A joint study by the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the UC Berkeley Labor Center found that two-thirds of the estimated 2.6 million adults who will become eligible for federal subsidies in California’s health-insurance exchange are Black, Latino or Asian, and 36 percent of those currently uninsured and expected to be covered under ACA have limited English proficiency.

While the ACA mandates that health plans be translated into appropriate languages in areas where 10 percent or more of the population speaks a language other than English, the bigger challenge is getting culturally competent information out to explain the new rules.

California is one of 18 states setting up its own health exchange to help newly insured people compare and purchase health-insurance plans. The remaining states will default to the Federal Health Exchange.

The California exchange chose its name—Covered California—because it translates well into several of California’s commonly spoken languages. The organization’s website has a Spanish version as well as one in 11 other languages, including Farsi, Khmer, Lao, Russian and Tagalog. The site contains clear information about what is covered and includes definitions of new healthcare terminology.

Consumers may well choose a health insurer based on the resources insurers can share about how patients will be cared for in a culturally competent manner under each insurer’s plan. WellPoint’s Anthem Blue Cross (WellPoint is No. 34 on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list) and Kaiser Permanente (No. 3 on the DiversityInc Top 50) are among the four largest insurers of the approximately 30 that will be offered by Covered California. WellPoint offers services in five languages  and has an online Spanish video that introduces members to its most popular programs. Anthem has produced a cultural-competence resource for physicians and healthcare professionals that is intended to help reduce health disparities caused by a lack of culturally or linguistically competent care. The new toolkit is available on a website dedicated to cultural and linguistic competency.

Kaiser Permanente has a link on its website to numerous in-language plan materials and just released a Spanish version of its healthcare-reform website. Kaiser, which provides healthcare as well as health insurance, also has a National Linguistic & Cultural Programs department that develop strategies to ensure meaningful access to healthcare and services for people with limited English. Kaiser presented its program to train and use staff members as bilingual translators and its Diversity and Health Video Series, a cultural-competence training tool, at a recent DiversityInc Innovation Fest!

The post Language Challenge: Selling Health Insurance to 2.6 Million Californians appeared first on DiversityInc.

Those organizations are most ready for the influx of an estimated 32 million new consumers, most of them lower-income Blacks and Latinos, and the need to care for them on a sustainable basis emphasizing wellness as opposed to constant crisis management. The critical factor in their business strategies, they tell us, is the ability to offer culturally competent healthcare and connect on a large scale to the communities they serve while being more cost effective.

“Our assessment is that the Supreme Court decision on health reform will accelerate existing trends in healthcare and the marketplace,” says Dr. Patricia Simmons, executive medical director for Health Policy at the Mayo Clinic. Those trends include consolidation of facilities, new organizations that combine hospitals and insurance companies, increased accountability for metrics-driven results, and a strong focus on community outreach.

Successful implementation of diversity-management initiatives is giving organizations such as Kaiser Permanente, Eli Lilly and Company, WellPoint, Mayo Clinic, University Hospitals, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Health Care Service Corporation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, Massachusetts General, Cleveland Clinic and the Henry Ford Health System a competitive edge in the new world of expanding affordable healthcare.

“Healthcare reform challenges diversity and inclusion to keep and expand our place at the table,” says Linda Jimenez, chief diversity officer at WellPoint.

Diversity Management Connects to Community

In interviews with DiversityInc, these 11 organizations tell a similar story, with minor variations depending on their business model. All have been long-time diversity leaders, appearing either on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list or The DiversityInc Top 5 Hospital Systems list (and one company is on The DiversityInc Top 10 Regional Companies list). All anticipate (and are already seeing) an influx of new patients/customers, mostly from lower-income families, predominantly Latino and Black.

They stress the need to offer culturally competent healthcare and to emphasize wellness prevention and disease management instead of frequent, costly trips to emergency rooms and urgent-care sessions. All are looking at ways to serve far more people, operating more efficiently and streamlining costs. Several of the hospital systems are worried that Medicare funding might not cover their increasing treatment costs.

