MEDIA ADVISORY
DiversityMBA ANNOUNCES
BEST IN CLASS COMPANIES
“50 Out Front: Best Places to Work for Women & Diverse Managers”
CHICAGO, IL (June 26, 2017) – Diversity MBA Magazine, a national leadership publication targeting managers, executives, professionals, students and the business community, today publishes its eleventh annual list of 50 Out Front: Best Places to Work for Women & Diverse Managers Ranking – Best in Class Companies.
Diversity MBA’s Inclusive Leadership’s Index identifies companies for the Best in Class recognition – those that have demonstrated consistent and excellent systems, practices, metrics and impact.
“It’s no longer enough to just implement practices; intentional strategies are necessary to increase all dimensions of diversity in leadership and provide programs to mitigate bias,” said Pamela McElvane, CEO of Diversity MBA and publisher of Diversity MBA Magazine. “The Best in Class companies actively engage in implementing leading practices that result in significant workplace outcomes that advance inclusive diversity.”
The six areas measured for best practices in management and leadership are Recruitment, Representation, Succession Planning, Workplace Inclusion & Retention, Accountability, and Board Diversity. Those areas are defined below.
Recruitment strategies must be aligned with the overall diversity and business strategy. Building a recruiting platform that has enterprise wide accountability among recruiters and hiring managers. These companies provide comprehensive diversity and legislative training for recruiters. And equally important is how the companies source talent with demonstrated results hiring women and diverse talent.
Representation is the ultimate outcome that companies want to achieve with women and people of color in the most senior leadership roles. In order to ensure continual development companies must have a strong pipeline of talent. These companies have done a tremendous job with advancing women. The opportunity is how they are advancing people of color into leadership roles with demonstrated results.
Succession Planning is the talent management system that allows for fair and equitable advancement of identified top talent. The inclusive leadership index’s top companies advance their high potential talent at a rate of 30 percent; and their diverse talent at a rate of 40 percent on average. These companies also have intentional executive development programs, formal sponsorships, mentoring for emerging leaders with the ability to track performance.
Workplace Inclusion & Retention combined are business essentials that must be achieved for the cultural institutionalization of diversity and inclusion. It is the blend of cultural competencies and career disciplines resulting in the differences of thoughts, approaches, experiences, identities, affinities and more. Full employee engagement is a culture that supports trust, innovation, flexibility, leadership and authenticity. These are some of the components of creating a sustainable workforce.
Accountability requires CEO and board commitment to ensure the success of achieving diversity and inclusion results. Accountability must be systemic in all processes at every level. Incentive and recognition need to be cascaded at every level so every employee understands their contribution to the overall strategy. While recognizing great strides for achieving goals is necessary, aligning compensation to support the diversity and inclusion journey is a best practice.
Board Diversity continues to be a growth opportunity for all companies. More and more companies are engaging their boards in their diversity strategy. Diversity on boards is a proven indicator to ensure a competitive advantage. Diversity MBAs Inclusive Leadership Index Best in Class Companies has an average of 65 percent diversity on their boards; which means women and people of color are the majority.
Best in Class: Top Ten 2017 “50 Out Front: Best Places to Work for Women & Diverse Managers, Best in Class”
(listed below in alphabetical order – click chart to expand)
DMBA_50-Out-Front-Best-In-Class.2017-Press Release – Click here to view as PDF
