Comcast Corporation, one of DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies

You can read an excerpt from the 1,663-word article below. The Guide to Effective Resource-Group Executive Sponsorship article is available at DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

What’s an Executive Resource-Group Sponsor?

Executive resource-group sponsors—usually direct reports to the CEO or members of the senior-leadership team—give resource groups business influence within their companies.

1. Who is Eligible for Executive Sponsorship?
   Executive resource-group sponsors are usually at the highest level of the company—most often direct reports to the CEO.
2. How Are Executive Sponsors Selected?
   The chief diversity officer often selects sponsors from among the senior-leadership team. Alternatively, resource groups may request a particular sponsor or a potential sponsor may request a specific group.
   
3. Do Executive Sponsors Serve for a Defined Term?
   Some companies allow executive sponsors to serve indefinitely. In cases where terms are limited, they usually last a minimum of two years to allow for a ramping-up period and time to produce results.
   
   
4. What Qualities Do Chief Diversity Officers Look for in Executive Sponsors?
   The people we interviewed tell us that along with a senior-leadership role, executive sponsors should help the resource group align its goals with business objectives and strategies, help members navigate the corporate culture, and introduce group members to the right contacts to help them achieve their goals. Having emotional intelligence is also important.
   
   
5. What Type of Training Should Executive Sponsors Receive?
   DiversityInc’s white paper on resource groups found that 89 percent of companies surveyed train their executive sponsors in advance. The most prevalent type of diversity training is cultural-competency training, but some companies offer leadership training as well.
   
   
6. Are Sponsors Always Cross-Cultural?
   It is highly recommended that executive resource-group sponsors be cross-cultural, based on data analysis of results (promotions, engagement) and anecdotal evidence.
   
   
7. Are Executive Sponsors Compensated or Rewarded for their Roles?
   At the six companies whose CDOs we interviewed, executive sponsors receive no additional compensation for their role. The performance goal is tied to assessment and overall performance rating, but other activities can also satisfy this goal.

Read The Guide to Effective Resource-Group Executive Sponsorship article at DiversityIncBestPractices.com and get practical, takeaway examples from MasterCard Worldwide, Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), Target, Northrop Grumman, Rockwell Collins and Comcast Corporation.

The post MasterCard, Target & Comcast: Your How-To Guide for Executive Resource-Group Sponsorship appeared first on DiversityInc.

People in the St. Louis region refer to their home as a thriving “city of neighborhoods.” Each of the city’s 79 communities features its own identity with distinctive characteristics and cultural heritage. Nicknamed the Gateway City, the city’s populations trace their heritage back to Africa, Asia, Latin America and many European countries. The largest demographic group is Blacks, who currently make up 49.4 percent of the population.

Despite the racial/ethnic diversity of the city’s nearly 320,000 residents, the neighborhoods formed by immigrant communities in the late 1800s to early 1900s remain very homogenous, says Reena Hajat Carroll, executive director of the Diversity Awareness Partnership.

“There are very specific white restaurants and bars and nonwhite restaurants and bars. You very quickly realize you are of the nonmajority. It makes it very hard to fit in if you are not Black or white,” says Carroll, who is Asian Indian. “Increasing diversity awareness socially and in the professional arena is very important for the region to grow and remain competitive.”

The Diversity Awareness Partnership hosts a variety of programs to educate the public on issues surrounding race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity. The nonprofit also works with 14 partner corporations, which include Edward Jones, Ameren, the Cardinals baseball team and the Rams football team, as well as DiversityInc Top 50 companies PricewaterhouseCoopers (No. 1 in the DiversityInc Top 50) and Wells Fargo (No. 33).

In addition to supporting the Diversity Awareness Partnership, local businesses also are taking their own initiatives to increase diversity awareness. In particular, Ameren, MasterCard, Monsanto, Edward Jones, McCarthy Building Companies and Anheuser-Busch have made diversity efforts a key strategy for recruitment, talent development and succession planning. Their goal: to attract diverse talent to the area to increase innovation and, ultimately, the city’s economic success.

Ameren
Leadership Accountability & Diversity Training

The largest electric utility in Missouri, and one of the largest investor-owned utility companies in the nation, the St. Louis–based Ameren Corporation has more than 3 million customers in the surrounding region. To provide them with exceptional service, Ameren has developed a comprehensive diversity-training program that allows its employees to have more awareness of diversity and cultural nuances while out in the field.

