Diversity Best Practices Joins Deloitte & Touche USA LLP and Others to Develop CEO Diversity Scorecard

Business Wire, Oct 26, 2006

Hailed as "the ultimate accountability tool," new scorecard helps define leadership in advancing diversity and inclusion as a business imperative

WASHINGTON -- Diversity Best Practices (DBP), a Washington, D.C., membership-based company providing informational resources, benchmarking data and consultative services to corporate diversity practitioners and executives, recently announced the creation of the CEO Diversity Scorecard, which is intended to be a universal measurement tool to help chief executive officers gauge their progress in making diversity and inclusion an essential part of their workplace culture. The CEO Diversity Scorecard was announced at the Diversity and Women's Leadership Gala, Oct. 26 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.

"This CEO Scorecard is the ultimate accountability tool to help CEOs easily track progress, identify drivers of change, keep company executives accountable, and allow the chief executives to communicate successes to their respective boards of directors," said Edie Fraser, founder and president of Diversity Best Practices. "The data that the scorecard yields shows just how much improvement an organization has made."

This project was led by Barry Salzberg, managing partner of Deloitte & Touche USA LLP and chair of the DBP CEO Initiative.

Salzberg and his Chief Diversity Officer and National Principal, Diversity and Inclusion Redia Anderson, along with a host of other chief diversity officers developed broad-based metrics deemed stable enough to be used with any organization regardless of size or industry. At the same time, the scorecard is also flexible enough to add and adapt categories and metrics that may be more aligned with an organization's specific business strategy.

"We believe the scorecard is a valuable tool because it ties your organization's diversity goals to growth and profitability," said Salzberg. "Used appropriately, it quickly helps you identify, isolate and communicate how your diversity and inclusion initiative has fostered a higher level of performance results from your organization."

In addition to Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, the following companies were represented on the CEO Diversity Scorecard project team:

-- Goldman Sachs & Co.             -- Progress Energy, Inc.
-- Lehman Brothers                 -- Sodexho USA
-- L'Oreal                         -- U.S. Steel
-- Merrill Lynch & Co.             -- Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
-- Motorola                        -- Weyerhaeuser Company

"As with most corporate initiatives, measurement and accountability are key in achieving the desired results," said Weyerhaeuser Co. Chief Diversity Officer Effenus Henderson, who played a vital role in the formation of the CEO Diversity Scorecard. "Scorecards which measure improvement year over year serve as indicators and catalysts for the required change needed to drive improvement. They also help focus leadership attention on the critical drivers of change such as workforce representation, employee satisfaction, retention and upward mobility. While the specifics may vary from company to company, or industry to industry, the CEO scorecard as a framework for action is fundamental."

In terms of process, the project team began with a laundry list of measurements and then grouped those measurements together by themes, i.e., talent pipeline management, culture of inclusion and brand eminence. The team identified the most important themes and defined and redefined the measurements based upon feedback and input from the CEOs of the participating companies.

In the end, the scorecard was not designed to assess all facets of diversity and inclusion, but rather to measure the key indicators on diversity and inclusion progress.

"For too long, diversity practitioners have been without industry-accepted guidelines and have had to rely heavily on peer-to-peer benchmarking and personal experience to define metrics and drive shared accountability in their organizations," said Candi Castleberry-Singleton, vice president, Global Inclusion and Diversity, Motorola, Inc. "The CEO Scorecard is one of several Diversity Best Practices initiatives aimed at establishing industry best practices. With a more disciplined focus on metrics and the integration of diversity into talent management, culture and marketplace initiatives, practitioners can truly make a discernable difference in corporate America, as opposed to just their respective companies.

About DBP and BWN

Diversity Best Practices (DBP) (www.diversitybestpractices.com) is a membership-based organization for senior diversity practitioners, women business owners and entrepreneursCoproviding leadership options, best practices, counsel, in-depth-research and reports, benchmarking tools and forums necessary to create sustainable diversity solutions for all levels of their organizations. DBP is a subsidiary of iVillage, the #1 Internet destination for women, which was recently acquired by NBC Universal.