Diversity Journal - Jul/Aug 2014

® JULY/AUGUST 2014

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All Things Diversity & Inclusion

A REFLECTION OF COMMUNITIES SERVED

The vision behind CVS Caremark’s success LARRY J. MERLO

President and CEO, CVS Caremark 2014 International Innovation in Diversity Awards

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Talent comes in many forms.

Visit aboutschwab.com/careers to learn more.

We hire people for their talents and their abilities. Then we give them the opportunity to succeed—including the accommodations they’ll need to grow, learn, and reach their full potential. We don’t just talk diversity at Schwab—we live it.

Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. is an EEO/AA employer committed to diversifying its workforce. All applications are considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any individual’s status in any group or class protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. ©2014 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Member SIPC. CS21770-01 (0614-4011) ADP80978-00 (06/14)

Since 1999

publisher's column

®

All Things Diversity & Inclusion FOUNDER/CEO/PUBLISHER

James R. Rector

One Contagious Movement

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Kathie Sandlin COPY EDITOR

Teresa Fausey VP OF OPERATIONS

“That is the paradox of the epidemic: That in order to create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements first.”

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– Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

deas are powerful.

Their power lies not in the ideas themselves, but in our ability to get others to believe and take action. In short, sharing ideas can create a movement.

The ideas we celebrate in our annual Innovations in Diversity Awards do precisely that—they are igniting movements in the organizations that gave birth to them to create and sustain a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

I believe that’s what makes our award so different. Its purpose is not to recognize just the biggest ideas or the largest corporate investments or even the companies and organizations we admire most. How could that help us fuel the movement? Instead, the purpose of this award is to share with an international community of like-minded organizations of all sizes and in all industries innovative tools and ideas that can move their diversity efforts forward too.

This is the 11th year we’ve recognized innovations in diversity and inclusion, and we believe the ideas put forth by this year’s participants are better than ever. That’s why, in addition to deeper coverage of our Top 10 award winners, we’re proud to include write-ups from our discussions with each of our Awards of Excellence and Honorable Mentions. We’d like to congratulate all of our finalists, and thank them for taking part in this effort to advance this important movement.

In our next issue, we will be adding more fuel to the diversity movement fire with our annual, highly regarded Women Worth Watching® feature. For 13 years, Profiles in Diversity Journal has been honoring successful women executives from around the world, as well as the organizations that saw their talent, hired them, and continue to support their success.

It is never too late to fuel your own movement. Contact us to find out how your participation in our next issue can propel your organization’s efforts forward. And join us now in celebrating those who have followed their vision of what the future can be and who, by sharing their creative ideas and innovative efforts, might just help get us all there. PDJ

James Gorman HUMAN RESOURCES

Vicky DePiore EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Elena Rector CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Alanna Klapp Noelle Bernard LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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James R. Rector, Founder, CEO & Publisher Read more at www.diversityJournal.com

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in this issue

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®

14 All Things Diversity & Inclusion

2014

INTERNATIONAL DIVERSITY INNOVATION AWARDS Our 11th annual celebration of the brightest ideas in diversity today, featuring stories from: Alcoa American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) BASF Booz Allen Cigna City of Edmonton Electronic Arts Entelo First Horizon National Corporation Halliburton IHS Automotive Ingersoll Rand KPMG Legg Mason Lincoln Financial Linkage Inc. Marriott International MasterCard Mercy Medical Center Moss Adams New York Life Prudential Financial Ryerson University Saskatoon Health Region Sullivan & Cromwell LLP The Hartford United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) University of the Rockies

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profiles in diversity Journal

July./August 2014

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COVER STORY

CVS: A REFLECTION OF COMMUNITIES SERVED

CEO Larry J. Merlo and the vision behind CVS Caremark’s success

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WORKING WITH DISABILITIES 14 Opening the Doors Wide

Is your small business ready to embrace this plentiful talent pool? Author Peter Linkow gives us five ways to overcome the most common concerns

18 Giving Colleagues with Disabilities a Voice

Deb Dagit provides tips on how to be a corporate advocate

18 Artistas Diversos Promotes Artistic Inclusion A Spanish nonprofit gives disabled artists platforms to display their talents

THOUGHT LEADERS

54 | INCLUSIVE LEADERS GET BETTER RESULTS

Catalyst releases findings from its new global report, Inclusive Leadership: The View From Six Countries

56 | ASSIMILATION: HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

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Could we be more productive, innovative, and creative if we felt we could be ourselves at work? Part IV of Dr. Helen Turnbull’s The Illusion of Inclusion

REGULARS

01 | PUBLISHER’S COLUMN 04 | EDITOR’S NOTE 68 | CORPORATE INDEX

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DIVERSITY TOOLBOX

58 | VIEW FROM THE C-SUITE: ON MENTORING AND THE DISAPPEARING GLASS CEILING

Silicon Valley CEO Noreen King on ways women can level the playing field

24 | The Fatigue Slayer

Innovative software gives diversity measurement teeth

LGBT PERSPECTIVES

20 | PROTECTING TRANSGENDER WORKPLACE RIGHTS

60 BOOK REPORT

60 | THE RISE OF THE SUPER COMMUTER COUPLE

Practical guidance for navigating not only the commute itself, but also the ins and outs of staying together while living apart

How to develop a strategy to become (and benefit from being) a transgenderfriendly workplace

EDUCATION

62 | LEARNING FROM LOS ANGELES

How our most diverse communities can teach leaders the importance of embracing cross-cultural diversity and inclusion

NEWS BRIEFS

65 | NEW YORK LIFE HOLDS ITS THIRD CULTURAL MARKETS CONFERENCE 65 | NBC NEWS ONLINE LAUNCHES NEW VERTICAL LED BY AMNA NAWAZ 66 | ILLINOIS CPA SOCIETY HONORS KEVIN JANES 66 | DZANA HOMAN APPOINTED CEO FOR THE SCHOOL OF ROCK 66 | Dunkin’ BranDs anD naaCP LAUNCH FRANCHISE INITIATIVE

Read more at www.diversityJournal.com

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editor's note

Starting with why

and the next evolution of diversity

I

’ve always been a big fan of Simon Sinek and his groundbreaking book, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. There is so much about this book that speaks directly to our efforts in diversity and inclusion today that it’s uncanny. If you’ve spoken with me at all (and far too many of you can admit to undergoing that torture) you’ve heard me mention it, refer to it, or quote it.

I admit it. I’m a broken record.

Especially since it speaks directly to our future. How? Back in 2007, Profiles in Diversity Journal did an eye-opening feature on the Pioneers of Diversity. In it, we asked two primary questions: Where is diversity now, and where does it need to go? Nearly every single essay put forth by the CEOs and thought leaders in response echoed the same concern…

Diversity needs to get unstuck.

This is not to say that what we’ve accomplished over the past three decades can be ignored, or that all of our organizations are still in the same place they were in 2007. Many are not—just see our Innovation in Diversity winners in this very issue. But our focus, overall, is certainly in need of a facelift, if not a transformation.

Otherwise, “diversity fatigue” will certainly set in.

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profiles in diversity Journal

I was speaking on this very subject with Trevor Wilson, author of The Human Equity Advantage: Beyond Diversity to Talent Optimization.

During our discussion, he offered up several reasons our focus needs to evolve. The first of these is that our existing focus, especially in the US, is primarily on gender, race, and sexual orientation—far too limited a discussion for today’s work environment, and one that doesn’t serve us well in the global workplace. Not to mention the problem it creates when you try to measure success. Are changes in demographic representation really what we’re trying to achieve? Or is it more?

Because our current focus is more about groups than individuals, says Wilson, our work gets mired in the relatively superficial differences in people, rather than the unique characteristics they bring to the table. “The fact that I belong to the baby boomer generation may have nothing to do with my ability to use technology,” he said, “just as the fact that I am black may not mean I am a better dancer or lover.

And belonging to this group may mean virtually nothing in the world of work. So why do we consider it acceptable to base our work as professionals on advancing groups of people, rather than elevating individuals?”

July/August 2014

For diversity to evolve, he says, we need to continue to evolve our thinking—“continue” being the operative word here. Remember, it wasn’t too long ago that the first legislated equity programs, like equal opportunity, drove our work. We’ve come a long way. But in order to act in ways that will “inspire everyone to take action,” we need to think beyond the old “groups” model and create a new fully human and individualized model that enables us to truly discover and unlock the unique talents of every person in our respective organizations.

So, more than ever, it’s time to get unstuck. We can each do it by taking a step back and thinking about how we “do” diversity and inclusion today, where we want to go next, and what we want to achieve as diversity leaders. The “groups” model brought us a long way, but when we get back to the "why" of it, we open the door to a new paradigm where we can truly elevate individuals and inspire every person to succeed. PDJ Kathie Sandlin, Editor in Chief ksandlin@diversityjournal.com

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DON’T MISS OUT, REGISTER ONLINE TODAY! conferences.shrm.org/ diversity/diversityjournal

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Leadership profiLe

A REFLECTION OF COMMUNITIES SERVED How CVS Caremark CEO Larry Merlo Emphasizes Diversity from the Outside, In

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arry J. Merlo has a few words he uses a lot lately. One of them is “innovation.” The other is “reinventing.” And the two, he explains, are closely aligned with CVS Caremark’s diversity management strategy.

To understand how is to appreciate just how much the business has changed in the last several years. Here’s the short version: After a merger of equals in 2007, the retail pharmacy chain and the prescription benefits management business combined to form an entirely new kind of health care company. There were critics who said the marriage was ill advised. Others even went so far as to speculate that the company would eventually break up. But none of that happened. In fact, the “pharmacy innovation company” is thriving.

Merlo believes the new company’s success is attributable to its commitment to serving communities, rather than markets, and to a diverse workforce capable of turning extreme change into unquestionable success. To demonstrate CVS Caremark’s commitment to health care, earlier this year Merlo announced that the company’s 7,600 CVS/pharmacy locations would stop selling cigarettes and tobacco products by October 1, 2014. Merlo

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Company Name: CVS Caremark CEO Name: Larry J. Merlo, President and CEO Headquarters: Woonsocket, Rhode Island Colleagues: 200,000 nationwide Net Revenue: $126.8 billion Website: Info.cvscaremark.com

said the move was “the right thing to do,” considering the company’s expanding role in the health care landscape.

“I am convinced where we are today as a company has a great deal to do with two things: One, that we work very hard to understand and serve the communities—all of them— within which we do business; and two, that our employees are a diverse reflection of our customers,” Merlo said. “Beyond being simply the right thing to do, that diversity—and our ability to manage and leverage it—has a positive impact on our success. One size does not fit all, not in terms of our company culture and not in terms of our customer, patient, and client base.

Our unique business model complements this

C sC

complexity; everything we do is diverse by design.”

Innovation is thought diversity The company didn’t want to just check the box off on traditional “head count” diversity.

Instead CVS Caremark has gone beyond the expected hallmarks of a typical corporate diversity strategy—race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.—and taken great care to weave into the program’s fabric the idea that diversity must also be an ongoing appreciation of differences in thought, and a willingness to recognize that even disagreement can be extremely productive. Everyone is given a voice.

’ s

D s

Optimize and/or create policies, practices, programs, and procedures that enable talent management.

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Ensure alignment with and engagement of all key external customers, clients, communities, and constituents.

Leverage workplace relationships by creating and sustaining a culture of inclusion.

r

r of our communities.

CVS Caremark has implemented a companywide Strategic Diversity Management framework that uses the skills, talents, and perspectives of all of its colleagues to drive company and individual growth. The company strives to provide an environment that empowers all colleagues, regardless of their differences, and uses the complexities and tensions that result

Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

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Leadership profiLe

Improving Health Outcomes

by Stopping the Sale of Tobacco Products CVS quits. Earlier this year, CVS Caremark announced that it would stop selling cigarettes and all tobacco products. The items will be pulled from its CVS/pharmacy retail stores nationwide by October 1, 2014. Some call it a bold decision; CVS Caremark calls it the right decision.

C sC ’ C management business, which serves 64 million plan members, CVS Caremark touches the lives of millions of people across the US each and every day.

“Our company is driven by our purpose of helping people on their path to better health,” said CVS Caremark President and CEO Larry J. Merlo. “Simply put, selling tobacco products goes against that purpose.”

Smoking is the leading cause of premature disease and death in the US, with more than 480,000 deaths a year. While the prevalence of cigarette smoking has decreased from about 42 percent of adults in 1965 to 18 percent today, the rate of reduction in smoking prevalence has leveled off in the past decade. According to the American Lung Association, the prevalence of smoking is highest among whites (22.2%), followed by closely by African-Americans (21.3%), Hispanics (14.5%) and Asians (12.0%). CVS Caremark says more interventions, such as reducing the availability of cigarettes, are needed.

"As a leader of the health care community focused on improving health outcomes, we are pledging to help millions of Americans quit smoking," said Merlo.

"In addition to removing cigarettes and tobacco products for sale, we will launch a robust national smoking cessation program."

The program, slated to begin later this year, will include smoking cessation information and treatment at CVS/pharmacy and MinuteClinic locations, along with online resources. The program will be available broadly across all CVS/pharmacy and MinuteClinic locations, and will offer additional comprehensive programs for C sC smoking. Approximately seven in ten smokers say they want to quit and about half attempt to quit each year.

"Every day, all across the country, customers and patients trust our 26,000 pharmacists and nurse practitioners to serve their health care needs," noted Merlo. "Removing tobacco products from our stores is an important step in helping Americans quit smoking and get healthy."

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Merlo points to the company’s intranet, which is more a community than a runof-the-mill corporate web portal. Called MyLife, the site features corporate news, but also allows employees to comment on every post, even if some comments tends to be critical in nature.

“Larry is about letting employees bring their full selves to the table,” said David Casey, CVS Caremark’s chief diversity officer. “The MyLife site is a digital reflection of our company’s philosophy around individuality. Be who you are and, while we’re at it, let’s talk about how that impacts your career and the company’s success.”

It’s anecdotal, Casey says, but he and Merlo believe this approach has helped CVS Caremark innovate and made it easier for the company to announce its new purpose in 2012 (They’re “helping people on their path to better health.”). A diverse

As millions of Americans navigate the changing health care landscape, CVS Caremark is providing expert care, guidance, and support. One of the most prominent ways the company is doing so is through its annual Project Health wellness campaign. Project Health provides free health services to multicultural communities across the country. To date, the program has served nearly 730,000 people and provided $73 million worth of free medical services.

In addition to health screenings, the events also offer information on the new health insurance marketplace and the coverage

corporate culture, so goes the theory, is less wed to the status quo and more willing, able, and committed to exploring change.

Casey tells a story about CVS/pharmacy’s 2008 acquisition of Longs Drugs in Hawaii.

At the time, employees of the chain wore Hawaiian shirts, and there was reflection back at headquarters in Rhode Island as to whether store employees on the islands would adopt the chain’s standard uniform or continue to wear the brightly colored cultural icon.

Merlo, who was president of CVS/pharmacy at the time, allowed the shirts to remain a fixture of the newly acquired chain.

“When I heard that story, which also included our preservation of the traditional blessing of the Hawaiian stores, it didn’t surprise me one bit,” said Casey. “He gets it.

And it is that cultural appreciation, from the top down, that has enabled us to not just talk about diversity, but to actually live it—in how we value employees and in what we deliver to customers.”

Hawaiian dignitaries joined officials from CVS Caremark to celebrate the opening of the first of seven MinuteClinic locations to open inside select Longs Drugs stores on Oahu in 2013. The grand opening event included a traditional maile lei untying and a blessing ceremony.

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Hundreds of Project Health events were held in multicultural communities across the country in 2013, including this one in Miami, Florida. Project Health events offer customers a free, comprehensive health risk assessment, including blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), glucose, and total cholesterol screenings.

options available under the new health care law.

In late 2013 and early 2014, health insurance experts were available at many events to provide advice to those who needed it.

Project Health events offer a comprehensive health risk assessment, including blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), glucose and total cholesterol screenings. Once screened, patients receive on-site consultations with bilingual (Spanish/English) nurse practitioners or physician assistants who analyze results. If follow-up care is needed, patients are referred to no-cost or lowcost medical facilities nearby, or to their primary care physician. CVS pharmacists are available to conduct one-on-one medication reviews and answer any questions patients may have.

“Many of the multicultural populations we serve struggle to make their health a priority,” said Larry Merlo, CVS Caremark president and CEO.

“Whether they’re having trouble accessing quality care or they’re simply unaware of the risk factors they may be facing, ensuring that these patients receive preventive care will help them on their path to better health.”

“That’s why the program, while open to everyone, targets areas with large multicultural populations where known disparities in health care access exist,” added Merlo.

In the first half of 2014, more than 350 Project Health events took place at CVS/pharmacy locations in 15 multicultural markets across the US, including Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, New York City, Philadelphia, Tampa, and Washington, DC. Events were also held at most CVS/pharmacy stores in Puerto Rico. More Project Health events are scheduled for the fall of 2014.

Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

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Leadership profiLe

Living the philosophy Under Merlo, who became CEO in March of 2011, the emphasis on the importance of diversity has continued to increase. Diversity is emphasized during new-employee training and in subsequent class offerings. The company also has 12 national Colleague Resource Groups (CRGs) with over 40 chapters, including those founded by professional women, Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, veterans, LGBT employees, and, most recently, by millennials. The value the company places on these groups is perhaps

“...everything we do is

diverse

by design."

Larry Merlo

underscored by a recent decision to have all CRGs sponsored at the senior executive level.

In fact, Merlo is the sponsor of one of the company’s most active CRGs, the Women’s Success Network, which boasts more than 1,200 members nationwide.

“We support and encourage a healthy workforce, so when a group of colleagues

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CVS Caremark CEO Larry Merlo addressed members of the Women’s Success Network (WSN), one of the company’s largest colleague resource groups, in the spring of 2014.

Merlo is the executive sponsor of the WSN, which has more than 1,200 members across the company.

wanted to start a group around physical fitness, we said ‘of course,’” commented Lisa Bisaccia, senior vice president and chief human resources officer for CVS Caremark.

“It’s completely in line with the kind of environment Larry fosters, one in which colleagues coalesce around what matters to them, and are given the opportunity to turn that coalescence into a company resource.”

It seems that decision is in alignment with Merlo’s chairmanship of the Diversity Management Executive steering committee, which ensures high-level oversight of the company’s Diversity Management Leadership Council. The Council is made up of senior leaders throughout the company who are charged with ensuring that CVS Caremark is not only embracing diversity internally, but also serving multicultural communities and customers, and developing a multicultural supply chain.

By all accounts, that structure seems to be bearing fruit in terms of the company’s offerings. There are the quiet but significant changes, like the CVS.com webpage being launched in Spanish, or the ever-increasing list of multicultural products being rolled out in CVS/pharmacy stores across the country, including the launch of Latina icon Salma Hayek’s beauty line. Or the growing participation in the Veteran’s Advantage discount program.

And then there is Project Health, a program aimed at providing millions of dollars of free health services and health insurance information to multicultural communities in major US cities, such as Miami, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. The program, which encourages preventive health care in multicultural communities, screened more than 100,000 people in 2013 alone. Project Health attracted the attention of local and state lawmakers last fall. In fact, many visited the Project Health events in recognition of the health disparities that significantly and disproportionately impact diverse populations—and to acknowledge the vital role CVS Caremark is playing to help their communities.

“Project Health plays to our strengths,” said Merlo. “I think it, and programs like it, reflect

Members of CVS Caremark’s Asian Professional Network and Association’s (APNA) California chapter participate in a Habitat for Humanity home renovation project. .

Colleague Resource Groups celebrate diversity As a pharmacy innovation company, CVS Caremark relies on the many different backgrounds and viewpoints of its colleagues.

One of the ways the company supports and celebrates its diverse ’ C r (CRGs), which provide opportunities for employees to connect with colleagues who share similar skills, backgrounds, and interests.

With more than 40 active chapters across the country, the CRGs include Asian, African American, African American-Hispanic, Latino, Portuguese-Latino, Working Families, Veterans, LGBT, Differing Abilities, Millennial, and Fitness Awareness.

In 2013, CVS Caremark President and CEO Larry Merlo signed ’ s n ’ Cr members nationwide.

continued on page 13

Building partnerships with diverse suppliers In April 2014, CVS Caremark participated in “Power of Connections,” a unique business opportunity event for Rhode Island-area diverse businesses. The conference was designed to expand the number of current and potential business opportunities for local diverse businesses, primarily those that are womenowned, minority-owned, or considered to be “small” businesses.

The “Power of Connections” event brought together more than workshops focused on ways that companies purchase goods and services, one-on-one “matchmaking” with buyers, and training a information about the tools required for businesses to secure contracts with companies like CVS Caremark, and their prime contractors and procurement teams.

Representatives from CVS Caremark joined Providence Mayor Angel Taveras (second from right) at the Power of Connections Conference, a business opportunity event for diverse business owners in southern New England.

Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

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Leadership profiLe

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n

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CVS Caremark celebrates diversity among its 200,000 colleagues. In particular, the company recognizes the value of military service and knows that the skills and experience our ’ service members transitioning out of the military over the next few years, CVS Caremark has committed to continuing its long-

that veterans, active military members, and military spouses s participated in more than 40 veterans-focused hiring fairs across the country.

In 2013, CVS Caremark received the Pro Patria Award from the Rhode Island Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR). The Pro Patria Award is presented to one small, one and Reserve members, and military spouses across all areas of large, and one public sector employer in each state that has the company. demonstrated the greatest support to Guard and Reserve ’ Cs employees through their leadership and practices. That same C year, CVS Caremark President and CEO Larry Merlo signed the program that asks companies to give service members and s r ’ s r s their families the opportunities and support they have earned. of Support, reiterating support for servicemen and women and Through this program, CVS Caremark has agreed to increase the their families. number of veterans and military spouses hired companywide.

CVS Caremark is focused on supporting veterans and “Our company is poised and ready to add more of these military in the community as well. The company provides talented individuals to our workforce,” said Senior Vice discounts to military members and veterans who shop at CVS/ President, Logistics Ron Link. “Our distribution centers have a ’ r been making a concerted effort to hire veterans and military members receive a 20 percent discount, both in-store and spouses, and our team of colleagues has been enhanced because Cs ’ of it.” active military members, veterans, National Guard and Reserve a C sC C ’ C members, and their families can save 20 percent off purchases us C C ’ and receive free shipping for online orders.

Our Heroes initiative. Hiring Our Heroes is focused on ensuring

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continued from page 11

all the progress we’ve made internally with diversity up to this point. Serving different communities is not a heavy lift for us, because we are just as diverse.”

Casey agrees and says he is excited at the prospect of going even further. The company remains a key supporter of the National Urban League, the American Society on Aging, and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. It has also recently stepped up efforts to further diversify its various supply chains, and continues to sponsor workforce programs that assist those in multicultural communities find not just jobs, but careers. He remains confident, however, that CVS Caremark will go even further—and he specifically cites one reason: “When you have a CEO who fundamentally believes in the power of our differences, and is willing to accept and embrace the tensions and complexities those differences inherently pose, the possibilities are limitless,” said Casey.

“Larry Merlo isn’t interested in turning our diversity efforts into a tagline. He’s interested in recognizing that diversity is a resource that will

help us continue to reinvent pharmacy care— for everyone.”

While CVS Caremark has worked diligently to define and implement its diversity management strategy in recent years, there is still more work to be done. The company is committed to enhancing and evolving its approach to managing

“When you have a CEO who fundamentally believes in the power of our differences...

David Casey the possibilities are limitless." diversity—both internally and externally—to meet the ever-changing needs of its colleagues, clients, and communities.

“Our diversity strategy is a work in progress,” said Merlo. “We’re proud of the gains we’ve made to date, but our journey is far from over.

Celebrating differences and similarities among our colleagues, customers, and communities is imperative for our business to continue to thrive, as well as to live out our purpose—helping people on their path to better health.” PDJ

Scholarship programs for students from all backgrounds C sC ’ depends largely on having a diverse and highly-trained team of employees, including front-store staff, pharmacists, and nurse practitioners. Employees at CVS/pharmacy retail C ’ To ensure that CVS Caremark is able to reach all of its customers, even those in ethnically diverse communities, C sC government leaders to build recruitment and training opportunities. The company works with groups like the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the United Negro College Fund, and the Native American Intertribal Council, to provide educational grants to young people who are interested in pursuing careers in health care.

“By supporting students from various racial and ethnic groups, we are ensuring that our future workforce is as diverse as the communities we serve,” noted David Casey, Vice P s C D C sC C sC is committed to providing career development and growth opportunities for young people.

By providing scholarships and grants, we are making a concerted effort to ensure that as many diverse groups are reached as possible.”

In partnership with the Connecticut Native American Inter Tribal Urban Council, CVS Caremark’s Randy Martinez, and Jim Rawlings, who is also a tribal elder at the council presented University of Rhode Island pharmacy student Kayla Chouinard with a scholarship to help with college expenses.

Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

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working with disabilities

OPENING THE DOORS WIDE

BY PETER LINKOW

Employing People with Disabilities in Small Business

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mall businesses offer perhaps the most promising opportunity for the employment of people with disabilities. They create 55 percent of all jobs, and while big businesses have eliminated four million jobs since 1990, small businesses have added eight million jobs.

But should small businesses open their doors wide to people with disabilities? A comprehensive review of the literature on the employment of people with disabilities, conducted for the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy and sponsored

by Cornell University's Employment and Disability Institute and The Conference Board, identified five concerns of small business leaders, and assessed

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whether those concerns were well founded. Bottomline best practices that offer the greatest impact for dollar- and time-constrained small businesses are identified for each concern.

This article defines small businesses as those with 500 or fewer employees. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which governs many small businesses (companies with fewer than 15 employees are not covered by the ADA), defines disability as: 1. A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities 2. A record of such an impairment 3. Being regarded as having such an impairment

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Peter Linkow is Managing Director of Lead Diversity and a Senior Fellow, Human Capital, at The Conference Board.

He can be reached at peter.linkow@lead-diversity.com.

B

Concern #1:

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Two key concerns of small businesses with regard to attracting people with disabilities are complying with relevant laws and finding qualified employees with disabilities. Although businesses should consult their attorneys about legal matters, compliance is relatively straightforward. Businesses should follow three basic principles: 1. Make all steps in the application process accessible 2. Focus on the match between the skills, experience, and education of the applicant and the essential functions of the job 3. Treat all applicants equally Finding qualified candidates is equally straightforward: 1) Start by finding community partners through The NET, a service provided by the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation, which links callers to their state VR program; and 2) Offer internships that give people with disabilities needed work experience and allow firms to assess prospective job candidates.

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Employees with disabilities have lower turnover rates. With the costs of turnover running one-fifth of an employee's salary or higher, hiring people with disabilities can reduce costs. Five factors are important for retaining people with disabilities and creating workplaces where they excel—onboarding, reasonable accommodations, workplace climate, employee resource groups, and mentoring.

Almost 90 percent of managers believe that new hires make the “decision about whether or not to stay at the company within their first six months on the job.” The period of time between the offer letter and the first few months on the job is critical for ensuring the engagement, retention, and productivity of new employees. Best-practice onboarding companies differentiate themselves by focusing on socialization into the company culture, offering new-hire training programs, and assigning a mentor or coach to each new hire.

Reasonable accommodations make employees more productive. A particularly effective accommodation is a flexible work arrangement that allows employees, in collaboration with their managers and team members, several work options, including flexible start and end times, part-time, work weeks compressed into fewer days (e.g., 40 hours in 4 days), and telework from home.

For all employees, including workers with disabilities, the routine treatment they receive in the workplace may be one of the greatest determinants of the quality of their work life. The attitudes and behaviors of colleagues, and especially supervisors, can have a profound impact on employees’ ability to succeed and advance. Unfavorable attitudes toward employees with disabilities are among the greatest barriers to workplace success. Training that helps employees understand the challenges their colleagues with disabilities face and how to interact with them, company involvement in relevant community activities, and opportunities to come together do much to improve attitudes and treatment.

Employee resource groups (ERGs)—internal networks for employees with disabilities and their allies—offer mutual support systems for employees and many benefits to businesses. In forming them, companies should ensure they have a clear purpose, enjoy sponsorship from top managers, and serve as a vehicle for communicating the needs of people with disabilities up the organization.

Mentors can provide support, counsel, and constructive examples for employees with disabilities as they acclimate to the work environment and their job responsibilities—and throughout their career life cycles. Mentoring takes many forms, including formal, structured programs in which a mentor and mentee are carefully matched and monitored, and mentors know their roles and how to execute them; virtual mentoring; peer mentoring; and group mentoring, in which a more senior manager meets with a group of mentors, usually around a particular leadership topic, such as influencing, career self-management, or interpersonal communications. For a comprehensive guide to mentoring in a private business setting, see the Workplace Mentoring Primer from askearn.org.

Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

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Four areas of cost are of particular concern: workers’ compensation, health care, accommodations, and legal costs. Workers’ compensation costs actually tend to be lower for people with disabilities.

Accommodations have minimal costs and significant benefits. Health care costs, although difficult to assess with precision, are higher for employees with disabilities. However, most of the increased costs of health care are for those not in the workforce. Legal costs relating to the settlement of charges brought under federal law are, for the most part, preventable by businesses in which “...managers engage in positive ‘diversity behaviors,’ such as promoting cooperation, being flexible, and respecting everyone.”

The financial benefits of employing people with disabilities significantly outweigh the costs.

The net estimated economic benefit (benefits minus direct cost) in the first year of providing an accommodation is $11,335. Employees with disabilities are typically more loyal and productive, produce higher quality work, have better safety records, and enhance innovation and team decision making. In addition, several government programs provide financial incentives for hiring people with disabilities and subsidies for underwriting the costs of accommodations, including the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) Program; Disabled Access Credit, Internal Revenue Code Section 44; and Architectural/Transportation Tax Deductions, Internal Revenue Code Section 190.

Concern #4: B People with disabilities, their caregivers, and their families represent substantial markets, both as consumers of assistive technologies and support services (a roughly $90 billion market, excluding medical and residential services) and as general consumers of products and services (greater than a quarter of a trillion dollar market).

Consumers want to do business with companies that employ people with disabilities. Eighty-seven percent of consumers agreed that they would prefer to give their business to companies that employ people with disabilities, and 92 percent were more favorable toward companies that hire people with disabilities.

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1. Make all steps in the application process accessible; focus on the match between the skills, experience, and education of the applicant, and the essential functions of the job; and treat all applicants equally 2. Find community partners 3. Offer internships to people with disabilities 4. Assign mentors to newly hired employees with disabilities prior to their first day on the job and to those employees with disabilities already on the job 5. Offer at least a half-day of disability awareness and etiquette training; (an added benefit is that it will help attract and satisfy clients and customers with disabilities) 6. Take advantage of financial incentives 7. Get senior managers involved in a community organization that serves people with disabilities or in mentoring employees with disabilities 8. Articulate the business case for employing people with disabilities 9. Develop a simple one- or two-year plan for attracting, retaining, and advancing people with disabilities 10. Communicate the plan and business case frequently and thoroughly, especially to supervisors and middle managers Eighty percent of consumers stated that, if the quality and price of two brands were equal, they would be likely to switch to a different brand if they knew that it supported a specific cause.

To achieve growth benefits, businesses should brand themselves as employers of people with disabilities.

Brand differentiation can be achieved through PR initiatives, and by speaking in the community, focusing on employees with disabilities on the company website, and volunteering on the boards of organizations that serve people with disabilities.

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Numerous studies cite top management commitment as a critical variable in successfully recruiting, hiring, retaining, developing, and advancing employees with disabilities. Two elements are critical for success: Gaining top management commitment; and demonstrating that commitment inside and outside the organization.

Many top managers embrace the employment of people with disabilities because they have personal experience, community involvements, or simply think employing people with disabilities is the right thing to do. Others need to be motivated. Some factors that can help top managers commit to employing people with disabilities include presenting a strong business case, providing data on the current state of employees with disabilities in the business, exposure to people with disabilities through community involvements and inside the business, hearing from other executives who have embraced the employment of people with disabilities, sponsoring an employee resource group, and mentoring a person with disabilities.

To motivate employees, top managers can demonstrate their commitment internally by communicating the business case and plan for hiring people with disabilities, supporting and participating in training, establishing an employee resource group, appointing an individual to lead the employment initiative, and providing a budget.

C For minor additional costs and management time, people with disabilities are usually more loyal and productive, have lower rates of absenteeism and better safety records, produce higher quality work, enhance team decision-making and innovation, and expand product markets and the talent pool. And cost differences may be reduced or eliminated by financial incentives and retention savings. Improvements for employees with disabilities benefit all employees.

After a comprehensive review, and carefully weighing the data, the answer to the question, “Should small businesses open their doors wide to people with disabilities?� is an emphatic, "Yes!" PDJ

Advancing our core values of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Photo: Clifton Li

EDI team at the Alan Shepard Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Awards reception.

Ryerson University’s core values are our competitive advantage. For information on our campus initiatives, visit www.ryerson.ca/edi.

working with disabilities

Most companies have nondiscrimination policies and encourage people with disabilities to identify themselves and request accommodations. Unfortunately, the reality is that most people who have disabilities, even visible ones, choose not to discuss their situations in the work environment.

Many “invisible” disabilities are particularly difficult for people to disclose, such as depression, anxiety disorders, dyslexia, attention deficit, hearing loss, traumatic brain injury, or PTSD. The belief that they must actively conceal their disabilities—and anything in their personal lives that might reveal them—leaves many employees feeling invisible or alone.

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There are two important things every company can do to give employees with disabilities a voice, says Deb Dagit, disability advocate and founder of Deb Dagit Diversity.

1. Change the way you see (and talk about) disabilities. Too often, disability is viewed through a medical lens, as something that needs to be “cured,” instead of through a social lens

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or as a civil rights issue. Disabled individuals do not need to be fundamentally “fixed” or changed! As a result of this viewpoint, the conversation around disability often takes on a philanthropic tone.

