2010
TOP
50 DIVERSITY
VICE ADMIRAL MARK E. FERGUSON
Leadership
Commitment
U.S. Navy Chief of Personnel Vice
Admiral Mark E. Ferguson gave
an honest assessment of how the
service modeled its diversity strategy: by observing corporate diversity leaders. From focused diversity
outreach and mentoring programs
to retention and training initiatives, VADM Ferguson outlined
his plan and unwavering commitment to ensuring the Navy reflects
the demographics of America. As
a result, the Navy moved onto The
DiversityInc Top Federal Agencies
list this year.
Captain Kenneth J. Barrett,
head of the U.S. Navy Diversity
Directorate, reinforced the Navy’s
commitment to building a pipeline of
women, Black and Latino leaders in
his presentation. “We want an officer
corps that’s reflective of the enlisted
force that it leads,” he said, adding
that the force has increased its racial/
ethnic and gender representation by
200 percent over the past two years.
CAPTAIN KENNETH J. BARRETT
122 DiversityInc
GLENN M. WINFREE
In addition, the naval academy class
of 2013 has seen a 57 percent jump in
racial/ethnic and gender representation over the class of 2012.
How can diversity managers hold
leaders accountable for creating this
type of inclusive workplace? “Tie it
to their compensation,” suggested
Glenn M. Winfree, senior diversity
business consultant at Aetna (No.
30). Through metrics and perfor-mance-management scorecards,
Aetna ensures that people from
underrepresented groups “have a
chance to succeed,” he said.
Human Capital
The use of metrics to reach talent-acquisition goals was shared by
Alicia Petross, diversity team
talent manager at Target (No. 40).
At the Minneapolis-based retailer,
women, Blacks, Latinos and associates from other underrepresented
groups made up 22 percent of its
nearly 28,000 salaried positions in
the United States last year. How
can Petross and her team hit these
ALICIA PETROSS
CINDY BRINKLEY
hiring goals nationally? Leverage the right sources, measure results and “make diversity an integrated part of our process,” she advised. Cindy Brinkley, senior vice president of talent development and chief diversity officer at AT&T (No. 3), took diversity man- agement to the next level in her talk on retaining underrepresented tal- ent. “It comes down to the people,” she said. “People are the ones who develop strategies. They are the ones who make it happen, so retain- ing and developing the talent is … job No. 1.” Brinkley, who reviews AT&T’s diversity scorecards quar- terly, identifies top performers at each level of management and then focuses on training, mentoring and building critical leadership skills through AT&T University. Since launching the university two years ago, more than 100,000 managers have participated. Also critical to talent develop- ment is diversity training. But not all training is equal, asserted LaMae
LAMAE ALLEN
DEJONGH
