Diversity Journal - Mar/Apr 2005

Also Featuring ... Front-Runner: Boeing’s Joyce Tucker • Roche Diagnostics • Dell’s Women’s Summit • Catalyst

Volume 7, Number 2 • March / April 2005

8.95 U.S.

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PUBLISHER James R. Rector MANAGING EDITOR Susan Larson CREATIVE DIRECTOR Linda Schellentrager

pointofview From the editor of Profiles in Diversity Journal

Close-readers of this and upcoming issues may notice some subtle shifts in vocabulary, representing perhaps the

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E V O LU T I O N A N D CO N T I N U U M

of the work

“around diversity.” Featured companies in this issue are talking about “diversity of thought” (Bausch & Lomb’s Chairman and CEO, Ron Zarrella) and “broad and narrow diversity” (Roche Diagnostics’ Patti Ayars and Cris Wilbur). The story of profiled FrontRunner, Joyce Tucker, is also a story about the

PROGRESSION OF DIVERSIT Y

awareness and sensibilities in the last decades.

More attention is given to employee commitment, corporate flexibility, and quality of life/work and how these all interrelate. Leaders are looking at the innovation potential of a carefully managed creative tension—in having CO H E S I V E LY VA R I O U S ,

rather than consolidated and homogeneous, business

entities and workforces.

As the diversity-action community continues to raise the bar for inclusiveness, considerations of the “standard” gender-race-ethnicity-sexuality groupings and numeric representations will likely be supplanted by diversity and

Q UA L I TAT I V E PA R A M E TE R S

S U BT LE R D I S T I N C T I O N S

of

of access and inclusion. The stakes are

climbing, prognosticators tell us, for garnering top talent as soon as possible.

Your competition is each other, particularly the top organizations to be named in our next issue as winners of our 2nd Annual Innovations Awards competition.

To delve the expanding diversity perspective, we look forward to featuring more focus on hiring, accommodating and including workers with some physical or mental challenge. Setting the stage, is an executive summary of a thoughtprovoking article about

that appeared previously in PDJ. We will

ABILITIES

continue in 2005 to challenge the leading edge of diversity action, enlarging Profiles in Diversity Journal® is published bi-monthly

by Rector, Inc., Principal Office: P.O. Box 45605, Cleveland, OH 44145-0605.

James Rector, Publisher, Rector, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and may or may not represent the views of the publisher. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

Registered in U.S. Patent Office.

ISSN 1537-2102

your vocabulary and your arsenal with things like “W3C ®” and

H I G H E R LE V E L S

of inclusiveness.

There’s always more to learn,

Susan Larson Susan Larson

Managing Editor Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

1

Volume 7 • Number 2 March / April 2005

ON THE

COVER:

A Closeup of Bausch & Lomb Corporate Profile in Diversity B&L’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,

RO N Z A R R E LL A ,

shares success

stories about how it has dramatically increased employee commitment and is now taking advantage of its unique opportunities for optimizing marketshare.

8 New Column ...

Momentum: Diversity Who, What, Where & When

6 Front-Runner: Joyce E. Tucker

20 2

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

Joyce E. Tucker, Vice President, Global Diversity and Employee Rights at Boeing, is this month’s featured Front-Runner. As someone who has worked “both sides” of the regulatory parameters for diversity in the field’s developing years, her story is rich with personal and conceptual history.

Diversity.

It’s what drives us.

From the cadres of minority designers, engineers, and office staff to the men and women on the factory floor and our network of minority owned dealers, we're dedicated to creating the best cars and trucks possible. In fact, this dedication to work ethic, smarts, and quality is inherent in every vehicle we produce. It's what makes us the proud American brands of DaimlerChrysler Corporation.

Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge are registered trademarks of DaimlerChrysler Corporation.

Roche Diagnostics: a Healthy Prescription for Diversity A distinctive perspective and broad-based array of efforts explain how Roche Diagnostics joined the Fortune list of best companies to work for and climbed higher on Training magazine’s 2005 Top 100 list for workforce training and development.

30 Global Issues for Women Professionals in the diversity arena recently came together for a summit at Dell to talk about issues of concern to women in the workplace, in particular regional similarities and distinctions worldwide.

40 The Future Leadership of Business

by Catalyst Catalyst makes recommendations for managing young professionals (‘Gen X-ers’) based on correcting myths and recognizing this group’s general expectations and attitudes toward career goals and strategies.

50 Executive Summary: “Beyond Access” A reprise article about incorporating workers with capABILITIES into the workplace.

Consider it our invitation to share your / your company’s story about overcoming work-environment challenges.

52 Review : Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally 54 Book Inclusive Workplace 4

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

At WellPoint, we celebrate the diversity of our workforce. We are the leading health benefits company in the nation serving the needs of 28 million members.

A FORTUNE 50® company, we are strengthened by the commitment and dedication of our associates. If you’re looking to join a company where you will see your ideas in action - where what you do helps others live better, consider a career with us.

Visit our website to search opportunities throughout the United States at:

www.wellpoint.com/careers

What does it take to be named FORTUNE magazine’s Most Admired Healthcare Company six years running? ®

People like you.

Opportunities may be available in the following areas: • Actuarial • Administrative/Clerical • Advertising/Marketing • Claims/Membership/Customer Service • Compliance • Corporate Communications • Finance & Accounting • Human Resources • Information Technology • Legal • Management • Nursing/Case Management • Pharmacy • Provider Network Development • Sales • Training • Underwriting

SM

EOE. SM Service Mark of WellPoint Inc. FORTUNE and FORTUNE 50 are registered trademarks of FORTUNE magazine, a division of Time Inc. ©2004 WellPoint Inc. All rights reserved.

F

or the third straight year, B E LL S O U T H Corporation has been selected (6th, the highest ranking telecommunications company on the list) for the Div 50 listing, produced by DiversityBusiness.com, as one of “America’s Top Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities 2004.” The Div 50 ranks top corporations for promoting business opportunities for woman-and minority-owned firms, based on polling of over 350,000 minority and female entrepreneurs. Voting business owners rated factors such as the volume, consistency, and quality of business opportunities offered to women- and minority-owned companies.

BellSouth was also named one of “America’s Top Corporations For Women’s Business Enterprises” by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. This list recognizes fifteen corporations that have programs offering equal access for women-owned suppliers in addition to having worldclass quality in their supplier diversity programs featuring women’s business enterprises.

In addition to other accolades won by Bell South as a company, DEBERAH S TO N E , Corporate Supplier Diversity Manager, was named The National Minority Supplier Development Council’s MBE Coordinator of the Year, the single highest professional honor in the field.

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has been named Vice President of Corporate Diversity and Community Affairs at MGM Mirage, based in Las Vegas. She is helping to implement the company’s diversity initiatives as well as working with government relations and community affairs programs, including corporate philanthropy. Ms. Nelson reports to Punam Mathur, Senior Vice President of Corporate Diversity and Comm u n i t y Affairs.

Ms. Nelson was previously at DaimlerChrysler (Senior Manager of Communications) where she was responsible for managing issues of diversity, manufacturing, human resources, employee and labor relations, and government affairs. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. A director of the William Patterson University Foundation, and a former chairperson of the Edward D a v i s Education Foundation, she also has volunteered with many organizations, including the Detroit Discovery Museum, Salvation Army, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, United Cerebral Palsy, United Negro College Fund and the Association of Black Women in Higher Education.

DEBRA J. NELSON

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

has been made Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer at Fannie Mae. Bailey is implementing strategies dedicated to increasing multicultural participation throughout the organization and strengthening diversity activities among employees, customers, and suppliers.

Mr. Bailey joined Fannie Mae in 1992 as senior business analyst in the Finance Division; he moved to Human Resources in 1994 and has since served as vice president for Human Resources, and director for the Human Resources Talent Teams.

Mr. Bailey received a B.A. from Eastern Kentucky University, and he is a member of the Society of Human Resource Management.

E M M A N U E L B A I LE Y

S C H E R I N G - P LO U G H

C O R P O R AT I O N

has been designated a “National Partner” by the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific association. For each of the past two years, Schering-Plough has provided grants to bring 20 freshmen into the ACS Scholars Program, which encourages African-American, Hispanic and American Indian students to pursue undergraduate college degrees in the chemical sciences and chemical technology. PDJ

Bausch & Lomb Chairman and CEO Ron Zarrella wth three employee affinity group leaders: Troy Beason of the African-American Network, Cindy Yao of the Women’s Network, and X. Michael Liu of the Asia-Pacific Network.

Feature

Bausch & Lomb

Nurturing Diversity of Thought A Conversation with Bausch & Lomb’s Ron Zarrella With 2004 revenues of $2.23 billion, Bausch & Lomb (B&L) is a global leader in developing, manufacturing and selling healthcare products for the eye, ranking 702nd on the Fortune 1000 list. B&L’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ron Zarrella, shares success stories about how it has dramatically increased employee commitment and is now taking advantage of its unique opportunities for optimizing marketshare.

GLOBAL / MARKET ISSUES

On B&L’s global presence and diversity management: “Bausch & Lomb employs approximately 12,400 people in more than 50 countries, and our products are available in more than 100 countries. Bausch & Lomb introduced the world to the soft contact lens in 1973 and remains a world leader in contact lens products, products for cataract and refractive surgery, and pharmaceuticals for the eye. Our patented refractive laser platform is the leading system used around the world to surgically correct vision.

Because our products are sold around the world, to be successful we must ensure that our workforce reflects our diverse base of customers and consumers. My commitment is that we have employees at all levels in the organization who represent the diversity of our customers and consumers; this is good for our business and it is the right thing to do.

While our D&I management now is largely U.S. based, we are increasing our worldwide focus in part because of emerging compliance issues in locations outside the U.S.; for example, the European Council has issued guidelines regarding the hiring, promotion and retention of women; HEADQUARTERS: Ro c h e s t e r, NY there is increasing attention in the overall W E B S I TE : w w w. b a u s c h . c o m Japanese business environment to issues of sexual discrimination and harassment.”

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

9

Ron Zarrella

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

On the role of diversity and inclusion in B&L’s 2004 growth/earnings: “Sales growth in 2004 was achieved, in part, due to our diversity-informed approach to target marketing—identifying the right market segments to go after and communicating effectively with them. For example, Hispanics represent 14% of the U.S. population and are growing at a rate four times faster than the general population.

Notably, 34% of Hispanics are under the age of 18, representing an important part of B&L’s future since most people start wearing contact lenses in their teens. Many of the 3.6 million Hispanic contact lens wearers wear Bausch & Lomb lenses or buy our lens-care product, ReNu. It is with these products that Hispanic teens learn to trust B&L for their eye care needs, so in future years when they need eye drops, eye vitamins, or Lasik surgery, they will look for B&L products. We are currently running a ReNu TV commercial in Spanish to complement all of our Spanish-language patient information, and we are partnering with retailers and eye care professionals to better meet the unique needs of the Hispanic patients.

Inclusive practices also played a significant role in Bausch & Lomb’s success in establishing lean manufacturing techniques worldwide: a disciplined, evidence-based approach for achieving more with less through continuous improvement while maintaining a laser-like focus on what’s important: quality (defect-free processes and products); customer satisfaction (delivery and flexibility); and cost efficiency (bottom-line improvement).

10

Lean works only when employees are involved and their input valued. As a result, we have achieved a significant portion of our three-year $90 million profitability improvement project.”

On global challenges and unique opportunities in the industry for diversity implementation: “On a regional level, for instance, Asia holds great opportunities for us but has unique challenges. There are huge differences among consumers including cultural and socioeconomic differences, often within any given country.

Increasingly, seeking out defined segments among target audiences, finding ways to speak to them specifically, and making communications much more personal are key to being more successful. The days of mass marketing as we’ve known it are over—it’s no longer efficient or practical. It’s all about understanding where the most attractive segments are within any market and focusing in on their needs.

To make this work, you need the right mix of people: employees who have a breadth of experience and a diversity that allows them to identify and understand the unique ways to reach consumers. For instance, in China, about 40 percent of the population is under 25, prime candidates for contact lens products. There we launched a unique program at prominent Chinese universities, establishing on-campus Bausch & Lomb Eye Health Clinics to provide students with eye health information and exams, and offer affordable contact lenses and lens care products.

In the eye health industry, we believe that there are unique opportu-

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

nities. As a medical device and specialized pharmaceutical company, Bausch & Lomb has very few products that are sold directly to consumers.

Our customers are more often medical specialists and healthcare organizations that prescribe and distribute our products to their patients. Among our key customer groups—optometrists, ophthalmologists and opticians—there are more women and people of color joining the professions. For example, between 1997 and 2003, the number of female optometrists increased by 48%. If this trend continues, by 2008 one in three optometrists will be female. In 2000, 29% of ophthalmology graduates were female, and if this trend continues, by 2008, more than 43% will be female.

In the less developed areas of China and India, we have extensive professional training services in which Bausch & Lomb eye doctors train contact lens fitters in techniques to ensure that their patients have a better, healthier contact lens wearing experience. That is in contrast to our approach in developed markets in a region like Japan, where contact lens fitters are most often ophthalmologists, specialists who take a conservative, data-driven approach to contact lens fitting; and so we conduct product clinical and usage studies with key opinion leaders at major universities and hospitals to demonstrate the efficacy of our products to the fitters in Japan.

In the less developed, emerging markets in the region, access to eye care and vision correction products is difficult or non-existent. In India, an estimated 10 million people suffer from cataracts, and almost 70 percent

Feature

DIVERSIT Y

Bausch & Lomb

COMMITMENT

B AU S C H & LO M B W I LL ACCO M P L I S H I TS G LO B A L CO M M I TM E N T TO D I V E R S I T Y BY S I M U LTA N E O U S LY N U RT U R I N G T H E D I V E R S I T Y O F T H I N K I N G , I D E A S , A N D O U T LO O K T H AT A L R E A DY E X I S TS I N B AU S C H & LO M B ’ S WO R K F O R C E , A N D T H RO U G H CO N S I S TE N T A N D A G G R E S S I V E E F F O RTS TO AT T R AC T, D E V E LO P A N D R E TA I N TA LE N TE D

Recipients of the 2005 Bausch & Lomb Supplier Diversity Awards. left to right: B&L’s Quentin Roach; Karen Eletto and Judy Smith, Staples; B&L’s Brian Schankat; Sharon Napier, Partners + Napier; Henry Serrano, Vista Color Corp.

P E O P LE W I T H A VA R I E T Y O F P E R S P E C T I V E S F RO M A LL C U LT U R E S A N D P O P U L AT I O N S E G M E N TS .