“I think the disability community can be its own worst enemy by continuing to foster events where, if there is not a dry eye in the house, it’s a success,” says Dagit. “That’s hugely problematic if we want candidates with disabilities to be viewed as competitive, highly sought talent.”

2. Include people with disabilities in your advisory committees. No organization would even consider creating a program to enhance representation and inclusion for women, people of color, or the LGBT community without leaders of these constituencies playing a central role in developing and executing the strategy.

“We must follow the same ‘not-about-uswithout-us’ anthem for people with disabilities,” says Dagit. PDJ To learn how you can help give your employees with disabilities a voice, visit www.debdagitdiversity.com.

D Artistas Diversos is a nonprofit organization founded by the European Institute for Managing Diversity to promote the social and professional inclusion of persons with disabilities through the arts. Artistas Diversos represents artists of all ages and offers them a virtual platform from which to show their work with the hope of promoting employability and professional positioning of these artists without any discrimination.

Artistas Diversos also hosts live exhibits. In July 2014, artists displayed their work at the Disability and Employment Fair in Barcelona for an audience of jobseekers and representatives of corporations, national administrations, and foundations.

Throughout the rest of the year, Artistas Diversos will be hosting the ProvArt Exhibition and Art Competition, sponsored

by Provital Group, a global company headquartered in Barcelona that specializes in the sales and production of ingredients and actives for the cosmetic industry.

Barcelona's Disability and Employment Fair was the site of a live exhibit for the artists of Artistas Diversos.

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No matter what their position in our company, Lincoln Financial employees enjoy the satisfaction of knowing their contributions make a difference to our clients and their families, every day. At the same time, we enjoy a work environment where we can grow professionally, share new ideas and find the rewarding experiences we need to thrive at work and at home. Join us — see how you can take charge and be your own Chief Life Officer. ‘making it happen’

Find out more about opportunities to join our team at Lincoln Financial Group, visit LincolnFinancial.com/careers.

Life | Income | Retirement | Group Benefits | Advice LCN-955952-062614 Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation and insurance company affiliates, including The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Fort Wayne, IN, and in New York, Lincoln Life & Annuity Company of New York, Syracuse, NY. Variable products distributed by broker-dealer-affiliate Lincoln Financial Distributors, Inc., Radnor, PA. Securities and investment advisory services offered through other affiliates. © 2014 Lincoln National Corporation.

Provital’s sponsorship of the exhibits began as an employee initiative and, while it will only be open to Spanish artists in 2014, the company has plans to expand the exhibits to every country in which it has a presence, including Germany, France, Mexico, Brazil, China and the USA. PDJ For more information on Artistas Diversos and the corporate sponsorship opportunities available, visit artistasdiversos.org.

Artist Juan Carlos Moreno believes painting is the ideal way to express himself.

“Through my artistic activities,” he says, “I have learned patience and to never give up.

I’ve also learned to appreciate the essence of life and the daily effort." Moreno's paintings pictured left to right are "Casitas Blanco" and "Sin título."

Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

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lgbt perspectives

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he majority of our nation’s approximately 700,000 transgender citizens still are in limbo when it comes to employment security. According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), 33 states have no laws that bar workplace discrimination based on gender identity and expression. However, the transgender rights landscape is changing across the United States in ways that affect both employers and employees.

In November 2013, after two decades in committee, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was finally passed by the U.S. Senate. The bill prohibits public and private employers, employment agencies, and labor unions from using sexuality or gender identity and expression as a basis for making decisions regarding employment, promotion, or compensation. The bill currently is under review by the U.S. House of Representatives.

As transgender rights advocates have waited for Congress to rule on ENDA, they have pursued employment protection through the courts. The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) ruled in 2012 that employers who discriminate against employees or applicants based on gender identity and expression are violating the prohibition of sex discrimination contained in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The EEOC based its position on the Supreme Court’s ruling on Macy v. Holder and on Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, which argued that transgender discrimination is related to the sex of the victim and thus actionable under Title VII. The EEOC’s decision, issued unanimously by a bipartisan commission, applies to all federal agencies and departments. Thus, federal civilian transgender employees now are protected under EEOC policy. Currently, complaints of anti-transgender

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un uni n job discrimination can be filed with the EEOC, potentially motivating private employers to examine internal policies.

An ever-increasing number of companies have antidiscrimination policies that cover transgender people. According to Vanessa Sheridan, author of The Complete Guide to Transgender in the Workplace, “The private sector remains ahead of the political discussions … Increasingly corporate America is embracing the many benefits of a pluralistic workforce.” In 2000, only three Fortune 500 companies prohibited discrimination based on gender identity and expression. As of January 2013, 88 percent of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies and 67 percent of the top 50 federal contractors did so, according to the Williams Institute. Companies as diverse as JP Morgan, Macy’s, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, IBM, and FedEx Corporation are acting to protect transgender employees’ rights.

Employers and governments must implement measures to protect transgender citizens because, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), more than one transgender person in four has lost at least one job due to bias and ninety percent of them have experienced harassment or mistreatment on the job, particularly transgender people of color. According to a 2011 national survey conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLT), the unemployment rate for transgender people is twice the national rate, despite the fact they are more than twice as likely as members of the general population to hold advanced degrees. A recent survey of 6,450 transgender persons, titled Injustice at Every Turn and conducted by the NGLT and the NCTE, found that 26 percent had lost jobs because they were transgender or

continued on page 22

When different people come together, it’s not just beautiful, it’s priceless®.

At MasterCard®, we find value in diversity of background, experience and thought.

By supporting a global business, we take a leading role in creating innovative, efficient and secure solutions for advancing today’s global commerce.

See how diversity drives us at mastercard.com/diversity.

MasterCard, the MasterCard Brand Mark and Priceless are registered trademarks of MasterCard International Incorporated. ©2014 MasterCard.

May/June 2014

www.DiversityJournal.com

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lgbt perspectives

k gender-nonconforming and 20 percent said they were removed from direct contact with clients because they were transgender.

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i According to Dr. Jillian Weiss, author of Transgender Workplace Diversity: Policy Tools, Training Issues and Communication Strategies for HR and Legal Professionals, executives are changing their nondiscrimination policies, not only to attract transgender workers in particular, but also to attract employees who value inclusive corporate cultures.

Other benefits of hiring transgender employees include attracting and retaining the people most qualified for the job, decreasing the risk and expense of legal action, and positioning a company as a diversity leader within an industry or the community.

In other words, hiring transgender employees just makes good business sense.

A 2011 study by the Williams Institute reported that the primary economic motives behind adopting LBGT-friendly workplace policies cited most often by the top 50 Fortune 500 companies and the top 50 federal government contractors included better recruitment and retention, ideas and innovation, customer service, employee productivity, employee

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relations and morale, and securing business with public-sector clients. Adding phrases like “gender identity or expression” to job announcements and websites helps ensure diverse candidate pools. In short, creating and enforcing nondiscrimination policies consistently benefits employees and employers alike.

To reap these benefits, employers should begin by adopting a nondiscrimination policy that explicitly protects transgender employees. Transgender applicants who have completed their transition should be treated like all other employees once hired. Employees who decide to transition during the course of employment will require additional support. Employers should revise current policies, employee handbooks, and dress codes to make them gender-neutral; provide appropriate restroom access; update personnel records, nameplates, business cards, and security badges; and change leave-related policies and health care plans to accommodate

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needs of transgender employees. Holding managers responsible for an inclusive workplace will reflect upper management’s commitment in this area.

The goals of a transition plan are to provide for the safe and healthy development of transgender employees and to integrate the employee into the workplace without stigmatization. It is critical to include the transitioning employee in the process of creating the transition plan from the beginning, and to monitor the adjustment of the employee and coworkers through long-term follow-up after the transition. The transition team should include the employee, HR professionals, the immediate

Employers who adopt a gender-identity nondiscrimination policy must be prepared to manage transitions, remembering that this process may take months or even years—each transition is as unique as the person living it. The human resource department is often the conduit through As of January 2013, of top 50 Fortune 500 companies which the transitioning prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and expression. employee works. However, the degree to which the organizational culture embraces transgender supervisor, and outside resources, such as the issues can evoke support or discrimination claims. employee’s therapist, union representative, or a According to the Transgender Law Center, key transgender workplace consultant. A top-level questions to consider at the beginning of the executive assigned to sponsor a transitioning transition process include the following: employee sends a strong message of support when r 8IP JT JO DIBSHF PG IFMQJOH UIF USBOTJUJPOJOH there are no “just like me” mentors readily available. employee? r 8IBU DBO USBOTJUJPOJOH FNQMPZFFT FYQFDU GSPN According to the HRC, guidelines for creating a management? transgender-friendly workplace must be tailored r 8IBU BSF NBOBHFNFOU T FYQFDUBUJPOT GPS TUBĒ BOE to the specific needs of the employee, but generally transgender employees during the transition? include the following actions: r 8IFO IPX BOE UP XIPN XJMM UIF USBOTJUJPO CF r 5SFBU USBOTHFOEFS FNQMPZFFT JO B NBOOFS announced? consistent with their gender expression, including r 8IBU JT UIF HFOFSBM QSPDFEVSF GPS JNQMFNFOUJOH the use of appropriate names and pronouns a transition plan? r .BJOUBJO DPOêEFOUJBMJUZ BOE QSJWBDZ r 1SPWJEF USBJOJOH GPS DPXPSLFST BOE NBOBHFST r %FNPOTUSBUF TVQQPSU BU UIF IJHIFTU MFWFMT of management r "QQMZ UIF TBNF QFSGPSNBODF TUBOEBSET UP transgender employees as to all other coworkers r &OGPSDF [FSP UPMFSBODF GPS IBSBTTNFOU r $SFBUF BO FNQMPZFF SFTPVSDF HSPVQ GPS transgender employees r *ODMVEF USBOTHFOEFS FNQMPZFFT JO UIF organization’s diversity metrics

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Dr. Jamie Capuzza is Professor of Communication and Director of the Gender Studies Program at University of Mount Union; Dr. Sandra R. Ekstrand serves as Associate Professor of Economics, Accounting and Business Administration. University of Mount Union is a four-year private institution located in Alliance, Ohio. Grounded in the liberal arts tradition affiliated with the United Methodist Church, the university is consistently ranked among the top in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

It is important to take a wide-ranging approach to workplace diversity, including gender identity and expression. As the legal, governmental, and cultural landscape shifts for transgender citizens, the workplace must adapt by developing strategies to face new challenges and take advantage of opportunities resulting from these changes. PDJ

Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

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the d&i toolbox

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ost organizations struggle with effectively measuring the effect of diversity on the bottom line.

In some cases, the challenge is determining what measures will yield useful data. In others, it is more about the transformation of so many disparate bits of data into clear and actionable insight.

Data drives decisions. And so often, our efforts in diversity and inclusion stall because of our inability to tie efforts to business outcomes.

Which is exactly what Sam Jones, CEO and founder of Data Morphosis™, set out to change with a product called Gender Gap™—a sophisticated data visualization software that offers on-demand measurement, reporting, and modeling of an organization’s human capital data. It overlays this human capital data with business performance data, providing a new, consolidated view of the value of your workforce.

The result? Gender Gap puts diversity squarely at the center of an organization’s talent strategy by showing the correlation between business performance and diverse, inclusive teams.

"I met so many diversity heads who were fatigued, and had lost ability to drive real change in a business,” says Jones.

“Every business maintained that people were their most important asset. If people were truly at the heart of your business, why weren’t HR and D&I given world-class tools to do their job even better and more efficiently?

“I decided to turn my frustration into inspiration— and Gender Gap was born.”

The software allows users to consolidate human capital management (HCM) data from one or many sources and transform it to visual insight. Gender Gap is a new lens for organizations, enabling them to explore every strand of diversity and talent grouping across all business units, in every location. It provides HR and diversity heads with rapid, real-time access to critical data that allows them to measure diversity in their organization against business performance

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Gender Gap delivers smart and easy-to-translate visual representation of your HCM data to your desktop or tablet.

metrics and bring diversity into the boardroom in a powerful, visual way.

“We designed the software to be as visual as possible, so there could be no doubt to the audience how critical diversity was to success,” says Jones.

“We hired the smartest engineers we could find—with backgrounds in video gaming, and from organizations like NASA—and gave them the task of converting messy human capital data into visual insights regarding the commercial connection between diverse and inclusive teams, and dollars and cents.”

What they developed was an innovative, userfriendly interface that many of the world’s largest companies now employ to transform the way they interact with human capital data. For Jones, this is more than a successful software product.

“I’m confident,” he says, “that this is the weapon that can end the fatigue!” PDJ

THE OLD BOYS’ CLUB HAS A NEW ENEMY A few good men declare war on the glass ceiling The Founder and CEO of emerging global software company Data Morphosis has assembled a world class team of designers, software engineers, global leaders and high net worth investors to crack the code to what he calls, “the oldest con in history”.

“We made no compromise when we assembled the best global team to build this weapon of mass transparency. Our team of engineers have previously worked on fixing far more complicated problems than human capital data. We can now prove, beyond any doubt, that gender imbalance and pay inequality makes no sense, and is not improving anywhere quickly enough. This will be a call to action to wake up and step up to leave a legacy for people’s daughters, sisters, wives and mothers.”

About Data Morphosis People say the future is limitless with the right technology.

Our company designs, creates, builds and deploys next generation software that allows any organisation around the world, to answer accurate questions about the allocation of their most precious asset, their people. We can prove, beyond any doubt, that these tools drive commercial value, and service the people they wish to serve.

Our purpose is simple. To build infinite ways to present the truth.

Data Morphosis have offices in Hong Kong, London, New York, Sydney and Tokyo.

There is no question this is a software issue – for most people, the software at fault is the human mind.” gendergap.com/boysclub www.dm-g.com/boysclub

2014 innovation awards

2014 INTERNATIONAL DIVERSITY INNOVATIONS AWARDS Celebrating the Brightest Ideas in Diversity

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ach year, the July/August issue of Profiles in Diversity Journal is dedicated to recognizing companies, nonprofits, and government agencies that take diversity and inclusion to the next level by developing innovative programs that enable and encourage their employees to thrive at work.

Again this year, we've been inundated with stories of organizations from around the world that are finding new ways to create an even better workplace.

We’ve selected the best, most replicable ideas to celebrate here.

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In the pages that follow, you’ll find outstanding tools, highly sustainable programs, and extremely rewarding steps any organization can take to meet the challenges of working in a multicultural, multidimensional work environment. Each of these organizations showed new and spirited thinking on diversity and inclusion. We hope their creativity will inspire you to take your own initiatives to a new level.

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Could this be the diversity recruiter’s ultimate tool?

Entelo Diversity is a groundbreaking new sourcing technology that helps companies find and hire top talent from underrepresented groups. It may just be the first search engine to allow recruiters to target talent with specific skills and expertise, who are also likely to be members of a specific gender or ethnic group.

Entelo Diversity uses a proprietary algorithm to find candidates by sifting through social media profiles and other online data to gather clues about a candidate’s gender, ethnicity, or military experience. Let’s say a recruiter is looking for a female JavaScript engineer. The search tool will present a filtered list of talented women qualified to do the job.

Since this information is layered on top of a candidate’s qualifications and skills, Entelo is able to provide a level of objectivity that ensures that hiring practices aren’t discriminatory.

“Entelo Diversity can help companies find candidates that meet their criteria in a fraction of the time, and Jon Bischke for a fraction of the cost, of traditional diversity recruiting activities,” says Entelo cofounder and CEO Jon Bischke. “The current methods of sourcing talent from groups that a company deems to be underrepresented are not very efficient. The ROI on a tool like Entelo Diversity can be almost immediate and result in a very positive impact for companies large and small.”

In less than one month since its launch, Entelo Diversity has garnered tremendous interest for its innovative, social-based algorithmic approach, and elevated the discussion about the importance of diversity, particularly in the technology sector. The product has been featured in a number of high-profile outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNET and CIO magazine. Within 30 days of product launch, the company had either fielded inquiries from, or begun discussion with, nearly half of the Fortune 100.

Entelo Diversity has received praise for its precision (an accuracy rate of around 95 percent), as well as its efficiency, automating what has historically been an arduous, costly, and time-consuming manual process for finding and slating diversity candidates. And that’s the program’s real beauty.

“It’s our belief that a diverse workforce is a strong

a workforce,” says n C Bischke. “We also believe that a you should hire asa the best person kP for a job. Our P goal was to put r u another tool in the toolkit, so that every organization can have a more diverse candidate pool to choose from.”

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Local nonprofit boards benefit from a unique leadership development program.

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Legg Mason’s Board Leadership Program (BLP) gives employees both the opportunity and the tools to effectively serve on a range of nonprofit boards in the communities where they work and live. This unique program—featuring a robust process of recruiting, board governance training, nonprofit organization matching, and continuous group learning and sharing forums—has encouraged dozens of professionals to engage in board service in communities throughout Central Maryland, Connecticut, and the New York/New Jersey area.

“This not only allows professionals to develop and invest their leadership skills, but also helps Legg Mason create a more sustained engagement with its communities,” says Business Director and Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Council Member George Schott. “It also makes for a more cohesive and engaged workforce.”

