As chairman and senior partner of PwC, I have closely followed the debate about Sheryl Sandberg’s new book Lean In. Sandberg has brought renewed attention to the critical challenge of diversifying corporate leadership. While Sandberg focuses on inspiring women to embrace ambition, I believe business leaders have a responsibility to lean in as well. At PwC we’re “leaning in” because we recognize that women and minorities cannot solve the leadership gap by themselves.

There are many concrete steps CEOs, in particular, can take. The first is to create accountability for diversity. At PwC, our Chief Diversity Officer is a line partner who reports directly to me and is a member of my leadership team. The role is a rotation, rather than a destination, and we use it to develop high-potential partners. Our Chief Diversity Officers contribute to a strategic business issue outside of their traditional practice and gain visibility. Although this structure might not work for all organizations, at PwC it serves to elevate the function and drive change.

The second step is to create an inclusive culture. Here, programs matter. While the ultimate goal of any diversity initiative is cultural change, formal programs send a powerful signal. For example, Full Circle is a PwC program that allows parents to “off-ramp” from their careers, stay connected while they are gone, maintain their technical credentials, and then return to the firm. Formalizing this option gives people permission to pursue non-linear career paths. Mentor Moms is a PwC effort to match women returning from maternity leave with experienced mothers who are successfully juggling family and careers. Our Women’s Networking Circles provide a forum to discuss career advancement, and our members are using Lean In’s educational videos to enrich that conversation.

Diversity initiatives also set expectations. We’ve asked all 2,700 PwC partners to sponsor three diverse professionals. Partners are expected to identify these individuals in their development plans and discuss the actions taken on their behalf during the end-of-year evaluation. We believe sponsorship is critical to advancement, and these relationships often develop informally. Breaking the cycle of people sponsoring those who are similar to themselves requires intentional effort.

The third step is to create awareness that people sometimes make unconscious assumptions. Sandberg’s book catalogs unconscious biases people still may hold about women leaders. We have a responsibility as an organization to address those stereotypes. PwC hosts interactive sessions for our leaders about how to identify potential “blind spots” and better understand how they influence decision making. As leaders, we must challenge our blind spots.

Finally, we need to create environments where people have the flexibility to lean forward or back at different points. Career paths have to be less rigid, in order to accommodate the diversity of today’s workforce.

While we still have progress to make, these efforts have yielded results. Over the last decade the number of women partners in our US firm has increased considerably, and five members of our 15-person leadership team are women.

I hope more of our women are inspired by the dialogue Sandberg has generated to lean in and aim even higher in their careers. My work is to make sure PwC leans in to meet those ambitions with opportunities, flexibility, and sponsorship. Then together we can close the leadership gap.

The post How Companies Can Lean In, Too appeared first on DiversityInc.

BAD

Did Komen’s Lack of Board Diversity Cause Its Crisis?
The nonprofit breast-cancer-prevention group decided to defund Planned Parenthood, then flip-flopped after public outrage. Its CEO ended up resigning.

Lowe’s Muslim Publicity Gaffe Serves as Case Study of What Not to Do
The home-improvement chain caved in to an anti-Muslim group and stopped advertising on a reality show featuring Muslims. The public outcry was significant.

Chick-fil-A Caves on Funding Anti-Gay Groups But Is It Enough?
The flip-flops from the food chain have cost it several contracts and public support.

GOOD

Lessons on Values From Ellen & jcpenney
jcpenney CEO Ron Johnson stood up quickly and very publicly for the choice of lesbian Ellen DeGeneres as company spokesperson after anti-gay One Million Moms launched a campaign to have her removed.

Ask the White Guy: Decision Making, Clarity of Values & What to Do When It Goes Horribly Wrong
When progressive corporations found out their local representatives in Tennessee supported anti-gay legislation, they were horrified and reacted swiftly to try to reverse the decision. It was too late, but their public statements were forthright and they have subsequently made sure this won’t happen again.

The post Diversity Crisis Communications: What to Do When Scandals Erupt appeared first on DiversityInc.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In comes out today, and it has been lighting up social media and Sunday talk shows with its concept that women have to “try harder” and not rely on their employers or their mentors to look out for them.

As a woman who has fought for three decades in the workplace for a seat at the table—and who now sees my 28-year-old daughter and several young women I mentor facing similar struggles—I agree with Sandberg that too many women give up too easily as the challenges of family and work become overwhelming. But Sandberg’s simplistic solution of urging women to take control of themselves and join “Lean In Circles” to bolster each other ignores the reality that most workplace inequities aren’t caused by the victims, but by the institutions and those in power who benefit from continuity.

In other words, we shouldn’t let corporate America off the hook for the lack of women in senior management.

Consider this: Women account for just 4.2 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs; at DiversityInc Top 50 companies, which are significantly more progressive for race and ethnicity, women do only slightly better: 6 percent of CEOs. Women account for 20 percent of the top level at Fortune 500 companies (CEO and direct reports) and 24 percent at DiversityInc Top 50 companies.

So as someone who came of age in the 1970s, when full equality seemed imminent (to those who read Ms. Magazine religiously, as I did), I have to wonder: What happened?

Corporate Hubris

I understand Sandberg’s points on not being passive about leadership and on women making their own success. But the message sent by corporate America has been ambiguous, to say the least. On the one hand, many companies have been singing their own praises for their “flexible” workplaces and how great they are for women—while still having very different promotion tracks for those who can’t travel globally for weeks at a time, who may not want to be connected 24/7, or who have more inclusive styles of leadership.