T H I S CO M M I TM E N T I S M A D E W I T H T H E S T RO N G B E L I E F T H AT A S W E S T R I V E TO E X PA N D A N D ACC E S S N E W M A R K E TS , A D I V E R S E G RO U P O F TA LE N TE D A N D CO M M I T TE D P E O P LE ,

WO R K I N G I N A N E N V I RO N M E N T T H AT E N A B LE S T H E M TO A P P LY T H E I R CO LLE C T I V E TA LE N TS TO O U R S H A R E D P R I N C I P LE S A N D CO M M I TM E N TS , D E L I V E R S T H E G R E ATE S T VA LU E TO O U R C U S TO M E R S , E M P LOY E E S A N D S H A R E H O L D E R S A L I K E .

of them go blind because there is a permanent backlog of patients awaiting surgery. In the underserved, semirural areas in India, Bausch & Lomb has established day surgery clinics that use Bausch & Lomb products and technology to provide sight-restoring cataract surgery offered on a slidingfee scale depending upon the patients’ ability to pay. A percentage of the surgeries are provided at no charge to indigent patients. And we have established the Bausch & Lomb School of Optometry in Hyderabad to train a new generation of practitioners to meet the growing demand there for accessible, affordable eye care.”

On keeping up with diversity change in a large organization: “Founded in 1853, Bausch & Lomb is one of the oldest continually operating companies in the United States, an achievement that has required us to change with the times, meet the

changing needs of our customers, and evolve the way we manage ourselves.

To stay current, the Bausch & Lomb Corporate Human Resources team responsible for diversity implementation maintains a vigilant focus on the most recent developments in diversity.

This includes membership and leadership on organizations’ boards, participation in conferences and forums around the world, subscribing to key journals, and developing a network of contacts within the field. The diversity team members serve as internal consultants to our executives, employees, affinity groups and human resources personnel, sharing their knowledge and coaching our leadership on issues of importance in diversity.”

On global variations in diversity issues: “Diversity definitions and issues vary from place to place, from culture to

culture, so it cannot be managed in the same way in every location. For example, workplace diversity issues in the United States are focused mainly on race and gender, but these are not necessarily what it means in other regions in which we do business: A S I A - PAC I F I C R E G I O N . This region has widely different cultures and languages and varying levels of market development. To better understand and satisfy our diverse customers’ needs here, we aim to identify the best talent that represents countries and regions throughout Asia and recruit talent not only from Hong Kong, the location of our regional headquarters.

E U RO P E A N R E G I O N . Challenges in this region revolve around immigration, national conflicts, religious differences and ethnicity. Awareness and acceptance of workplace flexibility is another. In Europe, we support and are responsive to the various directives

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

11

Ron Zarrella

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Ron Zarrella emerging from the European Union aimed at creating a discrimination-free workplace for women and immigrant groups.

L AT I N A M E R I C A . Here, we are challenged to level the playing field for women, eliminate inequities in the workplace based on gender, and overcome barriers resulting from class differences. We hold our managers in this region accountable for our policies against harassment and our commitment to providing equal opportunity to women.

We know that these are some of the most significant diversity-related issues our company faces around the world because we asked our highest-ranking executives in these regions to define diversity in local terms. Rather than imposing our own U.S. ‘corporate-centric’ diversity ideas, issues and experiences to our locations around the world, Bausch & Lomb has instead regionalized our global diversity initiatives. The power to define, plan and implement a diversity strategy is appropriately in the hands of those who live and best know the cultures and the issues, and who are most qualified to leverage opportunities and overcome challenges.”

TITLE: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

YEARS

IN

CURRENT POSITION:

3.5 years

EDUC ATION: Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Mass.; attended New York University Graduate School of Business MBA program.

FIRST JOB: Night production supervisor at the Clairol division of Bristol-Myers.

WHAT I’M

READING:

His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis S U P P L I E R / CO M M U N I T Y / C U S TO M E R S

On supplier initiatives “We are expanding our supplier diversity program, actively seeking to establish a strong supplier diversity base for equipment and supplies and for services. We have established a Supplier Diversity Steering Committee which, as CEO, I chair to ensure the success of our efforts. We will, this year, double the percentage of women-owned and minority-owned vendors, from 3% to 6%, with the ultimate goal of achieving 10%. We have already engaged, through a competitive bid process, new minority-owned and women-owned suppliers for two significant projects: our global travel services and product cartoning in the United States.

Bausch & Lomb established a web site for supplier diversity; the company participates in and supports various local and national diversity enterprises including the National Minority Supplier Development Council; we

12

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

FAMILY: Wife and two daughters.

INTERESTS: Math and science education; inner-city economic development: FIRST robotics

ON

HIS

ROLE

MODELS:

I guess if I had to pick, the two people I’d mention were from my eight years at General Motors. GM was very progressive in its corporate governance—it was one of the first companies to have a nonexecutive chairman with a different CEO. I was brought into the company by John Smale, who was the nonexecutive chairman at the time, formerly the CEO of Procter and Gamble. And when I look

Feature

Bausch & Lomb

Profile of the CEO: at John and the CEO of the company, Jack Smith, these were two individuals who were not only enormously talented, but everything they did, their whole approach and thought process, was to do the right thing. They had absolutely impeccable values, impeccable respect for the individual, and were people you really could aspire to be like. The two of them and the way they worked together at GM was pretty inspiring.

ON HIS INTEREST IN PEOPLE:

SCIENCE

FOR

YOUNG

Well, the thing that got me interested was really back in my General Motors days when it became evident that, when you look at the number of graduates from engineering programs in this country, there has been a dramatic decline; in fact if you look at China today, they graduate six times the number of engineers that we do.

And no wealth is created, nothing really happens, until somebody makes something. There would be no lawyers, there would be no academicians, there wouldn’t be anything if there weren’t an economy based on people making things. Ours is a country where our standard of living has been predicated on technology leadership in so many areas, yet we’re losing that. I read a statistic where there are more people graduating with sports management degrees than in engineering today in this country. The whole question of how to get young people interested in math and science so that they pursue science and engineering careers has been a real interest of mine for a number of years now.

I got involved with an organization called FIRST—For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology—founded by a gentleman named Dean Kamen, an inventor; he and I went to the same engineering school. The FIRST program is basically a national robotics competition that involves high school students, high school teachers, and company sponsors that provide money and also engineers to work with students in the competition to build robots. This lets students see what real engineers do, and have them as role models. And in particular, when you look at some urban schools, their role models are all sports stars. So the whole idea was to provide people with role models in engineering and science.

And it’s a remarkably successful program. There are 36 regional events around the country, and then the qualifiers come together: 300 teams from around the country gather at a big national event. There are 20,000 kids at these national events with their sponsors and it’s remarkable to see the involvement and the energy of these high school teams.

So you get a very, very diverse set of students involved in these teams; one year, a team of gang members from San Jose, California won. There are terrific stories, and a high percentage of students involved in this actually go into science and engineering. And it is encouraging to see that there’s a surprising number of young women who are involved.

ON WHAT INSPIRES

HIM

PER SONALLY

AND

PROFESSIONALLY:

I guess the thing that inspires me most or gets me most excited about this job is the fact that we are working on technologies that are going to dramatically improve the way people see, and I think relatively soon, start to help people who are blind with technologies that preserve or restore vision. That’s exciting to me. We actually hear from our employees, too, about the importance and the inspirational quality of our work here at Bausch & Lomb.

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

13

Ron Zarrella

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

participate in local and national supplier conferences; and the company will provide publicity for its first supplier recognition awards ceremony in the spring.”

LEADERSHIP

On Bausch & Lomb’s leadership commitment to diversity: “We actively pay attention to diversity, and diversity metrics are included in the executive ‘dashboard’ that measures all key aspects of the business. In 2004, the company for the first time gave awards recognizing employees’ diversity accomplishments. As CEO, I have met with our affinity groups, including the Women’s Leadership Forum, the African-American Network and the Latino Network, to establish key goals to increase the hiring, promotion and retention of diverse employees at Bausch & Lomb. Our commitment to diversity is demonstrated by having officers of the company and members of the company’s most senior leadership team, the Corporate Strategy Board, serving as the executive champions of each of our employee affinity groups. As CEO, I chair the Supplier Diversity Board and will include an update on diversity issues as part of the quarterly all-employee state-of-the-business presentations.”

On hiring and supporting leaders with the right attitudes :

14

“To insure that diverse perspectives, ideas, thoughts and approaches are represented for addressing important business issues, we are committed to having people of diverse backgrounds and experience at all levels of our organization. We achieve this through a structured process called Career Assessment Interviewing. Our HR managers around the globe are certified in the process, which measures how candidates align with our cultural drivers and commitment to diversity of thought and style.

Bausch & Lomb’s senior leadership is committed to making the company a ‘great place to work, learn and grow.’ In 2003 we introduced the Bausch & Lomb University, the umbrella organization for all learning and development at Bausch & Lomb, open to all employees. We are creating a high level of cross-cultural competence through the leadership development courses offered by Bausch & Lomb University.

One component is our Leadership College, which features five different programs or career building blocks.

Two sessions develop cross-cultural competence: the Executive Development Practices and Leadership Development Practices for directors. In both sessions, top people from around the globe come together for two oneweek sessions, forming global project teams that address key business challenges. Our philosophy is that we can achieve success by teaching crosscultural competence at the very top of the organization and by developing

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

our future leaders to recognize the value of this competence and by learning how to best manage a diverse workforce.”

On succession management: “Bausch & Lomb has a robust, ongoing process for talent review and succession management of senior leaders and their direct reports. At least twice a year, the members of my senior leadership team and the top human resources person from each business unit meet with me for farreaching and in-depth discussions about the top levels of their organizations. These discussions are then followed by calibration sessions, where the results of each business talent review are summarized and commun icated to the entire leadership team, then action plans are executed.

Business units are expected to have diverse talent at all levels and to know the diversity profile of their organizations, especially the leadership teams.

This rigorous, disciplined process has proved exceptionally successful.

For example, during my tenure as CEO, we have dramatically improved the number of people of color in the leadership bands of the company, including my direct reports.

In addition to discussions regarding succession and potential, the development needs of individuals are also discussed during talent reviews.

Development activities, ranging from executive education to expatriate assignments, are identified. Each person in the talent pool is expected to have

Feature

Bausch & Lomb

Ron Zarrella meets with three leaders of the employee affinity groups, from left to right: Troy Beason of the African-American Network, Deepak Seth of the South Asia Network, and Daryl Bleau of the Gay and Lesbian Network. a robust and actionable development plan, monitored at both the local and corporate levels to ensure they are carried out. Diverse candidates are included by the very nature of our diverse workforce.”

On the company’s diversity council: “Clay Osborne, Human Resources Vice President of Diversity and Organizational Effectiveness, chairs our diversity council. Clay reports to the Senior VP of Human Resources and keeps me directly informed of his activities. Clay facilitates the majority of the decisions related to diversity, working very closely with business and HR leaders from around the globe on our various initiatives. The fact that members of the Corporate Strategy Board champion our affinity networks further elevates exposure of our diversity initiatives.”

On development learning throughout the organization: “Everybody’s got a university today; we call ours Bausch & Lomb University.

It’s a relatively new activity for us, about two-and-a-half years old. The University offers different levels of development, starting with the kinds of skills new managers need all the way up through our most senior people who will be running the company when the current Strategy Board is no longer there. The programs are highly interactive. In addition to learning industry best practices and emerging trends, the participants work on action learning projects on real business challenges. Our primary goal is to give managers who are transitioning to positions of higher scope and scale the skills and knowledge necessary to take on these challenging roles.

At the highest level, we have an annual program, two one-week

segments, for intense development.

The senior management teaches about 60% of the content, and the rest of the content is taught by some of the world’s management and business thought leaders, and values thought leaders. We require our most senior people, the direct reports to the officer group, to go through this program. A key part of the program is that we put people on very diverse cross-cultural work groups to collaborate on critical issues that are facing the company. Over the course of the year, in addition to the course work, they are responsible for bringing back thinking, if not resolutions, on critical business aspects by working with people they never worked with before from around the world. That’s probably the best part of the whole program, because they get to take the learnings from the classroom and apply them to the project work. We get some really

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

15

Ron Zarrella

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

ONGOING

DIVERSIT Y

INITIATIVES

EMPLOYEE NET WORKS Because of the diverse groups that make up Bausch & Lomb, we encourage the formation of employee networks including the African-American Employee Network, Asia-Pacific, Gay & Le s b i a n , L a t i n o , S o u t h A s i a , a n d Wo m e n ' s N e t w o r k s .

Ron Zarrella left, Ursula Burns of Xerox, and Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST. The trio hosted the regional FIRST Robotics Competition in Rochester in March 2005. good outcomes from this work, they get the benefit of networking with very senior people in a very diverse group, and we further build attachment to the company.

I’ll give you one example from the past. Back in 1998, Bausch & Lomb acquired some businesses that were underperforming as we went through several iterations of management teams. The integration of those businesses into the rest of the company was not well done; we had manufacturing problems; we had quality problems; we had a demoralized sales force. That business problem became one of the projects that we gave to a management intensive group: if you could start over, what would you do?

And then, given where we are today, take that scenario and tell us how to make this successful. The range of issues that were dealt with were all the way from organizational issues to the processes used to develop products where the core company didn’t have capability, all the way to the management review process at my level for these businesses. And much of that work has been put into practice, with the result being that we now have a profitable division.

Also, in 2004 we began to webcast the Leaders on Leading series on Bausch & Lomb TV (streaming video, accessible anytime of day, around the

16

MENTORING PRO GRAM Mentoring at Bausch & Lomb provides employees with learning. This serves as an interactive tool for development by providing a resource in the form of a mentor or mentee.

two-way

COACHING Bausch & Lomb recognizes coaching as one of the most powerful ways t o h e l p e m p l o y e e s g r o w. C o a c h i n g i s n o t a o n e - w a y s t r e e t w h e r e t h e manager has all the answers, but rather a partnership where both people share the responsibilities.

C R E AT I V E L E A R N I N G Our eLearning courses provide a convenient way for individuals to be in control of their learning and career development. One can participate in leadership, communication, business, and professional development courses.

DIVERSIT Y AWARENESS/TRAINING To p r o m o t e d i v e r s i t y t h r o u g h o u t o u r o r g a n i z a t i o n , w e o f f e r d i v e r s i t y training, seminars, guest speakers and roundtable discussions focused on driving fundamental changes in behavior and understanding.