Coordinators for the Board Leadership Program at Legg Mason’s three locations are George Schott (Stamford), Sadie Garrick (New York), and Kristin Kosmides (Baltimore). Schott was the driving force behind the creation of the BLP program.

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2014 innovation awards

“The program has brought team members together from other parts of the organization who would not necessarily have worked together, or known of each other or their experience,” says Schott. “And it provides them the opportunity to leverage existing skills. For example, by creating a brand positioning statement to guide a nonprofit’s communication strategy, or leading an executive director performance review process.”

He adds, “Through the BLP, employees can assist nonprofits in meaningful ways, while enhancing leadership skills beyond one’s regular work role.”

To provide board governance training and board placement support for participating employees, Legg Mason’s BLP works with community partners, including Business Volunteers Maryland, United Way of New York City, United Way of Western Connecticut, and the Volunteer Center of Bergen County (New Jersey). According to Head of Corporate Citizenship Kristin Kosmides, semi-annual learning forums offer additional information and support.

“Our Board Leadership participants have benefited from sessions with board governance experts, fundraising experts, and others, and then shared that expertise with their community partner organizations—a win for all,” she says.

Further, she explains, as news of Legg Mason’s success with the BLP has made the rounds, the firm has begun sharing its processes and knowledge with organizations. “We are looking to leverage our experience wherever we can. It’s good for companies. It’s good for the community. And it’s absolutely replicable.”

as return to and succeed at work. The program also shares information with new parents via email, audio training sessions, and group webcasts.

“We saw opportunities to address some of the challenges our people face in returning to work after welcoming a new baby,” said Ellen Williams, a flexibility leader at EY. “We discovered we could have an impact at two significant transition points: Before expecting parents go on leave and upon their return to work. These are critical times for working parents, because many are wondering if they should stay with the organization or how they can transition back to work and be successful.”

The program helps new EY parents meet their personal and professional goals, while enabling the organization to attract, retain, and develop top talent in an ever more competitive business environment.

Additionally, the Career and Family Transitions program allows EY to leverage its talented and experienced internal Executive Coaching team in new ways. Typically, executive coaches work with the organization’s highest-ranking leaders. Now, several coaches spend a majority of their time helping these working parents, offering mid-level professional participants a unique and meaningful benefit.

“We knew the right kind of transitional support could be a game changer as far as keeping our talented new parents engaged and focused on their overall goals,” said Williams.

Initially launched in December 2012 as a pilot program targeting mid-level professionals, the program now includes about 400 new parents throughout the Americas—about a quarter of whom are dads. Moreover, the program has expanded to include high-ranking partners and principals.

The program’s coaches are based both inside and outside the US. “In different geographical regions, the challenges parents face and how their coaching Supporting the changes and transition experiences play out are different,” says EY’s Career and inherent in contemporary Williams. “We made changes to the content of the Family Transitions family life program to keep it culturally relevant. For example, initiative is an innovative coaching in Canada, women are given a yearlong maternity program that helps both moms- and dads-to-be with leave; the challenges of returning to work a year the critical transition to life as a working parent. The later are different. In Mexico, the culture stresses the program provides support, resources, and coaching importance of making a new mom feel comfortable before, during, and after the birth or adoption of a when returning to work.” child. Support is especially focused on the return “Overall, we’re finding that our Career and Family to work—a challenge that nearly all new parents Transitions program helps our new parents feel underestimate. Coaching consists of one-on-one confident in returning to work after maternity and sessions preparing participants to go on leave, as well paternity leave,” says Williams. “Our professionals are

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able to have open and honest conversations with their managers, teams, and families about their personal and professional goals.”

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Efforts that influence the industry, gaming fans, and employees alike

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In 2013, Electronic Arts (EA), a global leader in digital interactive entertainment, executed a number of programs to demonstrate a commitment to equality and inclusion of its LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) colleagues, and their friends and families.

In February 2013, EA hosted “Full Spectrum,” an event in New York that brought together industry thought leaders to discuss the challenges of creating authentic LGBT characters in games, as well as how to address issues that arise through player interaction.

Says Sandy Goldberg, EA’s Corporate Communications Senior Manager, “For a number of years, we’ve partnered with the Human Rights Campaign and the Ford Foundation, so when these subjects began gaining attention, we felt we had an opportunity to bring a number of people together— global industry partners, our partners through HRC and Ford, and our employees—to discuss what our industry can do to combat hate.”

The event featured a session with LGBT advocate and former NFL athlete Brendon Ayanbadejo and panelists from Tencent, the Ford Foundation, the ESA, HRC, CNN, KIXEYE, BioWare, and others to bring to life the myriad of issues that face the LGBT gaming community. Stories from the event, and from fans at home, were shared with the hashtag #H8IsNotAGame.

And it’s far from the only initiative EA launched in 2013. The Humble Origin Bundle, a game package released through Humble Bundle, raised over $10.5 million for six charities in September, and allowed EA’s gaming community to donate a portion of their purchase price to the Human Rights Campaign.

Humble Bundles are electronic gaming packages that allow purchasers to name their own purchase price and earmark a portion for specific charities.

In 2013, EA also sponsored seven local Pride Parades around the world, in cities where their employees live and work. It was the second year EA sponsored Pride Parades in San Francisco and Seattle, but the first in Los Angeles, Stockholm, Vancouver, Austin,

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and Orlando. The company’s own blog series helped capture the experience in each city (see more at www. ea.com/news/tag/diversity).

“While many of our initiatives are born as a reflection of our culture, all are fully embraced by the leadership team at EA,” says Andre Chambers, Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion. “As an organization, we believe that having a diverse and inclusive perspective helps us build better games.”

EA makes its message clear through both sessions and signage at the industry's f irst Full Spectrum event.

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Rigorous 10-month course puts high performers on the road to success

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In 2010, First Horizon National Corporation introduced its Emerging Leaders Program (ELP), a class of high-achieving, high-potential employees prepared to embrace people-leadership roles at the next level. The brainchild of First Horizon’s Diversity Council, the Emerging Leaders Program enhances the organization’s talent management and succession planning efforts, while putting a distinct focus on diversity and inclusion.

Applicants must qualify within select grade levels and have approval from their leader, in addition to participating in two rounds of applications and interviews, before a final selection is made. Each ELP class consists of 25–30 members, with diversity Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

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within demographics and areas of the bank driving selection.

“Internally, we consider ELP a mini-MBA program—it is that rigorous,” says Cindy Cleveland, Vice President of Talent Management for First Horizon. “And we require a high level of strategic thinking that is applied to current business issues. Because it’s tangible learning, it is embraced quickly and effectively.”

The program involves 10 months of vigorous multiday sessions, an action learning project, multiple public-speaking opportunities, and, of course, high visibility for the diverse group of candidates.

Program content focuses on developing four main competencies—thought leadership, results leadership, people leadership, and personal leadership. The development of these competencies is supported through multiple learning methodologies, including lectures, individual and group exercises, case studies, on-the-job training, and mentoring/coaching.

“The investment in the program has paid off tremendously,” says Cleveland. “Since the introduction of ELP, over 30 percent of program graduates have experienced strategic career development moves and promotions throughout our company. And work conducted during the action learning projects has helped drive efficiencies and innovations for our various business lines.”

First Horizon has many high performers and achievers throughout their company, and company leaders consistently seek ways to help internal candidates gain visibility to high-level opportunities.

The Emerging Leaders Program allows them to do it in a strategic and diverse way, by producing a pool of diverse leaders, ready for the next level of responsibility.

"Since the introduction of ELP, over 30 percent of program graduates have experienced strategic career development moves and promotions throughout our company."

Cindy Cleveland, Vice President of Talent Management

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profiles in Diversity Journal

July/August 2014

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Engaging allies to create new momentum In 2007, Alcoa launched Employees at Alcoa for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Equality (EAGLE) to create a safe and affirming work environment, where all employees are empowered to reach their full human and career potential. In recent years, the global group has successfully affected policy, engaged employees, and mobilized the support of allies, helping Alcoa to achieve major milestones, such as revising the Alcoa EEO policy to include gender identify and expression; achieving spousal parity for domestic partners; adding healthcare coverage for transgender employees; publicly supporting LGBT-specific legislation and coalitions; and partnering with Human Resources on recruiting efforts.

How has EAGLE had such impact in such a short period of time? According to Molly McGovern, EAGLE Global Co-lead, the organization hit a turning point when they learned to fully engage their allies in the organization.

“We realized sometimes it’s easier to have people who don’t necessarily have a stake in the game speaking on your behalf,” McGovern says. “EAGLE was always intended to be open to everyone, but for a long time, it functioned mostly as a support group. So we launched a campaign called ‘I support EAGLE’ to bring our allies to the table.”

The passion these allies brought to the movement cannot be understated, McGovern explains. One of the most impactful of these allies was the Director of Global Benefits. “So much of what we were trying to do was change policies, particularly related to health care, and gain parity in domestic partner benefits.

Having allies with functional expertise step forward really helped our organization effectively achieve so many inclusivity milestones. Had EAGLE decided to go it alone, we would simply have been a minority population trying to change minds one at a time.”

“What we discovered was that allies have a spectrum of engagement,” McGovern says. “There are those who will march with you on Capitol Hill and be with you every step of the way. Then there are those who simply want to show support for their coworkers and are not really sure how. By extending that ‘I support’ message we let them know that EAGLE values that support.

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Molly McGovern, EAGLE Global Co-lead.

The organization also produced a whitepaper on the ally model.

We even created a standard pledge that says, in part, ‘I will educate myself and lead by example,’ so allies know what support looks like.”

Today, EAGLE membership spans 17 US states, 14 countries across North America and Europe, as well as Australia and Brazil, and has more than 300 members, of which 82 percent are allies. The ally model has been so successful that other affinity groups throughout Alcoa have been working to adopt the concept.

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Measuring inclusion in nonprofit membership organizations

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Amid the convergence of demographic, social, and technological shifts in America, many nonprofit membership organizations face the challenge of starting or sustaining diversity and inclusion (D+I) practices. Not all nonprofits have a D+I practitioner on staff to guide organizational efforts, or thousands of dollars to spend on consultants and customization of tools intended for the private sector. Yet, regardless of resources, many have expressed a need to better understand, and operate with a focus on, D+I. With this in mind, ASAE leveraged the collective intelligence of 75 nonprofit professionals to design the Association Inclusion Index, an easy-to-use and affordable web-based instrument for nonprofit leaders to measure their D+I performance relative to nonprofit peers.

ASAE’s Inclusion Index is the first and only D+I benchmarking instrument of its kind designed specifically for the nonprofit sector. By answering 82 multiple-choice questions on behalf of the organization, the user receives real-time quantitative

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results and downloadable resources to help take D+I performance to the next level.

“Now, instead of benchmarking against corporate practices, nonprofit membership organizations can assess the absence or presence of D+I policies and practices against nonprofit community standards and chart a way forward,” says Alexis Terry, ASAE’s Senior Director of Diversity and Inclusion. “We break the topics into five areas to create ‘bite-sized topics’ that you can learn from. We also take all of the guesswork out of data analysis and interpretation, and provide actionable insights immediately.”

The tool also provides opportunities for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. Users can download D+I models and samples of policies, programs, and practices, and submit their own examples for peers to use.

“Many nonprofit membership organizations out there today have 10 or fewer full-time employees,” says John Graham, President and CEO of ASAE. “We wanted every organization to know your employee base doesn’t need to be a certain size for you to make gains in diversity and inclusion.”

Organizations use the Inclusion Index to give them clarity about how to create an inclusive environment, greater understanding of the difference between diversity and practicing inclusion, a shared view of what to focus on in D+I, and where to deploy organizational resources, plus ideas about when and how to leverage the role of the CEO, board, senior staff, and volunteers in increasing opportunities for diverse professionals. Users also leverage the Inclusion Index to inform the direction and key priorities for their D+I strategic planning processes.

Since its launch in April 2013, 43 organizations have employed the Index to help them evolve their diversity and inclusion practices.

Access to the index—including instant quantitative and qualitative results, and downloadable resources —is just $199 for ASAE members and $299 for nonmembers.

To learn more about the Inclusion Index, visit www.asaecenter.

The Inclusion Index offers a user-friendly experience.

Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

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Small groups and interactive sessions enhance training for women

KPMG’s Executive Leadership Institute for Women (ELIW) was established in 2009 to provide a unique leadership training program for the firm’s future women leaders. Created by KPMG’s Network of Women (KNOW) and launched in its Philadelphia office with the goal to further develop senior women, as well as women from outside KPMG, ELIW provides them the opportunity to expand their skills and initiate career-enriching relationships with executive women representing corporations in their local market.

With a curriculum developed in conjunction with The Leader’s Edge/Leaders By Design, ELIW provides practical instruction in leadership development for women who have already achieved a high level of success, and consists of four focused, high-impact, half-day sessions conducted over the course of a year.

These highly interactive sessions are limited to 35 women each, and are reinforced with monthly cohort group meetings in which trained facilitators provide instruction and insight.

Because the sessions occur over the course of a year, KPMG’s women and their colleagues who attend have time to absorb what they’ve learned in Building an Authentic Leadership Platform, Ensuring a HighPerforming Career, Resiliency, and Political Savvy and Effective Influence. Each woman is then able to analyze her own strengths and opportunities for development, devise a plan, and implement strategies for improvement, while continually benefiting from the feedback of others.

“I have been with the organization 35 years. Yet, when I attended the program its first year, I was truly surprised by how much I gained,” says Patti Cary, partner in the firm’s Risk Management Advisory practice, and program manager for the ELIW. “The topics are beneficial to women at all points in their career, and the tools and confidence you walk away with are vital to every woman’s success.”

But what makes ELIW unique, stresses Cary, is the program’s relationship-building aspect. The immediate

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Patti Cary profiles in Diversity Journal

July/August 2014

benefit for KPMG’s women, and the other women executives who participate, is derived from the insights, experiences, and “lessons learned” they share during the sessions and through cohorts.

Over the longer term, the strong bonds formed have often evolved into mentoring relationships, as well as friendships, and created door-opening business connections that are both professionally and personally rewarding.

ELIW is now conducted in six cities—Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC—and to date more than 20 ELIW sessions have been held, training nearly 800 women.

The program has been so well received that regular social events for ELIW alumni also occur, helping KPMG’s women to leverage the valuable contacts they’ve made during their ELIW sessions.

The program has been recognized by Working Mother magazine several times as one of the reasons KPMG has been ranked among its 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers.

“It has been so impactful that we plan to roll out the ELIW to four other cities in 2015,” says Cary. “And we have plans for additional one-day programs that can bring these topics of discussion to all levels of women in the organization.

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Landmark studies provide insight into cultural behaviors that drive personal finance decisions r s

Formally introduced in the spring of 2011, Prudential Financial’s Signature Research Studies is a series of branded thought leadership research reports focused on the financial practices and literacy of multicultural markets. The research explores the financial attitudes and behaviors of the African American, Hispanic, LGBT, and women’s markets.

The research has not only proven to be smart and insightful, but it has established a benchmark for the financial services industry, a space that traditionally lacked deep insights into these markets.

“The Signature Series originated as part of a communications campaign designed to enhance Prudential’s reputation as a company that values diversity and inclusion,” said Bob DeFillippo, Chief Communications Officer for Prudential. “At its heart, the Signature Series epitomizes the strength of Prudential’s corporate character and reinforces

Engaging

©3M 2014. All rights reserved.

Diverse Perspectives Creativity as diverse as the people behind it.

3M knows that diversity is at the heart of our market-leading innovation for over 100 years. That’s because our culture values, encourages and rewards the rich and varied perspectives of our employees. It is their diversity of cultures, backgrounds and insights that powers our creativity.

Be part of what’s next 3M.com/careers-diversity

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who we are and what we care about."

“In the process, it helped us ‘up’ our cultural competence and deepen our own understanding of topics that enable us better reach and serve our customers,” said Alicia Rodgers Alston, Vice President, Global Communications. “They are at the heart of our multicultural market outreach.”

These attitudinal and behavioral surveys help Prudential Financial identify trends, gaps, and preferences, and give the company insights into key communities and how well these groups relate to, trust, perceive, and navigate the financial industry.

And, through broad distribution among media, government, community, sales and marketing, and industry organizations, the series has become central to changing perceptions of the industry, while positioning Prudential as a clear thought leader.

Although this communications program was not designed to drive sales or provide overarching market intelligence, the Signature Research Studies set the stage to help Prudential’s financial professionals better understand and meet the needs of these communities.

The series’ insights have not only helped open doors for additional business opportunities, but have also spurred the formation of a new multicultural marketing department, and the development of targeted strategies Ryerson’s Soup and Substance panel discussion on “Advancing the Connections Between Social Innovation and Social Justice” featured to reach diverse audiences. (seated) moderator Dr. Denise O’Neil Green; Dr. Laura Mae Lindo, AF R I C AN AM E R I C AN F I N AN C I AL E X PE R I E N C E

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Ryerson’s lunchtime panel discussions take the conversation to a new level

In January 2013, Ryerson University’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) launched Soup and Substance, a monthly series of noon-hour, moderated panel discussions. While enjoying a bowl of soup and refreshments, participants engage panelists in an open conversation on a range of compelling diversity topics (e.g., Your PRIDE is My PRIDE; Intersecting Identities: The Place of Disability; and the EDI of Mental Health).