I cannot tell you the number of women—including several I know who are in their 20s—who use the word “compromise” when describing their life choices. I did it myself in my 20s, choosing to be a big fish in a little pond (a local newspaper) instead of pursuing my dream of working for a major newspaper. You know the story: husband, kids, aging parents, house, dog, cat, etc. We can “have it all,” but with a price—our dreams, our sanity and often our health.

Unlike Sandberg, I don’t fault the women who continue to make these choices. I fault a society that doesn’t offer reasonable childcare (from a financial and an emotional perspective) and I fault corporate America, including many of those companies that bill themselves as leaders for women.

A Real Example

The few companies that are trying to really level the playing field for women understand that they aren’t there yet. I moderated a panel last week on women branding themselves and having more “executive presence.” One of the speakers was Maria Castañón Moats, the Chief Diversity Officer of PricewaterhouseCoopers. PwC is No. 1 on the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 list, and for good reason—this is a company that continually challenges itself on how inclusive it actually is and never, ever rests on its laurels.

Maria talked about how PwC is working diligently to get its senior partners, still mostly white men, to connect more with younger women in the organization and how multifaceted and ongoing their organizational efforts are. This is a company that literally helps women (and men) plan their families every step of the way. Their numbers of women in management show a remarkable story of progress, one we rarely see in other companies. I’m not speaking loosely here; we have almost 900 companies participating in the DiversityInc Top 50 this year and the progress for women into the senior levels is pretty slow across the board.

But most companies don’t have the self-awareness of PwC. Instead, they put their names out there with big media splashes and then refuse to really address the systemic and inherent sexism in their organizations.

Sandberg’s Lean In project has “launch partners” including American Express, Google, Sony and Johnson & Johnson, according to The New York Times. Not sure exactly what that support involves beyond money, but I’d like to see those companies publicly disclose exactly how they are helping women move up and stay up—including hard numbers.

There’s a lot of criticism of Sandberg because she’s wealthy, works in Silicon Valley, has a supportive husband and lots of help. I’m not faulting her for her success or for her desires to share her ideas with other women. But if we let companies just buy their way to being “good for women,” things are never going to really get “good for women.”

My daughter’s getting married later this year and talks about having kids in a couple of years. She’s bright, she’s beautiful and she would be a major asset anywhere she goes.  But if the responsibility of doing it all falls entirely on her shoulders, she’ll probably follow in the footsteps of generations before her and compromise. And then we’ll be looking at 20 percent women in the top level of Fortune 500 companies for a long time.

The post Does Sandberg Let Corporations Continue Discrimination Against Women? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Based on analysis of DiversityInc Top 50 data, we find that the most successful consumer-facing companies implement the following best practices:

Homepage & Layout

• A diversity presence is on the homepage or one click away: 100 percent of DiversityInc Top 50 companies do this.
• “About the Company” section should include a link to the diversity page: 82 percent of DiversityInc Top 50 companies do this.
• A search of keywords (“diversity”, “diversity statement”, “CEO statement on diversity”) should quickly get the reader to diversity content.

• Diversity content should directly connect D&I with business results internally and externally.
• Diversity content should include the CEO’s personal diversity statement and reasons a diverse and inclusive management team and workforce is mission critical to business goals; 94 percent of DiversityInc Top 50 companies include a CEO personal quote and have a corporate-vision statement that incorporates diversity.

• Images throughout the website (not only in the diversity section) should be of individuals (preferably employees) from underrepresented groups in leadership roles and/or connecting with company brands.
• To be well esteemed, a company needs to be branded. Examples of innovations and other accomplishments derived from D&I should get the spotlight.
• People with disabilities should be able to easily navigate your site.

Among DiversityInc Top 50 companies within the consumer-products sector, Procter & Gamble and the Kellogg Company are standouts.

On Procter & Gamble’s homepage, clicking on Purpose and People takes you to a page that makes the company’s business case for D&I.

Our shared Purpose attracts and unites an extraordinary group of people, P&Gers, around the world—the most diverse workforce in P&G history. Together, we represent around 150 nationalities. Our recruiting and development philosophy to ‘build from within’ fosters a strong culture of trust and shared experiences. Our diversity, our shared culture and our unified Purpose are the defining elements that enable P&G to touch lives and improve life every day.

In P&G’s 2011/2012 Diversity & Inclusion Annual Report, Chairman and CEO Bob McDonald links P&G’s mission—“to touch and improve lives, now and for generations to come”—to innovation and diversity and inclusion. Images throughout P&G’s website connect the company and its brands to underrepresented groups.

Similarly, John Bryant, President and CEO of Kellogg, makes his company’s case in The Kellogg Diversity & Inclusion Story:

Promoting inclusion is essential to our business as well. An actively inclusive, welcoming and respectful work environment promotes employee engagement, drives innovation, improves retention and boosts productivity—all of which contribute directly to our bottom line.

From the Kellogg Company homepage, clicking Corporate Responsibility gets you to the area of the website that includes Kellogg’s D&I page. This section presents the company’s major workplace and marketplace D&I efforts, its results with diverse suppliers, and where it is in its thinking and actions around diversity and inclusion. About Kellogg Company provides images that connect the company, its brands and its people with underrepresented groups. D&I best practices are employed to improve consumer, retailer and supplier relationships, and to establish Kellogg as an employer of choice.

Both CEOs state that mission-critical work gets done with D&I throughout their organizations. Both companies’ websites exhibit thought, commitment and results.

–Denyse Leslie, Senior Vice President of Consulting, DiversityInc

The post Ask DiversityInc: Who Has the Best Website for Diversity? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Why doesn’t DiversityInc extend an invitation to the federal government agencies to participate in the DiversityInc Top 50 Survey as corporate America does in sharing best practices for diversity management? It is much needed and I am sure that if they did, it might ring the alarm and move some mountains.

