THAT
COMPANIES ROSE FOUR CASE STUDIES
COMPANY C
Consumer-
Facing
Company
FACTORS
CEO SIGNS OFF ON BONUSES
TIED TO DIVERSITY GOALS
CEO APPOINTS, OVERSEES
DIVERSITY COUNCIL
ERGs, MENTORING USED
THROUGHOUT ALL BUSINESS UNITS
A long-time participant in the DiversityInc Top 50 survey,
this company has had an internal focus on mentoring and
employee-resource groups, aided by changes to the survey
ranking that gave more credit for companies whose diversity-
management initiatives were consistent across the organization.
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS,
DIVERSITY OFFICE WORKING TOGETHER
IMPROVED MENTORING
This company has had strong mentoring programs—individual,
peer, group and virtual—and employee-resource groups in place
for several years, most for more than a decade. While both mentoring and ERGs have been available across the organization and are not
just pocketed in corporate headquarters, utilization of both initiatives
was lower than that of most other companies in the DiversityInc Top 50
last year. Part of that was the dilemma commonly faced by production/
consumer-products companies of ways to include hourly workers, who
may be temporary and/or who often work shifts. But another part of it
was a lack of centralized communication, especially from the top of the
organization, about the value of these groups to recruitment, retention,
talent development and customer relations.
Since the CEO raised the bar on accountability, and the diversity and
communications teams worked together on getting the message out,
mentoring participation has more than doubled and now exceeds the
DiversityInc Top 50 average by more than 45 percent. The CEO and
direct reports, as well as the next two levels down of executives, are all
part of the formal, cross-cultural mentoring program. There is formal
follow-up by a third-party organization that assesses mentoring’s impact
on retention and promotions.
Employee-resource-group participation has more than tripled and
now exceeds the DiversityInc average by 40 percent. This company
is using its employee-resource groups extensively to source potential
leaders and help with their development, as well as to aid in diversity/
cultural-competence training in the entire organization. The deep connection to what ERG members are experiencing and thinking, both in
the workplace and the marketplace, is having results, the company tells
us, with product development aimed at underrepresented groups as well
as talent management.
