Diversity Executive - September 2008 - (Page 62)

ATTRACTION continued from page 27 ing said that, there’s a lot of emphasis on what do we need to do to on-board an individual successfully, and how do you assimilate someone into a role without making it a melting pot? The goal is not to become a big melting pot, but to respect and empower differences to drive the results we need.” To ensure differences are championed and not lost, Wells Fargo has a corporate diversity council, diversity councils in each of the organization’s 80 lines of business and more than 100 employee resource groups. “It’s a culture that really speaks, embraces and empowers diversity,” Barcelos said. “That corporate culture becomes the leverage to retention. If I’m an executive and I know I can speak my mind and my opinions matter, that’s a key aspect of retention.” If an organization is in the beginning stages of diversifying its executive levels, Barcelos’ advises: Look internally ﬁrst. “When a position becomes available in senior management or executive leadership, quite often there’s a tendency to look for talent outside [the organization],” he explained. “The model Wells Fargo has delivered on is a very successful one. We’ve invested in this employee, we’ve trained them, we’ve educated them and we’ve helped them grow. How can we then leverage the investment we’ve made? If organizations like Wells Fargo or even smaller organizations were to focus on internal talent growth, we would see a signiﬁcant difference in diversity at the executive levels across America today.” Keeping Diverse Executives On-Board Often organizations are able to recruit diverse executives, but the relationship falls apart once the executive steps in the door. Why? The organization has done nothing to change its culture. “To recruit somebody into your company and create a culture that welcomes them is two different things,” Fernandez said. “You can invite me to your party, but if you’re not introducing me to friends, this party is feeling very cold to me, and I’m probably going to leave early.” One way to make an organization more welcoming is to make the business case crystal clear to all employees. This will help lift the barriers to inclusion. Enterprises also can develop a mentoring partnership for diverse executive-level employees. Every organization should develop a strong recruitment and retention program that gives every candidate a fair chance for success because as the country’s demographics change, so will the face of future employees and customers. “Intellect comes in all shapes, sizes and colors, and we can ill afford to overlook a pool of potential employees just because they check off a different box on the Census,” Fernandez said. “When companies decided to bring women in, they had to reﬂect the needs of women. How are you going to handle child care, maternity leave and ﬂex time? Smart companies ﬁgured out how to surround and support [female employees]. You need to learn to do it better with diversity from every angle.” « 62 Diversity Executive | www.diversity-executive.com | September/October 2008 LIKE MINDS continued from page 31 depth way that creates emotional connectedness. • Increasing employee engagement, promoting employee loyalty and retaining the highest-value individuals. • Elevated efﬁciency resulting from better organizational practices, such as impactful communication tools that allow the company to operate more effectively. “These groups are a resource to the company; these are individuals who have a common afﬁnity,” Brown said. “However, they have a resource to actually add value to the company.” Hewitt Associates taps into ERGs to attract and retain talent by asking group members to volunteer at recruiting fairs. Hewitt employees get the opportunity to tell their stories to potential job candidates, thereby helping attract talent to the organization, but also promoting retention of existing talent. “Being able to connect with people enables or adds to the stickiness or the retention of diverse talent to [an] organization,” Tapia said. Those relationships play a signiﬁcant role in developing successful recruitment efforts that target untapped pools of talent. “Afﬁnity groups tend to help the organization step into markets or audiences that could [produce] employees they’ve never been able to reach before,” Robbins said. And when those employees are on-board, ERGs create an inclusive environment that directly impacts retention. “Within the organization, people feel like they have a place to go where people aren’t always questioning them about their perspective and where people understand where they’re coming from — and that helps with retention,” Robbins said. Beyond the talent implications, ERGs also help companies understand the needs and values of different audiences and cultures, which allows the company to create products or solutions that address their speciﬁc needs. Aurora Gonzalez, corporate spokesperson for Frito-Lay North America, noted that some of Frito-Lay’s most successful products, including Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and guacamole-ﬂavored chips, align with cultural ﬂavors and were driven by ERGs. “There is absolute data that responding to your consumer base and making it authentic by virtue of tapping into your employees is very successful,” she said. ERGs also ensure the organization speaks with authenticity. When Frito-Lay was developing its guacamole-ﬂavored chips, the Hispanic group advised product developers that the chips didn’t have quite the right lime ﬂavor — they tasted more like lime peel or candy lime. Subsequent product versions captured the authentic lime ﬂavor the group was looking for. “[Afﬁnity groups are] often the best resource to get ideas if you’re [venturing] into new and different markets [because] you want to make sure the marketing or the product will work for a certain population and is culturally relevant in terms of language and content,” Hachuela said. « http://www.diversity-executive.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Diversity Executive - September 2008

Diversity Executive - September 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Leadership Connections Guest Editorial Diversity Executive Online 2042: A New Business Era Begins The Rules of Attraction Where to Look for Diverse Talent Like Minds Think Great Culture Teams Target Business Opportunities at Luxottica Retail Special Section Rebalancing Gender At ING Americas, the Color of Diversity Is Orange Profile Business Intelligence Case Study Strategies Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources

Diversity Executive - September 2008

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