Answer:

We used to have a DiversityInc Top Federal Agency competition, but there is a consortium of Equal Employment Opportunity officers who decided to not participate, so after a few years of struggling along to get participation, I dropped the effort.

Of the dozen or so agencies that did participate (yours was not among them), results were not on par with the corporate sector. In my opinion, other than in the U.S. Navy (and currently, the U.S. Marine Corps), there is little leadership involvement. Read Retired Admiral Mike Mullen: Trust, Candor & Reliability for more on diversity in the military.

I don’t know how many times I spoke at federal agencies where some under-assistant-deputy-secretary-something-or-other introduced me and then ducked out so he didn’t have to hear my talk (and it was almost always a “he” and I could feel their disdain for the dog-and-pony-show diversity events that stood in for actually doing something).

I’ve observed that diversity management for federal agencies is much about face and little to do with actual work, accomplishments or accountability. Management is squirreled away in the EEO offices, where the leaders of EEO have very little interaction with people who actually run things and there is nothing more than compliance work going on. There is no “CEO commitment” among the majority of agency heads.

Old-School & Overwhelmed?

In my observation, President Obama’s executive order “Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce” has resulted in no substantial change in behavior. I get the impression that most of the old-school federal executives are waiting to see what the presidential election will bring.

I must have had hundreds of visits to dozens of agencies over the years; I’ve been struck by the awkward and stilted manner that people interact with senior management. There’s a lot of pointy hierarchy and obsessive, starchy regimentation. I’ve never seen those attributes connected to productivity—and, indeed, I have the impression that if half of the federal workforce quit tomorrow, most Americans wouldn’t know the difference.

I had to laugh out loud when I read in The New York Times about the investigation into Google causing “one of the biggest violations of data protection laws that we had ever seen.” Michael Copps, who last year ended a 10-year term as a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, said regulators were overwhelmed. “The industry has gotten more powerful, the technology has gotten more pervasive and it’s getting to the point where we can’t do too much about it,” he said.

Here’s the best part: Aside from admitting that his agency couldn’t keep up, the fine for the “biggest violations of data protection” was (hold on to your hats) $25,000. With that stunning level of organizational accomplishment, do you think someone’s going to care about diversity?

Innovation From Diversity Management

In a meeting in Washington, I heard the best explanation for why things are the way they are: A very wise man posited that you can’t help but avoid hiring 2 percent incompetent people every year. But if you don’t fire anyone, 2 percent becomes 4 percent, which becomes 6 percent—and soon, the incompetents are running the roost and figuring out how to squeeze out the competent people.

I won’t out you or the agency you work for, but it’s been in the news quite a bit lately; it has fallen behind the times and is now a drag on the budget. This is a management issue, and diversity management falls into that category.

Your “alarm bell” idea isn’t going to “move any mountains” until the first “mountain” gets scooped into bags marked “fertilizer” and trucked away by someone in authority. There is no perceived reason for change, so no change is happening.

There is no such thing as a trickle-up diversity effort. Your wistful desire for change at your agency is not matched by a perceived business reason or accountability to improve effectiveness via diversity management, which would have all sorts of benefits.

These include organizational effectiveness, higher-quality recruiting, improved productivity, meritocratic promotions, improved supply chain, multi-culturally competent interaction with citizens (marketing and sales of your agency’s services), nuanced understanding of problems and opportunities, etc.

Watch the video below to learn how cultural competency through diversity management helped Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, No. 13 in The 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity, save millions in marketing costs. The company, along with nine others, presented innovations at our Innovation Fest! diversity event.

All those things that corporations know are a competitive edge lead to innovation, a subject which around which your agency has consistently lagged.

Good luck to you.

Luke Visconti’s Ask the White Guy column is a top draw on DiversityInc.com. Visconti, the founder and CEO of DiversityInc, is a nationally recognized leader in diversity management. In his popular column, readers who ask Visconti tough questions about race/culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age can expect smart, direct and disarmingly frank answers.

The post Ask the White Guy: What Is Wrong With the Federal Government? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Clockwise from top left: Clay Jones, Joy Fitzgerald, Sharon Harvey Davis, Tom Voss

DiversityInc Top 50 data shows a direct correlation between a CEO’s visible support of diversity—and emphasis on accountability—and results, measured in human-capital demographics and marketplace gains.

To explore successful CEO best practices on diversity management, we asked two chief diversity officers–Joy Fitzgerald, director of Diversity and Workforce Effectiveness at Rockwell Collins, and Sharon Harvey Davis, vice president and chief diversity offer at Ameren–to tell us about their relationships with their CEOs: Clay Jones, CEO of Rockwell Collins (No. 43 in the DiversityInc Top 50), and Thomas Voss, CEO of Ameren (one of  DiversityInc’s Top 5 Regional Utilities).

Synopsis: Why They Are Exemplary Diversity Leaders

Both of these CEOs are very public in their belief that diversity drives business gains. Clay Jones, chairman, president and CEO of defense contractor Rockwell Collins (who was interviewed in our last issue), vowed to earn a spot on the DiversityInc Top 50 two years ago and has succeeded, personally driving initiatives throughout his company. This year, the second in which Rockwell Collins made the list, the company is No. 43. Read our Q&A interview with Rockwell Collins’ Clay Jones and watch the video below to hear Jones speak about his diversity journey.