It’s one of the things that Ameren, one of DiversityInc’s Top 5 Utility Companies, is most proud of, according to Sharon Harvey Davis, vice president and chief diversity officer—so proud, in fact, that it makes the diversity-training program available to other companies for use in training their own employees. (Go to the Corporate Diversity page at Ameren.com to purchase the DVDs.)

“A large part of our efforts at Ameren are to move diversity ahead so that we can bring employees along to a new area of diversity,” says Steve Parks, manager of diversity. The training program is now in its third year with a focus on creating awareness around people with disabilities. Previous years’ themes included LGBT and sexual-orientation issues, and interracial relationships.

Davis notes that one of the rewarding effects of the training is that it helps employees in the community. “Our resource groups are charged with impacting the community around their respective focus areas. We give them training for community involvement and customer involvement,” she says. “Everyone that lives here is our customer. We have to be good at diversity.”

Recently, Ameren was recognized for its efforts in the community: The Governor’s Council on Disability named Ameren as honorable mention (runner-up) for its annual Inclusion Award. Ameren’s Network for Disabled Employees frequently reaches out to area public schools to engage students with disabilities and teach them the importance of education. The group hosted a Mentoring Day that produced a two-fold benefit: Students met employees and learned about opportunities in the utility industry, while employees interacted with students and developed a new comfort level with this demographic.

Ameren also sponsors Rams Blitz: Youth Working Together to Break Through Boundaries, a sportsmanship program, featuring players from the NFL’s Rams, that is bringing together football teams from Seckman High and Parkway North High for a series of activities during the school year designed to promote understanding and acceptance of differences.

Overall, more than 50 percent of Ameren’s community giving goes to multicultural nonprofits and college-outreach programs. “Ameren is very well known for its diversity efforts. A lot of people come to work here already aware and knowledgeable of what we’ve done through outreach and community giving,” says Davis, who attributes the company’s reputation to CEO Tom Voss’ visible commitment to diversity and inclusion. “He’s helping the city become better for all types of people through his involvement in organizations like the regional chamber of commerce and The Black Rep theater. His effort speaks volumes and it’s impacting his peers and CEOs in the community to get involved.”

Davis notes that Voss often is called on by other organizations to speak, such as during Edward Jones’ Inclusion and Diversity Week in October: “He’s a corporate champion in the community.” She continues, “Tom made it clear that if you’re a leader in this company, you’re involved in diversity. It’s expected of all direct reports and all high-level executives.”

Voss, who spoke at DiversityInc’s event last April, discusses how he holds his executives accountable in his Q&A with DiversityInc at www.DiversityInc.com/tom-voss. Davis’ work with him is highlighted  in 2 Case Studies of CEO Commitment.

MasterCard
Recruiting Tech-Savvy Millennials Is Key to Innovation

MasterCard is technology focused, with a goal of improving security and efficiency for all consumers globally—covering a total of more than 23 billion transactions a year. As such, MasterCard’s strategic plan is closely tied to the innovation of its talent and, therefore, the diversity of its employees. This is especially true in St. Louis, where the company’s office for tech and operations is based.

“We’re focused on bringing in top, diverse technical talent and distributing that talent globally—and that’s not just diversity in ethnicity and gender,” says Rob Reeg, president of the MasterCard Technologies division of MasterCard Worldwide. He notes that students in the technical and operations fields at most colleges and universities predominantly are Asian males. “It’s increasingly difficult to find diverse kids.”

“We need different perspectives; technologies invented here have to work across the world. Having that reach and representation from location, ethnicities and cultures is needed for innovations,” explains Luis Campadelli, group head, Human Resources, MasterCard Technologies. “Millennials are early adopters of technology and willing to try new things, especially emerging mobile and ecommerce solutions.”

A key recruiting strategy for MasterCard, No. 15 in the DiversityInc Top 50, has been to attract Millennial workers via targeted internship programs with colleges that provide access to a diverse talent pool. The MasterCard Technologies unit has found success in hiring from universities across the Midwest over the past three years, with the number of Millennial employees in its workforce increasing from 10 percent to 24 percent.

“For us, you have to look from a technology lens, which makes Luis’ job a little harder. We have to focus on campuses that can bring us the right level of diversity,” says Reeg, noting that MasterCard also utilizes its resource groups—which include groups for Black, Latino, Asian, women, LGBT, veteran, older and younger employees—as a way to target and identify prospective candidates.

