The most inclusive workplaces enjoy 24% higher year-over-year revenue growth than peers.
Dec. 5, 2016 (San Francisco) –Excuse me, is this a good time to talk about Inclusion and Diversity?
Today’s divisiveness puts a spotlight on corporate efforts to build diverse, fair, welcoming workplaces. Organizations that are great workplaces for all people not only tend to generate better business results, but can help create a more inclusive society.
Research and consulting firm Great Place to Work®, in partnership with Fortune, is proud to honor the most inclusive organizations by publishing the 2016 Best Workplaces for Diversity. In addition to this list of the top 50 workplaces for diversity overall, Great Place to Work and Fortune are publishing separate lists of the Best Workplaces for African Americans, Best Workplaces for Asian Americans, and Best Workplaces for Latinos.
Regardless of industry or size, best workplaces for diversity do better financially than their peers. The 50 companies on the 2016 Best Workplaces for Diversity list average 24% higher year-over-year revenue growth than other U.S. organizations that are Great Places to Work-Certified™.
“You can make a business case for why diversity matters, and show how it drives revenue, motivates employees and fosters innovation,” said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. “But for some reason, this often leads to strange, unsatisfying debates that do not address diversity. Our evidence shows that when employees look up and look to the left and right what they see (and don’t see) they internalize. If they can see themselves, it gives them hope that they will be treated fairly when it comes to approaching leaders with new product ideas and growth opportunities. This hope increases employee commitment which is needed for product innovation and the retention of A-team players of all types.”
Heading this year’s list are No. 1 Texas Health Resources, where 60.3% of executives are women; No. 2 Delta Air Lines Inc., where ethnic minorities make up 40.3% of all employees; and No. 3 Navy Federal Credit Union, where 19.8% of 13,832 employees are African American and 10.7% are Asian American. Rounding out the top five are No. 4 Ultimate Software, which has formal professional support programs for women and LGBTQ employees, and No. 5 Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, where women account for 46% of all employees and 29% of executives.
No. 1 on the Best Workplaces for African Americans is Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, a nonprofit health care system in Memphis with an executive team that is 52% women and 20% ethnic minorities. At the top of the Best Workplaces for Asian Americans is Katalyst Technologies, a four-year-old IT company based in Evanston, Ill., where 78% of the 214 employees are men but 67% of executives are women and an equal percentage are ethnic minorities.
In conjunction with announcing the 2016 Best Workplaces for Diversity, Great Place to Work is publishing a report with survey data and workforce practices to help other workplaces become more inclusive.
The Best Workplaces for Diversity show that encouraging workplace diversity and inclusion can help bring the country together after one of the most divisive presidential elections in generations.
“The best workplaces forge bonds among co-workers of different political views, different backgrounds, different job titles,” says Ann Nadeau, chief marketing officer and chief people officer at Great Place to Work. “The sense of community is palpable. At a time when our national social fabric has frayed, workplaces that are great for all people can play an important role in mending America.”
When sharing on social media about the 2016 Best Workplaces for Diversity, please use the hashtag: #bestworkplaces.
The Best Workplaces for Diversity list is part of a series of rankings by Great Place to Work and Fortune.
To see the schedule for all of our best workplace lists and more information on how to apply, visit Great Place to Work’s website.
About The Best Workplaces for Diversity
Published together with our partner, Fortune, The Best Workplaces for Diversity ranking is based upon feedback from 448,456 employees at Great Place to Work-Certified companies who completed our Trust Index© Employee Survey. Employees from all backgrounds answered 58 questions about how frequently they experience the behaviors that create a great workplace, considering everything from how comfortable they are being themselves, to the degree of favoritism or insider politics they observe in the workplace, the fairness of promotions, the feeling of honest connection with co-workers, their access to senior leadership, and who receives information and professional development and who doesn’t.
To determine the winners, Great Place to Work analyzed how positively women, minorities and LGBTQ employees reported experiencing their workplace overall, paying special attention to an index of factors where these employees tend to have a less positive experience than their colleagues. Rankings take into account how favorably women, minorities and LGBTQ employees experience their workplace relative to their male, Caucasian and heterosexual colleagues' experiences. The list also considered the degree of representation women and minorities enjoy within the workforce as a whole, as well as in management and executive roles. Organizations needed to have at least 50 employees to be considered and were compared to peers of similar size.
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