WORK/LIFE BAL ANCE We s t r i ve t o g i ve e m p l oy e e s t h e t o o l s a n d re s o u r c e s n e e d e d t o a t t a i n their career goals and aspirations. A variety of programs are available to help employees manage work and life needs in areas such as child and elder care, flexible work schedules and tuition assistance.

C O M M U N I T Y - B A S E D I N V O LV E M E N T We p a r t i c i p a t e i n a w i d e va r i e t y o f c o m m u n i t y - b a s e d o rg a n i z a t i o n s w h i c h p r o m o t e d i v e r s i t y. O u r e f f o r t s i n c l u d e t h e c r e a t i o n a n d leadership of a region-wide diversity council composed of more than 25 companies.

globe through our intranet, The Eyeway). In this series, our senior executives present their views and expectations on topics such as strategy, leadership, presentations, values, and execution.”

On diversity at the top: “I’ve spent a lot of time trying to ensure that we’re setting the right tone for diversity and inclusiveness at the top of the company and I’ve got a senior management team now that is quite diverse—more than a third of

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

our leadership are diverse candidates: the CIO is an African American, the global head of strategy of the surgical business is Chinese American; the global head of vision care is a woman; the treasurer is Latino; the vice president of our Latin American region is a Latino woman; and there are other females in the group. We’ve been reasonably successful in bringing in new talent from outside the company to ensure that there is also this diversity of thought.

We’ve taken the approach that

Feature

this baseline of diversity of thought is relevant everywhere. And it’s hard for us to sit here at headquarters in Rochester and define what that means for the president of our Asia region, because he has very different issues than we have in the United States. But it is still an important issue for him. It’s relatively easy to get senior talent in Hong Kong where our headquarters are; yet he has probably the most diverse region culturally of any in the world. His challenge is, how does he get leadership in China, how do we get leadership in Japan, in Australia, in Korea; because if the whole region is run by expatriates, we’re not going to get the diversity of thought we need.

The further challenge is how to meld that all together to get decisions that are meaningful for the whole region and the whole company.”

On holding leadership accountable: “We have a couple of processes that reflect accountability. One process is a performance review approach that is consistent around the globe that encompasses two parts. One part deals with performance against specific objectives: financial objectives, sales objectives, project objectives in the R & D organization, and so on. The other part of the appraisal deals with how we think people perform against our expectations of behavior for seven cultural drivers that we’ve established.

how people stack up against the cultural drivers measured by objective numbers; but it’s also quite subjective because in those cultural drivers is the whole notion of inclusiveness.

The second process is that we have a talent review process at the top of the company. Twice a year, I and my senior VP of corporate human resources sit down with my direct reports, and their head of human resources, and we review these performance appraisals for all of their direct reports and for a group of identified high-potential people in their organizations who are not necessarily their direct reports. I have a commitment to get to know those 200 top people in the company, to review development needs, performance, next job needs, their attitudes toward inclusiveness, whether they’re building organizational capability and whether they’re building diverse organizational capability. I do that twice a year with each individual, and depending on the size of the organization, these can be all-day sessions, a

SEVEN

Bausch & Lomb

very in-depth talent review process that really determines how people’s careers are going to progress.

Then, twice a year, we get the whole group of senior leaders together for a session on the cross-functional performance of some of these individuals.

First of all, the manager and I have to agree on the performance, the development needs and the direction of the individual for us to go forward. In the context of those discussions, one of our cultural drivers is personal accountability in the context of one’s team. We’ll talk about the accountability for the various objectives and various performance aspects of the individual’s job.

The performance appraisal process is very much tied in with compensation; the talent review process really determines promotion.”

On Career Assessment interviewing: “That’s a relatively new initiative of our HR leadership. It really gets at, in the interviewing process, how do you assess the values that people have in

CULTURAL DRIVER S

• VIGILANT EXTERNAL FOCUS • OPEN AND C ANDID DIALO GUE • A DISCIPLINED, EVIDENCE-BA SED APPROACH TO DECISION MAKING • P E R S O N A L A C C O U N TA B L I I T Y I N T H E C O N T E X T O F O N E T E A M • ACHIEVE MORE WITH LESS

(See sidebar right.)

• RESTLESS DISCONTENT

We do this so we can calibrate performance around the world and

• L A S E R - L I K E F O C U S O N W H AT ' S I M P O RTA N T

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

17

Ron Zarrella

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

SOME

PL ANS

FOR

2005

• I N AU G U R AT I N G A G RO U N D B R E A K I N G " FA S T T R AC K " M A N A G E M E N T P RO G R A M , C A LLE D M O M E N T U M , F O R G R A D UAT I N G M B A S T U D E N TS , W I T H R E C RU I TM E N T F O R T H E P RO G R A M A I M E D AT I D E N T I F Y I N G D I V E R S E

a disciplined way, and how do you teach the interviewers how to get at those values? It’s one thing to learn what are the specific objective accomplishments of the individual’s past. It’s harder to get at whether this individual has the kind of values that are consistent with the cultural drivers that we’re trying to build in the company. And there are specific ways to train that in the interviewing process. We’ve brought in outside expertise to try to teach our people how to do it consistently across the organization.”

E M P LOY E E I N C LU S I V E N E S S

On the meaning of “diversity of thought”: “Our diversity initiatives are linked by a common theme emphasizing diversity of thought. The best ideas are generated in an environment that values inclusiveness and collaboration, where people’s different perspectives and talents are sought and considered to leverage our ability to delight customers and create customer loyalty.

This leads to increased creativity, innovation and high quality problem solving, which, in turn, lead to better, more competitive performance.

This whole issue of diversity of thought comes out of a very global business; more than 60% of our revenue comes from outside of the United States. And one of the things that you learn really early on is that pronouncements from on high don’t work when you’re dealing with so many different cultures. What does work is creating an environment

18

where people feel C A N D I DATE S I N TO P - T I E R B U S I N E S S S C H O O L S I N as if their voices are T H E U . S . A N D A B RO A D ; being heard and • CO N T I N U I N G G LO B A L I N T R A N E T S T R E A M I N G V I D E O they can contribute V I A B AU S C H & LO M B T V O N D I V E R S I T Y A N D regardless of where I N C LU S I V E N E S S I S S U E S ; they come from, what ethnicity they • E X PA N D I N G E M P LOY E E A F F I N I T Y G RO U P S WO R L D are, their gender, or W I D E BY S U P P O RT I N G A WO M E N ’ S N E T WO R K I N T H E N E T H E R L A N D S A N D A S A F E - S PAC E P RO G R A M their cultural backF O R G AY A N D LE S B I A N E M P LOY E E S I N I R E L A N D ; ground. So we work very hard at doing • EXTENDING OUR DIVERSIT Y AND INCLUSION INITIATIVE that. That’s really TO I N C LU D E A N D C E LE B R ATE T H E CO N T R I B U T I O N S the whole basis O F M A J O R I T Y G RO U P S F O R T H E I R C U LT U R A L A N D behind this notion B U S I N E S S CO N T R I B U T I O N S — A LO N G W I T H T H O S E O F WO M E N A N D P E O P LE O F CO LO R TO R E I N F O R C E of diversity of DIVERSIT Y OF thought.

THOUGHT AS THE Perhaps our P L AT F O R M F O R greatest opportunity DIVERSIT Y —and our greatest AT B AU S C H & LO M B . challenge—is to consistently practice inclusiveness. To example, when there’s a Polish holiday, achieve the best results, each of us when there’s St. Patrick’s Day or a must actively seek the views of German holiday, we want to also co-workers who are different from us, celebrate those days, we want to whether in age, culture, race, gender, emphasize the contributions and national or religious background, develop appreciation for every culture.” physical ability, even rank. If we don’t embrace differences and address diversity issues in the workplace, we On orienting and enriching reduce our ability to leverage talent employees in the diversity within the company and to achieve culture: the employee and customer satisfac- “Our new-employee orientation contion and loyalty that are essential to tinues for the first year of employment, and is both high-touch and our success.

Diversity and inclusion is for high-tech. Hiring managers receive a everyone, so we tried to go beyond variety of tools including an orientawhat are considered the ‘traditional’ tion guide and checklist to ensure that affinity groups, and include those who we meet the strategic goals (meeting may have felt left out because they are with key business contacts, setting not considered part of a “minority” initial performance goals) and admingroup. We have decided that, for istrative goals (orienting to office,

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

Feature

colleagues, communication systems, etc.).

New employees are directed to an intranet site for an overview of the company history, heritage, the business organizations, products, cultural drivers, and worldwide locations.

Employee affinity groups contact new employees to invite them to events. A New Hire Network will hold quarterly meetings on key information over an employee’s first year.

Managers are encouraged to continue discussions with new employees as they learn about the organization, to help employees to navigate the culture and become effective in their positions more quickly.”

On responsiveness to employee concerns: “Every year the company fields an annual employee satisfaction / engagement survey called ViewPoints.

There are questions in the survey that we benchmark to see how we’re doing, what’s called an Employee Commitment Index (ECI), that measures if your employees believe what you’re doing—are they motivated to accomplish your vision and your objectives, are they proud to work here, would they recommend working here to someone else?

In our most recent ViewPoints employee survey, our ECI score—the key measure of employee engagement linked in studies to impacting shareholder value—increased 19 points, six percentage points better than comparison companies.

ViewPoints also registered 88%

participation, its highest level ever.

There were dramatic improvements in the scores for the two biggest indicators of employee satisfaction: pride in the company and intention to stay with the company. We’re now nicely above the corporate median for U.S. companies and we’re moving up. And probably the biggest benefit of it is getting specific feedback from employee groups; we have a process where we take that feedback and meet with them to try to improve so that when they take the next survey the scores will be even better.

In addition, as CEO I hold quarterly state-of-the-business meetings in which we solicit and answer questions on any topic from employees (these meetings are webcast for employees to view as well). As CEO, I have established a set of seven cultural drivers that describe the ideal behaviors of our employees, and one of those is Open and Candid Dialogue, designed to solicit and encourage everyone to respectfully offer opinions and suggestions. I personally answer all e-mails from employees, and twice each month, I meet informally for open, frank discussions with a cross-section of employees.

Our employees’ interests and causes were also featured in 2004, as we inaugurated an annual Global Day of Caring in which nearly 10,000 employees worldwide participated in charitable volunteer activities in their home communities.”

Bausch & Lomb

On sharing employee diversity and inclusiveness: “In 2004, the company for the first time gave awards recognizing employees’ diversity accomplishments, featuring the winners and their accomplishments in a front-page story on the company’s intranet. Diversity topics are included in news items on our company intranet, and videotaped talks from outside experts on diversity and inclusiveness topics are featured on Bausch & Lomb TV, available for all employees worldwide.”

On employee benefits and worklife balance as diversity tools: “These components are very much intentional. For example, we’ve just had a complete benefits review that was a very successful process. We conducted numerous employee focus groups before we even started the process of thinking about different benefits. A lot of companies will review benefits programs today for the purpose of saving money. We took the approach that we were going to at least start from the standpoint of reviewing benefits to make sure that they are modern, desired, and motivational for employees. In the course of that work, the whole issue of choice, given people’s diverse and individual needs, really came through loud and clear. So we built a benefits package that has quite a bit of choice in it for employees.”

PDJ

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

19

Interview

The Boeing Company

Boeing’s Diversity Pilot A Close-up of Vice President Joyce Tucker

J

oyce E. Tucker, Vice President, Global Diversity and Employee Rights at Boeing, is this month’s featured Front-Runner. Her personal experiences working with mentally ill young people and self-championing fairness

and equity in the Illinois Dept. of Mental Health segued into service as founding Director of the Illinois Department of Human Rights, and later as Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner named by presidential appointment.

As someone who has worked “both sides” of the regulatory parameters for diversity in the field’s developing years, her story is rich with personal and conceptual history.

Please describe your career path and your motto, ‘With adversity comes determination and opportunity.’

“I’ll never forget the day back in 1972 at the Department of Mental Health where I was passed over for a promotion, from counselor to supervisor. I was surprised when my supervisor selected a less-experienced white male. It never occurred to me that out of the three positions being filled, I would not get one of the promotions. Like most people, I compared my work performance with those around me, and I knew I was doing a good job. When I asked my boss why I didn’t get the promotion he stated, ‘I can promote who I want.’ Well, he also said some other things, but I’ll leave those out. I knew this was unfair and believed it was discriminatory. I filed a grievance and won the promotion with back pay. I learned what it felt like to be discriminated against and to have to fight for what I deserved.

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

21

COMPANY

NAME:

The Boeing Company

HEADQUARTERS:

Chicago, Illinois WEBSITE:

www.boeing.com

This experience of sex and race

Their strong commitment to diversity

discrimination prompted me to pursue

convinced me that joining Boeing—

a law degree and embark on a career

even though it would be hard leaving

fighting discrimination. It paid off

my company—would be the right

because, a year later, the individual

thing to do. I accepted the position as

who heard the grievance offered me

vice president of global diversity and

my first job in the field. Subsequent to

relocated back home to Chicago. I’m

that, someone that I worked with and

very happy I made that decision.

who gave testimony in the hearing recommended

me

to

My career has evolved through a

then-Illinois

series of moves, none of which were

Governor James Thompson as the act-

planned. Situations or opportunities

ing director of the department of Equal

presented themselves, and I was at the

BUSINESS:

Employment Opportunity. This posi-

stage in my experience and my educa-

Boeing is the world’s leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft, with additional capabilities in rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, missiles, rocket engines, satellites, launch vehicles and advanced information and communication systems; research, design and technology development centers and programs in the U.S., Europe and Asia; and manufacturing, services and technology partnerships with companies around the world

tion led to my being appointed as the

tion where I was the right candidate for

first director of the newly created

the jobs. I like to say it’s when prepa-

Illinois Department of Human Rights

ration meets opportunity.

(IDHR). My experiences at IDHR led to

When I look back at it, I’m really

my appointment by President Bush as

pleased with my progression. I started

a

Equal

off in this career path as an affirmative

Employment Opportunity Commission;

action officer, at the entry level, and I

I served for six years.

was able to move up in level to the top

Commissioner

of

the

After leaving the Commission, my

of that career path, which was a presi-

former chief of staff and I formed a

dential appointee. I believe that my

consulting firm (I’m no longer a part-

experience as a consultant coupled

ner), Tucker Spearman and Associates.

with my government background

DEFINITION OF DIVERSIT Y/INCLUSION:

We helped our clients, Fortune 500

helped prepare me for the opportunity

companies, develop EEO and diversity

to help Boeing achieve its diversity

Diversity is the uniqueness each Boeing employee brings to the workplace—including differences such as nationality, religion, physical ability, race, gender, age, sexual orientation, job experience, education and position in the organization.

initiatives as well as affirmative action

vision.”

