By Paula Santonocito 

Paula Santonocito, Business Journalist, Onrec.com

Each year, Catalyst, the leading nonprofit organization working globally with businesses and the professions to build inclusive workplaces and expand opportunities for women and business, recognizes innovative initiatives that advance women and business. 

The Catalyst Awards Conference, held at the New York Waldorf Astoria on March 24, included presentations by the 2010 Catalyst Award winners, Campbell Soup Company, Deloitte, Royal Bank of Canada, and Telstra Corporation. 

At the conference, each company detailed its best practices, which in all instances turn out to be a combination of strategies (as in best practices – plural) explaining how its initiatives advance women in the workplace and benefit the business. 

As part of an overarching initiative, each organization’s efforts, in one way or another, further recruiting and retaining women. 

Here are highlights of the award-winning programs: 

Working to Win 

Campbell Soup Company’s initiative, “Winning in the Workplace, Winning in the Marketplace, Winning with Women,” includes a focus on inclusion in manufacturing plants and other company sites. All salaried employees and managers at the plants have diversity goals and participate in diversity events. Meanwhile, company-wide affinity networks further inclusion for all diverse candidates. 

With regard to women specifically, Campbell has a strong mentoring culture, with formal and informal elements. The company also provides transparency of career paths, which includes sharing what it takes to get the experience required for advancement. At Campbell, women have access to nontraditional roles in areas like manufacturing, R&D, and engineering. 

The success of these and other programs are measured. Campbell uses Gallup to conduct an annual employee survey, it tracks diversity, and it measures business performance based on product usage with its consumer audience—which incidentally is 80 percent women. 

The company recognizes the value women bring to the workplace, but Campbell also aims to have the company align more closely with its product users. Through its initiative, “Winning in the Workplace, Winning in the Marketplace, Winning With Women,” which links objectives, Campbell has achieved noteworthy results: from 2005 to 2009, women in executive roles increased from 21 percent to 25 percent. In manufacturing roles, the percentage of women and women of color plant directors and managers increased from 14 percent to 21 percent and from 1 percent to 3 percent, respectively. 

Leaving Ladders Behind 

Accounting and consulting firm Deloitte also recognizes the link between customers and corporate representation. “Clients are demanding that the composition of the marketplace mirror their own,” said Barry Salzberg, chief executive officer of Deloitte. 

The changing composition of the workforce likewise makes a case for Deloitte’s Women’s Initiative (WIN). Women are the leading growth segment of the U.S. labor market, Salzberg noted, indicating that 57 percent of bachelor’s degree recipients, 60 percent of master’s degree recipients, half of professional degree recipients, and just under half of Ph.D. recipients are women. 

However, when Deloitte looked at how careers are built and how talent is developed, it found that the corporate ladder model no longer fit for its people. It therefore replaced the corporate ladder with a corporate lattice. The lattice allows for multiple paths upward, and it allows for employees to move faster, slower or change direction. There is also a career-life component, which can adjust as workers’ needs change. 

In addition to the lattice, the company has implemented various programs aimed at retention and advancement. 

Currently, more than 41 percent of leaders at Deloitte are women and 34 percent of the women in the firm are women of color. In 1993, the company had no corporate officers who were women; today it has 21. 

Banking on Change 

RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) also boasts an increased number of women. In 2009, the financial services organization employed 33 percent more women than it did in 1999, with women at the executive level increasing from 25 percent to 39 percent during the same period. 

As at Deloitte and Campbell, change at RBC has been accelerated by recognition that the marketplace has changed. Women entrepreneurs represent the fastest growing segment of small business in Canada. 

Still, the company found it had to take steps to ensure that women or visible minorities are on the candidate slate. “People are more comfortable hiring their own,” said Zabeen Hirji, chief human resources officer for RBC. 

The company became proactive with regard to diversity sourcing, while accelerating career development within the organization. It also implemented diversity dialogues, which Hirji said are intended to “get beyond Diversity 101 and get to the heart of diversity matters.” 

As part of its focus, RBC looks at diversity in the context of real-life experiences, recognizing the world continues to evolve. “The issues that women are dealing with today are very different from the issues we talked about 10, 20 years ago,” said Gordon M. Nixon, president and chief executive officer of RBC. 

While remaining current, RBC strives to infuse inclusion into its corporate culture. “It’s really about embedding diversity into our everyday business; it’s not about let’s do diversity today,” Hirji said. 

From Down Under 

Australian telecom giant Telstra has been focused on diversity for many years. “Diversity at Telstra has always had good intentions,” said Andrea Grant, group managing director of human resources for Telstra. 

Be that as it may, in 2006, the company realized it wasn’t achieving much in the way of results. Even though initiatives had been in place for 17 years, women still represented only 31 percent of Telstra’s workforce. 

Grant attributes stalled progress in part to the male-dominated culture of Australia. “Women in Australia are used to it,” she said. 

Nevertheless, Telstra took on the challenge of raising awareness and closing the gender gap, recognizing it wasn’t only focused on changing the company but that its efforts could help move the country forward. 

Research showed that retention was at the heart of the matter, and that lack of tenure impacted advancement for women and consequently pay equity. 

Among the many initiatives Telstra has implemented to address retention is a mentoring program for women aimed at creating measurable opportunities. The program’s pilot included 24 women, four of whom were promoted after completing the 12-week program. Since its inception, approximately 2,000 women have taken part in the program, which is delivered via DVD and CD. 

But the company isn’t only focusing on women as it works to change the culture. An eight-week program for men, with increasing annual mandates that currently include 90 percent of male executives and 60 percent of mid-level executives, is part of an integrated strategy. 

The company engages the entire workforce, men and women. “Telstra, as an iconic brand, is taking responsibility for raising gender diversity in Australia very seriously,” Grant said. 

For many long-serving male employees, it has resulted in a light going on, Grant noted; they say, “I don’t want my teenage daughter dealing with these issues.” 

Awareness raising is starting to make a difference. Promotions for women increased from 29 percent in 2006 to 41 percent in 2009. During the same period, representation of women on the CEO Leadership Team increased from 6 percent to 31 percent, and the number of women corporate officers increased from 31 percent to 35 percent.

But perhaps the most noteworthy change is one at the top. “We now have a female chair, which in Australian is a big thing,” said Grant.