Winner: Food Lion
Food Lion (FL) is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment for associates. Its culture thrives on mutual respect, teamwork, diversity of thought and productivity in the workplace among people who are diverse in many areas.
Food Lion, in fact, feels diversity and inclusion is a business imperative. Creating a diverse and inclusive work environment where every associate feels valued and appreciated is critical to its success. The company wants to ensure its associates reflect the communities in which they do business, and Food Lion strongly believes that having an inclusive culture enables it to attract and retain a diverse associate and customer base.
To promote diversity competency and understanding within the organization, Food Lion has introduced diversity learning sessions that include Leading Together, Unconscious Bias, Multicultural Communication, Generational Impact on the Business and Transgender Inclusion in the workplace. In 2014, FL introduced the Multicultural Women's Mentoring and Sponsorship program.
For 22 years, Food Lion and the CIAA have partnered together to showcase how “Life's Better with the Lion” in CIAA communities. As the exclusive food/retail sponsor of the CIAA Tournament, and the title sponsor of the Women's Tournament, Food Lion has leveraged its partnership to recruit top talent from CIAA schools and support philanthropic endeavors, including helping to eliminate hunger on college campuses.
In addition, Food Lion received a perfect score of 100% on the 2016 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to LGBT workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Food Lion is part of Delhaize America. Delhaize America joins the ranks of 407 major U.S. businesses which also earned top marks this year.