The resounding sentiment from leaders in these organizations is that their long-term commitments to culturally competent care through diversity-management initiatives have left them in a better strategic position to improve market share. They point to the importance of resource groups in reaching the community and promoting health education. They cite diversity training for customer-facing employees and the need for an employee and leadership base that represents the communities they serve.

Here is an industry-by-industry look at their changing business models and how critical diversity management is to their sustainable success. 

The Affordable Care Act emphasizes preventive care, to save costs by helping more low-income Americans take care of themselves before expensive and life-threatening diseases such as diabetes, cancer, AIDS and high blood pressure develop and to minimize the damage of these diseases in those who already have them. The law specifically calls for investments in community health teams, community health centers and expanded initiatives to increase racial and ethnic diversity in healthcare teams.

Cost Containment: Hospitals

The dilemma for hospitals is how to provide more access while lowering costs at the same time.  “It really requires a lot of innovation to reduce costs, and no one’s figured out how to do it,” says Jeff Davis, senior vice president of Human Resources at Massachusetts General, No. 5 in The DiversityInc Top 5 Hospital Systems.

“It’s clear that the new normal in healthcare will involve getting paid less to do more,” says Oliver Henkel, chief external affairs officer at the Cleveland Clinic, No. 3 in The DiversityInc Top 5 Hospital Systems. “There will be more patients with access to healthcare, but private and government insurers will pay hospitals and doctors less and less to care for patients. Therefore, we have to drive efficiencies and cost containment to be able to accommodate the increased demand for healthcare.”

There are healthcare models in place, however, that offer best practices in increasing the prevalence of care to underserved communities without adding employees.

Kaiser Permanente, which has both hospitals and health insurance, has made eliminating healthcare disparities through community outreach a key part of its mission for decades.

“Many in the industry are trying to move toward an accountable care model and there will be more people in the marketplace trying to compete on that basis (alliances between insurance, hospitals and physicians). We’ve been in that business for over 60 years,” says Christine Paige, senior vice president of Marketing and Internet Services at Kaiser Permanente (No. 3 in the DiversityInc Top 50).

The difference now is in volume and the impact of having a substantial number of people entering the market in a short period of time, she says. To that end, Kaiser has been expanding its system capabilities through more bilingual employees, increased communications and more personalized experiences for patient populations through more detailed electronic health records. Kaiser Permanente shared its bilingual program at DiversityInc’s Innovation Fest!

University Hospitals, located in the greater Cleveland area, is moving toward an accountable care organization (ACO) to address the changing marketplace. ACOs rely on metrics and cost-care reductions for assigned groups of patients by making hospitals and doctors directly accountable to the patients and the insurance companies for the quality and efficiency of the healthcare delivery. ACOs were piloted with Medicare patients and now, under the Affordable Care Act, will be used for Medicaid patients as well.

“We are facing a doctor shortage in Ohio,” says Dr. Eric Bieber, chief medical officer for University Hospitals, No. 2 in The DiversityInc Top 5 Hospital Systems. “We can handle it but we need to be efficient and do what’s right for the patient. We now have an integrated delivery system that helps us touch more patients with our primary-care physicians—and not in the emergency rooms.”

At the Mayo Clinic, the hospital is working on creative reimbursement models for insurance companies to “control costs and increase value and make care more affordable,” says Dr. Simmons. Mayo Clinic is also working on improving relationships with other hospitals and medical institutions to provide better access. For example, an affiliate-practice network from various medical institutions sends physicians to treat patients at local affiliates and helps patients stay in their communities. Mayo Clinic is No. 4 in The DiversityInc Top 5 Hospital Systems.

The Henry Ford Health System in Detroit last year bought a Medicaid health-maintenance organization (HMO) so it can offer Medicaid patients comprehensive care. “Hospitals need to better provide care. It’s really about how we can survive financially when more people have insurance,” says CEO Nancy Schlichting. But she worries that the act, as it stands now, isn’t giving hospitals enough funding for the addition. “The population is the same; it’s just how we pay for them. We’re advocating very hard for the expansion of Medicaid funding.”

