50
pilot a new companywide mentoring program it launched last year.
William Lee, director of corporate
diversity, meets with group chair-persons every quarter to make sure
their activities are aligned with the
company’s business goals. Each of
Abbott’s groups has at least one
senior-level executive responsible
for it; they make sure the groups’
activities are helping the business
stay successful.
At BellSouth, employee-resource
group members “come together
because they have an interest in their
own personal growth and development and, at the same time, have a
keen interest in the success of the
organization,” Adams says.
While each group
operates autonomously
and has its own set of
initiatives, BellSouth has
a companywide council
comprised of leaders of
the six employee-resource
groups. They come
together with members
of the Office of Diversity
in part to share plans and
look for opportunities to work
together on projects.
One annual project is a conference that brings together 700 to 800
employees from around the company, representing all of the networking groups, with company leaders
and outside experts. “Each of the
groups has the opportunity to share
their own successes, things they’ve
done, but we all come together and
we truly are in the house as one
BellSouth, working together for the
good of the business,” Adams says.
Dynamic Diversity
Every chief diversity officer will tell you that this is a
constantly changing discipline. Diversity has matured
considerably since the first supplier-diversity and
recruitment programs were launched decades ago.
Diversity officers constantly grapple with new and challenging issues—these days they could be Generation X’s
desire for greater work/life balance or how to support
employees who make gender transitions while working.
“Diversity management—or any part of a business—is dynamic,” Yrizarry says. “As the marketplace
continues to change, we have to always think about the
customers, are we in the best position to recruit, make
sure we’re current.”
Constant self-examination is key, she says. “If you
had partnerships with a particular population, but the
population is changing, you better rethink which are
the organizations you are recruiting from, partnering
with,” she says. “We’re constantly looking at diversity
because it’s changing.”
“Innovation is huge at Allstate,” Wiley-Little says.
“We say that diversity drives innovation … The most
successful diversity programs that stay ahead of curve
are always changing.”
How does a company remain innovative? One way
is to participate in surveys such as this one.
“Diversity management—or any part of a
business—is dynamic ... As the marketplace
continues to change, we have to always think
about the customers, are we in the best position
to recruit, make sure we’re current. Magda Yriz”arry, Verizon
“I think this benchmarking work being done is critically important, not only externally but also for corporate America to find out what are the best practices,”
Yrizarry says.
For Allstate executives, each Top 50 cycle is an
opportunity to make sure that the organization is on
the right track. “What surveys like this do for us is
validate that we as an organization are making good
business decisions around our diversity strategies,”
Wiley-Little says. “It’s nice to [see what other companies are doing], but validation is the most important
thing for us because we build our strategies to fit
Allstate and no one else.” DI
