Education Can Help Promote a Culture of Diversity and Inclusion

What can you accomplish with diversity? Today we’ll look at a case study concerning diversity, inclusion, and corporate success.



Top companies across the country recently made a pledge to educate their employees and share best practices with each other in an effort to create diverse and inclusive workplaces. More than 150 CEOs have committed their organizations to participate in the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion initiative. Those organizations include Accenture, BCG, Deloitte US, Exelon, Executive Leadership Council, EY, General Atlantic, KPMG, New York Life, P&G, and PwC.
The CEOs pledged “to take action to cultivate a workplace where diverse perspectives and experiences are welcomed and respected, where employees feel encouraged to discuss diversity and inclusion, and where actions can be shared across organizations via a unified hub, CEOAction.com,” Exelon (www.exeloncorp.com) explained in a statement.
“At Exelon, we know having a diverse and inclusive workplace makes us a better company,” said Chris Crane, president and CEO. “While there is still much to do, this pledge acknowledges our strong resolve to lead the industry in this important work.”
Exelon, an energy provider, has won multiple awards related to diversity and inclusion, including recently being named to this year’s DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity. The company understands the benefits of promoting diversity and inclusion across its business. “The diverse perspectives of our employees lead to greater innovation, increased employee engagement, and better solutions for our customers,” said Crane. “We are focused on creating an environment that will continue to attract, develop, and retain talent of all backgrounds, and this Top 50 recognition is further validation that we are making meaningful progress.”
The company is expanding its existing programming aimed at building a diverse and inclusive culture to include employee sessions focused on unconscious bias.
In its participation in the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, “Exelon has shared its best practices in the areas of retention of women and people of color and building partnerships with diverse suppliers …,” the company stated.
Sharing best practices is one of the steps that participating companies have pledged to take to increase diversity and promote inclusion within their own organizations and within the business community, Exelon explained. “Companies commit to working together to evolve existing diversity strategies by sharing successes and challenges with one another. This will include creating accountability systems within their companies to track their progress and share regular updates.”
Offering and expanding unconscious bias training is another step. “Companies commit to rolling out or expanding unconscious bias education,” Exelon stated. “By helping employees recognize and minimize any potential blind spots, companies can better facilitate more open and honest conversations.”
In addition, the companies will educate their employees about diversity and inclusion through “open dialogue on complex, and sometimes difficult, conversations about diversity and inclusion,” Exelon continued. “Companies will create and maintain environments, platforms, and forums where their employees feel comfortable reaching out to their colleagues to gain greater awareness of each other’s experiences and perspectives.”
“CEOs across the country understand this isn’t a competitive issue, but a societal issue, and together we can raise the bar for the entire business community,” said Tim Ryan, U.S. chairman and senior partner of PwC and chair of the steering committee for the initiative. “By sharing best known actions and programs, we are helping to create a more inclusive environment that will encourage all of us to bring our greatest talents, perspectives, and experiences to the workplace.”