Company: Ernst & Young
Agency: Fleishman-Hillard
Timeframe: 2006, ongoing
About three years ago, a group of employees at Ernst & Young approached top management with a proposal: they wanted to take their grass-roots initiative to boost inclusiveness
within the accounting giant to a whole new level, with executive support and official standing.
To his credit, senior vice chairman John Ferraro listened to what partner Mike Syers and Chris Crespo had to say. Syers and Crespo had begun to meet with other gay and lesbian
employees of Ernst & Young on an informal basis, but with Ferraro's backing, their group evolved into "bEYond," a sanctioned - and strongly encouraged - company initiative that
supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees and their families.
The move made good business sense. While the issue of gay marriage continues to roil American politics and ruffle the feathers of conservative groups, many global professional
services firms recognize that they need to have access to the widest pool of talent. They literally cannot afford to exclude anyone.
"The firm had a longstanding commitment to gender equality and ethnic diversity," says Holly Humphrey, assistant director of People First Public Relations at Ernst & Young,
"but sexual orientation hadn't been a priority." With Ferraro's blessing, that changed overnight, and over the course of the past year, Ernst & Young has built communications
strategies to raise awareness of this network.
The benefit to Ernst & Young was about more than enabling the company to hire more employees. "Another thing the firm talks about is diversity of thought," says Michele Vana,
senior vice president at Fleishman-Hillard, which helped Ernst & Young develop the strategy. "It's important to recruit and train top professionals who represent the broadest
thinking and who bring different backgrounds and experience together to give the best service to their clients."
Before launching the campaign, Ernst & Young and Fleishman-Hillard conducted internal and external research to learn about employee communications best practices on diversity
and inclusiveness, studied global companies that had scored 100 on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, examined other groups at corporations that participated in
LGBT events and read scores of articles in media and reports by third-party organizations on LGBT issues in the workplace to develop news hooks and be sure they were targeting the
right reporters. (The Human Rights Campaign is the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender political organization.)
The PR effort included a brochure, posters, t-shirts and ads that ran in Out Magazine and The Advocate, two of the most prominent publications for the LGBT market. The team built
relationships and shared best practices with organizations that had great track records for their LGBT efforts and convened an LGBT Inclusiveness Roundtable in NYC in July 2006.
Participants comprised representatives of Citigroup, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Pfizer, Prudential, The New York Times Company, Viacom and Xerox
on the corporate side, and such nonprofit heavy hitters as the Human Rights Campaign, Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, and the Equality Forum. Humphrey says, "Pulling global
companies together to talk about a workplace issue and how to make LGBT inclusiveness real in your company" was among the best practices that emerged from the campaign and put Ernst
& Young on the thought leadership map.
A report on the event, called "Making it Real," shared key findings from the roundtable at the Out & Equal Workplace Summit in Chicago in 2006. "'Making it Real' enabled Ernst
& Young to be a convener of major companies to talk about issues that affect them all," says Humphrey. "The media appreciated that piece, to hear from not just Ernst & Young,
but other major companies as well."
Ernst & Young and Fleishman-Hillard produced a video documentary and full-color brochure about the bEYond network for internal use, to post on http://www.ey.com and to distribute to the media. But it was the next video that really created buzz. Mike Syers, one of the first members of bEYond to
approach John Ferraro, was featured in this video as a way of "coming out" to some 3,000 partners of the firm during a conference in Orlando. During his two minutes of footage, Syers
sat in the audience wondering what would happen. Then his Blackberry started to vibrate, and messages from all over the company expressed his colleagues' support and goodwill.
The media response was overwhelmingly positive. A feature story in Fortune magazine in December 2006 profiled Ernst & Young among several other major corporations that embrace
LGBT initiatives. In addition, more than 60 stories ran in major outlets across the country, including The Advocate, Boston Globe, Forbes.com, and the Washington Post. More than 5,000
copies of "Making it Real" have been distributed throughout the U.S. Both Ferraro and Chris Crespo have been recognized for their work, and Ernst & Young was named to the HRC 100
list for the second year in a row. More than 600 employees in 20 locations are now members of bEYond, up from 40 people three years ago, when the network was officially formed.
The Inside Track
As with any ethnic diversity or multicultural PR effort, a campaign devoted to inclusiveness must take into account some unique challenges and opportunities. To do it right, you
need to learn all you can about your audience, and establish relationships with the right channels for reaching them. Some companies are blessed with a network of specialists in their
own ranks.
At Fleishman-Hillard, a group called FH OutFront has "wonderful expertise," says Humphrey. This gay and lesbian PR group within Fleishman-Hillard was instrumental in getting
bEYond's media relations campaign off the ground.
Fleishman-Hillard and Ernst & Young wanted to capitalize on the "Making it Real" report before it made its official debut at the Out & Equal summit in Chicago. "The week
after Out & Equal, the HRC list was going to come out, and we were able to pitch it proactively before these things happened," says Vana.