Tom Voss, chairman, president and CEO of St. Louis–based utility company Ameren (interviewed in our spring issue), has literally changed his organization’s corporate culture to create an inclusive and supportive environment, including LGBT rights. Read our Q&A interview with  Ameren’s Tom Voss and watch the video below to hear Voss speak on diversity and innovation.

You can read an excerpt of the 1,700-word article below. Visit DiversityIncBestPractices.com to read the full ‘Diversity Is a Leadership Expectation’: Case Studies of CEOs of Ameren, Rockwell Collins article, view the charts and watch additional videos from the roundtable.

CEO Best Practice No. 1: Holding Direct Reports Accountable
Both of these CEOs ensure their direct reports are equally supportive of diversity-management initiatives.

Rockwell Collins: It is our CEO’s commitment that diversity is a leadership expectation, not a choice. If you are going to be a leader at Rockwell Collins, you will demonstrate inclusive behaviors.

CEO Best Practice No. 2: Be a Role Model of Visible, Personal Support
These two CEOs, along with the CEOs at the top of the DiversityInc Top 50 list, are public and very personal in their consistent support for diversity as a business driver.

Ameren: Tom Voss is involved in a way that is genuine, sincere and credible. What that looks like at Ameren is that we have four female vice presidents and Tom has personally promoted three of them. We have one African-American CEO in our company, the first one. Tom personally promoted him.

CEO Best Practice No. 3: Uphold Values at All Times
When there is a fear of a backlash, some CEOs back down. These CEOs remain true to the values of inclusivity at their company.

Ameren: We have had some pushback on our support of LGBT rights. Tom not only shows up at a dinner for a local LGBT organization but he chaired the dinner and invited his direct reports to sit at his table.

CEO Best Practice No. 4: Chief Diversity Officer Has Frequent Access
Whether or not the chief diversity officer reports directly to the CEO, he or she must have frequent access and the ability to weigh in on crucial business strategies.

Rockwell Collins: I report to the senior vice president of HR, who reports to Clay Jones. I have access to Clay; he’s actively involved, not through emails or voicemails but face-to-face in his office.

CEO Best Practice No. 5: CEO Leads Executive Diversity Council
The CEO’s personal leadership of the diversity council, as well as holding senior executives accountable for company-wide results, has a direct impact on the success of the council’s goals.

Rockwell Collins: Our executive diversity council is comprised of the leadership team. Clay is very involved in helping set the strategies on a yearly basis. They meet quarterly to assess these strategies.

CEO Best Practice No. 6: Succession Planning and Continuous Support for Diversity
These CEOs know the diversity efforts must be sustainable, even after they leave the organization. They are ensuring that their successors have as deep a commitment.   

Ameren: Tom is in his 60s, and we know he will retire in the relatively near future. He has identified the potential next CEO to lead the diversity council so that if that person succeeds him, he will have a strong diversity footing in place.

Read the complete 1,700-word ‘Diversity Is a Leadership Expectation’: Case Studies of CEOs of Ameren, Rockwell Collins article at DiversityIncBestPractices.com for in-depth best practices, data charts and additional videos from our roundtable. The article is available to subscribers for free.

Not a subscriber? Request subscriber information and pricing for DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

The post ‘Diversity Is a Leadership Expectation’: Case Studies of CEOs of Ameren, Rockwell Collins appeared first on DiversityInc.

The six CEOs and eight senior executives at our event demonstrated how their personal passion and commitment to diversity have become a critical factor in making strategic business decisions. In many cases, this helped gain traction within senior leadership and generated measurable results in workforce diversity, while sometimes improving market share.

The two-day event featured two panels with six chief diversity officers—one focused on best practices for executive diversity councils and the other on using compensation to drive diversity-management results. Additionally, DiversityInc Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Barbara Frankel presented exclusive advice on what companies need to do to improve their DiversityInc Top 50 rank.

Watch all the presentations from this event via the players below or view our YouTube playlist. Videos of all the speakers will be posted throughout the day.

Also, be sure to save the date for our upcoming 2013 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity Announcement Dinner, April 23–24, 2013.

How New York City Drives Diversity Results
R. Fenimore Fisher, Deputy Commissioner, Chief Diversity & EEO Officer, City of New York
How does the City of New York drive diversity metrics and results? Find out from a world-class diversity expert.

Diversity in the Workplace: Leadership Counts
Jorge Benitez, Managing Director – North America, Chief Executive – United States, Accenture
This CEO really values work/life issues. He tells us how he includes spouses and encourages family priorities.

Panel: Best Practices on Executive Diversity Councils
Debbie Storey, AT&T; Rhonda Crichlow, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Michelle Lee, Wells Fargo 
Three companies with the best practices—and results—on diversity councils talk about CEOs chairing the councils, setting goals and accountability.

Building a Strong Diversity Brand
John Bryant, President and CEO, Kellogg
The CEO of Kellogg tells us why his company has invested so much over the last two years in its diversity-management efforts.

Workplace Diversity: The Personal Connection in Leadership
Forest T. Harper, CEO, INROADS 
The son of migrant workers, who went on to be a top Pfizer executive, talks about how INROADS helps Black and Latino college students become corporate leaders. Click here to download the presentation slides.

Corporate Diversity at the Top: Q&A With Luke Visconti
Steve Howe, Area Managing Partner – Americas, Ernst & Young
The U.S. head of Ernst & Young discusses how corporate values drive business decisions at his firm

Diversity & Inclusion: Accountability & Your Business Future
Thomas F. Zenty III, CEO, University Hospitals
The CEO of this Cleveland hospital system tells us how outreach to Blacks and Latinos is driving hospital growth.

Workplace Diversity: Using Leadership to Save Lives & Talent by Creating Inclusive Workplaces
Dr. Eliza Byard, Executive Director, GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network)
The head of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) tells you about young lives saved through the help of corporations like yours.

Panel on Diversity Metrics: Using Compensation to Drive Results
Maruiel Perkins-Chavis, Marriott International; Joy Fitzgerald, Rockwell Collins; Chad Johnson, Sodexo
Three companies with the most effective diversity metrics tell you what’s on their diversity scorecards and how they link goals to compensation.

Corporate Diversity: A Personal Story of Why Corporate Values Matter
Michelle Lee, Executive Vice President and Northeast Regional President, Wells Fargo
This exec shares her remarkable story of how and why she became a banker and the challenges she faced as the only young, Black woman in her management-training program.

DiversityInc Benchmarking: Tips on How to Move Up on the DiversityInc Top 50 List
Barbara Frankel, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor, DiversityInc
See our tips on the best ways to answer questions on The 2013 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity survey. Click here to download the presentation slides.

The post 8 CEOs Prove the Intersection of Diversity, Engagement & Innovation appeared first on DiversityInc.

By Denyse Leslie, Senior Vice President of Consulting, DiversityInc

“Put your money where your mouth is.” “Home is where the hearth is.” I grew up with statements like these as guideposts of how to live in a community, how to be authentic and consistent, and a reminder to do what I say I will.

In my review of diversity and inclusion on websites, I found a CEO and diversity statement that both demonstrate these ideals.

GRADE A
Prudential Financial, No. 9 in The 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 

John Strangfeld, chairman and chief executive officer of Prudential Financial echoes these sentiments in what he says and does at Prudential and for Newark, N.J., Prudential’s home for 135 years.

From the Prudential homepage, one click takes you to “Our Company,” where the business case for diversity is well presented. Even though Prudential’s website has dual duty and must speak to consumer and institutional markets, the site conveys that it is invested in its people who, in turn, instill confidence and trust among consumer and institutional clients.

The CEO statement begins with “Difference can make all the difference in the world … we succeed through people …” The sentiment continues in the larger The Power of People statement: “Diversity objectives are treated just like anything else in our business cycle.”

Strangfeld’s bio is easily found on the Prudential site, and it reads well. He is what he says he is. He supports higher education and an equal chance. [Watch the video below to hear Strangfeld accept DiversityInc's 2011 Special Award for Top Company for Community Development at DiversityInc's annual event.]

For closed captions via YouTube, click here then press the CC button.

Prudential invests in the communities in which its employees work. Strangfeld has embraced urban economic development and educational access to quality schools—both public schools and charters. He is behind veterans’ re-employment and as suppliers. I’d say Prudential in the person of John Strangfeld is putting its money where its mouth is.

GRADE D
MetLife, No. 50 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50

Snoopy is the beloved, welcoming and familiar mascot that greets consumer and institutional customers at the MetLife homepage.

Click to “About MetLife.” It’s all about the products and services with the central focal picture being one mainly of white people. The link to diversity is from this page. There, MetLife connects its business to its diversity commitments through case stories, resource-group initiatives and diversity champions. I particularly liked how the company positions its resource groups “to listen and serve”; resource groups are current-day listening posts.

I was impressed by the MetLife’s board diversity, with professional and life experiences that span leadership of the NAACP to the New York Stock Exchange. Still in pursuit of the CEO’s statement, I found on the Executive Officers page Chairman, President and CEO Steven A. Kandarian’s considerable business accomplishments and his external board commitments. However, the site lacks the CEO statement. MetLife’s diversity commitment is clear, but when the CEO statement is not prominent, it’s not as personal.

GRADE F
Company X

Another consumer-insurance company, which we will not name, has a prominent CEO statement on diversity and inclusion, but it is two clicks from the homepage. The statement, however, is outdated: “Diversity is about being human and doing the right thing.” Diversity is about these things, but it’s also about the changing workforce, the changing customer, investing in the economic viability of cities, and enjoying the full benefits of diversity at the senior-leadership table—diversity of thought.

Throughout the website, Company X is pragmatic and scrappy and open for business. It clearly has a number of solid diversity best practices in place that are celebrated on the site. The company’s heart is in the right place. What is personal in this CEO’s statement, however, is not connected to today’s diversity business case. The DiversityInc Top 50 companies have moved on.

Recommendations

• Make the CEO statement easily searchable.
• Serve it up early and strong, no more than one click from the homepage.
• Have the faces of your company be diverse in more than the diversity and careers segments of the website.
• The CEO bio is another excellent place to beef up and honestly record the many ways your CEO is engaged and that diversity does matter in his or her personal life.
• Describe senior executives’ multicultural board commitments, how they have invested the company in community development where the company’s people work. Make their diversity personal.

The post We Evaluate CEO Commitment on Corporate Websites appeared first on DiversityInc.

During this 90-minute web seminar, Joanne McDonough, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ former Office of Diversity Director, and Debbie Storey, AT&T’s Senior Vice President of Talent Development and Chief Diversity Officer, explain how integrating diversity management into every facet of a business can increase market share and business innovation. PwC rose to No. 1 on the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 list, up from No. 3 in 2011 and No. 6 in 2010. AT&T (No. 4) has maintained a ranking in the top five since 2009, rising from No. 22 in 2008.

Data from our survey show that excellence in diversity management is directly correlated to five best practices:

1. Linking compensation to diversity management.
2. Having diversity councils with rotational positions.
3. Establishing cross-cultural mentoring programs with senior-management participation.
4. Using resource groups for recruitment and understanding the marketplace.
5. Increasing supplier-diversity spend.

