R16|Monday, October 28, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
BRITTANY GREESON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNALworkforce into government relations
and marketing.
At tech companies like Sales-
force—the second-most-recent com-
pany to add a C-suite diversity offi-
cer—data can occupy a large amount
of that executive’s focus. Salesforce,
which makes business software, ap-
pointed Tony Prophet in late 2016 as
its first chief equality officer, report-
ing to Chairman and co-Chief Execu-
tive Marc Benioff.
Mr. Prophet, who previously held
executive roles at Microsoft Corp.,
oversees Salesforce’s new office of
equality, which has a staff of 13
working on D&I efforts across the
company, including 12 employee
groups and monthly data updates to
business leaders. Leaders receive re-
ports on how many women or mem-
bers of underrepresented groups
have been hired or promoted in the
U.S., or have left divisions in the or-
ganization, Mr. Prophet says.
“We have found that this helps
our leadership keep equality top of
mind,” he says.
Some executives say having a di-
versity executive in the top ranks is
crucial to distinguish the role from
HR. David Cohen, senior executive
vice president and chief diversity of-
ficer at Comcast, says HR isn’t able
to incorporate diversity across an
entire business. “What does an HR
person have to do with supplier di-
versity? What does an HR person
have to do with governance?” he
says. “A chief diversity officer in the
HR space is effectively a chief diver-
sity officer for the workforce.”
Mr. Cohen says Comcast applies
diversity standards to its gover-
nance, workforce, suppliers, charita-
ble work and, importantly, its pro-
gramming, both at Comcast cable
and NBC. He pointed to the hiring of
Lester Holt in 2015 as the first per-
manent African-American anchor of
“NBC Nightly News.”
“We are presenting pictures and
stories of America,” Mr. Cohen says.Mr.Holgeris a Wall Street
Journal reporter in Barcelona.
[email protected].BYDIETERHOLGERW
hen Dow Inc.
namedKaren S.
Carter as chief
inclusion officer
in 2017, the
chemical com-
pany became only the fifth mem-
ber of the S&P 500 to elevate such
a role to the C-suite. That group
hasn’t grown since.
Ms. Carter, who has held various
leadership roles at Dow for more
than two decades, took the job
knowing the company and its
37,000 workers still had a long way
to go. In its first inclusion report,
published last year, Dow said that 81% of its U.S. employ-
ees are white and 72% of its global workers are men.
The decision to place a diversity and inclusion officer
in the C-suite is a “game-changer,” Ms. Carter says, be-
cause support from the top is essential to making mean-
ingful changes. “We knew we needed not only to make
short-term progress, but to embed it into the way we do
business as a company,” she says. “It’s critical to have
that voice, that perspective in the room.”
Other companies that have added so-called D&I offi-
cers to the C-suite areBrown-FormanCorp.,Interpublic
Groupof Cos.,ComcastCorp. andSalesforce.comInc.
For the rest of the S&P 500, 43% have D&I managers who
typically work under the umbrella of human resources,
while the majority don’t have a dedicated management
position, according to a study of the blue-chip index by
The Wall Street Journal’s environment, social and gover-
nance research analysts.
Among the 10 categories on which the study scored
the S&P 500 members, companies received top marks if
they had an executive director in the C-suite in charge
of diversity and inclusion and partial credit if they hada manager in charge of D&I. It was
one of the worst-performing areas,
right above gender diversity in the
board, senior management and the
overall workforce, weighing down
the scores of the vast majority of
S&P 500 companies.
“It is surprising given the known
benefits associated with workforce
diversity that more CEOs are not
looking to integrate these consider-
ations at the board level,” says Mar-
tin Buttle, head of good work at Sha-
reAction, a U.K.-based advocacy
group that mobilizes investors on
social issues.
The creation of these roles is sup-
ported by a growing body of evi-
dence showing that diversity is good
for business. This year, 85% of CEOs
globally said they saw enhanced per-
formance after investing in D&I pro-grams, according to a survey of 1,378
CEOs by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
At Dow, Ms. Carter has worked
with its business leaders to add di-
versity and inclusion to their strat-
egy, ensuring they understand it is
tied to financial success. Each divi-
sion of the company has targets and
programs, she says.
“There are so many inclusion ef-
forts going on at the company, I
probably can’t put my arms around
them,” she says. “And I’m comfort-
able with that.”
Diversity and inclusion executives
often have a broad mandate—from
hiring and communications to even
how goods and services are created
and sold. The duties of these execu-
tives vary from company to com-
pany, but those elevated to the C-
suite tend to look beyond theKaren Carter tells Dow’s
business leaders that
diversity is tied to financial
success.JOURNAL REPORTS | DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
Having a
Voiceinthe
C-Suite
AD&I officer at the top can
make all the difference
1%
ofS&P 500
companies have
C-level diversity
and inclusion
officers.43 %
have other
heads/
managers of
diversity and
inclusion.56 %
don’t have
anyone in
charge of this
area.Source: WSJ
environment, social
and governance
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