MasterCard also began collaborating this year with InSight St. Louis, which offers an immersion program for graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities who relocate to St. Louis and showcases the city as a great place to build a career, and with Washington University in St. Louis on a new MBA program.

The company plans to further its national recruiting efforts next year by partnering with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

Additionally, MasterCard will continue its partnership with INROADS, a nonprofit that places high-performing Black, Latino and American Indian students in internships at leading corporations. It will also partner with Junior Achievement, which educates children about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy, and the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Programs, which engage students in activities that build science, engineering and technology skills.

Monsanto
Diverse Pipeline Improves Processes, Technology & Innovation

Diversity-and-inclusion efforts at Monsanto, No. 44 in the DiversityInc Top 50, give the global agriculture company “deep roots within the St. Louis community” that support its strong focus of business success through innovation, says Melissa Harper, vice president of Global Talent Acquisition and Diversity.

The world’s rapidly increasing population size and diversity make this particularly relevant today, notes Harper. Agriculture, she explains, is a pivotal intersection point among food, fuel and fiber where success is based on three factors—food/product demand, innovation and execution. With the world population expected to increase by 2.3 billion, to more than 9 billion, by 2050, innovation will be all the more important.

“That’s why we’re continuously looking for ways to improve on agriculture today, to help our farmers and growers be successful through better technology, processes and innovation,” says Harper. “We rely on people from all different backgrounds and viewpoints to develop new, best products continuously.”

Harper recently spoke at DiversityInc’s Innovation Fest! event about how the company’s three-part talent-acquisition process helps overcome recruiting challenges and more fully integrates and engages its employees from various global cultures. Watch the video:

Monsanto’s strategy takes a proactive approach to increasing diversity in the talent pool. St. Louis–based initiatives include outreach to support diversity and local communities through education—such as partnerships with the company’s philanthropic arm, the Monsanto Fund—to help encourage Black, Latino and women students to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects.

These efforts include financial contributions; partnering with professional associations, such as Black Data Processing Associates, Future Farmers of America, Women in IT and the National Sales Network; supporting school-based and local urban greenhouses; and allowing employees to volunteer in classrooms to assist with science experiments and provide tutoring services.

Monsanto also participates in the InSight St. Louis program. The nonprofit is dedicated to recruiting top graduates from Historically Black Colleges and Universities to the St. Louis region. Monsanto and other participating companies host these students and provide educational development while showing them what it’s like to live and work in the city.

“We want to generate better awareness for long-term technology and engineering careers at Monsanto,” says Harper. This helps the company build a diverse, local set of qualified recruits for the future.

Additionally, Monsanto donated $1 million this year to the St. Louis Chapter of the United Negro College Fund. And members of Monsanto’s nine resource groups—Black, Latino, Asian, women, LGBT, family, veterans, people with disabilities, and young professionals—host and plan United Way’s Inspire Fashion Show each year, with all proceeds going to local charities in Greater St. Louis.

“Our recruitment and talent efforts are very deliberate. Being proactive helps us—we do not wait until we have an exact need to hire. Companies that do that tend to struggle a bit more,” says Harper.

Edward Jones
Improving Diversity in Financial Services—Getting White Men on Board

Although St. Louis has a diverse population, generating diversity awareness and finding diverse talent still proves to be a top challenge for organizations, particularly if you are in the financial-services industry, according to Emily Pitts, principal, Inclusion/Diversity at Edward Jones. The investment firm, which has 5,000 employees at its St. Louis headquarters, has nearly 7 million clients and more than 10,000 branches in the U.S. and Canada.

In a predominantly white- and male-dominated industry, the firm has had to make proactive efforts to attract diverse candidates to the region, she says. These efforts include fostering partnerships with multicultural organizations and professional associations, as well as its own robust recruitment and on-boarding programs for new hires.

“We sponsor events such as the National Urban League and the National Society of Hispanic MBAs. We’re always looking to strategically align ourselves with organizations that can help attract more diverse talent to St. Louis,” explains Pitts.

Like Monsanto’s Harper, Pitts notes the benefits of the InSight St. Louis program. Edward Jones has been a member for the last four years.