Henry Ford, she says, now receives more than $200 million a year in uncompensated healthcare, but under the act as it stands now, that amount is cut to $30 million. “It’s really how we can survive financially,” she says. “When people have insurance, as they now will, they won’t wait to go to the doctors. We don’t need to change our operations, just our payment system.” Henry Ford Health System is No. 1 in The DiversityInc Top 5 Hospital Systems.

At Massachusetts General, the situation is a little different because the state has had universal healthcare in effect since 2006 and 97 percent of state residents already have health insurance, according to Davis.

“We adjusted to meet access demands but are still trying to increase the number of primary-care physicians, nurses and physicians’ assistants. Nationally, the first few years of the law will be all about access. It will require a lot of innovation to reduce costs,” he says. He believes the increase in ACOs will allow more people community access.

Cost Containment: Insurance Companies

For the health-insurance companies, the Affordable Care Act literally turns the landscape upside down. In addition to providing insurance for millions of low-income Americans, they can no longer deny care to those with pre-existing, and often expensive, conditions.

For these organizations, the urgent business shift is in focusing on consumers rather than business sales. And cost-savings are critical. “Right now we know that we have to do a lot of work to be a viable player in the consumer market,” says Jon Urbanek, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing for Employer Markets, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF), No. 6 in The DiversityInc Top 10 Regional Companies. “Our focus is on significantly improving our consumer capabilities. At the same time, we’re the leader in the group market and we’ve got to maintain a significant presence there.”

BCBSF has addressed this in the long term by investing in retail centers throughout Florida that will put 90 percent of the population within 30 minutes’ drive of a center. In addition to selling health insurance at the centers, there will be free wellness and screening facilities as well as culturally competent health coaching. The organization also is putting much more health information online, as well as having bilingual call centers. “The information has always been out there, but it’s been in 10 different places in language you can’t understand, and there’s nothing like the ability to see it simply and in one place,” says Urbanek.

Like the hospitals, the insurance companies are often combining efforts to be more efficient. WellPoint, Health Care Service Corporation and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan (all part of the Blue Cross Blue Shield network) now have a joint effort to create a private exchange with a defined contribution approach to give employers information on managing their healthcare offerings.

These efficiencies enable them to focus more on healthcare disparities, says Carolyn Clift, chief diversity officer at Health Care Service Corporation (No. 19 in the DiversityInc Top 50). “We can offer the providers training. We can help them help us determine if they have a language capability they have not included before in a directory … these plans were in place before the Affordable Care Act started to take fold. As a result of the ACA, we’re moving more steadily to implementing more of these programs and projects so we can reach the broad diverse audience.”

Kirk Roy, vice president of National Health Reform at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (one of DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies), notes that the act has direct regulations requiring insurers to communicate in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner. To meet this requirement, the organization partnered with a translation service and now can communicate in more than 100 languages.

Innovation: Pharmas 

For pharmaceutical companies, the challenge to stay competitive is in new drugs that reach the increasingly diverse population. And that requires innovation, which all of the drug firms say requires diversity of thought, experience and background.

“The firms that are already there understand the benefit of a holistic diversity-management approach that makes them better run, have better leadership, have better creativity, better innovation, better productivity and better bottom-line impact,” says Shaun Hawkins, chief diversity officer of Eli Lilly and Company (No. 29 in the DiversityInc Top 50).

While drug manufacturers were relatively untouched by the Affordable Care Act’s specific regulations, they will be strongly affected by expanding rebates for Medicare and Medicaid that will enable more patients to have access to more drugs. That will create a rise in sales volume and patient demand, especially for the influx of new people who are insured.

Because health-insurance companies are looking to cut costs, pharmaceutical companies also will have to demonstrate more cost/benefit of their products. For a company like Eli Lilly, which has had a strong focus on clinical trials aimed at Blacks and Latinos, the emphasis is on developing drugs that effectively prevent and treat the diseases so prevalent in these populations: diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure.

“We are an innovation-based company in an innovation-based industry, focused on breakthroughs for the next round of diseases and how they impact race, ethnicity, gender and age,” Hawkins says.