The core people of the team at Fleishman-Hillard had not pitched to gay and lesbian publications before. After they showed FH OutFront the goals and strategy, FH OutFront made
sure the language of various communications was appropriate, pulled together a media list in a day, then helped to identify the key publications the PR team should reach. "They did
the outreach to the gay and lesbian publications," says Vana. "They were just tremendous."
Humphrey notes, "The language around inclusiveness and diversity is a key takeaway. You need to create a story that is relevant for all companies that are looking at this issue.
It's much more about the broader story than just what's happening at one company." Vana adds that including the human interest element is important. "Ernst & Young built
relationships with third-party organizations, pointed to the relevant statistics, had the building blocks of anecdotes, statistics and expert spokespeople. We provided the media with
all of that ... but we also had the anecdotal stories from our own employees."
One such tale was from an employee years ago who had lost his partner but was not able to tell anyone at work because no one knew he was gay. "He missed one day of work and then
went back," says Vana. "If you can't bring your whole self to work, you're not going to have close relationships with your colleagues, and they will feel you are holding back."
The personal nature of the outreach added exponentially to the viral spread of information. Humphrey says Syers told her that as soon as the article in Fortune appeared, it was e-
mailed around the gay and lesbian community. "These stories were reaching a broader audience than the business community," she says. She adds, "To hear your CEO get up at one of the
company's major meetings, talking about inclusiveness, has a huge ripple effect."
Ripple effects notwithstanding, how does a company measure the success of a campaign such as this? Says Humphrey, "The most important internal measure was how many people signed up
for the bEYond group. We have more than 600 people on the mailing list, in 20 locations, and it started at about 40 three years ago. That takes a lot of communication, a lot of people
feeling comfortable enough to sign up."
In addition, Ernst & Young takes notice when it is ranked for different awards and receives third-party recognition. "We were one of the top 10 employers of choice by Diversity
magazine for LGBT," says Humphrey. "That's a way to measure our success against other companies. We also made the HRC 100 corporate quality index - that's huge ... Those are all key
to measure where we are against other companies." In addition, the company has risen from the 67th spot on Fortune's Top 100 Companies To Work For list to 25th ... a shift it
accomplished in just one year.
Contacts:
Michele Vana, 212.453.2214, [email protected]; Holly Humphrey, 212.773.2439, [email protected]
Getting The Ball Rolling
Chris Crespo joined Ernst & Young 18 years ago, specializing in tax services. But in the three years since she and company partner Mike Syers approached senior vice chairman
John Ferraro, she has acquired a new title: LGBTA (the "A" stands for "allies") Inclusiveness Strategy Leader. She's also learned an enormous amount about launching an inclusiveness
PR campaign, internally and externally. The key points are:
- Find an executive sponsor to back you.
- Figure out how your issue fits into the corporation. What do you need, how will it fit in? Ernst & Young has a "People First" commitment that applied to issues of equality
based on gender, ethnicity or disability. But, says Crespo, "We realized we were missing a piece about four years ago."
- Look for feedback from employees to find out what they need.
- Give the affected employees an equal seat at the table with gender and ethnicity and disabilities when it comes to inclusiveness and flexibility.
- Get the resources and support to explain and raise awareness.
- Keep the ball rolling. "Inclusiveness is a journey, and sometimes it feels never-ending," says Crespo. "You need to start slow, make people aware and provide education about why
this is important, but you don't want to seem like an activist, because it's about teamwork."
- Build from the teamwork approach. This helps everyone feel comfortable to bring ideas to the table and get a diversity of thought going, which also helps clients in the long run.
Crespo says her approach is to raise as much awareness as possible. "If you know someone else's story, you know they have a lot of the same attributes that you do ... This helps to
bridge the differences, get everybody back on the teaming aspects, and everyone feels more complete, like they have a voice at the table."
- Once everyone feels comfortable, in Ernst & Young's phrase, they can "bring their whole self to work." This builds trust and teamwork. "You don't feel so bad saying you have
a 'crazy idea,' which could turn into some of the best suggestions," says Crespo.
- Gain commitment through partnerships. Fleishman-Hillard senior vice president Michele Vana talks about critical relationships with third parties and the power of developing a
network, as well as making sure you get the support of top managers and employees. This also means both employees who are not part of the LGBT demographic. Ernst & Young refers to
its straight members of bEYond as "Allies."
Holly Humphrey, assistant director of People First Public Relations at Ernst & Young, notes that getting buy-in at the top levels "gives you permission to get the word out."
Crespo, Humphrey and Vana all stress that bEYond is a lifetime commitment. "You want to make it real so people feel comfortable putting their partner's pictures on their desks," says
Humphrey. "Someone brought his partner to a meeting in New York, and everyone was thrilled. This wouldn't have happened years ago, because no one knew it was okay."
Contact: Chris Crespo 412.644.5361, [email protected]