During the web seminar, you will learn:

• How PwC’s diversity-department structure is set up to achieve maximum effectiveness.
• How the Candid Conversation Series enhanced cultural dexterity at PwC with all employees.
• The business advantage in adopting LGBT tax-equalization benefits for employees.
• The innovative types of resource groups AT&T is launching that directly tie into its business process.
• How AT&T was able to increase its spend with diverse suppliers by 31 percent in one year.

This 90-minute web seminar is available to DiversityIncBestPractices.com subscribers. Please log in to watch the presentation and download the slides.

Not a subscriber? Buy this web seminar now, or request subscriber information and pricing for DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

The post Best Practices From DiversityInc Top 50: How to Be on Top of the List appeared first on DiversityInc.

Diversity-management case studies provide companies with insights into their competitors’ strategies. There is always volatility on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list as the competitive set increases and improves in diversity management—and, simultaneously, as other companies lessen their commitment. When there is a major swing of more than 10 spots, it is usually attributable to a significant change in circumstances (e.g., a merger or a new CEO) or to a dramatic improvement or reduction in tracking or implementation of initiatives.

Consider these facts:

• 20 companies moved up this year; 24 declined
• 3 companies moved on to the list from DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies list
• 2 companies made the list for the first time; 1 was participating for the first time

With competition increasing (participation, including the number of companies that completed the entire survey, is up 11 percent), our questions evolve each year to reflect cutting-edge diversity-management techniques and metrics to evaluate them. For example, this year we put more emphasis on resource-group and mentoring participation and the concurrent results demonstrated by the demographics of the top three levels of the organization. Watch our diversity web seminar on resource groups and our diversity web seminar on mentoring for best practices in these areas.

Here are case studies of four companies in two industries: consumer-packaged goods and financial services. In each industry, we look at one company that went up significantly and one that declined.

Case Study No. 1: Consumer-Packaged-Goods Company That Rose

Contributing factors:

• Visible CEO support; accountability for results
• Dramatically improved metrics/tracking
• Increased utilization of resource groups

Company A is a large, decentralized global consumer-packaged-goods business, with a wide variety of products and customers. The company has been on the DiversityInc Top 50 list multiple times but has had trouble moving into the upper echelon.

This year, the company made significant strides for three reasons: It reassessed the manner in which it tracked key diversity-management metrics of mentoring and resource-group participation, multicultural philanthropy and first promotions into management; it better assessed and communicated the CEO’s deep commitment to diversity; and the racial/gender diversity at the top three levels of the company improved.

IT STARTS AT THE TOP

The CEO has been a vocal proponent of diversity for years, but much of what he said and did wasn’t captured or directly connected to diversity management. In the past two years, the company’s leaders have become much more cognizant of the need to link their leader’s support more visibly, both internally and externally. He talks frequently about the nexus of diversity and global innovation, and this of late has become a hallmark of the company’s messaging. This essential point is also now included in the company’s simple and direct mission statement.

The CEO of this company is on the board of three multicultural nonprofits, and almost a third of the executives in the top two levels of the organization also sit on boards of multicultural nonprofits. In addition, this CEO meets with resource-group members at least quarterly. This CEO chairs the diversity council and holds senior executives directly responsible for results, with a significant portion of their bonus linked to diversity metrics. The council also sets company-wide goals, which are also linked to executive compensation.

In addition, this company has a very diverse board of directors, with good female representation as well as representation from Blacks, Latinos and Asians. As it seeks to understand the complex U.S. and global marketplaces, these strategic leaders from diverse backgrounds are even more crucial.

The representation in the top three levels of the organization has increased in both gender and racial/ethnic diversity in the past two years, showing that the talent-development and engagement efforts are paying off.

DOESN’T COUNT IF IT ISN’T TRACKED

This company demonstrates one of the clearest cases we’ve ever seen of an organization doing great work that no one was properly tracking in a consistent manner. The resource groups, which are used for recruitment, talent development and leadership training, have been instrumental in driving new business ideas for products directly relevant to underrepresented groups. However, until our discussions with the company this year, it did not institute a means of assessing how many employees were actually members of each group. Without the metrics to understand its participation and the result on engagement, retention and promotions, the company was not fully able to make the case to senior management for increased support for these groups. Watch our diversity web seminar on diversity metrics for best practices in tracking diversity goals.

Secondly, the company until this year was unable to measure its level of management participation in formal, cross-cultural mentoring. Many companies, especially larger ones, tell us they can’t track mentoring because they have so many kinds and so much “informal mentoring.” We ask them to measure participation of formal mentoring because that can be directly linked to business results.

Thirdly, the company had never been able to track the percentage of its philanthropic donations allocated to multicultural charities, which actually exceed the industry average by more than 15 percent. With new tracking tools in place, Company A was able to connect the dots both in our survey and publicly, telling communities exactly how much it supports them and raising loyalty of current and future employees, as well as consumers.

Recommendations for this company:

• Use resource groups to improve promotions into first management jobs. The company has improved its tracking of this key metric but still has some gaps for which resource groups can help identify reasons why people from underrepresented groups don’t seek to move into management.
• Use resource groups more formally for market research. This company surveys employees often about consumer trends/products but has never taken advantage of the formal groups to seek innovative marketplace solutions. Now that group membership is being tracked, the groups can contribute more directly to field work.
• Link mentee promotions to mentor compensation. Now that the company has a handle on who is in mentoring relationships, the next step is to tie mentee success to the mentor’s performance evaluation.