The company also has partnered with the Washington University chapter of The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management for the past three years. The program aims to attract diverse, young professionals who are pursuing their MBAs. Returning students have an opportunity to interview with the program’s sponsors.

Edward Jones also has a Rotational Development Program that rotates recent graduates through four or five divisions in the firm before they are assigned a final placement. This allows the graduates to learn about the culture of the firm and observe the intricacies and nuances throughout the business.

To support its talent development and recruitment efforts from the inside, Edward Jones for the last three years has held an annual Inclusion and Diversity Week for both its associates and leaders. The week provides employees the opportunity to hear national speakers, attend cross-cultural-competence workshops and network.

This year the firm extended the program to the surrounding community through a partnership with the World Diversity Leadership Summit. “Diversity 2012 and Beyond,” a two-day event hosted at the company’s headquarters, was attended by 200 senior global executives from leading corporations, and sponsors included Ameren, Prudential Financial (No. 9 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50), the Diversity Awareness Partnership, United Negro College Fund and Major League Baseball.

Local community-focused organizations also were invited to an exposition to showcase the opportunities for associates to get involved in community outreach. Nonprofits participating included the Disabilities Institute, the Diversity Awareness Partnership, the Urban League and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

“Having an event like this raises awareness and also creates a catalyst to get associates engaged. Diversity at Edward Jones is strong and we have a great culture, but people are always looking for what they can do or reasons for why we’re doing this,” says Pitts. “It creates a vehicle to educate and engage and promote the importance of inclusion and diversity in our firms.”

Additionally, Edward Jones works closely with the Diversity Awareness Partnership through the Give Respect Get Respect program. The five-month program brings together students from 25 middle and high schools, along with teachers and Edward Jones associates, monthly at Edward Jones’ offices to explore the issues of race, religion, disability, and sexual orientation and gender identity. Employees volunteer a total of 15 hours with the program, for which Edward Jones compensates them.

It’s a partnership that’s grown over the past decade, according to DAP’s Carroll. “Give Respect Get Respect provides companies internal diversity training in a nontraditional sense,” she says. “We’re helping students learn to handle conflict situations at school, like bullying and prejudice, but what also happens is students are teaching the adults. A lot of associates have kids as well so they get to hear an [unbiased] student’s perspective.”

Edward Jones was the first company to endorse the program, and Carroll says there will be three more companies—Boeing, the Saint Louis Zoological Park and the Missouri Botanical Garden—in 2013.

McCarthy Building Companies
Employee-Owned Company Builds Engagement Among Students

Finding diverse talent is also a key priority for McCarthy Building Companies, a St. Louis-based national general-contracting company that handles challenging, technical projects. “Talent is a significant issue and a concern for us across all our companies,” says Scott Wittkop, president, McCarthy Central Division. “The construction industry offers a wide variety of high-quality employment opportunities and will need to add 1.5 million workers to successfully install the volume of work expected in 2014 alone.”

Wittkop says his company’s advantage lies in his employees’ diversity and their ability to innovate by bringing different perspectives to the table. That’s why the company both looks to attract talent from across the country and continually develop its employees, as well as develop and engage talented students within local regions.

“We are continually challenging ourselves to accelerate the development of our top talent. Our annual senior talent-review process includes a formal identification of high-potential diverse employees and the creation of personal-development plans to foster their internal growth in our company,” says Wittkop, noting that talent development and retention is a particular concern for this 100 percent employee-owned company. “Developing our future leaders is critical to our long-term success.”

McCarthy Building Companies’ approach to talent management is just one part of its four-arm diversity-management strategy. The company also focuses on increasing educational support, collaborating with diverse clients and partners, and increasing philanthropic efforts.

For example, the company is the founding partner of the Introduction to Construction Careers program, which exposes diverse groups of talented students in St. Louis to high-paying construction careers. “It helps create awareness and excitement around those types of opportunities,” says Adam Knoebel, vice president of operations for McCarthy’s Central Division. “The construction workforce is aging and we’re all sending kids to school. The challenge is: Who’s going to be building our buildings in 10 to 20 years?”

Similarly, the Association for Construction Careers, Education & Support Services (ACCESS) serves to increase exposure to the construction industry among Blacks and Latinos, as well as provide educational support services. “The focus is to provide a clearinghouse for individuals interested in career opportunities in the city and put them in touch with needed educational opportunities,” explains Knoebel.