Solutions: Diversity-Management Resources

For the hospitals, resource groups are an increasingly valuable means of connecting to the increasingly multicultural patient base. A critical part of that is the role they play in community education.

At University Hospitals, for example, the resource groups are working with Black and Latino community leaders to conduct prevention screenings and health-education screenings. They recently partnered with corporate and other Cleveland-area healthcare organizations to support a cultural arts fair called Fairfax, primarily aimed at Blacks. The resource groups helped the hospital bring in a team of nurses and health professionals to conduct screenings and encourage them to interact with primary-care physicians.

“Trust is often an issue in the community. The resource-group employees often live in those communities as well,” says Donnie Perkins, chief diversity officer at University Hospitals.

Increasing the level of cultural-competence training is a high priority for the hospitals as well. While Kaiser Permanente has been a leader in this area for years, other hospitals increasingly recognize the importance of this to the new marketplace.

“We are training clinicians to understand what health means and that preferences vary by culture,” says Dr. Sharonne Hayes, director, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Mayo Clinic. “The idea is that we are treating diverse populations and each individual in them. The tendency is to treat populations as market segments – we are customizing care to the culture and then further to the individual.”

Cultural-competence training is key for healthcare providers, notes Clift. “We have already required all of our internal clinicians to complete cultural-competency courses. Training is around attitudes and how patients actually may have trust issues with providers,” she says.

Jimenez has a good example from WellPoint: Its Latino resource group, SOMOS, has been encouraging healthcare providers to emphasize family care as opposed to individual care. Latino parents, she says, will go out of their way to provide preventive care for their children but are far less inclined to do it for themselves. WellPoint is No. 34 in the DiversityInc Top 50.

The Affordable Care Act also requires hospitals to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals.  Hawkins notes that having a workforce representative of the new marketplace is a big plus for Lilly as it expands its clinical trials. “The patient population we serve is more likely to connect with customers from a sales standpoint,” says Hawkins.

Deep relationships with community organizations developed by companies that are diversity leaders is paying off in efforts to promote wellness and connect with the expanded patient base. Lilly has worked with organizations such as the National Council of La Raza and the Urban League on wellness programs in areas such as depression.

The end result for these companies is the diversity-management strategies that they have put in place are helping them negotiate this brave new world of healthcare accountability and expanded patient populations. Diversity management is critical to their very survival, they all say.

“Everyone is realizing how important diversity and inclusion is in the course of business,” says Health Care Service Corporation’s Clift.

–Barbara Frankel, with Robyn Heller Gerbush and Stacy Straczynski

The post Hospitals, Insurance Companies, Pharmas: Who Benefits From the Affordable Care Act? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Data from the DiversityInc Top 50, as detailed in our exclusive Resource-Group Report, shows that these resource groups are crucial to business success with multicultural communities.  When used effectively, they increase diversity in recruitment and promotions as well as improve overall employee engagement. Resource groups also are used increasingly to reach customers, clients and vendors and to help in product development.

Here, DiversityInc provides the best of our resource-group success stories, exclusively available to DiversityInc Best Practices subscribers, that offer case-study examples to help you replicate their significant results.

Resource Groups Web Seminar
One culturally competent word from American Express’s Latino group resulted in a new bestselling product and significant revenue.

Our First Innovation Fest! 10 Companies Use Diversity to Drive Change
Novartis saved millions of dollars in research when it relied on its own resource groups, while McGraw-Hill’s digital group boosted employee productivity and cross-departmental collaboration.

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

Ways to Use Resource Groups
JCPenney’s Asian resource group reveals that a simple cultural custom at the point of sale can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Why Resource Groups Are Business-Resource Groups
Latino and African-American resource groups enhanced WellPoint’s quality of service to consumers with an increased awareness of family models.

For more best practices and case studies, read our other resource-group articles and watch our web seminar on resource groups, featuring insights from MasterCard and Aetna.

The post Top 5 Ways to Use Your Resource Groups appeared first on DiversityInc.

