According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 2011 unemployment rate of young male veterans (ages 18–24) who served in the second Gulf War was high at 29.1 percent, compared with young male non-veterans at 17.6 percent. The overall 2011 unemployment rate of all workers was 8.9 percent.

The key to successfully transitioning veterans from military life to the civilian workforce: mentoring through both corporate programs and resource groups, said a DiversityInc panel of corporate and military experts in Veterans in the Workplace: How to Help Them Succeed.

Roundtable participants included:

• David Casey, currently vice president for workforce strategies and chief diversity officer at CVS Caremark (formerly at WellPoint) and a former U.S. Marine
• Susan Hamilton, assistant vice president, diversity, and chief diversity officer for CSX
• Chris Collier, director, talent acquisition for Southern Company, formerly in the U.S. Army
• Capt. Tony Barnes, director of operations, Navy Recruiting Command
• Vice Admiral Gerry Hoewing (retired), president and CEO, Naval Aviation Museum Foundation*

*Could not be present for roundtable, answered questions in separate conversation with DiversityInc

Also present from DiversityInc were Luke Visconti, CEO and a former naval aviator, and Barbara Frankel, senior vice president and executive editor.

“In the military, we lead people and we manage resources and equipment. And that’s not necessarily the vernacular used on the civilian side. We need to chill out and understand the corporate culture before aggressively taking charge,” said Capt. Barnes.

He emphasized that many veterans prefer a structured, disciplined work environment and are disappointed when they go to certain companies.

Other factors such as pay and compensation, consistent on-boarding and training in management skills should also be taken into consideration. Providing assistance for post-traumatic stress disorder and other disorders is important too, as discussed by Merck & Co.’s Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer Deborah Dagit at another DiversityInc event (watch the video below).

Read Veterans in the Workplace: How to Help Them Succeed for more insights and best practices on hiring and developing veterans.

The post How to Help Veterans Transition to the Civilian Workforce 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.

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

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

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

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

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