He adds, “Maintaining dialogue is important. We need to be a part of the conversation, internally and externally, and share best practices in a collaborative manner.”

The benefits of McCarthy Building Company’s diversity programs and outreach efforts are further dispersed throughout the region by its support of diverse suppliers. “Their ability to learn about a project early on and get involved with estimators” is a key driver for their ability to compete and find economic success,” says Monica Bailey, director of diversity, Central Division. “A lot of suppliers are unaware of projects out there, so we host specific events to collect their input, provide networking opportunities and help them with bidding, estimating and cost.” The company also provides formal and informal mentoring to diverse suppliers.

Wittkop and his executive team sit on boards or committees of 10 different nonprofits that are dedicated to improving St. Louis’ diversity within the workforce and among subcontractors. Currently, the company has dedicated approximately 18 percent of its spend to minority- and women-owned businesses, the company says.

Anheuser-Busch
More Than $1B in Social-Responsibility Commitments

Executives at Anheuser-Busch say their commitment to diversity management, and to maintaining a diverse employee base and inclusive work environment, is an essential strategy for the beer company’s business success. Creating an inclusive work environment not only helps it stay competitive in an increasingly global market and meet the needs of its consumers, but it also helps Anheuser-Busch stay true to its corporate goal of becoming the “best beer company in a better world” through focused efforts to promote alcohol responsibility, environmental sustainability and community outreach.

“At Anheuser-Busch, in all that we do we recognize our responsibility to improve the world where we do business. We are committed to building a company for the long-term with a legacy to be proud of—for the people who work for us and with us; for future generations and the environment in which we live; and, above all, for our consumers who we hope will always enjoy our products responsibly and be as proud to choose them as we are to create them,” states Anheuser-Busch’s Global Citizenship Report. The company has dedicated $1.3 billion to social responsibility since 1982.

As one of its foundational pillars, community outreach is a shared commitment among employees: More than 4,700 employees volunteered in 2011 with programs to promote alcohol responsibility, make a difference in the environment and help make a positive impact on local communities, including St. Louis.

With donations of $4.5 million in 2011 to United Way, Anheuser-Busch continues to be one of the health-and-human-services agency’s top corporate donors in the region. (The Anheuser-Busch Foundation and company employees have contributed more than $38 million combined to United Way since 1985.) Anheuser-Busch also avidly participates in Habitat for Humanity as a way to facilitate and improve economic development in local regions. Hundreds of employees helped to build homes in St. Louis in 2011, the project’s second year. “We’re proud to partner with Habitat to help our neighbors in need,” said Margarita Flores, vice president of community affairs for Anheuser-Busch. “Our employees look forward to these builds and it’s a real source of pride for them and us as a company.”

Additionally, Anheuser-Busch provides financial support to multicultural college students via national educational scholarship funds. This includes more than $24 million in contributions over the last 30 years to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), which has provided more than 23,000 scholarships to Latino students, and a donation of $325,000 in 2011 to the UNCF, formerly the United Negro College Fund.

“We are committed to making a difference through our people, integrity of our business conduct, and support of our community. We are proud of the positive and meaningful impact our business has on the communities in which we work,” Flores said.

Anheuser-Busch also supports the National Urban League, St. Louis American Foundation, NAACP, Hispanic Chamber of Metropolitan St. Louis, Casa Salud, the Hispanic Arts Council, St. Louis LGBT Business Guild, Organization of Chinese Americans, American Legion Post, YWCA and numerous other diverse and inclusive organizations both in St. Louis and across the country.

The post Building a Diverse Talent Pipeline in St. Louis appeared first on DiversityInc.

MasterCard’s diversity leader, Donna Johnson, details at our diversity event how the company works with HR, legal and diversity to improve its talent-development efforts. Watch the video below. The full presentation slides are available on DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

Video Minutes

0:04:00 Strong Foundation for a D&I Policy

0:05:27 Setting Measurable Evaluation Criteria

0:06:32 Governance & Accountability

0:09:10 MasterCard’s Eight Business Resource Groups

0:11:56 D&I as Part of Law and Franchise Integrity

0:16:28 Public Policy, Philanthropy, Ethics & Compliance

0:28:04 The Evolution of a Global Policy

The post HR & Legal: Setting Goals appeared first on DiversityInc.