Case Study No. 2: Consumer-Packaged-Goods Company That Fell

Contributing factors:

• Top level all-white
• Lower percentage of resource-group participation
• Lower percentage of mentoring participation
• CEO doesn’t chair diversity council

Company B has been a mainstay in the DiversityInc Top 50 but has not dedicated the resources its competitors have to internal development and community outreach. The consumer-packaged-goods industry is one of the two most competitive industries we see for talent from underrepresented groups and, correspondingly, for multicultural customers. (The other industry is consulting.)

This company fell off the list because of several factors we put increased emphasis on that directly correlate to measurable results: resource-group participation, mentoring participation and demographics of senior executives.

NO REPRESENTATION, NO PROGRESS

This company is all white in the top level (CEOs and direct reports). The next two levels of management have some racial/ethnic diversity but considerably less than the other CPGs on the list. Five years ago, all of Company B’s competitors had pretty much the same white top demographics, but the top CPGs have instituted formal, cross-cultural mentoring, resource-group leader training and mandating diversity in their succession planning, resulting in increased diversity at the top levels.

Our research has shown that increased management participation in mentoring is the most significant factor in driving diversity to the top of the organization. We have been told repeatedly by people from underrepresented groups (and organizational research supports this) that the personal relationship, especially with senior executives, provides invaluable guidance to the corporate culture and individual plans for success. The data directly shows that when the percentage of managers in mentoring rises, racial/ethnic/gender representation in the top levels goes up. Company B does have a formal mentoring program, but the percentage of managers involved dropped significantly this year.

This company also lacks the accountability for results that we see in several of its industry competitors, especially in recent years. Almost all of the top CPG companies on the DiversityInc Top 50 list have their CEO chairing the executive diversity council, and they increasingly link executive compensation to company-wide goals that the council sets. Often, those goals are tied to increasing representational diversity, especially at the top levels. For more on top-level commitment and accountability, read CEO Commitment: Why Visibility & Accountability Matter.

At Company B, the diversity council is chaired by the head of diversity, who is only at the director level. The council does not link executive compensation to its goals.

INVESTING IN MARKETPLACE CONNECTIONS

For consumer-facing companies, understanding an increasingly multicultural marketplace is vital to sustainable business success, especially when it comes to product development and placement. While all of the other leading CPG companies have multicultural-marketing departments, this company does not.

Increasingly, top CPGs use their resource groups for market research and to take advantage of diverse views to create innovative solutions to reaching customers. Company B’s percentage of employees participating in its resource groups is one-third of what it was last year, while its competitors have dramatically increased their percentages. Our data shows direct correlations between resource-group participation and human-capital results, with companies with lower participation having less diversity in promotions into management, promotions within management, and demographics of the senior levels of management. For innovative diversity solutions, watch our diversity web seminar on innovation and watch the presentations from DiversityInc’s first Innovation Fest!.

In addition, the company has a very low percentage of supplier-diversity spend with businesses owned by Blacks, Latinos, Asians, American Indians, women, LGBT people and people with disabilities. Even in an industry not known for its high supplier diversity, this company’s supplier diversity is significantly lower, indicating it is not reaching vendors and community leaders of underrepresented groups.

When looking at this company’s philanthropy to multicultural organizations, it appears to be on par with the other top CPGs. However, this company has less than half the amount of top-tier executives (levels 1–3) sitting on boards of multicultural nonprofits as the average of the top CPGs. So the donations are the same, but the actual involvement, which builds relationships and community support, is much lower.

Recommendations for this company:

• Change diversity-council model to one chaired by CEO, with all direct reports involved. Have council set company-wide human-capital goals linked to senior executive compensation.
• Aggressively increase participation in and utilization of resource groups. Document benefits of taking on leadership roles (increased engagement, promotion). Offer groups recognition/rewards for customer-based solutions, including finding diverse suppliers.
• Connect participation in cross-cultural mentoring to compensation/performance reviews. Increase emphasis on networking, sponsorship and access to senior leaders for high potentials from underrepresented groups.

Case Study No. 3: Financial-Services Company That Rose

Contributing factors:

• Increased accountability (linking bonus to diversity goals)
• Ability to track, report mentoring
• Heightened emphasis on resource groups

Company C has an extremely committed CEO. He chairs the executive diversity council, which meets monthly. This CEO has increased philanthropic efforts to underrepresented communities and has been very visible in his public support of diversity management.

This company has been on the DiversityInc Top 50 list frequently but was not able to break out of the middle of the pack until this year. The difference is its increased ability to hold its executives accountable and to track and improve key best practices, especially mentoring. Read Ask DiversityInc: How Resource Groups, Mentoring and Accountability Drive Engagement for more on the benefits of mentoring.

DIRECT LINK TO COMPENSATION

Although the executive diversity council at this company is very active (and consists of the CEO and direct reports), the company has had difficulty in the past extrapolating how much of senior-executive compensation is actually linked to direct diversity-management results.

This year, the company put in place practices that enabled it to directly measure and reward the senior executives on the council based on individual factors, including sponsorship of a resource group, being a cross-cultural mentor and serving on the board of a multicultural nonprofit, as well as increased diversity in retention, engagement, promotion and procurement in the executive’s area of responsibility.

Company C now has measurable goals directly tied to diversity results at roughly the same average as the DiversityInc Top 50 of 12.2 percent. The bonus plan was approved by the board of directors, and the CEO is signing off on each executive’s diversity bonus. The CEO includes both the quantitative goals stated above as well as a qualitative assessment of the executive’s performance championing diversity throughout the organization.

