Diversity Executive - November 2008 - (Page 36)

supervisor. His primary objective was job training for economically disadvantaged people. Cloyd joined Steelcase, a global provider of ofﬁce interior services, as an employment representative, and what began as a job function escalated into a passion. Currently vice president of global corporate community relations, Cloyd outlined the path that led him to the issues he deals with on a daily basis. “When I started at Steelcase, I primarily focused on promoting and hiring people [and] started working on the stafﬁng initiatives. Our weakest representation at the time was minorities and women, but it was important to the company to intentionally improve on this front,” Cloyd said. “Part of my HR role took me into a planning mindset: Succession planning was important to the development of the company, and we identiﬁed high-potential diverse candidates to ﬁll these roles.” Cloyd assumed his current role in September 2006 and is responsible for coordinating Steelcase’s efforts in the areas of diversity, government relations and public policy, corporate relations and community giving, and volunteer programs. Previously, he directed corporate and community relations and held various positions in employment and human resources, and from 1998 to 2000, he was director of diversity and stafﬁng services. Cloyd said Steelcase has made major strides related to diversity and inclusion. “In our community, we are recognized as an organizational leader,” he explained. “We’ve always been involved in external diversity initiatives. [We] piloted a program called Partners for a Racism-Free Community.” Steelcase also holds an annual Global Diversity Forum and founded the West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology, which provides after-school and adult-skill training, and Grand Rapids University Prep Academy for grades six through 12. In addition, Steelcase was instrumental in the formation of InForum, a professional women’s alliance. “In recent years, it’s become increasingly important on a personal level that, when I retire, [the company is] in a better position than it was in all levels of diversity — [that it] feels like I’ve accomplished something,” he said. Cloyd also said diversity and inclusion play multiple roles within Steelcase’s business strategy including how to create the best workforce possible; considerations around generational differences; and relations with employers, suppliers and dealers. “Diversity is integral to who we are and who we aspire to be,” he said. “Senior leaders all have individual diversity and inclusion plans for their organizations.” – Elizabeth Lisican Peggy Davis Vice President of Diversity and Staffing Exelon Corp. Peggy Davis said her family was the starting point of her interest in diversity. “My family is pretty diverse,” she explained. “[That has shaped my philosophy that] everybody is an individual, we all have value, we all bring different things to the table, and there is value in all of those differences. And corporations, from my point of view, have to be able to leverage that in order to have employees that are engaged.” Since the beginning of her career, Davis said she has been interested in the bigger picture, which is exempliﬁed by past roles. Her time working in Chicago Public Schools as well as her work in law fed her interest in exploring all dimensions of the industries she’s worked in. This has given her experiences that help her view each challenge holistically. “It broadened me out and prepared me for coming into a corporation like Exelon,” she said. As Exelon’s vice president of diversity and stafﬁng, Davis’ emphasis on the bigger picture can be seen in the company’s newest diversity initiative. She said the company’s previous diversity model wasn’t aligned across the organization. Further, it wasn’t clear what the company was trying to achieve. When creating a new strategy for diversity and inclusion, Davis said the company’s leadership considered all aspects including goals and objectives, measurement and an emphasis on inclusion. “You have to make sure that everyone in the company — top-down and bottom-up — understands what their roles are in that strategy,” Davis explained. The company achieved this ﬁrst through a culture assessment to identify where the employees were in terms of their understanding of diversity’s role in the company, and how they ﬁt into that individually. Davis said it’s important to her, as well as Exelon’s leadership, that everybody understands that any diversity conversation refers to everyone in the organization. Davis said going forward, the new diversity program — which began in March with a “pre-rollout gut check”— will ensure that an inclusive, holistic view remains central to the strategy. “This engagement of everyone regardless of their background is critical to our success as a company,” she said. “I think the next step is really carrying forward what we’re doing. Our industry is facing some challenges in terms of its workforce: We have an aging workforce, and the workforce that’s coming in is much different from the workforce that we have currently. There’s many more ethnic minority groups, there are more females, [and] there are people with different educational backgrounds. “[So we must be cognizant of the] broader deﬁnition of dif- 36 Diversity Executive | www.diversity-executive.com | November/December 2008 http://www.diversity-executive.com

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

Diversity Executive - November 2008 Editor’s Letter Contents Leadership Connections Guest Editorial Diversity Executive Online Middle Management Roadblock ‘Hidden Winds’ Hinder Progress The Domino Effect Supplier Partnerships Unlock Economic Opportunities Measuring Diversity Special Section: Who’s Who in Diversity and Inclusion Dimensions of Difference Overcoming Language Diff erences Business Intelligence: Combating Subtle Discrimination Case Study: Shifting Diversity Into Overdrive Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources Strategies

Diversity Executive - November 2008

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