Diversity leaders and HR experts from eight leading companies shared their proven strategies at our “Managing Relationships Between HR & Diversity Departments” diversity event held in New York City, revealing take-away best practices for maximizing organizational-behavior implementation and the successful navigation of corporate cultures.

Companies included: Sodexo, Toyota Motor North America, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, General Motors, KPMG, Accenture, Ernst & Young, and MasterCard.

Watch videos of the presentations in the player below. (For closed captions, press the CC button in the YouTube player.)

Click on the links below to view the presentations’ PowerPoint slides, available on DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

Managing Relationships Between HR & Diversity Departments

Should Diversity Report to HR?
Dr. Rohini Anand, Senior Vice President and Global Chief Diversity Officer, Sodexo

Working Collaboratively With HR
Recruitment & Talent Development: Dana Green, National Manager, Corporate Diversity & Inclusion, Toyota Motor North America

What HR Really Needs to Succeed
Rhonda Crichlow, Vice President and Head, U.S. Diversity & Inclusion, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation

Navigating Large Organizations
Cindy Brinkley, Vice President, Global Human Resources, General Motors

Can Diversity & HR Leave Room for Organizational Development?
Dr. Walter McCollum, Senior Director, Organizational Development, Sodexo

HR, Diversity & Mentoring
Dana Foote, Partner, Member of Diversity Advisory Board, Co-Chair, Abilities in Motion Network, KPMG

HR, Diversity & Resource Groups
Pedro Suriel, Senior Executive, Accenture

HR & Communications
Karyn Twaronite, Partner, Americas Inclusiveness Officer, Ernst & Young

HR & Legal—Setting Goals
Donna Johnson, Chief Diversity Officer, MasterCard Worldwide

Panel on How to Build Synergy Between Diversity Departments & HR
Dr. Rohini Anand, Sodexo; Dana Foote, KPMG; and Pedro Suriel, Accenture

The post Managing Relationships Between HR & Diversity Departments 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.

This family passion for diversity wasn’t deliberate, Johnson says. “It’s interesting because none of us started out thinking we’d be involved in diversity in any form,” reflects the MasterCard chief diversity officer. (MasterCard Worldwide is No. 15 in The 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity.) The inspiration for all of them, she notes, is their father, Doug Alligood. He has a long history as a corporate diversity leader and currently is senior vice president on the diversity council at a leading marketing firm in New York.

Johnson recalls how her father would talk about what he did at work and how understanding consumers and their different attitudes could drive the bottom line.

“Because of his work in advertising, my dad also served as a mentor to people coming into the business and helped new employees to better integrate into the business culture,” explains Johnson.

“He embedded in me how to drive business by changing the culture,” she says. “It certainly made me aware of the important role a diversity officer plays within an organization.”

Resource Groups: The Value of Collaboration

That lesson paid off for Johnson in 2008, when she was approached by the chief diversity officer at the time to help start the company’s first resource group—Lifting Employees of African Descent (LEAD)—and serve as its co-chair. “It was a great learning experience. I was able to take an idea about building a new organization within the company and aligning it with business objectives,” she says.

The response throughout the company was overwhelmingly positive. Other groups were soon launched. MasterCard now has seven resource groups that are among the strongest in DiversityInc’s rankings and were featured in our web seminar on resource groups. These include Pride (LGBT), East (Asian), Latin, young professionals and, Johnson’s favorite, Workers with Accumulated Value Experience (a generational group for baby boomers).

Johnson is a member of all seven and actively participates in all their events. She is also a member of the MasterCard Global Diversity and Inclusion Council, the Executive Women’s Steering Committee, and the Multicultural Steering Committee.

The need for the groups is directly tied to the company’s business goals. MasterCard recognized that there were specific segments that would drive the business forward.

“If you want to build a culture more collaborative and efficient and want employees to feel more appreciated and connected, you need to identify groups by community and bring those people together to work collaboratively,” she explains. “You also need to bring in people that have the experience, background and mental agility to work in that kind of environment.”

Marketing to Diversity Management

Like her father, Johnson started her career in marketing. After receiving her degree in social psychology, which she says helped her develop an understanding and value for people, Johnson worked as an account manager at an ad agency for a variety of packaged-goods and service clients for several years before transitioning into a marketing-management role at a large bank.

“This bank was the first issuer of frequent shopper cards to produce point-of-sale info. It ignited my passion for information services,” says Johnson. Her move to work in financial services at MasterCard in 1995 was a natural progression.