The CEOs of WellPoint and CSX (No. 34 and 23, respectively, in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50) both serve as prime examples of what true CEO commitment can achieve.

In DiversityInc’s diversity web seminar on CEO commitment, WellPoint’s Chief Diversity Officer Linda Jimenez discusses the visible commitment of Angela Braly, the company’s chair, president and CEO. CSX Chief Diversity Officer Susan Hamilton and Director of Diversity and Inclusion Stephanie Noel share insights into CEO Michael Ward’s ongoing commitment to the company’s diversity management.

Watch the diversity web seminar: Best Practices in Demonstrating and Communicating Top Management Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion.

Best Practices for Diversity Management

Both diversity leaders noted how their CEOs make diversity efforts a priority. Both Braly and Ward attend resource-group meetings on a regular basis, serve on the boards of multicultural nonprofit organizations and seek to integrate diversity management as a key strategy into all areas of the business.

“CEO commitment is all about being a steward,” explains Jimenez, noting Braly’s statement on the company homepage. That includes maintaining an unequivocal position for diversity, being challenging in their approach for and focusing on continued improvement, being visionary in anticipating the future, and being a compelling storyteller to promote diversity management and the company brand (learn about WellPoint’s innovative Ambassador Program).

As an example, Jimenez says Braly was fully supportive of adding gender identity to WellPoint’s EEO statement. “The CEO drives the ship. She may allow me to use, guide and steer, but Braly is unequivocally confident in her role of being a steward for diversity in her organization,” Jimenez says, noting that more information can be found in the company’s corporate-responsibility report at www.wellpointcorporateresponsibility.com.

Hamilton similarly credits CSX’s diversity success to the CEO, who took his position in 2002. “Michael knew the direction he wanted the company to go in. With a dedicated chief diversity officer, he was able to take the company to higher levels of performance,” she says.

“His commitment helped the company get on track,” Hamilton says. They were able to develop a three-year strategy and a multifaceted training program across the company. He was also the lead on developing the annual CSX Inclusion Forum and is a huge supporter of the Wounded Warrior Project.

In the web seminar, Jimenez and Hamilton also discussed CEO involvement and best practices for diversity management in:

• Diversity councils
• Executive compensation
• Setting goals and diversity metrics
• Resource-group funding and sponsorship
• Company communications and events

Research Reveals: Diversity Management Needs CEO Commitment

CEO commitment is one of the four areas of measurement used to determine the DiversityInc Top 50 rankings each year. (This is divided into four sub-categories: Accountability, Personal Communications, Visibility and Diversity Councils.)

DiversityInc Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Barbara Frankel reveals how CEO commitment can be the “make or break” point for a company. In fact, CEO commitment is one of the main reasons this consumer-packaged-goods company significantly rose on the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 list—and why another consumer-packaged-goods company significantly fell.

DiversityInc data shows that CEO involvement has increased steadily since 2006: 13.9 percent more CEOs sign off on executive compensation tied to diversity goals; 28.6 percent more CEOs chair the diversity council; 90.5 percent more CEOs meet with resource groups regularly; and 20.5 percent more CEOs have a quote about diversity on their company’s homepage.

Additionally, four CEOs presented about their commitment and best practices for diversity at our 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 event.

Watch the diversity web seminar: Best Practices in Demonstrating and Communicating Top Management Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion.

Read about these other CEOs who are setting a tone for diversity management:

• Diversity Management: Training Exposes Execs’ Hidden Biases (Toyota Financial Services’ CEO George Borst)
• Diversity & Inclusion Means ‘You Can’t Afford to Be Dismissing People’s Ideas’ (Ameren’s CEO Tom Voss)
• Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf on Leadership, Corporate Citizenship, Sustainable Business & Accountability

The post Best Practices in Demonstrating & Communicating Top Management Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion appeared first on DiversityInc.

“Our country’s veterans deserve more than just our respect – they deserve our support in helping them return to the civilian workforce,” said Linda Jimenez, WellPoint’s chief diversity officer and vice president, diversity and inclusion. “WellPoint is committed to supporting veterans through our partnership with the 100,000 Jobs Mission and other outreach efforts.”      