DATA:

PUSH conference, I was approached

“I believe that it is a lot easier on the

Employees: more than 159,000 people in 48 American states and 67 countries

by a headhunter about the opportunity

regulatory side. As an enforcement

at Boeing. This very persistent head-

official, you establish the rules and the

hunter just would not take ‘no’ for an

regulations. You say to corporations,

Customers: $52.5 billion sales in 2004; customers in 145 countries; international sales 30 percent; the United States’ largest exporter

answer, and scheduled interviews for

‘go forth and conquer’. It certainly is

me with the leadership at Boeing—the

easier saying it than doing it. The ironic

senior VP of HR, the general counsel,

thing is that now I actually have to live

and the CEO. I was really, really

with some of those regulations and

Suppliers: 5,250 suppliers in ~100 countries

impressed with what they had to say

mandates that I was part of developing;

about their vision for the company.

however, it is exciting and challenging

22

plans. I also provided expert witness testimony, and was one of three courtapproved monitors for the Mitsubishi consent decree.

In 2002, while I was at a Rainbow/

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

How do you compare the work of regulation/compliance versus that as a corporate diversity officer?

Interview

to see if we can do all the things that I

together a cross section of stakeholders

used to tell businesses they had to do.”

from around the enterprise and crafted a common mission, goals and initiatives

Please define diversity from your standpoint.

that serve as a roadmap. The amount of

“Diversity is really an important piece

asm we generated, and the support that

of the puzzle which joins with EEO

we have from our leaders who adopted

laws and affirmative action mandates.

this strategy as that of the entire com-

They help ensure that all individuals

pany have given increased momentum

are treated in a fair and non-

to our diversity and compliance efforts.

discriminatory fashion and can enjoy a

While I certainly can’t take total credit

work environment that allows them to

for this effort, I do think that my enthu-

be their most productive. The various

siasm and leadership in focusing our

civil rights laws prohibit unlawful

efforts contributed to the momentum.”

discrimination.

Affirmative

input in its development, the enthusi-

Joyce E. Tucker The Boeing Company

Adapted from Frontiers, Boeing’s employee website magazine:

WHAT IS

YOUR

DIVERSIT Y

PROFILE?

action

Each individual has a unique

mandates require that we make good

Are you incentivized as well?

faith efforts to hire individuals who

“I often say that I’ve got the best job in

were historically denied employment

the world at Boeing because I get paid

opportunities. Diversity says that it is

for doing what I would normally just

not enough to hire individuals for jobs

want to do otherwise. Yes, there are

that they are qualified for. You need to

company incentives and I am delighted

do more! Everyone needs to be able to

about that. However, while incentives

work in an environment that encourages

are encouraging in that everyone likes

them to do their best work, where they

to know when they’re doing good

are all appreciated and respected and

work and their work is valued and

where

are

appreciated, what really motivates me

valued. Diversity says the different

is the work itself and my team. It is

backgrounds, experiences, thoughts

rewarding and fulfilling both to know

and cultures that different people bring

that what you are doing is creating a

to the workplace increase innovation,

better environment for everyone and to

productivity, and ultimately sharehold-

work with a terrific group of people

er value. Diversity has to be something

doing so. I believe that our efforts are

we do purposely. At some point, the

making a difference for our employees

value of diversity will be engrained in

as well as improving Boeing’s bottom

our culture without our even thinking

line for shareholders.”

characteristics, such as union

What is your staff make-up?

affiliation and seniority.

their

contributions

diversity profile ...various elements create your profile: ... “internal dimensions,” are things that are innate, such as ethnicity ... “external dimensions,” are personal aspects of your life, such as parental status and education ... "organizational dimensions," are your work

about it.”

How have your activities as diversity leader made a difference at Boeing?

“Global Diversity and Employee Rights

“In developing our integrated diversity

ership team includes directors of cultural

and compliance strategy, we pulled

diversity, EEO compliance, affirmative

consists of about 92 employees in various locations around the country. My lead-

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

23

NAME:

Joyce E. Tucker

COMPANY:

Boeing

T I T L E : Vice President, Global Diversity and Employee Rights (part of HR) YEARS

IN

CURRENT POSITION:

3 years

E D U C A T I O N : Graduate of the University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign [“Go Illini!”]; graduate from John Marshall Law School, Chicago; licensed attorney in Illinois F I R S T J O B : My first job after college was as a substitute teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. Later, I became a childcare worker for the Illinois Department of Mental Health where I worked with mentally ill pre-adolescents, an experience that taught me what steps you take to change behavior that’s undesirable. When you learn something, you use it, either consciously or unconsciously. I spent a lot of time observing these children who had special needs, and trying to figure out what was going on in their world so that the right approach was used to help them.

My first job in the compliance/diversity field was as an EEO/AA officer developing affirmative action plans and implementing EEO mandates. Although the term ‘diversity’ wasn’t explicitly stated, the principles of diversity were always embedded in our efforts. Our goal was to get people to understand that everyone had a right to contribute without regard to any non-merit-based factor. Now, we are a bit more enlightened: now we say it’s not enough to tell people that they should value the contributions of everyone; we help them understand the approaches to valuing contributions and what that might look like.

L E G A C Y : I want to leave things better. I want to know that I made a difference, that the organization’s culture and individual work experiences and opportunities were improved because I was there.

W H A T I ' M R E A D I N G : When I’m not reading books or magazines like Building a House for Diversity, Working Together, and of course, Profiles in Diversity Journal, I’m reading motivational and inspirational books. Joyce Meyer and Charles Stanley are two authors I enjoy. I pretty much read everything. In fact, I have books in every room, and might be reading three books at the same time. I have so many books lying around that people sometimes ask whether I am doing research or writing a report. No, I just love to read. I’m sitting here looking at a stack of eight books that I bought — from a book of Nikki Giovanni’s poetry, to Flowering Bulbs for Dummies, and several books on Black history. Because my fondness for reading is well known, one of my friends gave me a portrait called Girl Reading that is in my home office.

F A M I L Y : I have a sister, Yasmin Bates, who is an executive vice president of Harris Bank here in Chicago. Yasmin is a fantastic person who inspires me, and she says I inspire her. I also have three fabulous nephews and a grandniece that I enjoy immensely. I get the most excitement from just watching my grandniece discover the world around her. We’re a pretty close family with lots of interests. A lot of our inspiration came from my uncle Russell, a physician, who modeled and taught us critical thinking. Now they teach classes on critical thinking.

I N T E R E S T S : Besides reading, I enjoy traveling with my sister. We usually take an annual trip together with a group called the Ultimate Road to Freedom. We trace our African roots, traveling to the various places throughout the world where people of color are somehow connected—it’s an educational and inspirational trip. Last year we visited the aboriginals in Australia; this year the group went to Egypt.

Another thing I like to do is dance. And one of my favorite dances is “Steppin’”… Chicago is known for “Steppin’.” I even have a nephew (Kenny) who teaches "Steppin’.”

Music also inspires and energizes me, and I like all kinds— rap, R&B, jazz, blues, country and others. What surprises my friends, and some of my family, is that I enjoy rap music. I have even discussed rap music with my 21-year old nephew who’s in college. A lot of people sometimes get caught up in the negative and a lot of rap is negative. But if you listen closely you can hear that these kids are talking about their environment and the challenges they face—and not all of it is pretty, but it’s real. I think it’s in our best interest to know what they’re up against. Besides the message, I also like the beat.

DESK

D R A W E R M U N C H I E S : Peanut butter has always been a part of my life, so right now in my office desk drawer I have peanut butter and crackers. It gives me a quick energy boost to get me through the day. My team knows when I’m fading and they’ll usually ask me if I’ve eaten anything.

24

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

Interview

Joyce E. Tucker The Boeing Company

action, and employee rights, each with

towards meeting our strategy objec-

to teach and develop more cross-

their own teams. We also have a small

tives, and provide skill-based training to

cultural understandings. And that’s hap-

research unit that benchmarks cutting

our HR professionals and other enter-

pening—for

edge best practices in the areas of EEO,

prise employees. We also have region-

American affinity group has Hispanics

affirmative action and diversity. In addi-

al one-day diversity summits across the

and Native Americans and Asian

tion, my team continues to review the

company and a diversity change agent

Americans as members. The White

latest diversity and compliance training

program which is open to all managers

employees’ affinity group has an

available.”

and employees.”

African American as their executive

instance

the

African

champion. Coalitions and collabora-

Speaking of best practices and What is the role of Boeing’s initiatives, which ones further many affinity groups?

“Last year the number of affinity groups your mission?

tions are definitely advantages in creat-

“One example of what we thought was

within Boeing jumped from 30 to 60.

a best practice internally is the

This is because we made it clear at our

What are corporate international goals and activities?

cultural diversity training that we are

annual and regional summits that

“We include international goals for

now rolling out enterprise-wide. It was

Boeing supported affinity groups and

diversity and compliance as part of our

brought to our attention that one of the

saw them as a key resource to our

integrated strategy. In addition, we are

business units was utilizing a team of

strategy

Affinity

reaching out to our international sites to

cultural anthropologists to provide

groups at Boeing exist to support the

find out what they’re doing in the areas

cultural diversity training to various

company’s diversity strategy as well as

of EEO compliance and diversity as

segments of its organization. Because

to provide mentoring support to their

well as what kind of support they need

the feedback was consistently enthusi-

members, visibility to high level execs,

from headquarters. We just came back

astic, I met with the anthropologists and

and developmental opportunities. Each

from Canada, where we met with HR

they demonstrated the training for me.

of our affinity groups has an executive

leaders and their global diversity and

I was so impressed with the demon-

champion that supports their activities

equity council. We also met with a cross

stration that I had my team, which then

and provides them with advice and

section of employees to talk about dif-

consisted of approximately 20 employ-

mentoring.

ferent diversity issues. We presented

ees, take the complete 40-hour, 5-day

implementation.

They fall within ten cluster groups:

I found this training so

Ability Awareness, African American,

beneficial that I asked the consultants to

Asian American, American Indian,

partner with me when I met with

Hispanic

Boeing executives at the Boeing

Bisexual

program.

Gay

our integrated strategy to a team of managers.

It is our intention to conduct these

Lesbian

types of meetings at our Boeing sites in

White,

other countries to ensure that we are

Leadership Center to share the diversity

Multicultural, New Hire, and Women.

complying with the various EEO or

and compliance strategy.

Our affinity groups are open to all

employment equity laws and mandates

Boeing

Each year our organization holds a

American,

ing an inclusive environment.”

Transgender,

of

as well as to increase their multicultural

diversity and compliance summit that is

whether they possess the characteristics

employees

regardless

awareness. We really want to help

attended by our top executives, includ-

of that particular culture group. We

ensure that they are respecting and tak-

ing the Chairman, CEO and CFO.

encourage affinity group members to

ing advantage of the diverse talent that

During this summit, our leaders provide

support each other’s groups. This

is available to them. We also want to

their views, expectations, support for

approach provides them with opportu-

recognize them for their progress and

and commitment to diversity. My team

nities to learn and grow, and it provides

commitment to diversity.

and I provide updates on our success

those within the groups opportunities

For example, in one of our Canada

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

25

REMARKS FROM JOYCE’S TEAM

locations, their Deaf Issues Committee

developmental candidates. Individuals

has been instrumental in creating sig-

on these plans are being developed

nificant tactics to help improve com-

through formal and informal mentoring

munication within their group and with

approaches as well as leadership train-

their work teams. There are 24 deaf

ing and rotational programs.

employees at our Winnipeg site. This is

Personally, I’ve always looked for

We have this

that person to whom I can pass the

number of deaf employee because the

baton. It is important that people in

Winnipeg office has done such a good

leadership positions share their knowl-

Joyce brings a passion, “expertise and credibility which rejuvenated the diversity effort here at Boeing. ” has a very collabora“tiveJoyce style—she likes to weigh

job of creating the atmosphere where

edge and experiences—it’s about

the deaf employees feel valued and

teaching, listening, and helping individ-

welcome. Because of their positive

uals develop and grow because you do

experience these employees have

want your organization to succeed.”

work. This is the best type of recruit-

What are your department’s next challenges and goals?

things, use folks as sounding boards, likes to be used as a sounding board. We say, `you never stop working for Joyce’—she uses her past workers as resources; she has that kind of huge network, bigger than anybody I know.

ment we can have. The diversity that

“We’ve got so many great things going

this group brings—the difference that

on, I just want to try to get them to

makes a difference—is valued.”

completion. Part of our mission was to

“

”

Joyce is just as comfortable sitting next to President Bush on the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Advisory Council as she is doing the ‘electric slide’ with her team.

”

I like that Boeing takes “diversity to all levels. We even have Profiles in Diversity Journal on our website for anyone and everyone in the company to use. And our website even models inclusion in its technology: we have a priority 3 level of accessibility for people with disabilities.

”

26

not a coincidence.

spread the word to their families and friends that Boeing is a great place to

drive diversity, equity and fairness into

Are employee satisfaction levels measured?

all of our policies, procedures and

“Yes, Boeing has an employee satisfaction

that. Our executives are incorporating

survey distributed to our entire work-

diversity and compliance—not as after-

force. It includes specific diversity state-

thoughts but as a part of what they

ments to determine employee satisfac-

value—into their business plans.

processes. We’re on the way to doing

tion around these issues: 1) my work

We’re looking at enhancing our

group has a climate where diverse

scorecards to find ways to get more

perspectives are valued and 2) in my

management accountability in diversi-

work group, all employees are treated

ty. I am pleased to say that an increas-

fairly, regardless of their differences,

ing number of our leaders are holding

such as work experiences, race,

their managers accountable for diversi-

gender, sexual orientation, etc.

It’s

ty efforts by adding diversity to their

important that we clarify in our

business score cards. We’re working to

questions what we mean by diversity.”

incorporate multicultural leadership into our first and second line supervi-

Fortune magazine and others are predicting an upcoming brain drain—how is leadership continuity in diversity going to happen at Boeing?

sor trainings at our Leadership Center.

“Boeing has a succession planning

tional efforts. At our 2005 Global

process that identifies both ready and

Diversity and Compliance Summit, we

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

We’re always trying to look at best practices. I look forward to seeing all of these important initiatives completed.

