Winner: Fleishman-Hillard and Ernst & Young
Campaign: Above and bEYond: Making ?Inclusiveness Real for LGBT Employees
Feeling left out isn't just a playground phenomenon; history has proven that adults are just as predisposed to exclusiveness as their kiddie counterparts. Workplace bias has
long dominated employee-relations efforts, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community hasn't escaped the trials of inequality at work.
To foster an inclusive culture for LGBT employees and their allies, Ernst & Young's communications team, in conjunction with Fleishman-Hillard executives, set out to raise
visibility of its efforts and position the company as a thought leader on LGBT workplace issues. What began three years ago as a grassroots movement among LGBT employees grew into
a company-endorsed, official network called bEYond.
But maturing from a grassroots effort to a company-wide initiative took massive communications muscle. Before launching the campaign, E&Y 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.
Then, E&Y's workplace had to be rebranded to include LGBT employees. Posters (above) helped spread the word. What resonated most were the stories of the employees
themselves. The PR team produced a documentary video in which one of the company's partners "came out" to more than 3,000 other partners at an E&Y conference. The response was
overwhelmingly positive.
The PR team also built relationships and shared best practices with organizations known for their LGBT efforts, convening an LGBT Inclusiveness Roundtable in NYC in July 2006.
Participants comprised representatives of JP Morgan Chase, Pfizer and Xerox on the corporate side, and such nonprofit heavy hitters as the Human Rights Campaign and the Equality
Forum. Besides the support for bEYond garnered by the team's efforts, the media embraced the concept. Ernst & Young was nominated to the HRC's 100 list for the second year,
and it was a finalist for a 2006 "Outtie" award.
The numbers speak volumes: 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.
Honorable Mentions
At Dominion, the "Diversity: 365 Days a Year" multicultural calendar is helping employees throughout the organization understand and connect through cultural observances of
people around the world. Rather than an ordinary list, the calendar called upon employee volunteers to tell their stories of common and uncommon culturally significant dates with
the focus on informing others about traditions and common misconceptions about the cultures of Dominion's 17,000 employees. Now in its third edition, the calendar promotes
diversity throughout the company, and educates employees and the public.
Reebok International created the "2006 Reebok Human Rights Awards" to highlight human rights activists throughout Zimbabwe, China, Kashmir and the U.S. who contribute through
nonviolent means, sharing the stories to increase public awareness of their various causes, including HIV/AIDS issues, among other worldwide concerns. The award recipients were
recognized in multiple print, television and radio outlets in the U.S., internationally and in their home markets, including CNN International, ABC NewsNow, Radio Asia and MTV.
Overall, the program reached over 30 million people worldwide.
As one of the world's largest chemical companies, Dow Chemical Company is working to ensure that diversity within the company stems not only from a global presence, but also an
informed and culturally educated group of leaders. To achieve this goal, the "Diversity and Inclusion Forum" was created to use cultural transformation to change management
strategy; it assembled Dow's people leaders in intimate groups to examine the tools of cultural change and help to empower leaders committed to diversity. Various scenarios
addressing employee concerns, as well as video and formal presentations, were implemented to generate debate and discussion on what leaders could and should be doing to identify
risk groups and cultural barriers, all with the goal of creating a more diverse and inclusive culture.