The company is seeing specific results in its human-capital demographics. While its board and senior management have had relatively good representational diversity, diversity by race/ethnicity and gender in the two levels below the CEO and direct reports in first promotions into management has improved year to year. Relative to its industry, which has racial/ethnic gaps at the top on average, this company has significantly improved its competitive position.

WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS DONE

Company C is a large financial-services company, with business units across the United States and globally. The company has a variety of mentoring programs in place, some formal and some informal. These include group mentoring, reverse mentoring, on-boarding mentoring for new hires, peer mentoring and external mentoring. Until the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 survey, this company had repeatedly said it was unable to measure the percentage of managers in its formal mentoring program and the percentage in cross-cultural relationships.

DiversityInc has increased the weighting of these percentages in the past two years because of the direct correlation to improved diversity in human-capital results, especially in management levels. Understanding that, and the importance of tracking these results as well as the long-term successes of mentoring in terms of engagement, retention and promotions, Company C determined a year ago that it should implement a better tracking system. The results? The company now reports that at least 30 percent of its managers are involved in the formal mentoring program, which compares with 39.7 percent of the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 average. Company C believes the actual average across the entire organization will be higher next year as it more effectively collates its mentoring efforts. Read Mentoring Roundtable: How Mentoring Improves Retention, Engagement & Promotions for best practices in mentoring.

The company has also followed best practices established in our benchmarking practice to ascertain how to count resource-group membership and has doubled the percentage of employees who participate in those groups. Like many ethical companies, it was being overly conservative in its initial findings, and without a benchmark, it did not know what the standard was. It has been leveraging the ability to properly assess participation to garner more resources for the groups from senior management.

Recommendations for this company:

• Do not give 100 percent of eligible executives the diversity bonus. A bonus that everyone gets in full (as they did this year) doesn’t have credibility. The bonus should be awarded on a curve.
• Increase metrics to assess resource-group success. Although the company has increased its metrics on resource groups, it still lacks a consistent method of measuring promotions of those in groups versus those not, as well as membership in more than one group.
• Use groups to provide training/on-boarding for new employees. Company C does not have specific training to acclimate new hires, especially from underrepresented communities. Resource groups are critical in improving retention/engagement of new hires, our data shows.

Case Study No. 4: Financial-Services Company That Fell

Contributing factors:

• Lack of diversity at top
• No longer links bonuses to diversity goals
• No cross-cultural mentoring emphasis

Also a long-time member of the DiversityInc Top 50, Company D is a financial-services company that has been directly impacted by the economic and reputational turmoil occurring in its industry since the housing-boom bust of 2008. The company has undergone several organizational shifts and layoffs, but the diversity leadership has remained constant. However, this year, we note a drop in several key indicators, including linking executive compensation to diversity and senior-leadership demographics.

LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY

For a company that has been in the public eye for its lack of accountability during the financial crisis, the decision to no longer link executive compensation to diversity results is surprising. Still, that’s what company D did between the 2011 survey and the 2012 survey.

Although the company continues to have an executive diversity council chaired by its CEO, it does not have the council set organization-wide diversity goals or hold the council executives responsible for reaching those goals—which 86 percent of the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 companies do. As this company has reorganized in general, its efforts to pay bonuses at all have been jeopardized. But companies with deep commitments to diversity see this as crucial. Sodexo, for example, which has been in the top two in the DiversityInc Top 50 for the past three years, has a fund set aside for diversity bonuses that is the only one that is paid regardless of the financial performance of the company. And Sodexo links 25 percent of executive compensation of its senior leaders to diversity goals.

But Company D is not connecting compensation and diversity goals, and its top level of management (CEO and direct reports), which was all white last year but was almost half female, this year continues to be all white and is 10 percent less female. The next two levels of the organization also have little racial/ethnic diversity, a trend that seems to be getting more pronounced in the last three years. Read our Report on Executive Compensation.

MORE CULTURAL COMPETENCY: INTERNAL & EXTERNAL

Company D has been in the public eye for lending practices to lower-income consumers, many of whom are Black and Latino. Yet Company D does not have diversity prominently on its corporate homepage (unlike 82 percent of the DiversityInc Top 50 companies), and it has a lack of cultural-competency training for its mentors, mentees and executive diversity-council members. For best practices in training, read Diversity Training Goes Way Beyond Compliance.

The mentoring connection would be a crucial way for this company to increase its representation at the top. However, only 5 percent of its managers participate in mentoring, it does not have a cross-cultural component, and it has no formal evaluation or metrics associated with mentoring. By contrast, an average of 39.7 percent of DiversityInc Top 50 managers are in formal mentoring, 96 percent have a cross-cultural component and 84 percent have formal evaluations and metrics. All of those have increased significantly over the past six years.

The lack of formal cultural-competence awareness spills over into other areas directly impacting customer relationships. Company D has a very low multicultural-marketing budget—more than 20 percent lower than other companies in its industry, including Company C. A review of its recent public statements shows few mentions of diversity, while its closest competitor, another company in the DiversityInc Top 50, has increasingly tied its business results to diversity in its public messaging.

Company D’s decline on the DiversityInc Top 50 list is a direct result of its leaders’ decision to be less accountable for direct diversity results and to fail to emphasize the connection between diversity management and its increasingly multicultural consumer base.

• Reinstitute direct link between compensation and diversity goals. If no bonuses are paid, make the compensation part of executive evaluations and salaries.
• Include mandatory cultural-competence training for all mentors/mentees, executive-council members and anyone hiring or evaluating managers.
• Work with corporate communications and marketing to include diversity in business messages and to make the importance more prominent on homepage and in social media.

For information on the DiversityInc Top 50 companies, visit www.DiversityInc.com/top50.

–Barbara Frankel

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