Not having an HR background has never been a hindrance, she says. After discussing the issue with her peers, she’s decided that it is in fact “beneficial to being a chief diversity officer. You have an understanding for what business-unit managers are looking for when it comes to employees.” Other benefits include knowing what skill sets are required, what training managers will need and what tools employees need to be successful in their jobs.

The latest addition to her leadership repertoire is a master’s degree in marketing and strategic leadership. “I’m always interested in learning,” she says. “It’s needed to be successful in your career.”

For more on resource groups and marketing, watch the video on Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation’s Ethnic Resource Groups and Marketing:

The post ‘How I Got MasterCard’s First Resource Group Off the Ground’ appeared first on DiversityInc.

Why do DiversityInc Top 50 companies have 4 percent more women CEOs than Fortune 500 companies? How do they use best practices in diversity management to build a sustainable pipeline of women executives? IBM, Kraft Foods, WellPoint and Health Care Service Corporation have women CEOs and a base of women leaders in the next two levels of executives.

The exclusive articles and web seminars on diversity management listed below feature data and strategies that benefit women in mentoring, talent development, resource groups and diversity metrics.

Where’s the Diversity in Fortune 500 CEOs?
There’s a dearth of Black, Latino, Asian and women CEOs running major companies—but the DiversityInc Top 50 companies have better stats, thanks to diversity-management efforts.

Women’s History: Diversity Fact & Figures
Here are the relevant women’s-rights events and demographics you need to know.

Mentoring Roundtable: How Mentoring Improves Retention, Engagement & Promotions
In this diversity-management roundtable, IBM reveals how its women’s resource group creates targeted mentoring programs to increase promotions of women.

How Kraft Increased Promotions of Women in Sales by 39%
One of 12  diversity-management case studies: Kraft shares how to leverage employee-resource groups to increase representation of women, especially in senior management.

Increasing Diversity in Talent Development
Merck & Co.’s diversity-management leader recounts during this roundtable how its women’s resource group partnered with external educational programs to better develop its women talent for executive roles.

Resource Groups Webinar
How are resource groups helping MasterCard and Aetna improve employee retention, especially among women employees, to reach business goals?

Why Is Global Diversity So Difficult?
Our exclusive research from 17 countries explores how the norms around advancing women vary between European and Asian nations and what companies are doing to address issues of gender equity through diversity management.

Diversity Metrics Webinar
How does your company fare with the representation of women in the workforce, especially at management levels? This diversity web seminar will teach you how to accurately track key diversity-management metrics and set a diversity-management scorecard.

For more on gender equity and current women’s issues, read How ‘Slut’ and ‘Sweetie’ Challenge Gender Equity.

The post Why DiversityInc Top 50 Companies Have More Women CEOs appeared first on DiversityInc.

“It’s something we all feel really passionate about,” she says, “having worked in industries that tended to be less than integrated.”

Click here to read more of Donna Alligood Johnson’s profile.

The post MasterCard’s Donna Johnson: Diversity Legacy appeared first on DiversityInc.

“It’s something we all feel really passionate about,” she says, “having worked in industries that tended to be less than integrated.” Johnson began her career as an account manager at BBDO ad agency. She then moved into marketing management at Citicorp before joining MasterCard in 1995 asdirector of retail acceptance development, where she hassince taken on positions of increasing responsibility.

Three years ago, during the formation of MasterCard’s refocused diversity strategy, Johnson was asked to help start the company’s resource group for Black employees, called LEAD (Lifting Employees of African Descent). She developed the business plan, created the charter and presented it to senior management, and since its inception, she has watched membership grow from five to more than 200 people with chapters nationwide. Not only did this opportunity showcase Johnson as a valuable leader, it steered her career toward diversity management.

Last January, Johnson was appointed chief diversity officer. Thanks to the help of LEAD members, Johnson is “getting more people within the organization to walk the walk,” she says. For instance, LEAD members participated in a three-hour brainstorming session last year, she says, that “led the organization to look at the African-American market very differently. In 2010, you will see the results of that work.”

Johnson is also a member of MasterCard’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Council, the Executive Women’s Steering Committee and the Multicultural
Steering Committee, which recently held its second multicultural summit expanding the company’s diversity efforts globally.

This leadership profile is featured in the upcoming June 2010 issue of DiversityInc magazine.

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