Enlisting in the 100,000 Jobs Mission advances WellPoint’s objective of assisting military veterans. In fact, the company has been named to G.I. Jobs magazine’s Top 100 Military Friendly Employers® list for the past three years. The Veterans’ Organization of WellPoint (VOW) employee resource group plays a valuable role in building a workplace culture that embraces employees and family members who have military experience. The company donates $50,000 annually to the USO, and WellPoint employees put together care packages for deployed military personnel. 

In addition, our Life and Disability Insurance companies further demonstrate WellPoint’s commitment to helping disabled veterans live active lives through sponsorships of sporting opportunities run by The Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project^TM

To meet its commitment to 100,000 Jobs Mission, WellPoint will recruit veterans by attending job fairs and other veteran hiring events across the country, by posting jobs on Transition Assistance Online (TAOnline.com), — the largest source of transition information, jobs and tools for separating military) — as well as HireVeterans.com and other online veterans job sites. 

“Our goal is to assist veterans within our communities and within our company,” said Randy Brown, WellPoint’s executive vice president and chief human resources officer.  “I am proud to be part of an organization that stands behind its mission: To improve the lives of the people we serve and the health of our communities. I believe we can truly make a difference with our support of the 100,000 Jobs Mission.” 

For more information about the 100,000 Jobs Mission or upcoming hiring events, visit www.100000jobsmission.com. 

The post WellPoint Joins 100,000 Jobs Mission Pledging to Hire Veterans appeared first on DiversityInc.

In this 90-minute Veterans in the Workplace webinar, moderated by DiversityInc Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Barbara Frankel, David Casey, vice president of workforce strategies and chief diversity officer at CVS Caremark and former vice president of workplace culture and chief diversity officer at WellPoint, and Margaret Downey, military and diversity recruiting at CSX Corporation, discuss the benefits of hiring veterans and the best practices that keep these workers engaged.

While veterans only make up about 7 percent of the total population (approximately 11 million people), according to the U.S. Census Bureau, they are more educated than the general public. Ninety percent have a high-school diploma, compared with 84 percent of the general public.

Casey, who served in the Marine Corps for eight years and was a part of Operation Desert Storm, says an aptitude for education and learning is just one of the many skills veterans can offer. He notes inspirational leadership, enhanced camaraderie/teamwork, adaptability, a balanced perspective and a strong work ethic and drive to complete assigned tasks.

What’s important, says Casey, is that companies help veterans transfer these skills and experiences to a corporate setting. Without support and recruiters educated in military life/terminology, it can be a challenge to recruit and retain veterans. (For more, read Recruitment Tips: Where to Find Veterans.)

One company well versed in hiring veterans is CSX: 1 in 5 employees currently serves or has served in the armed forces. Downey says the company has outlined a targeted military-recruiting strategy that aligns with its other diversity-recruiting strategies.

“Ultimately this pool has the potential to increase company profits and productivity,” Downey explains. (Watch CSX’s Susan Hamilton discuss the company’s corporate recruiting strategies below.)

Casey and Downey detail during the webinar a variety of recruiting and workplace best practices. These include:

• Using recruiters who are military experts who know where to look for candidates
• Starting a military or veteran resource group to provide support to employees and provide leads to new talent
• Providing a structured environment with clear communications/responsibilities so veterans can thrive
• Offering flexibility and support for veterans with disabilities such as hearing loss, hypertension and post-traumatic stress disorder
• Making up differences in pay/salary for active-duty and veteran employees, and keeping their families and spouses in mind

Additionally, special training for managers and coworkers could help make others aware of how to be more culturally competent with veterans.

Read Veterans in the Workplace: How to Help Them Succeed for more best practices.

The post Veterans in the Workplace: Help Them Make the Transition 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.

There will be 10 corporate speakers in a one-day, information-dense program designed to give you ideas and action items to take home. No consultants, no sales pitches, no nonsense. We’ve vetted the ideas and speakers. Our full syllabus is below.