Another initiative is our interna-

Interview

had an international breakout session.

ready to just sit and talk with you to

The panel included Boeing representa-

guide you. Harold did that for me. He

tives from Canada, Germany, and the

would take me to meetings that he had

United Kingdom. We talked about the

with other politicians, and I’d just sit

different diversity and compliance

there and listen. And at the end of the

issues that some of our sites in the

day, he’d ask me what I had learned.

other countries are experiencing. That

He taught me how to ‘work a room’, to

segment will grow and we will reach

meet people, talk with people, engage,

out to more of our international sites.

get your questions answered. He, and

Since their lives and their requirements

a couple other people I found out later,

and their cultural issues are so differ-

recommended me to Illinois Governor

ent, we really have to go country by

James Thompson for the position of

country.”

Director of Human Rights.

And the third person is Reverend

Obviously people noticed you and put you forward for opportunities. Who were your models or mentors?

Jesse Jackson, Sr. He, like Harold, was

“There are several people, and I’ll men-

bad press? How do you handle that?’

tion three. One was John O’Leary, my

and ‘How do you prioritize the issues

first boss in the EEO area. He was the

that you’re committed to doing?’ You

chief hearing officer and the kind of

do need someone with more experi-

person who loved to teach. I had lots

ence in the area to provide guidance

of questions as the field was new and I

and direction.

very instructive, available to guide and listen. I would often ask questions like, ‘What do you do when there’s some

didn’t know much about it. Several

I believe if you’re willing to ask the

times a day I would just go and pick his

questions there are many people who

brain, and I would say, ‘Mr. O’Leary,

are willing to guide you. If they see that

what about….’ And we would debate

you’re listening, and you’re really

issues and have discussions. I would

interested in improving how you do a

follow him around just listening to how

particular thing, or learning about it,

he solved problems and to see how he

they’ll help you.”

tried to help people. He didn’t have a problem with my shadowing him.

How do you mentor?

I learned a lot from him and we still

“I would say I mentor informally. As

keep in touch.

I’m sure my staff can tell you, there’s

The next person was Harold

always a story. Someone will come in

Washington who, at the time I met him,

with a question and I’ll say, ‘Let me tell

was a Senator. Harold later became a

you a story.’ And I have informal

congressperson and the first African-

protégés at Boeing and outside of the

American mayor of Chicago. Harold

company. Sometimes they’ll say to me,

co-sponsored the bill creating the

‘You’re my mentor,’ and sometimes

Illinois Department of Human Rights. If

they’ll just call up saying, ‘This is the

you had a thirst for knowledge, he was

situation; how do you think I should

Joyce E. Tucker The Boeing Company BOEING CENTER

LEADERSHIP

“In support of Boeing’s strategic global diversity initiative, the Florissant,Mo.– based Leadership Center incorporates a diversity-focused curriculum into its courses—including the Boeing Executive Program II, Leadership Development Course, and Global Leadership Program. The goal is to encourage managers to value and leverage multiple perspectives, experiences and skills, and integrate them into practices and processes at Boeing.

The Center’s Diversity Change Agent Program is a 2.5-day course designed to help participants from all levels within Boeing to become change agents around Boeing’s diversity commitment. Course objectives include identifying cultural differences and developing strategies for dealing effectively in a multicultural environment and practicing ways to lead and manage change in the workplace.

At our Annual Diversity and Compliance Summit, we wrap up the year, report progress and talk about successes achieved during the year.

We present awards to individuals who have championed diversity and to organizations that have put diversity or EEO compliance improvement processes in place. At this year’s summit, attendance topped 500.

Senior leadership who attended and presented at the summit included our CEO, the Chairman of the Board, our CFO, general counsel, and senior vice president of ethics as well as our business unit presidents. I would say 95% of our top leadership were there (those who weren’t there had schedule conflicts with the program).

One of our leaders even said that the summit was such a sought-after program that they were competing with each other for the best spots.

Our senior leaders were really someplace they wanted to be and they felt it was important for them to be there. Such great support. I couldn’t do it alone.

At Boeing, diversity is everyone’s responsibility. It’s not just an HR thing, it’s a leadership issue.”

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

27

Interview

Joyce E. Tucker The Boeing Company

handle it? Have you ever found yourself in this situation?’

That’s something that I’ve always done. It seems as though the more experience you get, the more people NETWORKING TWO

DIVERSIT Y:

INSTRUMENTS

BOEING

HAS DEVELOPED TO NETWORK ITS

MANY

INTANGIBLES

DIVERSIT Y AFFINIT Y

COUNCILS

ARE

AND

GROUPS.

tend to come to you. People who are looking for a mentor have to be kind of brave. For the most part, the people that you’re looking to mentor you are all

busy

people.

And

if

you’re

intimidated by the fact that they’re Diversity councils are employee groups that draw together people from every part of a given business site and work together with the site Diversity Focal as an internal consultant group to site leadership by developing, communicating and deploying

busy, you’ll never get an audience with them. At Boeing, I think everyone is pretty accessible to the extent their

Boeing diversity efforts were instrumental in helping Aerospace Support win the 2003 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

schedules allow. It’s not unusual at all for someone to ask my assistant if I’m available, and she’ll buzz me and say,

out of each others’ offices. I think peo-

‘somebody wants to step in for a

ple like to feel that their bosses work as

site-level diversity business initiatives.

minute’ and then they’re in. That

hard as they do or even harder. I have

These include site-specific practices and

minute runs sometimes into half an

found that it’s easy to inspire people

processes such as employee development

hour or so if the time is right. Or maybe

who love what you love. We are very

programs, recruiting plans, diversity train-

somebody in the hallway or on the

passionate about diversity, and it

ing, ethnic-culture awareness and align-

elevator says ‘I’d like to talk to you, is

shows in all of us. What’s working for

ment of diversity teams with other teams

that okay?’ Well, of course it’s okay.

us is we feel like we’re doing good

such as Employee Involvement.

But I think the key thing about

work and we’re helping people.”

finding a mentor is there’s got to be Affinity groups are a voluntary way for

chemistry, some kind of connection

people to come together to further their

between the mentee and the mentor

personal and professional development,

that has nothing to do with gender,

What does your future after Boeing look like? What will you be doing?

promote diversity, meet new people, enjoy

race or background. And if there’s a

“I would be working with some of the

social activities and network. They are

connection, you make yourself easy to

advocacy groups that I work with now:

mentor. That mentor needs to want to

Rainbow/PUSH would be one, and

be around you—there’s got to be

Boys & Girls Clubs. I’d probably be

something in you that they want to

doing more work with the Chicago

inspire and help.”

chapter of National Conference for

employee associations—each with a Boeing executive champion—whose members share a common interest, such as race, gender or cultural identity. Affinity groups are not exclusive, but inclusive:

Community and Justice, or perhaps

How would you describe your leadership style and teamwork?

working with some young women’s

president of any affinity group at a particular

“I’m fairly hands-on and have pretty

consulting in this field as I can’t really

site is an ex officio member of every other

much of an open door policy. I say

see a time when I wouldn’t want to

affinity group at that site. We also

‘pretty much’ because I do occasionally

stay involved. I would be like my

encourage employees to join each other’s

shut my door to prepare for a presen-

grandmother, who said it’s a good

groups, to learn about other cultures and

tation or meeting. My team works very

thing she retired because she had so

the value they bring to the workplace.

well together, and we’re often in and

much stuff to do.”

they are open to everyone and the

28

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

organizations. I might even do some

PDJ

Feature

Roche Diagnostics

Roche Diagnostics: a Healthy Prescription for Diversity Roche Diagnostics, a division of Roche Group (Basel, Switzerland) supplies a wide array of innovative medical testing products— including the world’s leading blood glucose test—as well as services to researchers, physicians, patients, hospitals and laboratories worldwide. North American sales for 2004 were $1.9 billion. Roche employs ~65,000 people in 150 countries and has strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai.

E

arly this year—its U.S. centennial—Roche Diagnostics announced its highest-ever operating profit for 2004 as well as projections that sales would continue to grow faster than the market in 2005. Also in the first quarter, Roche joined the Fortune list of best companies to work for (number 97); climbed to number 21 on Training magazine’s 2005 Top 100 list for workforce training and development; and was given the Diversity Award for Development by the city of Indianapolis. Leaders working around diversity would consider these facts not merely coincidental but a prime demonstration of the “business case” for diversity and inclusiveness.

Acknowledging the awards and describing Roche’s culture, Patti Ayars (pictured left), Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Communications, says “relationships drive our CO M PA NY: Roche Diagnostics business. As a company, we have many diverse C o r p o ra t i o n customers with unique needs. To serve those HEADQUARTERS: I n d i a n a p o l i s , I n d i a n a needs we are committed to providing a culture of trust and open communications that taps the W E B S I TE : w w w. ro c h e - d i a g n o s t i c s . u s

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

31

full potential of the unique individuals who work for us.”

Unique outlook: walking the broad & narrow Patti says that while it doesn’t seem like the most profound question, the definition of diversity at Roche Diagnostics is distinctive from that at a lot of other companies. For starters, Roche considers diversity from two perspectives: broad and narrow.

“Narrow diversity refers to apparent differences primarily related to ethnic, racial, gender, or physical attributes, if you will; and broad diversity encompasses differences in thinking and behavior, experiences and background.”

As a government contractor, Roche has obligations and reporting requirements within the scope of ‘narrow’ diversity, including providing representation statistics as well as information about programs. But Patti believes very strongly that companies need broad diversity as well as narrow diversity, not only to adequately meet representation and business objectives or to approach customers, but as complementary forces for enriching the culture. “The compliance component of where we are from a diversity standpoint is essential and one we can’t take for granted. However, it takes a broader scope to have diversity be a competitive advantage.”

The distinctive paradigm for Roche’s work with diversity, Patti believes, is supported by the company’s European roots. “Europeans live day to day with broad diversity—it is a way of life for them and they don’t even think of it as diversity. It’s simply dealing with people from different backgrounds. There’s a lot to learn from how Europeans deal with the diversity in their lives. They enter into the other person’s reality; many Europeans are multilingual, they don’t just expect others to adapt to their language. They find common goals and ways to adapt and work together.

This model is not without its

32

challenges, and there is an inherent level of conflict that comes with broad diversity. It’s easier to have a homogenous workforce; but it does not necessarily lead to a higher level of productivity, or a more effective outcome, in my view. Creating a diverse workforce is something that you need to actively manage to leverage the inherent tension that can be a source of creativity and innovation.”

Another facet of Roche’s corporate perspective on diversity is its belief in partnering rather than amalgamation. While Roche has majority ownership of Genentech, as well as the Chugai company in Japan, both operate independently of Roche, as separate entities. “This demonstrates,” explains Patti, “our respect for the diversity that each of these companies brings as independent entities. Roche has appreciation for the value that can be created by having networks and segments of the business where things are done very differently, versus having only one way, or consolidating.”

Engaging employees, suppliers, marketplace Roche Diagnostics’ Human Resources Director, Cris Wilbur, describes the firm’s diversity strategy as a structure based on three pillars or areas of focus: 1) representation, 2) people engagement, and 3) supplier and marketplace diversity. “We have a major focus on driving/tapping the full potential of our people; but we are looking at all three areas. A key element of our strategy is interweaving diversity into everything that we do—how we bring new people into our organization; performance management; how we develop our leadership; how we embrace and drive action-oriented affinity groups; everything.”

A cornerstone for the Roche diversity strategy, Patti confirms, is not wanting diversity to be just a ‘program,’ destined to fail because diversity activities are not integrated into the core of the company’s business. “Our

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

goal is for diversity to be part of all that we do. We are making extraordinary efforts to make Roche Diagnostics an employer of choice, to challenge our people to think differently about business problems and issues, and take risks to create a higher level of results.”

To that end, Roche Diagnostics has trained to date about 2500 (over 70 percent) of its U.S.-based employees in a program called “Lead from where you are.” The concepts for this training include trust and how to build positive relationships as well as how to lead change. Posited on the belief that merely changing behavior around diversity and risk-taking does not necessarily produce permanent change, the training for Lead from where you are aims to fundamentally change people’s thinking about themselves, about each other, and about the business.

One approach Roche utilizes for addressing and transforming employees’ self direction is its DIA*Log for Success process—an integrated goalsetting, feedback, assessment, and development process. Every year, each person has development conversations with their manager to explore their strengths and development areas and to focus on helping them realize goals and their potential. Patti says “There are three separate conversations: the goal-setting conversation lets us be clear with people about what’s expected; mid-year there is a development conversation; and the achievement conversation is when you talk about what you’ve accomplished over the previous year.

Obviously there are conversations that go on in between, to make sure that the development plan is being implemented and to make sure that goals are being attained as well.”

Patti says the DIA*Log for Success process works to tap the full potential of all Roche’s people and is a factor in obviating resistance that can often arise in response to diversity ‘initiatives’ or ‘programs’. “Our DIA*Log for

Feature

Success process is very inclusive in that it is utilized by every person, and focuses on the individual’s strengths and aspirations as well. It goes much further than sending everybody to awareness training, and works to treat each individual uniquely, tapping their full contribution and potential.”

Invitations to the party

Roche Diagnostics

Roche Diagnostics’ Human Resources Director, Cris Wilbur, describes the firm’s diversity strategy as a structure based on three pillars or areas of focus: 1) representation, 2) people engagement, and 3) supplier and marketplace diversity.

Illustrating Roche’s up-front consideration of inclusiveness and diversity among its workforce is the fact that it often specifically targets for hire people outside the healthcare industry to fill various positions. For example, one of its service businesses intentionally hired someone from the computer industry, in particular, to enlarge its management perspective and invite fresh ideas coming from outside the industry.

All Roche employees are invited to drive innovation— and the company explicitly declares this expectation on its website’s invitation, and challenge, to job applicants: …We need people who make change possible. New solutions can only be found when we are prepared to abandon old points of view when necessary and question well-worn procedures.

What we expect from you is openmindedness, creativity and a real desire to create something new.

Roche prepares staff for this kind of calculated and informed risk-taking as part of a team through various training programs, including the Lead from where you are sessions. Cris and Patti both cite as example a component of that activity that continues to prove powerful in shifting employees’ thinking, called The Wedding Party.

“We simulate a wedding party with all of the appropriate roles,” says Patti. “The bride, the groom, the mother

of the bride, the organist, the pastor, etc.; but with a twist, in that people are given a ‘hidden’ identity as either someone that everyone wants to be associated with, or someone nobody cares about. And we are not discriminatory. So the ‘bride’, who could be a man, may have the card that signals they’re not an important person. It’s quite fun because people really get into it, but it’s also a tremendous learning experience because what often happens is the ‘in-crowd’ people form a closed circle, while the ‘outcrowd’ people get the message that they’re really unimportant, and, in some cases, even begin to plot against the ‘in-crowd’ people.”

