2022 DE&I reports are out and progress remains slow

It’s June, which means that not only is it Pride Month and the official start to summer, but also the time when many organizations release their annual DE&I progress reports.

HR Brew examined annual reports from General Mills, ServiceNow, Boeing, and HubSpot, for trends across companies, and to explore how businesses are prioritizing their diversity efforts. What’s consistent is that there’s no consistency across how companies measure DE&I and impact.

While each company has its own metrics, some workplace experts still believe the transparency is good for business, according to reporting from CNBC. “The accountability piece is about taking action, both positive and negative, depending on how folks show up. Cascading this understanding and driving attitude and behavioral change is a sequence that needs to be scaffolded out,” Erin Thomas, head of diversity, inclusion, and belonging at Upwork, said at a 2022 CNBC Work Summit.

Progress at ServiceNow. The company is a US-based software company that didn’t begin monitoring DE&I until 2019, but saw its most meaningful changes in women in leadership positions, up by 2% over the last year. Women now account for 32.3% of all leadership roles. However, globally, men are still 67.5% of its workforce.

It appears that ServiceNow is making less progress with Black and Hispanic hires, with Black employees accounting for just 3.9% of its workforce, although that’s up 1.2% since 2020. And Hispanic and Latinx employees are up to 7.2%, up 1% since 2020. Finally, the company pointed to a 42% participation increase in employee resource groups (ERG) since the previous year.

General Mills diversified its board. The cereal brand that made everyone believe marshmallows are acceptable breakfast foods has in part focused on diversifying its board of directors. General Mills’ latest diversity report shows that women now make up 50% of the board, which consists of 17% Black members and 17% Latino or Hispanic members.

The company also boasts seven ERGs and brought together 700 employees last year for a diversity summit. According to the report, 52% of managers are women, 7% are Asian, 3% are Black, and 5% are Latino or Hispanic.

HubSpot tracks everything. OK, not literally everything, but HubSpot’s 2022 report goes beyond tracking gender and race. While 48.1% of US employees are women, the company also tracks employees who identify as nonbinary (currently 0.3%). This tracking is not currently required by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but could be in the future. HubSpot also tracks employees by age and found that just 0.7% are over 55, while 65.2% of the company is 26 to 35. As of January 1, 2023, 13.1% of employees identify as LGBTQ+, and 11.3% are disabled.

In terms of management, more than half (50.2%) of managers globally are women, and 27.9% of managers identify as BIPOC.

Big goals at Boeing. The aviation giant isn’t just trying to build faster planes, according to its 2022 diversity report. Boeing aims to increase Black representation and achieve retention parity across demographics by 2025. The company notes that 23% of managers and 25% of new hires are women, while 27% of managers are racial or ethnic minorities, up 4% from 2020.

Boeing also has a veteran hiring program, accounting for 14.6% of US employees, while 7.7% of employees are disabled. Finally, 3,300 Boeing employees globally participate as Inclusion Ambassadors in an effort to increase inclusion progress.