Dr. Denise O’Neil Green, Assistant Vice President/ Vice Provost for EDI serves as moderator, and

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panelists, including faculty, staff, students, and senior administrators, are selected based on their expertise, interest, and engagement.

Soup and Substance, which is free and open to the public, is not a typical lunch-and-learn series. Its purpose, which is a simple but powerful one, is to create safe spaces for Ryerson community members to come together and talk about challenging topics— some difficult to tackle, but key to fostering cultural understanding and creating an inclusive work and learning environment. The core principle behind the series is that everyone brings something important to the discussion—lived experience, research expertise, or practitioner know-how. Through open, inclusive panel discussions, participants gain new knowledge and new ways to apply it.

So far, EDI has hosted a total of 12 Soups and Substance sessions, which have been so popular the Office has had to change venues to accommodate the growing number of participants. Videos of the sessions, made available on a special video channel for those unable to attend, have enjoyed more than 1,200 views to date.

According to Green, program benefits are two-fold: 1) The program places the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion front and center for the organization; and 2) it challenges community members to go beyond their comfort zone.

profiles in Diversity Journal

July/August 2014

Senior Research Associate of the Diversity Institute at Ted Rogers School of Management; Teriano Lesancha, Founder and CEO, SupaMaasai Foundation; Melanie Panitch, Associate Professor, School of Disability Studies, Ryerson University; and Marilyn Struthers, John C. Eaton Chair in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. An ASL interpreter (standing) facilitates the discussion.

Inclusion is more than a goal.

It’s a necessary organizational practice.

That’s why ASAE developed the first benchmarking instrument in diversity and inclusion for the nonprofit sector. We’re proud to be recognized among the Top 10 in the International Innovations in Diversity Competition and congratulate our fellow innovators.

Find out more about our commitment to diversity and inclusion at asaecenter.org/diversity.

Helping associations succeed through practicing and measuring inclusion.

May/June 2014

www.DiversityJournal.com

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a BASF MasterCard i sa a C i r

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The dashboard results show improvement in many units across North America. Year-end 2013 data show that many more units have moved into the “green” on BASF’s regional KPI scorecard. Dashboard results also show steady improvement in the retention of diverse talent, which is now essentially on par with nondiverse talent.

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Integrating diversity into all talent practices: every decision counts

Motivating leaders to take deliberate steps to increase and develop the diversity of BASF’s workforce in North America was the impetus for creating a robust reporting tool called the Talent/Diversity + Inclusion Dashboard.

Introduced in 2012, the unit-level dashboard provides greater visibility into how hiring decisions made in each unit move the needle on the company’s strategic goal of forming the best team and building a robust pipeline of high caliber, diverse talent for future growth.

The dashboard includes BASF overall talent benchmarks and the results of unit-level leadership team decision-making. This approach was very different from the prior static views of the company’s regional composition.

“We wanted a concrete way to look beyond seeing statistics as the goal and instead broaden the lens to see our diversity and inclusion for what it really is: The outcome of our behaviors,” says Pat Rossman, Chief Diversity Officer. “How do leaders behave, how do teams behave, and what behaviors must we adopt to find and engage the best talent from all backgrounds?

The dashboard helps us answer these questions and understand that when we increase the attention we pay to making teams more diverse and more inclusive, a change in those statistics naturally follow.”

The dashboard is unique, because it provides a mirror against which leaders can judge the results of their talent decisions and see if they are successfully managing their talent in strategic ways. It also helps trigger deeper discussions that can increase the success of the team.

“By helping leaders see how diversity is integrated into all talent practices, they better understand how to influence and effect change in their groups, and how talent decisions connect to business performance,” says Rossman.

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profiles in Diversity Journal

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When you create more effective global brand ambassadors, everyone wins

The Global Diversity Office at MasterCard launched its first multiplatform, interactive gamification program, EDGE (Employees Driving the Global Enterprise), in December 2013.

Created in partnership with Global Talent Development, the goal of the program was to enable MasterCard employees around the world to articulate clearly and accurately what MasterCard does, and how it benefits individuals and society. The program is open to all 10,000 employees worldwide.

Using common experiences makes EDGE easily relatable to employees around the world.

“Our Business Resource Groups are extremely engaged, and wanted tools to help them talk to their community, and to their friends and neighbors, about our business and the role it plays in the financial and technology industries,” says Arlene González-Pagan, director of global diversity and inclusion. “To ensure everyone was having the same conversation, and had the same learning background, we created EDGE. The format makes it more engaging than your typical program so that employees can easily retain the information—which can be a lot, especially for new hires.”

The program is presented in the form of a four-part

challenge that incorporates videos and quizzes, and mirrors a day in the life of a MasterCard employee—who they may meet, the environments they may encounter, and questions that may be asked of them along the way.

There is also an online community that allows employees around the world to connect, socialize, and communicate what they’ve learned, as well as videos and visuals to share within groups.

This program has been so successful, and had such a significant impact on the business, that it will now be incorporated into the onboarding process for all new employees.

“Launching this program was incredibly energizing,” says González-Pagan, “and it has inspired us to take more innovative paths in other areas of communication to keep our employees engaged.”

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Creating a paradigm shift in automotive marketing to the LGBT community.

The Auto Industry has long attempted to understand the purchasing power of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) community, but the data needed to quantify market trends had never been available. In October 2012, IHS Automotive launched its groundbreaking solution, LGBT Answers, which gives manufacturers and retailers the information they need to successfully market to, or influence, this audience.

LGBT Answers provides actual new and used vehicle data for the US LGBT market, based on more than 3 million self-reported LGBT households across the country and representing more than 50,000 new vehicle registrations per year. It provides four years of history at the make level (Toyota, Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, KIA, Mercedes, BMW, etc.), model level (F-150, Camaro, Optima, etc.), and by markets (LA, NY, Miami, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, etc.). It is also able to reveal trends at the national and local DMA level.

LGBT Answers is the only service that can

Marc Bland

provide separate statistical information at the brand and geographic level for lesbian versus gay auto consumers.

“We provide information to a good mix of automotive clients, both domestic and Asian manufacturers,” says Marc Bland, IHS Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion. “While the industry has been marketing to the LGBT consumer for quite some time, it was all based on ‘I think, I feel, I believe.’ This is the first time we could put quantitative metrics to their efforts—and not just about market awareness, but for new and used registration results.”

Through LGBT Answers, return on investment (ROI) analysis for investments made in this market can finally improve marketing focus and, ultimately, lead to a better automotive experience for LGBT consumers. The data also helps dispel many of the stereotypes related to the US LGBT consumer by focusing more on what, and where, this consumer group is actually buying.

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A workshop’s candid discussion helps light the career path for women in accounting Women have historically been underrepresented at the top levels of the accounting industry, something Moss Adams LLP has been working to change through Forum W—the firm’s effort to attract, develop, retain, and advance talented women. In 2013, Forum W introduced a workshop that has gained tremendous momentum, called “Getting Real: Straight Talk on Building Your Career and Investing in Your Future.”

Getting Real addresses a phenomenon Moss Adams calls “future tripping.” The firm discovered that three to six years into their accounting careers, many of their female employees voice concerns about how their personal and professional lives might unfold: Will I be able to balance a family and working at the firm? I don’t know how to sell; should I quit now? Since there aren’t as many women partners as men, what’s the likelihood I’ll become one? These concerns often prompted premature professional decisions, which stalled promising careers and caused talented women to slip from the firm’s pipeline.

Facilitated by the firm’s women partners, Getting Real provides an opportunity for more exposure to role models—those who’ve already achieved success in the firm—who can candidly share their experiences, provide insight, and demonstrate different models of success. The workshop covers topics such as career Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

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development strategies, work-life integration, and stretch assignments, and provides a panel discussion that participants find extremely valuable.

To date, Moss Adams has conducted the Getting Real workshop in almost every one of its operating regions, and it’s now developing a follow-up workshop that will take an even deeper dive into future tripping and work-life integration.

“We have outstanding buy-in from leadership for these programs, and are seeing the needle move in a positive way,” says Stacy Stelzriede, a partner in Moss Adam’s Los Angeles office and member of the firmwide Forum W advisory board. “Across all of our locations, women now make up nearly 25 percent of our partners, which is far above the national average of 19 percent, but still not enough when 50 percent of our new hires are women.”

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CRG-driven white paper helps health professionals bridge cultural issues with Hispanic Community

Cigna’s Hispanic/Latino Colleague Resource Group (CRG) participants worked with team members from Marketing and the Total Health and Network organization to create an informational white paper for Cigna’s US health care professionals, titled: Bienestar: America’s Hispanic Community… Improving Health Outcomes Through Engagement with Health Care Professionals.

Dr. Alfredo Hinojosa Quinones (center), a neurosurgical oncologist at Johns Hopkins University, meets with the Cigna Bienestar team at the National Hispanic Society of MBA’s Healthcare Summit.

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“We had just sponsored our second Hispanic Healthcare summit, and the paper was a result of a challenge we put out to the CRG to bring the context of the event to life to those stakeholders that serve our customers in the Hispanic community,” says Rosanna Durruthy, chief diversity officer.

The paper, Bienestar (which in Spanish means wellbeing), was designed to give employees, healthcare professionals, and Cigna clients and brokers, an understanding of Hispanic cultural characteristics and preferences—a key enabler to better health outcomes.

It has been extraordinarily well received in the marketplace, having been seen by an estimated halfmillion health professionals and staff to date.

“It was our goal to use this paper to not only raise awareness, but to also create a call to action,” says Eliana Nunez, operational effectiveness senior director and member of the Bienestar team, “to talk about what we can do differently, share our own experiences, and tell the story in a way that can help health care practitioners educate their practices and encourage their patients.”

profiles in Diversity Journal

July/August 2014

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Summit brings To provide an corporations together opportunity for their to collaborate on ERG leaders to learn from social, economic and each other—as well as workforce issues

those from neighboring corporations—Ingersoll Rand launched its first ERG Summit on their campus in Davidson, North Carolina.

More than 145 employees, chief diversity officers, business leaders, and customers attended the inaugural North Carolina ERG Summit.

The two-day summit brought corporate customers and ERG leaders together to share best practices, conversation, and learnings from their own organizations. Day one of the conference featured a diversity panel discussion led by board members from various companies, including Ingersoll Rand’s Theodore E. Martin. Day two was designed solely for Ingersoll Rand leaders, and discussions focused on the company’s strategic direction and how to align the ERGs work to business goals.

The 2013 ERG Summit helped raise awareness of ERGs internally, while also increasing community

A job shouldn’t define you.

It should reflect you.

For such a diverse group of people, it’s amazing how alike we are.

Diversity and Inclusion at UnitedHealth Group. To the uninitiated, we may appear quite different. We represent a widely diverse group of cultural backgrounds, beliefs, perspectives and lifestyles. But inside each of us beats the heart of a relentlessly driven, crazy talented, mission focused professional. Our modest goals: Improve the lives of others. Change the landscape of health care forever. Leave the world a better place than we found it. So if you ever ask yourself, “Do people like me work here?” The answer is yes. We invite you to join us.

SM

Whatever makes you special will inspire your life’s best work.

Online at: yourlifesbestwork.com Or scan this QR code with your smartphone...

UnitedHealth Group is proud to be recognized as a 2014 Diversity Leader. facebook.com/uhgcareers

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Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: equal opportunity employer M/F/D/V. UnitedHealth Group is a drug-free workplace.

Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment. © 2014 UnitedHealth Group. All rights reserved.

2014 innovation awards

partnership with neighboring corporations and civic organizations. As a direct result of relationships created at the ERG Summit, the Ingersoll Rand Women’s Network co-hosted a networking event with Lowe’s Home Improvement in February 2014. The Asian and Black ERG leaders also created working partnerships with the local chambers of commerce and the National Urban League to focus on readiness and business workforce development.

For Brooks Thurston, senior talent acquisition partner and member of the steering committee for GOL, Ingersoll Rand’s Hispanic ERG, the Summit proved invaluable.

“For ERGs like Brooks Thurston GOL, which is fairly new, the summit provided a great opportunity to hear what community organizations and ERGs in other companies were doing, what activities they were involved in and what struggles they were going through,” she said. “Every participant came away with ideas on how to get more of our employee population engaged.”

The 2013 ERG Summit was a milestone event for Ingersoll Rand, marking the success the organization has achieved relative to diversity and inclusion progress and acting as a catalyst for what the company will achieve through ERGs in the future.

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award-winning efforts gather steam.

Gender diversity in the oil and gas industry remains a hot topic, and Halliburton has added significantly to the efforts that were recognized among the Top Ten in Profiles in Diversity Journal’s 2013 Innovation Awards.

In the past year, Halliburton forged partnerships with universities and community organizations to create an increased awareness of the STEM fields and opportunities in the oil and gas industry, especially among school-aged girls and underrepresented

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profiles in Diversity Journal

July/August 2014

minorities. Outreach efforts for the 2013–2014 academic year touched the lives of over 2,000 students.

“We have outreach efforts with a number of community organizations and universities that allow us to reach young men and women at different levels of their educational journey,” says Lisa Finch, manager for global diversity at Halliburton.

The company has also launched a professional development series for college-level Society of Women Engineer chapters. Through this development series, Halliburton was able to increase its presence at gender-based events by 86 percent from fall 2013 to spring 2014, reaching over 500 women engineers.

The program shares the Halliburton message, while focusing on the soft skills generally not covered in a university curriculum. The success of the program has earned Halliburton a finalist position in the NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) Innovation Excellence Award for Diversity for the second year running.

Halliburton also launched its first women’s resource group in 2013—Women Sharing Excellence— which provides three core programs to help women in the company assemble a valuable career tool kit: 1) leadership and professional development, delivered in person or virtually to accommodate geographic differences; 2) mentoring (both one-one-one and mentoring circles); and 3) community activities.

The global group now has over 600 members, and continues to grow.

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Microsite’s tools help women to make sound financial decisions

The Women Take Charge section of Lincoln Financial Group’s Chief Life Officer microsite was launched in March 2012, coinciding with Women’s History Month and providing educational multimedia presentations and other tools aimed at helping women take charge of their lives and financial futures.

“Today, we see more women in the role of primary financial decision maker than ever before,” says Jamie DePeau, Lincoln Financial’s SVP and chief marketing officer. “Women Take Charge gives them tools and information that can empower them to make decisions around financial security.”

REAL WOMEN.

REAL CAREERS. Learn more about our careers for women halliburton.com/careers

Solving challenges.™

© 2014 Halliburton. All rights reserved.

Lincoln Financial's Women Take Charge microsite

The custom content was created with data from Lincoln Financial’s MOOD (Measuring Optimism, Outlook, and Direction) of America survey. This survey’s results showed that more and more women are becoming the primary financial decision maker for their families—a fact that is not always apparent in our industry’s marketing efforts. The Women Take Charge section serves as a platform for Lincoln Financial to introduce strictly women-focused content. Content is updated at least every three months, helping Lincoln’s brand establish trust and grow favorability.

As part of a client-facing site, Women Take Charge has enabled Lincoln Financial to engage in more personal conversations with women directly—beyond working with intermediaries, such as wholesalers and financial advisors. The page has thus enabled us to focus on women through all touch points—Lincoln Financial, intermediaries, and clients—providing content that is timely, relevant, and tailored to them.

Women Take Charge now accounts for about 16 percent of all traffic to Lincoln Financial’s Chief Life Officer microsite.

Managing diversity in a rapidly changing environment

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Due to the recent oil production activity around the Bakken Oil formation, the population of Williston, North Dakota, and its surrounding communities has grown from approximately 13,000 to over 60,000 within the last two years. Many of the newcomers migrated to the area from outside the US.

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Mercy Medical Center launched several diversity efforts to meet the needs of their growing community and the changing face of their workforce. Overcoming the language barrier was a primary concern, since English is not the first language of many of the Center’s 450 employees.

These initiatives not only help Mercy serve its diverse employee population, but also help the employees work together in harmony to produce great results and provide a high standard of patient care. One of the first initiatives provided a LanguageLine interpreter who helps applicants and employees successfully complete pre-employment testing and paperwork. For ESL employees subject to regulatory compliance education requirements via computer, Mercy created a program that provides one-on-one computer training. Other innovative programs have followed.

One such example is in the Environmental Services Department. Comprising 60 percent foreign workers, Environmental Services has effectively implemented broader systems that help accommodate employees struggling with language barriers, including a colorcoded cleaning process that allows employees to match zones, tools, and processes by color and eliminates the use of lengthy checklists that can prove frustrating to them. The system allows for better training, which, in turn, leads to a higher retention rate and greater employee satisfaction.

Mercy’s Environmental Services Department employees hail from Serbia, Ukraine, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Jamaica, Columbia, and the Philippines, as well as the United States.

For many of these employees, English is their second language.

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Landmark studies provide insight into on behaviors, and not personal epiphanies, when cultural behaviors that drive personal combined with skill building and effective finance decisions coaching, it provides a scalable solution that can

In 2013, Linkage and its clients faced a problem: Even though research and studies showed the power and need for inclusive leaders in today’s workforce, no one had a good way to assess inclusion, let alone track a leader’s progress toward inclusiveness.

Understanding and providing guidance around the development of inclusive leadership became a driving focus at Linkage; the result of their work is the Inclusive Leadership Assessment™.

Based on their research of global organizations, the Linkage team isolated eleven hallmark competencies and behaviors that help organizations and leaders build an inclusive culture, increase employee engagement, and advance cultural imperatives.

By measuring the inclusiveness of all leaders, organizations can establish diversity and inclusion benchmarks; in the process, leaders will better internalize the behaviors, leading to faster, more meaningful change. Because the assessment is based

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Changing paradigms at the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

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IRS’s diversity and inclusion efforts are aimed at encouraging employees to learn about value and be inclusive of all differences—including backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences—and leveraging diversity as a means of accomplishing its mission and serving our customers in more effective, innovative, and collaborative ways.

Our first challenge, however, is that government reporting requirements have led to a focus on race and gender, with little or no focus on other differences or inclusion. Shifting the diversity paradigm to include all of the differences the Service’s employees bring to work would be no small task.

Another challenge was transition—both internal and external. In 2013, IRS experienced significant changes in leadership, programs, and resources.

Externally, the nation’s demographic shift greatly changed its customer base while advances in

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be broadly and quickly implemented with immediate observable impact.

“So much of the work that’s being done around inclusion these days has to do with biases and perceptions—it’s good, thoughtful work, but difficult to measure,” says Charley Morrow, Vice President of Assessments at Linkage. “The assessment is simple and immediately effectual because it describes and measures the behaviors that, when emulated, make your actions more inclusive.”

As organizations and leaders create development programs around this assessment, they will have baseline data from which to gage success and growth of their initiatives.

Within four weeks of launching the assessment, more than 1,500 people expressed interest in the tool and now have a measurable way to track their organizations' and leaders' progress toward becoming more inclusive.

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technology rapidly changed the way it needed to operate to meet customer demands.

To address both challenges, IRS created an initiative to serve as a platform to explore the rapid changes in today’s world, and how diversity and inclusion can help the organization be successful. The initiative launched in FY2014 with the theme “Our World is Changing—Are you ready?”

“Our goal was to broaden the discussion on diversity and inclusion beyond just race or gender,” says Elaine Ho, Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

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n deputy executive director of the IRS office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. "Each month, the theme focuses on a particular dimension of diversity, including family structure, personality, abilities, work experience, and generations. We also provide multiple resources related to the monthly focus, such as discussion guides and articles. The resources have been very well received.”

IRS has also added a series of leadership panels and town halls featuring the newly appointed senior leadership team, allowing them to personally articulate how they value diversity and inclusion.

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Integrating Diversity & Inclusion into the Talent Management Planning Process

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Providing a connection to the community

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New York Life showed its growing commitment to the Latino Community in 2013 by organizing a firstof-its-kind series of summits designed to solely focus on the Latino/Hispanic market. These summits were created to drive awareness and help our agents and other Latino/Hispanic financial professionals develop action plans and expand their capacity to bring financial information and planning assistance to their own communities.

The first of these events involved New York Life’s Hispanic Market Division and Latino Employee Resource Group, in conjunction with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The second event, named “The Latina Leaders Summit," was a twoday conference hosted by New York Life in partnership with LatinaStyle magazine, Women in Insurance and Financial Services, and the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting.

In 2014, The Hartford established a goal to integrate D&I more fully into the organization’s talent management and succession planning processes with an initiative called call Talent Reviews.

For the program’s inaugural Talent Review cycle, diversity personnel worked with business leaders and their HR partners to identify employees that could 1) benefit from, and add value to, external initiatives such as diversity conferences, recruiting events, and speaking engagements; 2) take on leadership roles in either Employee Resource Groups, aligned nonprofits, or diversity partner organizations; or 3) participate in a targeted development program such as mentorship or a career development initiative.

This year, more than 100 Hartford employees Hector D. Vilchis were identified through this process and are actively participating in Hartford’s internal and external D&I initiatives.

Both summits served as platforms for Latino/ Not only does the Talent Review cycle provide rich Hispanic professionals to share insights about the experiences for diverse top talent, but it also helps opportunities and challenges in today’s economy, with recruitment and retention, says Kristen Beyers, and to share new ways to improve access to financial Diversity and Inclusion Manager for Human Resources literacy and planning in the community. Networking at The Hartford. and leadership development opportunities were also “Potential employees are approaching Hartford part of the summit experience. teammates at diversity events discussing career “Through programs like these, New York Life adds opportunities and sharing resumes, so it’s working value to the community by being a connector for its from a talent acquisition perspective,” she said. “And, professionals, by providing education and new ideas, at a recent industry focused women’s conference, and by becoming a conduit for business opportunity,” The Hartford sent a group of women from across the says Hector Vilchis, a corporate vice president business and had them network externally at the event and market manager of New York Life’s Hispanic as brand ambassadors. The results have been powerful Market Initiative. so far.”

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A salute to women

We’re proud of the groundbreaking women who help shape our company today and continue to lead us into tomorrow.

We salute Profiles in Diversity Journal for its outstanding efforts honoring Women Worth Watching.

Š 2014 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved.

2014 innovation awards

Following the Latina Leaders Summit, New York Life has seen several of the attendees create Latina study and mentorship groups. In addition, a national Latina leadership program was created to encourage and develop successful management candidates. The program included conference calls and events geared towards Latina professionals achieving higher levels of professional success. This has led to increased interest and enrollment of Latinas in the management career track and in our top producer programs.

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’ Business unit drives conversation on diversity and innovation

Success in today’s market hinges on innovation.

But while it’s been shown that diversity enhances innovation, many organizations struggle to cultivate the "right mix" of elements to create a springboard for it.

Booz Allen Hamilton’s mix focuses on three key areas: Driving inclusive behaviors that nurture innovation; fostering communication and providing avenues to share and develop ideas; and selecting the best ideas to drive forward.

All three key areas are supported by notable initiatives, from an Inclusive Leadership Toolkit that helps drive inclusive leadership behaviors, to agendas, forums, and events to foster communication. But the third key element in the mix—selecting the best ideas to drive forward—gains its support through a new business unit.

Booz Allen’s Strategic Innovation Group (SIG) is a breeding ground for breakthrough innovation and a way to share new thinking, new ideas, and new concepts Rosemarie Allen

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with clients. It draws from a dynamic, imaginative team of around 1,500 creative thinkers who are driving change across markets with breakthrough ideas in areas from Next-gen Analytics to Cloud Computing and Data Science.

“It is our proving ground and the model which is showcasing just how much diversity and inclusion contributes to the development of ideas and solutions that can drive better results for our clients,” says Rosemarie Allen, Booz Allen Global Diversity & Inclusion Lead. ““By linking diversity and innovation we are expanding the conversation from a traditional diversity lens to a direct tie between diversity and positive business impact.”

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Portraying a culture of inclusion from day one Marriott International’s strategic diversity and inclusion focus involves creating a sense of belonging as the company attracts, engages, and develops the next generation of associates and leaders.

Conducting research with associates to understand what it is like to work for Marriott, the company continually heard, “Marriott is where I belong.” To belong means feeling valued, respected, and trusted— able to be yourself. At Marriott, that sense of belonging is pervasive. Team members work as a family to make guests feel as much at home as they do.

The “Marriott, Where I Belong” employer brand campaign was launched in 2012, promoting the company’s culture, diversity, and inclusion through brand messaging designed to attract, retain, and engage diverse associates. With input from Marriott’s “Next M” millennial advisory group, this platform deployed unique digital tools to attract, engage and develop the new generation of talent, including: A dedicated Facebook page: Marriott Jobs and Careers is the top careers Facebook page across all industries. In two years, it has garnered nearly 1.2 million “likes.” To respond to all of the posted comments and provide up-to-the-minute company information on recruiting and career events, Marriott established a Talent Community Crew of more than 30 Human Resources associates.

A mobile career site: In 2014, Marriott became the first hospitality company to enable job seekers to apply

WHEN EVERYONE’S INCLUDED, ANYTHING’S POSSIBLE. We believe diversity brings us a distinct competitive advantage, one that drives a rich understanding of the specific needs of the market—and fuels innovations tied directly to those needs.

First, it’s a belief seen in what our people bring, as professionals from all walks of life take part in a culture of inclusion, and grow as contributors and leaders.

Second, it’s a belief seen in what we bring to our communities, where educational leadership, enhanced physical spaces, and social investments drive change.

And third, it’s a belief seen in what we bring to market, with each solution made greater by a rich array of voices influencing and informing how we work.

It all adds up to help meet the financial challenges people face today, and tomorrow.

TO LEARN MORE, VISIT PRUDENTIAL.COM

© 2013. Prudential, the Prudential logo, the Rock symbol and Bring Your Challenges are service marks of Prudential Financial, Inc., and its related entities, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide.

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from mobile devices. The mobile career site offers “nearby” jobs based on GPS location; commute time estimator; local points of interest near selected job opportunities; “Stay in Touch” feature to receive job updates/alerts based on geography and job preferences; and “Connect With Us” to network through social media with our Talent Community Crew. Marriott has received nearly 100,000 mobile applications since the site was launched in January.

An interactive experience: Xplor is a groundbreaking mobile travel social game that enables future and current associates, as well as guests, to virtually tour five of the world’s iconic cities—New York, Sao Paulo, Paris, Dubai, and Beijing.

Players create a custom character and virtually travel the world learning fun facts through a scavenger hunt, arcade games, and puzzles.

Marriott's "Where I Belong" campaign

Un lugar los compañe donde ros como parte de trabajo son siempre se de la familia y comparte el éxito.

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Providing support for Internationally Educated Health Professionals

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Marriott es un patrono que ofrece contratar igualdad de a un person al diverso y mantener oportunidades, compr una cultura ometido con inclusiva.

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Saskatchewan Ministry of Health and funded by Health Canada, the initial goal of the five-year project was to support 200 IEHPs; however, as of March 31, 2014, 489 participants have entered the program, with 121 (25 percent) gaining licensure in their profession or an alternate health profession.

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The key to associates' development and growth Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is committed to providing meaningful career opportunities and accommodating the varying needs of its lawyers. Although all lawyers have access to mentors at every step of their careers, a few programs are tailored to specific constituencies.

The Network of Black & Latino Lawyers (NOBLL) and the Asian Associates Network (AAN) provide members with information and opportunities that will help them fulfill their personal and professional development goals, as well as mentoring programs

The Saskatoon Health Region’s ambitious Pathways: IEHP Support, Bridging and Integration project provides new health professionals to the region the support they need to successfully navigate regulatory processes and accomplish their professional goals.

In addition to individualized support, the program’s workshops, events, and social media forum offer participants opportunities to enhance communication skills, develop relationships, learn from each other’s experiences, and support one another as they make this transition in their lives and careers.

To address the geographic challenges within Saskatchewan, an online tool was developed to provide resources for professionals unable to participate in regional workshops in person.

Pathways participants at a Time Management/Goal Setting workshop Created in collaboration with the

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CenturyLink values diversity.

A diverse workforce is one of our greatest strengths in a competitive global marketplace. We are committed to fostering a culture that honors mutual respect and collaboration which results in our best work to improve lives.

See how we connect at www.centurylink.com and our careers page at centurylink.jobs.

See how we connect at centurylink.com.

Š 2014 CenturyLink, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The name CenturyLink, the pathways logo, and the CenturyLink brand sub-graphic are trademarks of CenturyLink, Inc.

Inclusion is the difference MWV is a global leader because our people are different. We embrace diverse backgrounds and perspectives — fueling innovation and driving business results.

When unique individuals join together as one, we can do extraordinary things.

@mwvpackaging mwv.com

designed to help them do so. Both networks match more senior members of the network with new associates joining the network each fall. For each network, this program adds an additional layer of mentoring for new associates to further enhance their professional development, while also providing a candid forum to network with lawyers of similar backgrounds and experiences. A third-year General Practice Associate remarked that, “the AAN mentoring program has helped me develop into a better senior associate. I have been able to have candid conversations with my mentees that remind me of what it was like to be a first-year associate. Those conversations have reignited my desire to be the best manager and teacher that I can be, and have positively impacted my relationships with junior associates on all of my transactions.”

Both networks also host a member-led speaker series, covering a wide-range of substantive practice and professional development topics. This series allows associates to not only hone their public speaking skills in a comfortable environment, but also supports the Firm’s longstanding commitment to ensure that all lawyers are both specialists in their respective practice areas, and generalists in other areas of law.

Topics in the NOBLL speaker series have included estate planning, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and an introduction to derivatives. Topics in the AAN speaker series have included the inherent value of clerkships, and the benefits of being seconded to a client’s legal department.

Sullivan & Cromwell’s partners are frequently invited to address members of the networks. Over the past year, partners have presented such topics as their paths to partnership, practical tips on how to build your brand, developing meaningful business relationships, and enhancing your practice.

The Firm realizes that associates benefit and Francesca Galarraga

enjoy spending time with partners, and that providing opportunities for informal mentoring are key to associates’ development and growth.

u r ’ “One University” Initiative

Building with diversity in mind

In March of 2013, University of the Rockies opened its second campus site in Denver, Colorado. A leading graduate school in the social behavioral sciences, the Denver location was opened to provide a home for the School of Organizational Leadership, while the University’s campus in Colorado Springs would remain home to the School of Professional Psychology. The new, exciting expansion would give University of the Rockies a stronger regional presence and help it better serve its rapidly growing student population.

The University needed to find ways to welcome new students and a new academic modality to the Denver area. To meet this challenge, the University engaged its Diversity Office to implement a series of initiatives to foster a welcoming environment and celebrate the University’s core values of service, integrity, diversity, and excellence. Thus the “One University” initiative was born.

To launch the initiative, the Diversity Office called upon a team of creative, artistic employees to design a unity mural.

The mural was created in tiles so that every staff member could participate and leave their legacy. Other initiatives included a mission contest to showcase the multitude of interpretations of the University’s mission, and a “Living with Integrity” award for individuals to nominate those who demonstrate integrity in every aspect of their work.

Staff member training was developed and, for students, the University hosted open houses and increased support services.

“Since the opening of our Denver location, our teams and executive leadership have hosted weekly sessions with students to gather suggestions and ideas that will help us continue to grow our efforts to be more inclusive,” says Francesca Galarraga, Director of Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

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Diversity for the University. “We know how important it is for people to feel they are valued. It is our goal to give every individual—students and staff alike—an opportunity to contribute and make the University of the Rockies a more inviting place to learn and work.”

The results of these activities are evident through the attitudes, engagement, and enthusiastic support of the new location.

Results are measured formally through the University’s Climate Assessment, a Gallup™ Inclusiveness Index, and a Collaboration survey which takes into account students’ feedback in course evaluations.

Candy Kahn

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Unique city plan formalizes goals and sets milestones

The City of Edmonton’s Diversity and Inclusion Framework and Implementation Plan provides employees with the tools and support they need to identify and address systemic barriers and build a diverse and inclusive workforce. It gives employers the means to integrate diversity and inclusion values and practices into existing corporate processes, and to enable progress to be measured.

Based on best-practice research, the City’s Framework is unique; no other municipality across Canada has a similar commitment and plan to achieve diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Although the plan was created in 2007, significant developments in the City have resulted in changes to the Framework as recently as 2013. A statement of leadership goals regarding diversity, expectations of employee behaviors, and creating practices that optimize each employee’s potential, the Framework has been distributed and incorporated into business plans; performance, engagement and cultural action plans; training courses; and more.

The Framework also served as impetus to create the Aboriginal Relations Office, which serves the needs of urban Aboriginals. “The first goal of the Framework is to have a workforce that is broadly reflective of our

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community,” says Candy Kahn, Senior Diversity and Inclusion Consultant for the City of Edmonton.

“The city first saw an influx of Aboriginal peoples coming from the reserves in 2007, resulting in historic actions and documents, including the Urban Aboriginal Accord, which outlines how we will work together in a collaborative fashion and with an understanding of their culture, needs and aspirations.

The Aboriginal Relations Offices continues that journey, working to remove barriers to fulfilling employment, and providing tools and training that promote understanding and position employees for success.” PDJ

Many experiences, many perspectives, one goal.

At Citi, we believe having employees with diverse backgrounds, lifestyles and stories gives us the strength to compete in an ever-changing world. Join our team and share your story.

To learn more about a career at Citi, visit www.careers.citigroup.com

Š 2014 Citibank, N.A. Citi and Citi with Arc Design are registered service marks of Citigroup Inc.

thought leaders

Inclusive Leaders Get

BETTER RESULTS Good managers want to build high-performing teams—but it isn’t always clear how to do so.

According to Catalyst’s new global report, Inclusive Leadership: The View From Six Countries, the answer is simple: Ensure that your employees feel included at work.