The presenting companies are: Colgate-Palmolive, Kaiser Permanente, Kraft Foods, Toyota, Sodexo, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, AT&T, McGraw-Hill, WellPoint and Capital One.

Innovation Fest! is sponsored by AT&T, CVS Caremark and Sodexo.

Click here to pay only $349, which includes a nice lunch with innovation-focused speaking guest James Surowiecki, author of “The Wisdom of Crowds.”

All presentations will be available online after the event.                                           

Best regards,

Luke Visconti
Chief Executive Officer
DiversityInc

Innovation Fest Syllabus

8:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast, Networking Session

10:00 a.m.–10:05 a.m. Introductory Remarks
Luke Visconti, CEO, DiversityInc

10:05 a.m.–10:30 a.m. Innovation: Colgate-Palmolive, Global Innovation Fund
Eugene Kelly, Worldwide Director, Global Diversity & Inclusion

10:30 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Innovation: Kaiser Permanente, Diversity & Health Film Series and Foreign-Language Interpreters
Tina Martelon, Senior Diversity Consultant, and Marcella Kutek, Diversity & Inclusion Manager

11:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m. Innovation: Kraft Foods, JumpStart, Developmental Training for New Employees
Jim Norman, Vice President, Talent Acquisition, Diversity & Inclusion

11:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Innovation: Toyota, “ICARE” Associate Volunteer Program & Putting Workers With Disabilities on the Line
Elena Sacca Smith, Community Relations Manager, and Jae Requiro, Internal Diversity and Inclusion Process Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility, Toyota Financial Services, and Toyota Motor North America (TBD)

12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m. Lunch
With speaker James Surowiecki, author of “The Wisdom of Crowds”

1:00 p.m.–1:30 p.m. Innovation: Sodexo, Diversity Business & Leadership Summit
Texanna Reeves, Vice President of Corporate Diversity, and Betsy Silva, Senior Director of Diversity Learning, Consulting & Networking Groups

1:30 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Innovation: Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Ethnic ERGs and Marketing
Kellie Molin-Kenol, Director, Diversity & Inclusion

2:00 p.m.–2:30 p.m. Innovation: Supplier Diversity, AT&T, Power Up Training for Suppliers
Marianne Strobel, Executive Director, AT&T Global Supplier Diversity

2:30 p.m.–3:00 p.m. Innovation: McGraw-Hill, Digital Employee-Resource Group
Terri Austin, Chief Diversity Officer

3:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m. Innovation: WellPoint, Empire BlueCross BlueShield Community Ambassador Program
Linda Jimenez, Chief Diversity Officer, Vice President, Diversity & Inclusion

3:30 p.m.–3:50 p.m. Innovation: Capital One, Barriers to Greatness
Rob Keeling, Vice President, Diversity & HR Communications, and Donna Schaar, Project Manager, Diversity Lead

3:50 p.m.–4:00 p.m. Closing Remarks
Luke Visconti

Click here to buy a ticket.

The post DiversityInc Innovation Fest! appeared first on DiversityInc.

“When you look at the business community, the landscape is changing. In order to compete, we have to be like our clients—even outpace the demographics of our clients,” says John Zamora, chief diversity officer for Deloitte.

Does your company face similar issues? Are you having difficulty retaining talent, especially from traditionally underrepresented groups?

In this 1,970-word article, “Best Practices on Improving Retention,” DiversityInc presents a collection of best retention practices from DiversityInc Top 50 companies, including Deloitte, American Express (No. 13), AT&T (No. 4) and WellPoint (No. 36). Company leaders who have had to address these gaps weigh in on what has worked to keep their managers engaged.

Strategies and takeaways include:

• How talent-development programs encourage people to stay
• Why diversity plays an essential role in fostering loyal employees and overall satisfaction
• The various types of talent-development programs and which one might work best for your company
• What resources can help identify and nurture talent?
• The purposes that coaching, mentoring and sponsorship serve
• How to best utilize your employee-resource groups for maximum ROI

Read “Best Practices on Improving Retention” at DiversityIncBestPracatices.com. Also read “The DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for Recruitment & Retention.”

The post Best Practices on Improving Retention 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.