What follows is discussion about how these roles translate to their work

groups, how it feels to be in the ‘outcrowd’, and what that might do to someone’s productivity, commitment, and motivation. “The Eye of the Storm video further drives the point home, and people get the learning on a very emotional level,” Patti says, “rather than leaving with ‘I get that there are differences in people, so what’s the big deal?’”

Just launching this year and open to all employees across the Indianapolis campus are cultural competency workshops that seek to drive a deeper understanding of differences among people. Cris says the plan is for five or six themes this year, including women in the workplace; changing stereotypes and challenges in the Asian Pacific American community;

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

33

and people with disabilities. Roche involves its greater community to participate in these sessions, and Cris says the nuances of broad diversity concepts are targeted: “The one on women (balancing career and family; mentors and role models; subtle assumptions that can work against women) will be led by a director from the Purdue University Women in Science Program; and Noble of Indiana, an agency that works with companies in the area to help employ people with disabilities, is Roche’s partner for the disabilities session.”

Communicating in-house and beyond, Roche also encourages people to speak up about what’s on their minds through multiple forums for bringing ideas forward, including regular dialogues with management, a website that flows into corporate or division channels, and suggestion boxes and/or town hall meetings at some sites for open dialogue and brainstorming.

Of course, affinity groups, a standard in diversity considerations, are grassroots founded and management supported at Roche. The diversity consultant coaches would-be affinity group founders about the objectives and parameters for forming one, and helps them connect with others who might have a common interest via some of those same in-house channels.

What’s perhaps distinctive at Roche is that affinity groups are supported not just for lunch-and-learn or social events, but in launching their own development activities for fellow employees and the community. One example is the Roche Employees of African Descent (READ) affinity group. READ members launched and are actually conducting for Roche a unique pilot mentoring program that the company will use as a framework and model for expansion throughout the organization.

As Patti notes, “this is a great example of how we’re working in partnership with the affinity group to satisfy a need they have, that simultaneously leverages their work and helps them be leaders from where they are to impact the company.”

Employee development opportunities Roche’s scope of operations lends itself to a diversity of activity and opportunities that are offered—everything from warehouse and production jobs, to PhD laboratory and research positions, to IT as well as sales and marketing positions. The company support for employee development includes on-line training classes; mechanisms for people to job-shadow in an area for a day or so; and a tuition refund program for funding continuing education.

The company also piloted an allday learning session last year called The Game of Life that focuses on work/life balance. This unique and creative session accomplishes three objectives: • Creates awareness of life/work balance, stressors, and areas of contentment for individuals as well as work groups; •

Provides a safe, engaging, and uninterrupted time of personal reflection for developing a personal plan for improved work/life balance and contentment;

•

Brainstorms and prioritizes actions that a business leader can take to demonstrate commitment to work/life balance (i.e., behaviors, services, tools, etc.).

In addition to individual and business rewards from these sessions, Game of Life sessions provide valuable feedback for senior leadership that serves as a catalyst for earnest dialogue and exploration of how behaviors shape culture. The leadership team has commited to continual learning about what is important to people, enabling them to ask for what they need, and accommodating requests where possible.

Real life at work

“Roche Diagnostics—join an extraordinary community …enjoy an atmosphere of innovation … where you can leave your mark.” www.roche-diagnostics.us

34

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

Work/life issues such as those explored in the Game of Life sessions are important to being an employer of choice, and Roche sets high standards, both philosophically and actually, as Cris explains. “Our philosophy is that not everybody has the same needs— not everyone has children or the same interests. Our objective is to create the kind of environment where our people can have more than just work colleagues here; we do that by the culture we have and by what we nurture.” Roche provides a 150-acre corporate campus that includes green gathering space in a courtyard and

Feature

walkways through its own park.

Activities available range from a holiday choir for people who like to sing, to a gardening group which tends plots in the campus park, to leagues and tournaments for softball, soccer, and golf.

“Roche lives up to our conviction,” says Patti, “that the greater partnership and flexibility an organization shows, the more commitment people will have to that organization because they are being recognized as a whole person, not just an employee.” Roche offers employees—and has built into its operations—a variety of flexible work arrangements, including compressed work weeks; tele-commuting; and a summer hours program wherein people can cover their work Monday through half-day Friday, and then take Friday afternoons off in the summertime.

While these accommodations may be foresighted but increasingly standard, Roche dynamically facilitates employee health and well-being and offers on-site conveniences few companies can match: • on-site nurses and a nurse practitioner for health-related questions and referrals; •

•

•

health screenings including mobile mammography, skin cancer screenings, and wellness profiles—an extensive evaluation of blood chemistry offered by appointment at various times; fitness classes and health motivation services (on-campus Weight Watchers® and seated massages; periodic classes about healthy eating, cancer prevention and early detection, and family fitness); time-saving opportunities such as dry cleaning service, postage, greeting cards, ATM machines, and cafeteria with catering for personal events.

Operational support for work/life balance at Roche includes equipping many of its people with the ability to conduct and facilitate virtual meetings with state-of-the-art software and systems, as well as secured broadband access capabilities to allow people who work in the field, at home or abroad the opportunity to communicate with colleagues.

Community/supplier/customer outreach Roche’s communication and relationships with its community, suppliers and customers are a natural extension of its hands-across-thetable culture for its employees. As Cris sums it, “We constantly want to mirror the community and make sure that we are driving the appropriate types of relationships and building partnerships with organizations like National Black MBA, or the National Society for Hispanic MBAs, and the Asian-American Alliance. We continue to see opportunities for engaging our people, the suppliers, and the marketplace.”

A notable example of engaging its constituencies and promoting the greater well-being of people was Roche’s launching last year of an exceptional community outreach.

Recognizing the particularly high and rising risk of Type II diabetes for African Americans, the company tapped its contacts in community leadership and agencies. Considering the reach and influence of the church environment for that population, Roche health professionals went to churches in the Indianapolis area to talk about diabetes and help people understand the various factors that could affect overall health.

Cris says, “It was a pilot program, and a very unorthodox way to demonstrate to our community our concern about health, and about improving the lives of people with diabetes. We wanted to reach out to them in places where they’re more comfortable to talk.”

Roche Diagnostics

Operational support for work/life balance at Roche includes equipping many of its people with the ability to conduct and facilitate virtual meetings with stateof-the-art software and systems, as well as secured broadband access capabilities to allow people who work in the field, at home or abroad the opportunity to communicate with colleagues.

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

35

Feature

“Roche Diagnostics is the market leader in the health information market. Not surprisingly our main goal is to keep things that way.…We need people who make change possible.… who are real team players. …But above all else, we expect the people working with us to be passionately committed to what they do. If you are ready to deliver that kind of dedication and your abilities match our needs – we cordially invite you to get in touch with us, soon.” www.roche-diagnostics.us

36

Roche Diagnostics

In similar fashion, intra-company and inter-agency collaboration helped stage a successful Supplier Diversity Fair last September on the Roche campus square. Display booths, presentations, and speakers were part of the face-to-face exchange that involved all Roche’s main suppliers.

The event, reports Patti, “was an opportunity for suppliers to get to know the Roche team a little better and to share our strategy. In particular, it was a great opportunity for small businesses to educate Roche people about their products and services. Our affinity groups were also there talking with vendors, other employees on breaks, and people in the community.

The presence of so many of our leadership team demonstrated that diversity is something critical to us.”

In addition, other community resources engaged in diversity issues—including Noble of Indiana, Quest, Fineline Printing, the Indianapolis Urban League, the AsianAmerican Alliance, the National Black MBA Association—got to share their perspectives on the impact of supplier diversity programs. Cris reports that subsequently there was a “nice uptake” in the business conducted with women-owned businesses, and Roche received the local Small Business Administration “highly successful” rating for use of diverse suppliers, especially women-owned and small businesses.

Customers Servicing everything from a 1,000-bed hospital, to reference laboratories, to individual consumers who use its Accu-Chek™ blood glucose monitor daily to maintain their health, Roche is keenly alert to issues of varied customer needs. Roche’s Professional Health Services business is a novel response to its diverse and changing marketplace, Patti says. “For many years what we sold was basically equipment and the reagents. When we realized our customers needed a solution provider, we entered into the

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

consulting business. Our representatives in the field assess individual customer requirements and help devise solutions: one customer might need IT integration support assistance; another might need assistance in change management; and another may want Six Sigma training for their staff.”

Patti says providing such customized service gives them a strong competitive advantage. “I can’t tell you that X dollars of new business have been driven by focusing on diversity, but can I tell you that I am confident that this focus will drive our business? Absolutely.” She also cites an example of Roche’s management of a narrow diversity issue in its predominantly Hispanic market in Texas: where before they had no Spanishspeaking representatives, Roche made a concerted effort to hire people to mirror the culture and have language competency to enhance customer relationships. “As one of our Texas customers commented, ‘you really get it now’.”

Metrics and Methods Anecdotal evidence aside, how does Roche track the effectiveness of its efforts to engage employees, vendors, customers, and the communities in which it operates? Roche uses many of the industry’s basic metrics to track numbers and benchmark (Walker Information national surveys; participation in Fortune’s best places to work selection process), but Cris Wilbur says they also look holistically at the relationships behind the numbers.

She says conducting an employee commitment survey every 18 months serves several purposes: “First, it is our primary numerical measurement for measuring people’s level of engagement in and commitment to the organization. In addition, out of that survey we run about 65 reports specific to various business areas, because the issues in our production areas are not the same as our sales and marketing areas. It allows us to

Feature

“The greater flexibility an organization shows, the more commitment people will have because they’re seen as a whole person, not just an employee.”

Roche Diagnostics

recognize the diversity of our people’s concerns: one group may have an issue regarding fairness in policy whereas another might want broadband service at home in order to increase their productivity. Our being very active in follow-up and action plans to address those unique needs helps drive the sense of inclusion and importance and engage our people.”

For the 2004 Employee Commitment Survey, the company was near-best in class (49%) against national benchmarks (24% average) in both its commitment index as well as in its ‘truly loyal’ population.

The survey can link to management compensation, in that 20% of the incentive received by eligible managers is tied to leadership and managers’ tapping the potential of their people. For various managers, for example, the incentive might be tied to particular survey areas needing improvement, or to developing certain skills and competencies in their people to meet changing market factors. Other data of note are: • “very low” turnover numbers: for 2004, for voluntary and involuntary, the rate was 6.9% (for 2003 it was 5.8%); •

a very strong internal promotion rate: 42% of over 800 positions filled in 2004 were filled with internal people;

•

70% of director-and-above positions, are filled with internal people.

While the statistics are commendable, Roche’s diversity leadership team notes that there is

38

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

still work to be done. In the face of the rapid and dramatic change in the medical/ healthcare industry, driven in large part by the dynamics of costs as well as a graying population, the company’s ability to innovate is critical.

As Patti summarizes, “Diagnostics are an undervalued component of the healthcare value chain: though a large percentage of decisions are based on diagnostic information, a small percentage of the dollars spent are for diagnostics.

Early diagnosis, predisposition identification, and monitoring —these are significant areas where we can play a role in the solution for healthcare costs as well as support healthier people, and that’s the end game. To drive innovation you have to think ‘what is the future going to look like?’ Our work in diversity leadership at Roche Diagnostics is finding what each of our unique employees is passionate about and then helping them to apply that energy to their work; that’s tapping the full human potential, and it’s really good for the business.”

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40

Dell’s Women’s Summit

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

Global Issues for Women

by Laura L. Barton photography by Barton Wilder Custom Images

Professionals in the diversity arena recently came together at Dell’s Texas Headquarters for a summit to talk about issues of concern to women in the workplace, in particular regional similarities and distinctions worldwide. Several research studies provided the basis and data for fine points of discussion, including whether to label programs specifically “for women.”

“

I

f you want to truly understand something, try to change it,” Ann M. Fudge, chairman and CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands, told the 30-plus diversity advocates, more than half from Fortune 500 companies, gathered at a recent

global women’s summit sponsored by Dell and Diversity Best Practices.

H E A RT O F T H E M AT TE R

Seeking greater understanding and tools for implementing change, they had convened to review and discuss the findings of a recent study funded by Dell and fielded by Harris Interactive. The online study—polling 248 upper-level women managers and executives from seven multinational companies in more than 35 countries—probed perceptions, experiences and opinions regarding issues facing

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

41

Feature

“There’s a lot of talent out there and probably none of us is doing what we can or need to do to access that talent.

Dell’s Women’s Summit

women in the workforce. The under-

of Education predicts an annual

lying query of the research was “What

growth rate in male college graduates

can multinational corporations do to

at only 1.3%.

address the changing role of women

Woodard underscored the impor-

in different cultures to affect recruit-

tance of these statistics, saying, “Not

ment, advancement, and retention?”

only is this something that we need to

Spurred by the growing concern

focus on today, but also it’s going to

among business leaders that there is a

be much more meaningful, much

“brain drain” in the corporate arena

more impactful in the future. It also

consequent to talented women leav-

means that there’s a lot of talent out

ing the workplace because of the

there and probably none of us is

demands of life/work balance, a spate

doing what we can or need to do to

of studies such as the Dell-sponsored

access that talent. I see this as a huge

poll attempt to unravel the complexi-

opportunity for each of us.”

ties of the issue. The Center for Work-

Two days of debate and discus-

Life Policy reports that a combination

sion followed Woodard’s opening

of demographic and labor market

remarks as attendees tussled with the

trends, such as reduced unemploy-

sometimes thorny complexities of

ment, stabilized immigration rates,

attracting

and a shrinking pool of 35- to 45-year

women in a cultural context that often

olds will intensify the labor crisis.

fails to support the proposition.

I see this as a huge

of us.”

T H U R M O N D WO O DA R D , VICE PRESIDENT O F G LO B A L D I V E R S I T Y AT D E LL

talented

PERSPECTIVES

noted

During a round of informal intro-

additional statistics that make the

ductions, diversity stewards cited a

argument for advancing the cause of

variety of reasons for attending the

diversity

compelling,

conference. Rosalind Hudnell, Intel’s

particularly with regard to women. He

global director of diversity, said, “I

told them, “When we begin to think

hope to get compelling content that’s

about talent, because that’s what leads

actionable. I’ve been to a lot of con-

to successful growth, more than 58%

ferences with philosophical approaches,

of

but philosophy does not always do

Global

Diversity

even

college

at

more

graduates

Dell,

today

are

women. When you look at professionals…about 45% are women. But

42

retaining

Welcoming the summit attendees, Thurmond Woodard, Vice President of

opportunity for each

and

well in practice.”

