DiversityInc - Fall 2011

hen Harley-Davidson
started its first corporate
diversity efforts in the

1990s, they were modeled
on compliance and affirmative
action—and aimed squarely at
Blacks and women. In fact, so-called
“diversity training” actually told white
men they were the problem.

“We did some bad things in those days,” says Tchernavia Rocker, senior
director of labor and employee relations. “We basically said white guys were
bad, mean people, and the organization never forgot that.”
Today, as Harley-Davidson ratchets up its diversity-management efforts,
the biggest obstacle has been reaching its mostly white, male employee base.
“They don’t get why we want to include them now. We had to start by apolo-
gizing,” Rocker says. “We had to overcome history.”
Many companies these days are grappling with the
need to get white men to “buy in” to diversity, to under-
stand that by using diversity to increase marketplace
connections and innovation, everyone benefits. After a
request from a benchmarking customer on what’s work-
ing to increase engagement of white men, we decided to
research what companies at different stages of diversity-management suc-
cess were doing.

Until about five years ago, diversity management in corporate America was called just that: “diversity.” But the word “diversity” had the emotional baggage of affirmative action and the incorrect perception by some that it was aimed at Blacks and women, and maybe Latinos. So the word “ inclusion” started appearing as a way of saying “Everyone is part of this, including white men.” Consider this statistic based on participants in the DiversityInc Top 50 survey: Five years ago, only 2 percent of heads of diversity had the word “inclusion” in their title. Today, 18 percent do.

I interviewed more than 20 companies, and the results show companies have three basic tracks on white men:

For more on the
stages of diversity
management,
go to
www.DiversityInc.
com/4stages

; Advanced companies that have had significant progress in direct outreach to white men by aiming efforts first at senior managers and then at middle managers. This includes Sodexo, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and The Coca-Cola Company, Nos. 2, 3 and 12, respectively, in the DiversityInc Top 50, as well as Comerica (No. 1 in The DiversityInc Top 10 Regional Utilities and one of DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies)