Fortune 500 Companies with Programs to Increase Number of Black Employees

Six Fortune 500 companies with programs aimed at increase the racial diversity of their employees are McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, Johnson & Johnson, Target, Nike and Amazon.

1. McKesson

• In 2014, McKesson created their Diversity Blueprint Strategy. Since then, they have focused on increasing the diversity of their workforce, including the goal of increasing the number of POCs at executive and mid-management levels.
• In order to lead the diversity and inclusion efforts at the company, McKesson created their Diversity & Inclusion Steering Committee (DISC). According to McKesson, the DISC works to “leverage the collective capability of senior leaders to assist McKesson in meeting or exceeding its representation goals while building a more inclusive culture. The DISC also hosted Diversity Summits (education forums) in several locations across the US, engaging leaders in dialogue around D&I topics and identifying actions to advance diversity.” McKesson also works with the national Executive Leadership Council (ELC) in order to provide business unit leaders the tools necessary to support POC employees.
• McKesson’s VP of Diversity and Inclusion worked with every level of the organization in order to incorporate diversity and inclusion, including the Board of Directors and the CEO. Management at the company is reviewed on their adherence to diversity and inclusion commitments.
• In order to increase the number of POCs, McKesson increased the diversity of their interview slates for all positions. They also focus on providing advancement opportunities for POC.
• In order to support their POC employees, McKesson leadership runs an employee resource groups (ERG) for African-Americans titled ASPIRE. There are other ERGs for other minority groups as well.
• In August 2020, McKesson was “named to the Diversity Best Practices (DBP) fourth annual Inclusion Index. McKesson was among the 98 organizations that earned a top score and a place on the index.” As of 2019, 43% of McKesson employees were POC.

2. AmerisourceBergen

• AmerisourceBergen’s goal is “to create healthier futures and accelerate business results by inspiring the best and brightest global talent across all dimensions of diversity to perform at their full potential.”

• AmerisourceBergen ensures that they are attracting diverse candidates through their partnerships with “historically diverse universities” and offering these students “internship opportunities, resume-writing workshops and mock interview training.” During their interview process, AmerisourceBergen bolsters diversity by “incorporating a scorecard so that diversity is represented in both the applicant pool and throughout the interview process, so that different perspectives, backgrounds and experiences are represented in every step of the hiring journey.”
• In order to foster the promotion of associates of color, AmerisourceBergen has multiple career development opportunities, including online courses through the company and tuition assistance for continuing education.
• AmerisourceBergen also hosts employee business resource groups, including the “Black Organization for Networking & Development (BOND).”
• AmerisourceBergen was named a 2020 DiversityInc Noteworthy Company for the fourth year in a row. 46% — 51% of AmerisourceBergen US employees identify as POC.
• AmerisourceBergen is furthering their commitment to diversity in 2020 by hiring Dr. Lonie Haynes as the company’s SVP and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer. According to AmerisourceBergen, Dr. Haynes will, in this capacity, be “working with leaders across the company to define and execute on a holistic and results-oriented diversity and inclusion strategy that inspires associates across all dimensions of diversity to achieve their full potential and to advance the company’s purpose to create healthier futures.”

3. Johnson & Johnson

• Johnson & Johnson has created a Diversity and Inclusion Policy that “sets out the principles and requirements by which Johnson & Johnson will enhance D&I throughout the organization.”

• Johnson & Johnson works to increase the number of diverse employees at all levels of the company by “mitigating potential unconscious bias in employment decisions and talent practices (including performance and development, compensation, and hiring).” In order to do that, they have begun to use the AI-powered software Textio, which “removes gender bias from [the] job description by detecting words that could influence a specific gender to apply, and altering them to non-gendered words.”
• Johnson & Johnson has partnered with the “Scientist Mentoring & Diversity Program (SMDP), a yearlong mentorship program that pairs ethnically diverse students with industry leaders.” Additionally, Johnson & Johnson partners with “diverse professional organizations to identify and attract new talent” and has “relationships with diverse student organizations at universities and colleges”.
• Johnson & Johnson focuses on mentoring in order to improve company outcomes for diverse employees. They state: our “best-in-class mentoring programs, which features cross-gender, cross-functional, cross-segment, cross-generational and cross-regional mentoring. We understand that our employees are the source of our value and our success, so investing in them is a no-brainer.” Johnson & Johnson runs multiple Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), including the African Ancestry Leadership Council (AALC). They also operate leadership training opportunities for diverse employees in order to increase the number of diverse employees at leadership levels, and regularly run unconscious bias-training.
• In 2019, Johnson & Johnson was recognized in the DiversityInc Hall of Fame. 

4. Target

• In September 2020, Target made a commitment to “increase representation of Black employees across its workforce by  20% over the next three years.” This entails increasing the number of Black Target employees by more than 11,000. 

• In order to increase the number of Black team members, Target will focus on “advancement, retention and hiring.” This will include building more “leadership pathways” for Black team members to achieve leadership positions, increasing hiring and training programs for Blacks, providing mentors to Black team members, reviewing their benefits and partnerships in order to ensure they serve Black team members, and conducting anti-racism training for the entire workforce.
• Training and hiring programs will focus specifically on technology, data sciences, merchandising and marketing, areas where representation for Blacks is very low.
• Target has created a new committee — REACH (Racial Equity Action and Change committee) — in order to create and oversee the plan to achieve Target’s new diversity goals.
• While this program is new, past diversity programs at Target have focused on People of Color as a whole (including Latinos and Asians), as well as women. Target states that these measures have been successful, and that they have “doubled representation of company non-White officers in the past five years to nearly 30%” and they have increased diversity among store managers, with a third of stores being managed by POCs and half being managed by women.

5. Nike

• In 2018, Nike stated that they “had fallen short in promoting women and people of color.” They then released the goal of creating “an increasingly diverse, engaged, and healthy workforce.”

• In order to increase the number of Black employees, Nike created a dedicated “diversity sourcing team” in order to ensure that diverse candidates are presented for every job opportunity.
• In addition, Nike changed their hiring practices in order to eliminate biases, including “enabling blind resume reviews and eliminating the collection of salary histories”
• Nike also instituted unconscious bias training for their employees, especially management.
• Nike invested in “eight employee-formed and managed communities with a focus on programs advancing career and culture”, including those for Black employees. These groups also provide mentoring.
• Lastly, Nike partnered with the community college system in Los Angeles to create new opportunities for underrepresented groups to intern with Nike in areas such as “design, footwear, apparel graphics, and color as part of a six-month rotational program and an opportunity to apply for open positions at Nike.”
• In fiscal year 2016, Black employees at Nike represented 22.6% of their workforce. By 2019, this unfortunately had decreased to 21.6%. However, the percentage of Black employees at the Director level increased from 4.7% in 2016 to 4.8% in 2019, and at the VP level from 8.3% in 2016 to 9.9% by 2019.

6. Amazon

• In August 2020, Amazon joined other companies in pledging to hire 100,000 minority workers by 2030 and “fight racial disparities in the workforce.” In order to do so, the companies have formed the New York Jobs CEO Council. In order to attract more racially diverse new hires, the CEO Council will work with the CUNY college network and local nonprofits.
• Amazon also has their own independent partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities in order to attract diverse talent.
• In October 2020, Amazon hosted their first Represent The Future Summit, a “virtual career enrichment experience to uplift Black, Latinx, and Native American professionals of all backgrounds and experience levels.”

• Currently, Amazon operates 12 affinity groups for their employees, including Black Employee Network (BEN), in order to support their current employees of color.
• Amazon is also working to improve pay equality for their minority employees.
• From 2014 to 2020, the percentage of Black employees increased 11% to 26.5% Black as of the start of 2019.