The study, which contains the responses of 1,500 employees from Australia, China (Shanghai), Germany, India, Mexico, and the United States, shows that employees who feel included are more likely to go above and beyond the call of duty, suggest new

points of view. They realize that diverse perspectives yield better results.

product ideas, and innovate new ways of getting work done. The report also identifies four key leadership behaviors that predict whether or not employees feel included:

C ’ perceptions of inclusion, innovation, and team citizenship in Australia, China, Germany, Mexico, and the United States.

See results of the study in an expanded infographic at http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/inclusion-matters.

r Inclusive leaders empower others. They communicate effectively, avoid disparaging comments, encourage their team members, and help them to excel. r Inclusive leaders create accountability. They believe in their team members and hold them responsible for aspects of their job performance that they can control. r Inclusive leaders are courageous. They aren’t afraid to uphold their principles and stand up for their team members—even if it means taking a personal risk. r *nclusive leaders exhibit humility.

They admit their mistakes, seek to learn from them, and are open to other

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Furthermore, belongingness and uniqueness appear to be essential elements of inclusion in Australia, China, Germany, Mexico, and the United States, where most employees want to stand out from the crowd without standing out so much that they feel alienated. India was the only country studied in which uniqueness and belongingness were not perceived as distinct contributors to feelings of inclusion.

Inclusive leaders cultivate feelings of belongingness and uniqueness simultaneously by focusing on their team members’ diverse talents and experiences—and avoiding stereotypes.

This kind of leadership can be scary and feel risky, but it’s ultimately worthwhile. The best leaders know that employees work much harder for people they admire and feel valued by than for leaders they resent.

Want to know how inclusive a leader you are? Take the quiz at http://pdjrnl.com/Inclusiveleader. PDJ

Founded in 1962, Catalyst is the leading nonprofit organization expanding opportunities for women and business. With offices in the United States, Canada, Europe, India, and Australia—and more than 700 members—Catalyst is the trusted resource for research, information, and advice about women at work. Catalyst annually honors exemplary organizational initiatives that promote women's advancement with the Catalyst Award.

July/August 2014

AT BANK OF THE WEST, WE VALUE THE INDIVIDUAL.

Different perspectives generate fresh ideas. That’s why at Bank of the West, we value diversity and equal opportunity for all our employees. We’ve grown stronger thanks to our unique blend of people. After all, in today’s competitive banking environment, it is our employees that keep us a step ahead of the rest. For career opportunities, visit us online at bankofthewest.com.

Bank of the West and its subsidiaries are equal opportunity/affirmative action employers.

Member FDIC. ©2012 Bank of the West.

thought leaders

The Illusion of Inclusion, Part IV

ASSIMILATION: Hidden in Plain Sight

By Helen Turnbull, PhD

Assimilation adds a disturbing dimension to Roosevelt Thomas's famous parable of the elephant and a giraffe.

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n my last article, I talked about the affinity bias conundrum and our propensity to surround ourselves with people who make us comfortable. Yet another piece of the inclusion puzzle is hidden in plain sight: Assimilation.

Assimilation is defined as the need to adjust our style to fit within the dominant organizational and/or cultural norms. There are a myriad of ways in which this appears, but three of the most common are feedback, distancing, and collusion.

First, a disclaimer: The need to fit in to society, organizations, and groups is not all bad and, in fact, is necessary to avoid anarchy and chaos. However, for the purposes of this topic, I am scratching beneath the surface, peeking under the covers, and lifting the ends of the carpet to see how much dust is really there.

Feedback Have you ever been told that you need to tone it down? Can you use your inside voice? Be less

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aggressive? Demonstrate more presence? Have more gravitas?

Don’t be so pushy? Be more assertive? You are too shy, speak up more, etc.? It is not always easy to digest performance feedback, but the raison d’etre is pretty straightforward and selfexplanatory. Or is it? Let’s dig a little deeper.

Somewhere between home and work we put on our “work face”—we don’t think about it, we just do it. When we first join an organization, we quickly learn to read the norms of our organizational culture and, if we are going to survive and thrive, there are many ways in which we seamlessly adjust our style to fit in. All of us have to adjust our personal style to fit in at work.

But as one of my client colleagues said, “I don’t want to have to turn myself into a pretzel every day in order to be accepted."

Throughout our career, we get our share of performance feedback, both directly and indirectly, formally and informally, solicited and unsolicited. Our July/August 2014

human tendency is to ignore the positives and focus on the “development opportunities” that fundamentally tell us that we need to change something about who we are in order to fit in. Developmental feedback can often make us feel defensive, insecure, and dejected, and we usually have to work hard to rationalize the story by convincing ourselves that it really is for our own good.

However, there is feedback and there is feedback. From the stories I have heard through the years, there is a pattern around feedback that makes it more than the sum of its parts. There is feedback that is helpful and developmental, and then there is feedback that appears to have a stickiness quality and hints of confirmation bias.

For example, my research results show that men are more likely to be described as exhibiting leadership qualities, and being assertive and career driven. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to be

described as lacking gravitas or being too pushy. When I think about feedback through the lens of diversity and inclusion, I often ponder: r *T JU QPTTJCMF UIBU TPNF PG the feedback is a product of unconscious bias? Is it possible that well-intentioned purveyors of feedback are not consciously aware that their preference for affinity bias influences their judgment about differences? r *T JU QPTTJCMF UIBU UIF NFOUBM models and stereotypes we carry about a group influence our thinking in the direction of confirmation bias (i.e., looking to confirm what I already believe)? r *T JU QPTTJCMF UIBU XIFO ZPV receive this kind of feedback, that you view it through the lens of your gender, culture, or race and not just as a development opportunity? And that it is the same feedback many of your social identity group colleagues receive? When do you know if it is real, valid, or an unconscious gender bias?

Distancing Another piece of the puzzle, distancing, pulls us away from our own social identity group.

For example, a number of years ago I had a conversation with a senior leader who told me that every morning he walked the floor of his research lab and made a point to say good morning to all of his employees. Then, he paused and added, “Except for one group—I never say good morning to the people from my own culture as I am fearful of being accused of favoritism.”

In another conversation, a colleague shared that she never feels comfortable talking about

her own group. She sometimes feels ashamed to admit her country of origin, she said, because she didn’t want to be associated with the poverty it represents. A gay colleague once told me that he judges people in his group on whether they are out, out in a limited way, or fully out. He aligns himself only with people who are fully out.

Can you relate to this? Do you have attitudes and beliefs that live inside your head and manifest in you judging or distancing yourself from your own group?

Collusion Have you ever adjusted what you were about to say because you sensed the listener was not going to be receptive? When we sense that we are in precarious situations, we become adept at scanning our environment and reading the nuances and the subtle shifts in facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice.

We listen for certain phrases that raise red flags, and then we imperceptibly shift our style and adjust what we are saying in order to accommodate the other person and keep ourselves politically safe.

We do not necessarily agree with the speaker, but we recognize the warning signals and realize that, if we want to live to fight another day, then we need to smooth over the situation.

Collusion in the context of assimilation is the process of adjusting our style to ensure that

we keep ourselves politically safe and that we keep members of the dominant culture comfortable.

Over the years I have witnessed many instances where people have accommodated others in the conversation, while all the time knowing that they held a different view, but felt the person was not ready to hear it.

A few years ago, Roosevelt Thomas used the parable of the elephant and a giraffe: If you build a house suitable for an elephant, a giraffe will have a hard time fitting in. I would offer an added dimension: If a giraffe had to turn itself into a pretzel to fit into the elephant’s house, I think we would notice, but if the giraffe were shrinking just a little bit every time we interacted with it, we might not spot it happening.

The question is, how much energy, creativity, and passion do we lose when the giraffe has shrunk its boundaries to fit in?

Could we be more productive, more innovative, and more creative if we made the box we play in bigger and allowed more space for differences? PDJ

Dr. Helen Turnbull is the CEO of Human Facets, LLC, and a world-recognized thought leader in global inclusion and diversity. Her latest book is Blind Spots: A conversation with Dr. Turnbull about Unconscious Bias.

See her TEDx presentation on “The Illusion of Inclusion” at http://pdjrnl.com/tedxhelen.

Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

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thought leaders

View from the C-suite: On Mentoring and the Disappearing Glass Ceiling

By Noreen King Founder and CEO, Evolve Manufacturing Technologies Inc.

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’ve got a radical idea I’d like you to consider.

Ready? Here goes: Women are never going to break the glass ceiling.

Now, before you turn the page or click away, let me assure you that I know that the disparity between women and men in the workplace is sizable.

This is true in spite of the fact that, as a study commissioned by American Express Open in 2013 demonstrates, the number of women-owned businesses with revenues of $10 million or more grew 57 percent between 2002 and 2012 (a rate that was 47 percent faster than their male counterparts’ businesses earning similar revenues).

What’s more, this same study found women-owned firms generating over $1.3 trillion in revenues and employing nearly 7.8 million workers.

Still, the majority of women entrepreneurs have yet to approach their potential. According to the National Association of Women Business Owners, just one in five firms with revenue of $1 million or more is women-owned, and only 4.2 percent of all womenowned businesses generate revenues of $1 million or more.

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Things aren’t any better in the C-suite. Here, women hold just 24 percent of senior leadership positions around the world.

No matter how you look at it, there’s room for improvement. But the way I see it, the women who will successfully level the professional playing field in all matters—from the positions they hold to the pay they earn—are the ones who will approach the act of removing the glass ceiling as one not of destruction, but construction.

What’s the fastest way of getting there from here?

Mentoring. Allow me to explain.

Lessons Learned from the Shop Floor For most of my life, I’ve been involved in one way or another in manufacturing, arguably still one of the least likely places you’ll find a career woman.

My passion for this profession began when I took a summer job working with my father as a machinist in a carburetor factory. While my time there served as an industry crash course of sorts, what was more interesting to me was how my dad interacted with the girls who worked alongside me.

To be fair, none of the young women were there because they were passionate about widgets. After all, this was Ireland in the 1970s—a time and place where a job was a job, and something you were lucky to have.

Needless to say, expectations from management on down to maintenance weren’t particularly high for these girls—nor were they meant to be. As far as I knew, no one was looking to be groomed for advancement, and few, if any, intended to one day follow in my father’s footsteps.

Old Challenge, New Approach I left Ireland to pursue my career in manufacturing in California, first as an employee, eventually as the founder and CEO of my own company. Along the way, I observed as women power-suited their way into boardrooms and struggled to define themselves as equals to their male will colleagues. And I came to two conclusions: 1) Women are never going to break the glass ceiling; and 2) in time, we won’t need to.

Because thanks in large part to the efforts of our women predecessors, who have opened boardroom doors for the rest of us to walk through, that women can do a “man’s job” has been demonstrated over and over. It follows, then, that as women-owned businesses mature and proliferate, and women command more positions of authority and greater leverage in the C-suite, the old glass ceiling challenge eventually will disappear.

If you’re like me, however, quickening that eventuality is a top priority. That’s where mentoring can make all the difference.

3 Go-To Strategies for Success When I was coming up in my industry, I knew that one of the best shortcuts to success lay in finding a mentor. At that time, however, there were few women in manufacturing that I could look to. Fortunately, with her unwavering vision and bootstrapping sensibilities, my mother filled that role effortlessly.

From her, I learned the importance of focus and that the most successful people are the ones who never lose sight of what they want—regardless of the obstacles that stand in their way.

These days, I’m proud to serve as a mentor to young girls who are interested in pursuing careers in science and manufacturing. My benchmark for success? If I

can pass along the value of holding that same lasersharp vision my mother possessed, I will have done my job.

How does holding a vision translate into practical, workable solutions? Following are three go-to strategies for building success in any industry, and making the glass ceiling a thing of the past, that I often share with the young women I mentor. If you’re looking to do the same, read on.

"...the way I see it, the women who will successfully level the professional playing field in all matters—from the positions they hold to the pay they earn—are the ones who approach the act of removing the glass ceiling as one

not of destruction, but construction."

1. Make building relationships a top priority, and focus on local clients first. In an age of digital connectivity, it’s easy to lose sight of the important role that face-to-face human interaction plays in nurturing your professional network. We need to look potential clients and business partners in the eye, in order to read body language and pick up on those subtle clues that provide insight as to how the relationship is going in a way that emails, texts, and even phone conversations can’t. Building a business locally first enables these crucial, one-on-one relationships, and is a natural place to start.

2. Cultivate within yourself a mindset that places you on equal footing with prospective clients.

Removing the glass ceiling is an inside-out job, and one that begins with mindset. Whether meeting a prospective client for the first time, negotiating a deal, or making critical decisions for the direction of your company, practice taking gender out of the equation and focus instead on the value that the new business relationship, negotiation, or way-forward strategy will provide to all involved. In this way, you level the playing field, while creating an environment in which cooperation thrives. continued on page 64 Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

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Book report

the RISE of the

SUPER COMMUTER COUPLE

More couples and families are challenged with handling long-distance work arrangements than ever before.

BY MEGAN BEARCE, LMFT

S

uper commuters are people whose jobs are far enough away from home that they must live apart from their families for days, weeks, or even months at a time. It can also be used to define those who commute 90 miles or more on a daily basis.

New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management has published recent studies on this trend. In fact, the Rudin Center reports that as many as 13 percent of workers in large US cities are currently super commuting. It’s not just a trend in this country either; reports show the number of international super commuters is on the rise as well.

Why the increase in super commuting?

In most cases, family members decide in favor of super commuting because they feel it is in the best interest of the whole family. Perhaps a spouse is pursuing his or her dream career, or fulfilling a military obligation. Or maybe super commuting just makes economic sense.

Whatever the reason, there seem to be three primary factors driving the rise in super commuting today. First, many families are still living in struggling housing markets or suffering the effects of the recession. In many cases it’s simply not financially feasible to move.

Second, we’ve seen a huge increase in the number of dual career couples over the past two or three decades. When one partner gets a promotion or offer far from home, the other partner may be unwilling to give up his or her job, or may have difficulty finding employment in the new location. A decision to super commute is often made by the couple at this point.

Third, we’ve seen a recent wave of downsizing and restructuring within corporations across the US. An employee may be asked to move or risk unemployment due to a company’s strategic change in direction or location.

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Obviously, technology has also played a huge part in the super commuting trend. With visual communications, smartphones, and many other tools available, workers often have more flexibility to work outside the corporate office. Employees aren’t always expected to be at the office Monday through Friday from nine to five, which makes super commuting seem more “doable” to families and their employers.

Making super commuting work As a therapist, I’ve seen the number of clients who are part of a super commuting couple increase substantially over the past few years. I’m also living it myself as the wife of a super commuter for the past three years. I decided to write Super Commuter Couples because Bearce’s new book offers practical guidance for navigating not only the commute itself, but also the ins and outs of staying together while living apart.

I felt it was an important and growing issue for families. After interviewing more than two dozen people in super-commuter relationships, I learned quite a bit about how families are navigating this often challenging situation, and doing it well. From my conversations, and the ongoing research from the Rudin Center and others, I found three key components evident in every successful supercommuter relationship: 1. Successful super commuters have created an extended network of support. Whether it’s the support of relatives, neighbors, or members of their

community, couples that fare the best have created a wide network of support and are comfortable asking for help when they need it.

Many successful super-commuter families have learned how to build an effective family structure despite the challenges of space and time. It takes determination, creativity, and a lot of love. It’s not always easy, but it can be done. PDJ

2. Successful super commuters know how to manage what I call “re-entry.” The constant comings and goings of the super commuter breaks up the daily routine. Each family has a system they’ve learned that works when Mom or Dad is gone. When Mom or Dad returns, there is a constant transition from being a single-parent family to a dual-parent family.

Knowing how to move through this transition on a regular basis can make, instead of break, a super commuter relationship.

Megan Bearce is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She is the author of Super Commuter Couples: Staying Together When a Job Keeps You Apart (Equanimity Press, 2013). Ms. Bearce is a sought-after speaker and writer on topics that include workplace trends and families, gifted girls, and women’s issues.

Ms. Bearce lives in Minneapolis, with her super commuter husband and their two children. www.supercommutercouples.com

3. Super commuters stay connected. Being physically separated can put a strain on any relationship. Successful super-commuter couples are vigilant about finding ways to close those intimacy gaps. Understanding each partner’s communication preferences, as well as scheduling regular date nights, can help super-commuter couples stay connected.

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#

Take time to recognize the good around you.

At New York Life, we recognize that employees’ unique qualities often lead to innovation, positive change, and a more productive and dynamic workplace.

For more information about New York Life visit us at www.newyorklife.com/diversity © 2014 New York Life Insurance Company, 51 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010 Keep Good Going® is a registered trademark of New York Life Insurance Company, all rights reserved.

Life Insurance. Retirement. Investments.

KEEP

education

LEARNING FROM

How our most diverse communities can teach leaders the importance of embracing cross-cultural diversity and inclusion.

BY KIMBERLY FREEMAN

C

alifornia has been called many things, including an “experiment in social diversity.� If California is the experiment, then some may agree that Los Angeles serves as the laboratory within which the bulk of this experiment is carried out. In Los Angeles, a city with exceptional multidimensional diversity, it only makes sense that we, as leaders, begin to re-think how we cultivate and embrace diversity across communities for the benefit of all who learn, live, and work here.

