DiversityInc - January/February 2009

Special Regional Report

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA

DiversityInc’s

Jacksonville

Regional Top Companies

BY BARBARA FRANKEL

Why did DiversityInc choose Jacksonville
for its second regional survey?

Jacksonville, Fla., has a strong history of companies
and organizations banding together to increase
economic opportunity and inclusiveness.

T

he city, which is 27 percent Black, 6 per-
cent Latino and 3 percent Asian, also has a
group of employers who have come togeth-
er to try to enhance workplace-diversity demograph-
ics and best practices. That group, the First Coast
Diversity Council (FCDC), joined DiversityInc in reach-
ing out to companies located in Jacksonville or with
significant local operations there. The companies, all
of which had at least 250 employees, participated in
our survey, a scaled-down version of The DiversityInc
Top 50 Companies for Diversity® survey measuring the
same four areas: CEO Commitment, Human Capital,
Corporate and Organizational Communications, and
Supplier Diversity.

Of those companies, three of them are larger companies with long-term, demonstrated commitments to diversity: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, No. 15 on the 2008 DiversityInc Top 50; CSX, No. 47; and Aetna, one of DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies in 2008.

The other Jacksonville companies and organizations

to fill out the survey were (in alphabetical order): Community First Credit Union of Florida; Convergys Corp.; Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta-Jacksonville Branch; the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department; JEA; Medtronic; and the Shands Jacksonville Development Office/Foundation. They all deserve credit for sharing their data to give us an aggregate view of the city/region, its strengths and its challenges.

What did we learn about Jacksonville from our examination of these 10 companies and organizations?

All have many diversity strengths in the four areas we measure. For starters, their CEOs personally care about diversity—for example, 70 percent meet regularly with employee-resource groups, slightly less than the 74 percent average for the 2008 DiversityInc Top 50. Eighty percent of their CEOs personally review and sign off on diversity metrics, compared with 96 percent of the DiversityInc Top 50.