Mattel’s diversity chief, Graciela

the most important statistic is that the

Meibar,

growth of women graduating from

percent of decisions to buy a toy are

college is at an annual rate of around

made by a woman.” Meibar went on

16%.” By comparison, the Department

to explain that, given that statistical

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

told

the

group,

“Eighty

majority, it only seemed reasonable

people, so it’s important to us that we

that women should be well-represent-

get the best people. And that’s how

ed at all levels of the company, from

we compete. Our better product is

the designers to the decision makers.

better people. We must have access to

Ken Morris, a consultant repre-

the talent pool, so diversity is a very

senting

Guidant

Corporation,

described his diversity efforts as “gene

high priority of ours.”

Rhodora

Palomar-Fresnadi

of

therapy.” He reported, “We’re really

Unilever, who had traveled from

trying to embed these notions of

London, expressed her own and her

diversity, inclusion and work-life into

company’s commitment, adding, “This

the fabric of the organization.” Excited

is something that is bigger than just

about the exchange of ideas with

one company. It’s something we can-

other diversity professionals, Morris

not do alone.” She expressed hope

jokingly admitted, “There are good

that the summit and the background

ideas that spring from anywhere, and

studies would produce enough data

I’m someone who will steal one in a

to provide a compelling business

minute.”

case.

Michelle

echoed in the remarks of many of the

Laboratories, whose company spon-

participants who acknowledged that

sored a Flexibility, Advancement, and

their diversity efforts were made

Retention of Women Study, was curious

easier by advancements in other

to hear how the Dell study results

organizations.

with

of

Abbott’s

study.

In fact, Intel’s Hudnell suggested,

Thomas observed, “We at Abbott have

the real business case occurs when all

done a great job of advancing women

companies start developing more

around the world and getting them

inclusive workplace environments

into leadership positions, but now we

that attract and retain women and “we

need to take the next step and really

start losing people to each other.”

create an inclusive environment for them.”

case occurs when all

views

Abbott

compared

Thomas

Palomar-Fresnadi’s

“The real business

companies start developing more inclusive workplace environments that attract and retain

“Look at the benefits that our companies have right now, and go

Patricia Tilton of Pricewater-

back in history,” Hudnell remarked.

houseCoopers offered a somewhat

“Remember when our companies

different perspective. Alluding to the

added things they hadn’t offered

many other participants from high

before. That was when—from the

tech and other manufacturing areas,

workforce

Tilton addressed the group, saying,

couldn’t gain people.” Using the

“We don’t make computers…we don’t

example of domestic partner benefits,

make cameras. Our only asset is our

Hudnell described how that program

talent

perspective—we

women and we start losing people to each other.”

RO S A L I N D H U D N E LL , G LO B A L D I R E C TO R O F D I V E R S I T Y AT I N TE L

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

43

Feature

Dell’s Women’s Summit

gained popularity only after a few

opportunity to demonstrate leadership

large companies such as Intel offered

skills, and family/peer support.

the benefits, thus fueling the scramble for talent.

Although the top responses were generally the same, the order of their ranking

“The basic challenges for women around the globe were fairly consistent ... life stages appeared to have more impact than culture in the decisions women made.”

D E LL’ S S TE P H A N I E M I M S , SENIOR MANAGER O F G LO B A L D I V E R S I T Y

R E G I O N A L DATA D I F F E R E N C E S

regionally.

Asian

women reported that they were more

Once the group moved on to

likely to accept a global assignment

discuss the research findings, debate

and to receive career advice from others.

intensified. Dell’s Stephanie Mims,

One hundred percent of the Asian

Senior Manager of Global Diversity,

respondents felt that it was very

described some of the more interest-

important to have a career, and 74%

ing results of the Harris poll. “The

cited family or domestic help as a

basic challenges for women around

crucial resource to assist in meeting

the globe were fairly consistent,” she

personal/family

reported, explaining that life stages

female managers in Asia were more

appeared to have more impact than

likely to report that women in their

culture in the decisions women made

regions have equal opportunities and

regarding the companies they hired

are well-positioned in the market-

on with and whether or not they

place, while their North American and

remained in the workforce. Rankings

European counterparts were less like-

for the types of things that attracted

ly to report that women were on

women to a particular organization,

equal footing and felt that it would

advanced women, and convinced

take three-plus years for a woman to

women to stay on board were fairly

be better positioned for advancement.

consistent globally and were less

44

varied

Addressing

obligations.

these

Also,

differences,

influenced by regional or cultural

Palomar-Fresnedi offered some cultur-

differences than might be anticipated.

al insights, noting that Asian women

For example, women in the study

have better-established support sys-

reported that the top factors influ-

tems than their North American, Latin

encing their job search were compen-

American

sation, company reputation, and

Palomar-Fresnedi suggested that fac-

opportunities for more challenging

tors such as the extended family struc-

work and advancement. Respondents

ture—with grandparents and other

were asked to rank a series of state-

family members available to care for a

ments examining personal views on

child—as well as the lower cost of

career. The three statements garnering

domestic help, play into these statis-

the strongest agreement involved the

tics. “The relevance of such things can-

importance of having a career, the

not be underestimated,” she said.

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

and

European

sisters.

In contrast, demographic trends in

Mothers here feel incredible pressure

the U.S., such as suburban living, the

in terms of what a good mom looks

nuclearization of families, and very

like.” A murmur of agreement rippled

high divorce rates, increase the need

through the room as Dagit made her

in America for flexible scheduling

remarks.

along with other support not necessarily available at employees’ homes.

“You don’t see it anywhere else in the world,” she continued. “It’s

“There’s this greater growth of

ridiculous. We put the same amount

smaller and smaller families. So it

of pressure on ourselves as mothers—

becomes much more difficult for

and I speak for myself as a mother—

women to actually be very successful

as we do at work, and neither job is

in the labor force,” said Sharmila

possible because they carry such

Rudrappa, an assistant professor of

a high level of expectation for

sociology at the University of Texas,

perfection.”

adding

that

women

are

Asian

When asked to rank the top five

seek

obstacles to advancement in the

appropriate employment. “A lot of

workplace, more than half of those

those Asian women are pushed by

polled in the referenced surveys felt

their families to have careers because

that the perception of a woman’s

it’s seen as very shameful to not have

commitment to her career and the

a career when you have this great

higher value she placed on personal

education and you have all this

and family responsibilities were the

support.”

said

greatest obstacles. Another 44% indi-

Rudrappa, are expected to excel in

cated that the perception of a

both

woman’s capabilities was the greatest

the

well-educated expected

Asian

domestic

to

women,

and

business

spheres. “There’s actually a lot of

inhibitor to success.

parental and familial pressure to do well in both areas.”

LaVerne Council, Dell Global IT vice

president,

expressed

some

While this translates into a strong

surprise at the fact that a majority of

support system for Asian women, it

the women queried felt that personal

manifests itself as higher stress levels

and family obligations were the

for North American women. Merck’s

number one obstacle to advancement.

Deb Dagit expressed concern about

In her own experience, lack of oppor-

this issue. “One of the things we

tunity presented a bigger hurdle than

desperately need to do,” she said, “is

family responsibilities, despite the fact

to partner with thought leaders,

that she juggles international travel

authors, and the media, because these

and the needs of a young son with

are real problems facing women.

developmental delays. The global IT

“Asian women have better-established support systems than their North American, Latin American and European sisters....

Factors such as the extended family structure, as well as the lower cost of domestic help, play into these statistics.

The relevance of such things cannot be underestimated.”

R H O D O R A PA LO M A R - F R E S N A D I O F U N I LE V E R

Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

45

Feature

“People who can raise great families, who are committed to communities, make your best

Dell’s Women’s Summit

executive urged companies to address

with Catalyst, a diversity research and

this pervasive belief that family obli-

consulting organization, their studies

gations

to

bear out Council’s suspicion that there

advancement. Additionally, she felt

is no substantive difference between

that family obligations should not be

men and women with regard to how

perceived as an indication of an

they prioritize work versus their

employee being less committed or

personal/family lives. The main differ-

less loyal.

ence is that male workers are rarely

present

an

obstacle

“People who can raise great

asked that question in the workplace.

managers.

families, people who are committed to

Kaplan pointed out that the types of

communities, make your best man-

questions asked and their wording

Good public citizens

agers,” explained Council. “Good

carried significance. She cited the

public citizens make good corporate

example of the question regarding

make good

citizens,” she added. “They provide

personal views on career, where only

the best opportunities for growth,

12% of the participants “strongly

corporate citizens.

mentoring and career development to

agreed” with the statement “I would

their people because they tend to

make personal sacrifices to advance

understand what systems are all

my career.” As Kaplan observed,

about.”

“Personal sacrifice language is pretty

They provide the best opportunities

Council also addressed what she

heavy language for somebody to

considered the misperception that

agree to. It really sounds like some-

only women with children have fami-

body is on their way to the hospital.”

mentoring and

ly and personal obligations that affect

Catalyst worded the question

their work life. “Having a child is a

somewhat differently in a recently

career development

temporary situation, but your family is

completed study: “Are you comfort-

a lifelong situation. And everybody’s

able with the tradeoffs that you’ve

to their people

family is a lifelong obligation, so how

made?” According to Kaplan 73% of

can a family be an ‘obstacle’? We need

the women and 71% of the men said

to get off this ‘women with children’

“yes.” Additionally, the Catalyst study

issue. This is about the complexities

of women executives found that

of our lives.” Council suggested that,

“those women who had children were

while a man would probably not be

more satisfied with their careers, less

asked the same question about family

stressed, and had achieved higher

commitments, if he were asked his

levels.”

for growth,

because they tend to understand what systems are all about.”

responses might be very similar.

Several participants stressed the need to adopt gender-neutral policies

L AV E R N E CO U N C I L , D E LL G LO B A L I T VICE PRESIDENT

46

GENDER DISTINCTIONS

such as family leave instead of

According to Dr. Meryle M. Kaplan

maternity leave. Professor Rudrappa

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

acknowledged that the concept was

how it’s going to show up in terms of

somewhat provocative. “I know this

tenure…are you going to get tenure

raised a bit of flack and a bit of ire

later on? How do your colleagues see

among people [at the summit] but I

it? What is it going to do to your

still think it’s absolutely crucial for us

productivity, to your research, etc.?

to think about because what we’re

Whereas if you had a sort of gender-

doing with gender-neutral policies is

neutral policy where men too could

creating good work spaces for both

take leave, you remove the seeming

men and women.”

punishing of women.”

Rudrappa discussed the dilemma

Robert Fernandez, Director of

facing women in both the corporate

Corporate Diversity and Leadership at

world and academia. Even if materni-

Cummins, Inc., recalled the advice

ty leave or extended leave is an

he’d given regarding a policy change

option, ambitious women are disin-

in the company’s Mexico division.

clined to take advantage of the bene-

“There was a big push from manage-

fits because of the stigma attached.

ment to put in daycares and make

“A lot of women are reluctant to

them only available to the women

take it because you don’t quite know

employees,” he said. “I cautioned

“What we’re doing with gender-neutral policies is creating good work spaces for both men and women.”

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Profiles in Diversity Journal

March/April 2005

47

Feature

Dell’s Women’s Summit

against this because I thought it would

that there is still a higher percentage

our diversity leadership, because not

bring more resentment.” Fernandez

of women with children that have

only do they bring a business

suggested that they broaden the

these issues, then we have to pay

perspective, but we also create a

approach and recognize the need for

attention to that.”

diversity champion who goes back

daycare as a ‘life issue’.

Catalyst’s

Kaplan

into the business and we get some agrees

that

gender neutrality can be advanta-

Summit participants expressed

Many participants recognized the

geous. “Solutions can vary from things

little surprise when told that research

fact that businesses are in a special

that are specifically geared to women

revealed

a

position to spearhead change in the

and things that are good for every-

supportive manager as one of their

greater cultures in which they operate.

body.” Kaplan explained, “as consult-

greatest career assets but found men-

Rudrappa offered a striking example

ants we often come into workplaces

toring programs of little help. Much

of ways that business played a leader-

and do needs assessments. We come

discussion ensued about the need

ship role in transforming social mores

up with a strategic plan and clients are

for a sponsor or manager who cham-

and actually leading the way to social

sometimes surprised— ‘Well, those

pioned a woman’s interests at “the

change. “Labor conditions are far

aren’t only for women!’ We’re recom-

table” where decisions regarding

better in multinational companies in

mending strengthening performance

advancement occurred.

China, than in Chinese companies

that

women

ranked

management systems that are good for

Likewise, there was general agree-

producing for the Chinese market.

everybody. The point is, what’s good

ment regarding the need for diversity

That’s a particular kind of social

for women is good for everybody.”

directives to come down from the top.

change because you have safer work

“These

strategies,”

conditions in those companies. I think

have to keep making sure that the

Kaplan explained, “so executives need

corporations can and do take a role.

expectations for women—where there

to treat them as such; otherwise the

We quite often see corporations as

are different hurdles, where there are

vast middle segment of the workforce

being negative—globalization and all

different cultural stereotypes applied

isn’t going to understand that this is

that—but there’s also the flip side

to women—you need to address

serious. Many organizations through

that’s happening as well, particularly

those directly. We see women system-

diversity councils and task forces have

with high-wage jobs.”

atically facing issues: needing to per-

numbers of people involved providing

“I think about what we’re all

form

a lot of guidance and feedback, but

trying to do and I’m humbled by this,”

top leadership has to be involved.”

said

However, Kaplan cautions, “You

more,

having

stereotypes

applied to them, exclusion from some

business

diversity

circles,

Dr.

Kaplan,

describing

her

feelings about participating in the

tion to the fact that there are specific

Woodard is recognized as a director

summit. “We’re trying to create worlds

issues for women as well as shared

who has succeeded at imbuing his

that are healthy and decent places in a

issues with men is a mistake. To make

company with diversity best practices.

larger world that isn’t exactly supporting

believe they don’t exist is like leaving

“One of the things that I think is very

us. Together I think we are changing

the elephant in the room.”

useful,” reported Woodard, “is to go

that larger world.”

Silvaggi

get one of our best and brightest from

“If the metrics are showing

the business and move them through

Cisco agreed:

In

are

Dell’s

informal networks. Not to pay atten-

48

very different perspectives.”

OT H E R P R I O R I T I E S

Systems’

Mike

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

PDJ

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T

he future of corporate America rests in the hands of the young professionals currently working in top companies and firms across the country. A number of myths and stereotypes are associated with these so-called “Gen X-ers,” regarding their career goals, expectations, and strategies. But if companies want to attract, retain, and advance this next generation of business leaders, they need the facts—as well as useful action steps for how to learn from them.