Having recently joined the UCLA Anderson School of Management as assistant dean for diversity initiatives and community relations, the school and its traditional MBA program have been my laboratory for observing diversity. I accepted this position at Anderson because, as an alumna of the school and an active member of the greater Los Angeles community, I was intrigued by the opportunity to change the way the next generation of business leaders think and act.

I believe influencing how we leverage cross-cultural diversity is key to that mission.

This is what I have observed: First, UCLA Anderson is a natural gateway for grooming business leaders who are fluent in crosscultural diversity. Why? Because our students represent more than 45 countries. By virtue of this class composition, our students have the potential to

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learn a great deal from one another by participating in class together, serving on teams, and being involved in student clubs.

Second, while attending classes here, our students are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this global crossroads we call Los Angeles by virtue of where they choose to live. As a global business school located in an incredibly diverse city, the school offers students an opportunity to be educated and exposed to the cross-cultural diversity that lies beyond the walls of Anderson. If one can deal with the traffic, options abound to live in culturally and ethnically diverse communities throughout the region. For instance, the Los Angeles Times published a diversity index, which measures the probability that any two residents, chosen at random, would be of different ethnicities. If all residents are of the same ethnic group, the probability is zero. If half the residents are from one group and half from another it's .50 Nearly 150 of the 265 communities in LA County ranked higher than .50. Home to more than 10 million people, where else in this country can you find such cross-cultural diversity?

En route to a degree, there are also available internships, travel opportunities, and applied research projects with a global flair that can deepen our students’ understanding of cross-cultural diversity.

However, to master cross-cultural diversity, one need not look to opportunities abroad.

Upon graduation, a healthy percentage of our graduates choose to stay in Southern California. At last count, approximately 31 percent of UCLA Anderson’s 35,000 alumni reside in Los Angeles County. Fluency in cross-cultural diversity matters at the local level for many of our students who remain in the area.

But there’s a deeper commitment our students and alumni can make to leverage cross-cultural diversity.

Business schools train leaders, and that leadership takes on many forms, including civic leadership that reaches into local communities that touch their campuses. This According to a diversity index education and exposure can published by the Los Angeles Times, help deepen our students’ the probability that any two residents, connection to the region and chosen at random, would be encourage them to use their of different ethnicities is MBA skills to serve their local in nearly 150 of communities. aC ’ In Los Angeles County, nearly 40,000 registered nonprofits provide a huge opportunity for MBAs to make a difference.

Years of volunteering on boards and commissions led me to recognize this leadership imperative of embracing cross-cultural diversity. As a former director of community relations for a Los Angelesbased utility company, I had to develop emotional intelligence and increase my capacity as a leader to work across multiple communities. Armed with my MBA, and bitten by the international travel bug, I participated in a number of community-based programs that spanned gender, race, geography and issues—an effort that helped sharpen my awareness of other cultures.

over 50%

Applied Learning Moving that awareness into a corporate culture need not be too difficult, but organizations don’t really have the luxury of waiting for change to happen. In fact, smart organizations with diverse employee populations

have been mastering the challenges of creating affinity organizations, celebrating and embracing ethnic and cultural diversity in the workplace, and developing key partnerships within the community.

Companies may consider accelerating employees’ skills development by enrolling them in a communitybased leadership and development training program.

While many companies spend considerable amounts of their training budgets on diversity and inclusion training that is designed from an HR compliance point of view, a more cost-effective solution may exist in training programs offered through local chambers of commerce and nonprofits.

Here is where a system can be created that knits together desired internal professional development with external, tangible examples of challenges and issues affecting the world we live in. Add to that the benefit these external-facing programs provide with the real-world exposure to local communities and the people-to-people networking with leaders united by a common purpose.

As well, there is the practical advantage in understanding what the shifting demographics can mean for the future in areas of product development, customer service and market growth. In a state with an increasing population under age 40 (the students and leaders of tomorrow) alongside a Latino community whose buying power is expected to reach $363 billion in 2015, it is imperative to determine how best to serve the converging populace. Overall, understanding and mastering the ways and means to integrate knowledge and shared experiences across communities creates a bigger framework within which creativity and innovation can thrive.

I believe it’s not enough to just look at diversity in its traditional silos; that is just the starting point. In a place like Los Angeles, where identity, culture, and community play a huge role in shaping our collective destiny, we have to get sophisticated in our approach to matters of diversity and inclusion. And you know what they say, “As goes California, so goes the rest of the country!” PDJ Kimberly Freeman is Assistant Dean for Diversity Initiatives and Community Relations at UCLA Anderson School of Management. A Los Angeles native committed to public service and community involvement, she currently chairs the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles Board of Directors and serves on the boards of the California African American Museum and the Women’s Foundation of California.

Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

63

thought leaders

View from the C-suite continued from page 59

3. Remember that “polite, but persistent” pays off. This is where vision can help take your business to the next level, regardless of who you are or where you’re starting from. As I remind the young women I mentor, getting to yes these days often requires multiple points of contact, and delays aren’t necessarily denials. Be patient but persistent and always on the lookout for opportunities to connect. Remember, those in a position to make decisions are often also the ones who carry the most responsibility, and they can be inundated with demands.

Knowing the value of what you have to offer, holding your vision for what you want to accomplish, and being respectful of others’ time

is a potent combination that will pay off.

Putting it All Together: ’ Today, more than ever, the role of mentorship is a critical one, especially when it comes to empowering women to assume positions of leadership where they will stand shoulder to shoulder with their male colleagues.

Is it a tall order? Sure. But by mentoring these women on the path to their success and teaching the importance of building relationships, cultivating the right mindset, and keeping a persistent focus on the goal, I believe we can make the glass ceiling a thing of the past.

It’s only a matter of time. PDJ

We Are Advancing 64

profiles in Diversity Journal

May/June 2014

Noreen King founded Silicon Valley-based Evolve Manufacturing Technologies in 1999 to serve as the on-shore contract equipment manufacturer for the medical, biotech, defense, and semiconductor industries.

Diversity and talent compliment each other.

They drive our culture of continuous innovation.

Together, we are Alcoa. Advancing each generation.

Learn more at www.alcoa.com.

Advancing each generation.

news Briefs

New York Life holds its third Cultural Markets Conference New York Life recently held its third National Cultural Markets Conference in Orlando, Florida.

The event is held every four years; the first was held in 2006.

“Offering financial protection to more families and businesses is New York Life’s goal, and few areas of our business feed that growth as consistently as the agents and managers who serve the cultural markets. Last year, 62 percent of our new hires in the field were women or individuals who represent the cultural markets, providing the culturally-sensitive advice that more Americans seek,” said Mark Pfaff, executive vice

president and co-president of Insurance and Agency Group and a main presenter at the conference.

“Cultural Market agents helped more Americans meet their financial goals last year, and this meeting will enable them to achieve even greater results moving forward.”

“The conference theme ‘A World of Opportunities’ reflects the goal of the conference—we are focused on the growth of the company and on growing each agent’s impact in his or her respective community,” said Jane Conti, vice president, New York Life, who opened the conference. “This gathering was an

opportunity to work on turning a world of opportunities into a world of financially strong customers in all of our communities. New York Life has a long-term strategy focused on being the ‘Company of the Community.’ Our goal is to serve the communities where we live and work by offering culturally relevant support to our customers,” said Conti.

Conference events included market specific breakouts and sessions focused on timely topics, including retirement income and succession planning, effective strategies for business owners, overall financial planning for families and businesses, and the importance of life insurance to protect dreams and create legacies. The conference topics are significant to agents and managers, and the communities they represent. PDJ

More than 1,000 New York Life agents and managers serving the African-American, Chinese, Korean, Latino, South Asian, and Vietnamese markets attended the meeting, themed “A World of Opportunities.”

NBC News online launches new vertical to be led by Amna Nawaz NBC News recently announced that Amna Nawaz, former Islamabad bureau chief and correspondent, has been named to lead the coverage on NBCNews.com’s new Asian Pacific Islander vertical.

Amna is an Emmy awardwinning journalist who has been with NBC for nearly a decade, producing and reporting for the network shows, MSNBC, the Investigative Unit in DC, and NBCNews.com. In 2013 she became the first foreign journalist to gain access to North Waziristan,

the global hub of Al Qaida and Taliban activity.

Based in New York, Nawaz will assign and edit coverage of news and issues that matter to Asian Pacific Americans. “Under Amna’s direction, we plan to grow the Asian Pacific Islander vertical into a robust destination, featuring great storytelling, unique videos, breaking news, original photography, and personal essays,” NBCNews.com executive editor Greg Gittrich and editorial director Hillary Frey wrote in a note to staffers. PDJ

NBCNews.com's Amna Nawaz will lead their new Asian Pacific Islander vertical.

Read more at www.DiversityJournal.com

65

news Briefs

Illinois CPA Society Honors Kevin Janes with Outstanding Leader in Advancing Diversity Award

Dzana Homan appointed CEO for the School of Rock

The Illinois CPA Society honored Kevin Janes, CPA, Advisory Partner at Ernst & Young LLP (EY), with the Outstanding Leader in Advancing Diversity Award for his commitment to fostering a more inclusive and diverse accounting community, and his role in promoting diversity in both his professional and personal endeavors.

Janes's commitment to advancing diversity is evident through his ongoing efforts to help change how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employees are viewed within both the accounting profession and the larger business community. As the highly active Midwest Region executive sponsor of Unity (formerly Beyond), EY’s LGBT professional network, Janes launched a successful mentoring program and oversees event programming for ten offices in the region.

His leadership also extends into the wider Chicago community, most notably with Perspectives Charter School and the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance.

A 20-year veteran of Ernst & Young LLP, Janes serves as engagement partner and quality assurance executive for financial statement audits, Service Organization Control Reporting engagements, and internal audit teaming relationships at Fortune 500 companies within the banking, insurance, consumer products, and utilities sectors. PDJ

School of Rock, the national leader in performancebased music education, along with its growth equity partner, Sterling Partners, has announced the appointment of Dzana Homan as Dzana Homan the company’s new Chief Executive Officer.

Homan will lead School of Rock into its next phase of growth by leveraging her extensive career leading large franchise organizations, her experience as a franchisee, and her musical background. She will focus on expanding the company’s global footprint, introducing new programs and services and forming industry partnerships to provide current and future students of all ages with additional instructional and performance-oriented music education opportunities.

“Having previously served as both a franchisor and franchisee, I understand the deep connection between the two, and realize that one cannot succeed without the other,” said Homan. “I look forward to working closely with the entire School of Rock family as we enter this next phase of growth.” PDJ

D ’B naaCP i to Increase the Number of African-American Owned Franchise Businesses in the US. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recently announced its partnership with Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc., the parent company of Dunkin’ Donuts and BaskinRobbins, to create a Diversity Franchising Initiative to increase the number of African-American-owned franchise businesses in the United States.

Through this partnership, Dunkin’ Brands and the NAACP will collaborate to offer people of color in-depth franchising education and training, as well as assistance in overcoming the financial challenges related to becoming a franchise owner. The partnership was announced at the NAACP’s 105th Annual Convention in Las Vegas.

“Franchising can be a powerful economic tool that further enables the African-American community and others to realize the American dream of business ownership,” said Cornell William Brooks, NAACP President and CEO. “We are excited to announce

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this unique partnership with Dunkin’ Brands and to improve opportunities for people of color in the franchising sector, because of the substantial impact these agreements have on empowering and employing people of color.”

“The Dunkin’ Brands Diversity in Franchising Initiative will provide education, networking opportunities and information on critical topics, including access to capital,” said Dedrick Muhammad, Senior Director of the NAACP Economic Department.

“Ultimately, we hope this program helps to increase the number of African-American franchise business owners in the US, in both the short and long term.”

The initiative is part of Dunkin’ Brands’ ongoing efforts to provide resources to help qualified franchisee candidates overcome barriers to financing, including providing guidance on business plan development, facilitating access to capital, and forging relationships with local community lenders. PDJ

Thanks to you,

we are transforming health care.

At WellPoint, the leading health benefits company covering over 35 million Americans, your diverse and innova!ve ideas can help transform health care. We have nine associate resource groups, including ABLE (Abili!es Beyond Limited Expecta!ons), that help develop diverse talent and promote unique perspec!ves in an inclusive work environment where we can all contribute to addressing the health care needs of our customers and our communi!es.

Join the transforma!on – what makes you unique makes us stronger.

Be"er health care, thanks to you.

For more information, visit: www.wellpoint.com/careers ® Profiles in Diversity Journal. ® Registered Trademark, Diversity Inc Media LLC. ® Registered Trademark, WellPoint, Inc. © 2014 WellPoint, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

EOE. M/F/Disability/Veteran.

corporate index

BOLD DENOTES ADVERTISER

3M................................................www.3M.com ..................................... 33 Alcoa ........................................ www.alcoa.com ............................. 30, 64 American Society of Association Executives ......www.asaecenter.org ......................... 31, 35 Artistas Diversos ................ www.artistasdiversos.org ............................ 18 AT&T ...........................................www.att.com .................................... 45 Bank of the West ............ www.bankofthewest.com ........................... 55 BASF Corporation ...................... www.basf.com..................................... 36 Booz Allen Hamilton............www.boozallen.com ......................... 46, 68 Catalyst..................................... www.catalyst.org ................................... 54 CenturyLink........................ www.centurylink.com .............................. 49 Charles Schwab.................... www.schwab.com ................Inside Cover Cigna ......................................... www.cigna.com .................................... 38 Citi ......................................... www.citigroup.com ................................ 53 Coca-Cola Enterprises .........www.cokecce.com .................Back Cover CVS Caremark .................... www.cvscaremark.com ................................ 6 Data Morphosis .......................www.dm-g.com ............................. 24, 25 Deb Dagit Diversity........... www.debdagitdiversity.com........................... 18 Dunkin’ Brands ....................www.dunkinbrands.com ............................. 66 Electronic Arts ..............................www.ea.com ...................................... 29 Entelo Diversity .........................www.entelo.com ................................... 27 Ernst & Young LLP .......................www.ey.com ................................ 28, 66 Evolve Manufacturing Technologies, Inc. ................. www.evolvemfg.com ................................ 58 First Horizon National Corporation ............................www.firsthorizon.com ............................... 29 Halliburton...........................www.halliburton.com ........................ 40, 41 Human Facets, LLC ............ www.humanfacets.com .............................. 56 IHS Automotive/Polk.................... www.ihs.com ...................................... 37 Ingersoll Rand ..................... www.ingersollrand.com .............................. 38

Internal Revenue Service ............. www.irs.gov....................................... 43 KPMG ........................................ www.kpmg.com.................................... 32 Lead Diversity...................... www.lead-diversity.com.............................. 14 Legg Mason...........................www.leggmason.com ............................... 27 Lincoln Financial Group www.lincolnfinancial.com .................... 19, 40 Linkage ................................ www.linkageinc.com.............................. 43, ...................................................................................... Inside Back Cover Marriott International ................www.marriott.com .................................. 46 MasterCard ......................... www.mastercard.com ........................ 21, 36 Mercy Medical Center .........www.mercy-williston.org ............................. 42 Moss Adams .........................www.mossadams.com .............................. 37 MWV .......................................... www.mwv.com.................................... 50 NBC News ...............................www.nbcnews.com ................................. 65 New York Life ..................... www.newyorklife.com.................. 44, 61, 65 Prudential Financial ........... www.prudential.com ......................... 32, 47 Ryerson University................. www.ryerson.ca............................. 17, 34 Saskatoon Health Region................ www.saskatoonhealthregion.ca ....................... 48 School of Rock .....................www.schoolofrock.com .............................. 66 SHRM ........................................ www.shrm.org ...................................... 5 Sullivan & Cromwell LLP .........www.sullcrom.com ................................. 48 The City of Edmonton ............. www.edmonton.ca.................................. 52 The Hartford ..........................www.thehartford.com ............................... 44 UCLA Anderson School of Management .......www.anderson.ucla.edu ............................. 62 UnitedHealth Group .... www.unitedhealthgroup.com........................ 39 University of Mount Union .....www.mountunion.edu ............................... 20 University of the Rockies.......... www.rockies.edu ................................... 51 WellPoint .............................. www.wellpoint.com................................ 67

Empowering

individuals.

Enhancing professional development.

Preparing

leaders.

The desire to excel—combined with the right support network—leads to success.

At Booz Allen Hamilton, we believe unique perspectives contribute to brilliant ideas and inspired thinking—which drive better results not only for our clients, but for the world around us. And, diversity is central to who we are and what we do. Our commitment to an inclusive environment means facilitating understanding and awareness, and creating initiatives to improve the quality of work life for staff.

If you’re looking to do work that makes a difference at a firm that’s committed to helping you achieve your professional and personal goals, we’re hiring Computer and Systems Engineers, General Management Consultants, and others in locations nationwide. To find out more, visit boozallen.com/careers to create and submit a profile.

www.boozallen.com/careers We are proud of our diverse environment, EOE/M/F/D/V. Applicants selected will be subject to a security investigation and may need to meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information.

What do Toyota, ESPN, and the US Government have in common?

They depend on Linkage to help develop their women leaders.

And there’s only one reason they send their high-potential women leaders to this career-enhancing 3-day immersion learning experience. It works.

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