In 2001, Catalyst provided companies with both in our study, The Next Generation of Leaders: Today’s Professionals, Tomorrow’s Leaders. We surveyed and interviewed men and women professionals and managers born between 1964 and 1975 from ten organizations representing a range of industries. We found that members of this generation are highly committed to their organizations. In fact, about one-half of respondents reported that they would be happy to stay with their current employers for the rest of their careers. Despite this loyalty, today’s professionals do expect more from their employers—but not in the form of creative perks like gym memberships and convenience services.

They want programs and policies that help them balance their work and personal lives, as well as effective performance management systems to help them navigate their advancement. And when they choose to leave their employers, this generation does so for traditional reasons, including greater advancement opportunities and increased compensation.

Based on the study findings—and our extensive research on company best practices—Catalyst recommends the following action steps for organizations to effectively recruit, retain, develop, and advance the next generation of business leaders.

Strategies for Employers: Target women, people of color, and individuals from a range of age groups in your recruitment efforts.

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Broaden your candidate search by ensuring that women and people of color are represented at the schools and other venues where your organization usually recruits.

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

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Include employees from a range of age groups and backgrounds in campus recruiting visits and interview teams.

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Target membership organizations and publications geared toward women and people of color.

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Communicate to candidates about your organization’s successes in providing work/life policies and programs and valuing diversity on campuses, at job fairs, at meetings of professional and affinity groups, and in recruitment brochures.

Create a flexible work environment.

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Offer a range of alternatives to traditional work arrangements that are both formal (part-time schedules, telecommuting, compressed workweek) and informal (flexible arrival and departure times).

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Provide training and support for employees with flexible arrangements and their supervisors.

When using flexible options, highlight information about: eligibility, the proposal and negotiation process, technological support, best practices, and guidelines regarding benefits, compensation, performance reviews, and promotions.

Create and communicate individual development strategies.

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Offer rotational programs that provide high-potential professionals with a breadth of functional and/or divisional knowledge of the organization including line and staff assignments, headquarters and field rotations, and international opportunities.

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Implement a formal mentoring program. Approaches include: pairing high-potential employees with influential senior managers either within or outside of your organization; “mentor-up” programs, in which newer employees mentor more seasoned professionals; and mentoring “circles,” where one seasoned employee mentors several younger professionals.

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Encourage and fund participation in professional organizations and developmental education opportunities outside of your company or firm.

Provide customized career planning and management.

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Implement quarterly feedback sessions for managers and direct reports to assess progress toward goals, employee need for direction or training, organizational needs, and other issues related to effective performance management.

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Create systems with “checkpoints” for employee input and dialogue about changes in their work/life priorities.

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Provide uniform performance management tools such as individual and organizational career path planning schemes; monitor their use and usefulness.

Assess your organization’s work environment to ensure that professionals in every age group feel valued and have meaningful opportunities to contribute.

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Analyze data from employee surveys by age, gender, and racial/ethnic groups to identify disparate attitudes, expectations, and experiences that may need to be addressed to create a more inclusive environment.

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Include representatives from all age groups on task forces and committees that advise senior management.

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Ensure that company social events are inclusive of all age groups, levels, and backgrounds.

With offices in New York, San Jose, and Toronto, Catalyst is the leading research and advisory organization working with businesses and the professions to build inclusive environments and expand opportunities for women at work. For more information about Catalyst’s research, products, and services, visit www.catalystwomen.org. You may also sign up to receive Catalyst’s issue-specific newsletter, Perspective, and monthly email updates at news@catalystwomen.org.

PDJ

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E X E C U T I V E

S U M M A R Y

O F

Beyond Access [Wingender, T. PDJ: Jan/Feb 2002, 11-13]

Focusing on abilities instead of disabilities opens up a new talent pool

Assuring inclusiveness in the workplace is a challenge for managers targeting appropriate representation and opportunity for gender-race-ethnicity-sexuality groupings. Add to these factors any compromises or accommodations required by individuals with physical or other “disability” and complexities rise exponentially and the diversity officer must reach deep for creative solutions for access and inclusion. We include here the kernel of a previously run overview about incorporating potential workers with capabilities, and we invite readers to submit their own stories of practical perspectives, creative adaptations, and serendipitous discoveries in tapping this talent pool.

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Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

T

he Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 promised physical access to public buildings and transportation; the subsequent New Freedom Initiative aimed to improve opportunities for education and to boost universal and assistive technologies via support and incentives for agencies, organizations and businesses. Since those enactments, though much has changed, the goal of “tearing down the remaining barriers to equality that face Americans with disabilities” is not yet fully realized.

Conceptually, progress has been stalled by continuing historical stereotypes, prevailing myths, and entrenched rigamarole that leave capable people with disabilities unable to find work because of insurance considerations, school and government programs, and legal issues (thenPresident Bush called them “bureaucracies of dependence”).

At the same time, groups like the National Business and Disability Council are projecting job vacancies will outpace the numbers of available workers in coming decades. If they are to meet productivity targets, businesses must increase the diversity of their hiring pools to include talented people who happen to be disabled in some way. They must consider hiring the 9.5 million Americans with disabilities who are of working age (16-64) who would like to work but are now underor unemployed.

Educating everyone Jumpstarting the process of smoothly integrating workers with disabilities into the system, however, will require education—from the schoolyards to the boardrooms. Jeff Klare, COO of Equality Staffing, an employment agency that helps businesses reach their diversity goals, says the problem of ‘otherness’ begins in childhood with admonishments to “not stare or point” at someone with a cane or wheelchair. These notions of otherness persist into adulthood as biases in the workplace and in society. The mindset and expectations of everyone, from educators and trainers to recruiters and employers, need to be reframed so that the only issue is that the best person gets the job, he says.

Meg O’Connell, an associate with Booz Allen Hamilton, likewise thinks that information voids and misconceptions keep businesses from seeing the links and opportunities between their needs and governmental / community resources, much less the available population of workers with disabilities. She says that businesses are confused and uneasy about many issues, from the ADA’s definitions of ‘reasonable accommodation’ to how to attract and appropriately interview candidates. Even HR personnel may not be fully informed about disability issues and solutions; if they can’t even imagine how a person could perform some task or work function, or aren’t aware of new technologies to assist the disabled, they’re unlikely to consider that applicant qualified for a position or are leery of being the test case.

Support and rewards Making things easier for businesses trying to diversify in this area, the Business Leadership Network (BLN) develops and promotes private and public partnerships to enhance employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The BLN offers businesses a forum for sharing their experiences and dialoguing with state agencies and vocational rehabilitation experts, with a view to expanding the numbers of success stories within organizations and industries.

Increasingly, corporations are recognizing the financial rewards of mirroring their markets in their workforces.

With millions of Americans having disabilities––and numbers growing as the population ages––there are billions of dollars of marketshare to compete for. That message is being broadcast as advocacy groups such as the American Association of People with Disabilities rally their constituencies to exercise economic

power by spending at companies with a track record or strong policies for hiring people with disabilities.

Whatever works As years pass, finding ways to keep workers with disabilities will become a matter of practicality, says Klare: “You’re not going to fire people who’ve been with you ten or fifteen years; you’re going to try to accommodate them.” Life/work programs already accepted by business—such as job restructuring, job-sharing and telecommuting—will enable companies to benefit from people’s abilities and minimize the impact of a worker’s disabilities on productivity.

Most HR people from major companies on top of the disabilities issues are convinced that technology will break down many barriers, enabling companies to hire and make adjustments to attract and keep the most talented people. As Klare notes, “Technology creates a level playing field. When you’re in a wheelchair, the computer isn’t aware of it; in fact it saves the company $765 dollars on buying an ergonomically-correct chair.”

Other times, adaptations for disabilities can be not only economical but sensibly simple, perhaps propping a desk with 2-by-4s to accommodate a wheelchair.

Solutions, technological or make-shift, can often be facilitated by consultants (such as Hire Potential), specialty resources, and vendors that lease or allow trial purchases.

O’Connell reminds that just asking the person openly what would work best for them is not only the easiest way to get information but also part of resolving any work challenge as a team.

Conversations Disabilities awareness and etiquette, in fact, are rooted in common courtesies and honest communication. Face-toface dialogue can be the most effective way to dismantle apprehensions—whether those of executives wary of hiring workers with disabilities for fear of costs and disruptions, or those of fellow employees wondering what to say in the elevator. Experts in the field recommend mentoring, outreach to educational institutions, internships and interactive events to bring people together, not merely presenting “a boxed set of diversity training.” If a relaxed atmosphere or fun experience can be shared (brown bag lunches, T-shirt messages in American Sign Language, or notecards in Braille), so much the better. The goal is educating the general as well as the business population about what is possible.

(S.L.) PDJ

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book review Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace

by Michàlle Mor Barak, PhD Book Review by Gary Bess, PhD Principal, Gary Bess Associates; and Adjunct Professor, School of Social Work, California State University, Chico, CA Employee cohesion and high morale in the workplace are generally accepted, along with quality products and services, as contributing to a company’s healthy bottom line. To be successful in today’s complex multinational and multicultural as well as domestic work environments, however, businesses must concurrently manage new thresholds of employee, supplier and customer diversity at several levels all at once.

A welcome addition to the emerging dialogue on diversity management is Michàlle Mor Barak’s inclusive workplace model. In Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace (Sage Publications, 2005), she encourages work organizations to adopt a new perspective on diversity. Building on its expanding importance to the workplace amid new socio-demographic and legislative trends, Managing Diversity comprehensively addresses the corporate role for inclusiveness as part of workforce management as well as at community, state and federal, and international levels.

In essence, the inclusive workplace is a layered ideal, each level of which complements the others and advances corporate effectiveness. At the workplace level, it honors individual and inter-group differences, while at the community level it also contributes to its surroundings, regardless of whether profits are directly realized. Within the wider environment, it expresses concern

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for and supports advancement of such disadvantaged or marginalized groups as immigrants, women, and the working poor. And in the instance of multinational companies, it willingly collaborates with individuals, groups and organizations across national and cultural boundaries.

Of note is the practical relevance threaded throughout the book, such as the important distinction that Mor Barak makes between visible (i.e., observable differences) and invisible diversity (such not readily apparent attributes as religion, education, tenure or world view). While discrimination toward either kind is unacceptable, the nature of invisible diversity presents human resource managers the added challenge of a consideration that is difficult to monitor.

The first part of Managing Diversity delves into the complex web of skills, knowledge, and values that combine to shape the inclusive workplace. From an overview of diversity-related employment legislation around the world, to theoretical perspectives on diversity and its meaning in different cultural contexts, to cross-cultural communications, the book is filled with colorful, well-researched examples. The inclusive workplace model itself, however, is applicable to work organizations large and small, transcending specific industries or where they are headquartered in the world.

At the business-commerce level, for example, the pitfalls of crosscultural verbal as well as nonverbal communication are explored: in addition to language, accent, volume, and idiom, nonverbal cues such as tone of voice, eye contact, gesturing, special proximity, and clothes/artifacts all become a part of the negotiations. Add to these other cultural norms—such as power distance, individual or collective group

Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

relations, the valuation of competition, and level of comfort with ambiguity—and the potential for misunderstanding begins to appear infinite.

Fortunately, Mor Barak helps us to understand the values that comprise and undergird these cultural differences and similarities through theoretical and practical examples, as well as diagrams and case vignettes.

The latter part of Managing Diversity focuses on management of a diverse workforce within a global context using the inclusive workplace model. Diversity management is presented as a proactive approach to good business practices, a winwin alternative to legislated equal opportunity and affirmative action programs. The inclusive workplace model is fully developed in four areas of interaction: in the work organization, as well as within distinct collaborations at the community, state and national, and international systems levels.

Thus, at the work organization level, companies are presented with five principal areas for diversity implementation: management leadership, in which senior management plays an active role; education and training among employees; performance and accountability, whereby managers are rewarded for reaching compositional goals to assure balanced representation; work-life balance, which accommodates diverse lifestyle with flexible arrangements; and career development and planning, to assure fair promotion of underrepresented groups.

At level two—inclusion through corporate-community collaborations— the work organization defines its stakeholders as not just stockholders, but includes local residents and community-based health, education and human service institutions as well. Breaking out of conventional notions of corporate responsibility

book review Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace continued (which Mor Barak argues appear shallow in today’s fishbowl of public opinion), Managing Diversity suggests that a company’s economic influence at the community level is reciprocated vis-à-vis improved corporate image, increased employee morale, and payback in economic performance.

At the state or national levels, third in the inclusive workplace’s hierarchy, the focus is on the values that determine the work organization’s policies concerning disadvantaged populations, which may include welfare recipients,

victims of domestic violence or distressed youth. It is the role of management in the inclusive workplace to help the disadvantaged to overcome barriers to workforce employment (i.e., childcare, remedial and on-the-job training, and transportation). By reaching out to those outside of the mainstream, whether in the United States or in other parts of the world, these companies often find their actions to be in parity with social and legislative change. In essence, taking the ethical and moral high road at the community level is another way of realizing positive image, loyalty, and possibly, new workers in tight job markets.

Finally, inclusion through international collaborations refers to fairness in dealings, respect for differences, and pluralism in commerce and in managing employee

workforces abroad. Mor Barak notes that more and more businesses are being attracted to countries with surplus workforces and underdeveloped economies. Though the opportunity is ripe for shortsighted exploitation, the inclusive workplace framework offers a plan, rooted in fair-trade principles, to acquire and sell goods and services across borders and cultures, and to employ workers who will enjoy the same benefits, display the same loyalties, and may look to the same hopeful futures as their counterparts at headquarters.

In this text, Mor Barak, who holds joint appointments at the University of Southern California Schools of Social Work and Business, has made a substantial contribution to the human resources and management literature.

PDJ

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Profiles in Diversity Journal March/April 2005

The Drive for Diversity and Inclusion starts right here.

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s a proud sponsor of NASCAR’s “Drive for Diversity” initiative, Waste Management is racing toward the same goals as you are.

From Bill Lester behind the wheel of his Number 22 Waste Management Toyota Tundra to our constant efforts to recruit and support a diverse workforce, we are truly committed to speeding past today’s conventions of diversity and inclusion. ®

Waste Management salutes the many other workplaces that are on the same track as we are. By working together, we already find ourselves on the road to a more diverse, inclusive tomorrow.

From everyday collection to environmental protection, Think Green. Think Waste Management. ®

NASCAR® is a registered trademark of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. ©2004 Waste Management, Inc.

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