Driving a global diversity culture at Wells Fargo

A Q&A with Wells Fargo's Jimmie Paschall about her career and the D&I objectives of the banking firm for Diversity Executive magazine online.

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Jimmie Paschall, Wells Fargo’s executive vice president of enterprise diversity and inclusion, brings a global mindset to making diversity and inclusion an integral part of the employee culture at the financial services firm.

Since starting in her new role at the beginning of the year, Jimmie Paschall has brought a global mindset along with a nonprofit perspective — traits she said she acquired during her time in HR with Marriott International.

Paschall spoke with Diversity Executive about her experience, the nature of the diversity officer role and more.

What led you to this role at Wells Fargo?

Paschall: I started my career with Marriott as a college student in an hourly position and I ended up working for the company the first time around for 17 years, primarily in human resources roles and several business lines that were not lodging business lines. [Then] I had an opportunity to go serve [as] the HR officer for a start-up telecommunications company called XO Communications.

The whole package: FedEx's focus on global diversity

A Q&A with FedEx's Shannon Brown about their diversity practices for Diversity Executive magazine online.

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FedEx’s Shannon Brown, senior vice president and chief HR/diversity officer, delivers a lesson on what it takes to be culturally relevant on a worldwide scale.

Who: Shannon A. Brown

What: Senior vice president and chief HR/diversity officer, FedEx Express

When: Dec. 4, 1978

Size of company/Number of employees (approx.): More than 151,000 worldwide

What special experiences or qualifications do you feel you bring to the D&I picture of your company?

Brown: I started working at FedEx as a handler in the Memphis Hub. As a man of color, my success here derives from working at a company that embraces diverse viewpoints, ideas and backgrounds of our employees — on a global perspective. In fact, embracing diversity and inclusion is fundamental to the company’s business success and continues to fuel our spirit of innovation.

Continue reading at Diversity Executive magazine!

Finding a home for diversity at Freddie Mac

A Q&A with Freddie Mac's Suzanne Richards about their diversity practices for Diversity Executive magazine.

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Suzanne Richards, vice president of diversity and inclusion at the mortgage giant, talks about its collaborative group programs to engage both leaders and employees in everyday diversity.

Who: Suzanne Richards

What: Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, Freddie Mac

When: Since June 2011

In what areas do you place special emphasis on diversity and inclusion at Freddie Mac?

Richards: For the first time, each of Freddie Mac’s 14 divisions, working with our office of diversity and inclusion, created its own diversity plan tailored to meet division needs. This will ensure that all levels and areas of the company are making diversity a priority and helping Freddie Mac realize its overall diversity and business goals.

We’ve also ramped up our supplier diversity program to strengthen our business. In 2011, we increased our expenditures with diverse suppliers and vendors by more than 50 percent over the previous year.

Another area of focus for us is our employee network groups (ENGs). After an extensive review of ENG participation and efficacy, we re-launched our ENGs at the end of 2011, with a renewed focus on leadership. All of our ENG executive sponsors are members of the firm’s management committee. By engaging senior leaders to lead the ENGs, we are ensuring effective coaching, mentoring and sponsorship of ENG members, as well as providing an active forum for developing and showcasing the future leaders of Freddie Mac.

Continue reading at Diversity Executive magazine!

This year, don't think resolution -- think revolution.

A newsletter piece originally published on Talent Management magazine online about corporate New Year's resolutions.

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How many of us have given up on new year’s resolutions because they simply don’t stick? Well, forget about resolutions. Here are five ways to revolutionize your new year.

Personal resolutions don’t fulfill themselves — investing in a gym membership isn’t the same as showing up and getting on the elliptical. The same is true for businesses. Simply setting vague goals in a post-holiday meeting and throwing money at them won’t make them realize themselves.

Here are five ways talent managers can ensure their goals don’t suffer the same fate as some folks’ plans to swim the English Channel.

Make the “how” the goal. According to Paul David Walker, a business adviser, Genius Stone Partners founder and author of Unleashing Genius: Leading Yourself, Teams, and Corporations, a company’s resolutions are something to be worked toward with every action.

“People can’t relate to a number; there’s no ‘how’ in a number,” he said. The activities that lead to that number or goal are the goals themselves, Walker said. “You have to have a visceral description of how that will happen, and it needs to be in the present tense. Because if you say, ‘I will’ or ‘we will,’ you push it into the future.” Brainstorming the steps needed to reach a goal, then making those steps into a clear plan will make initiatives easier for clients or employees to follow and get excited about.

Culture of communication. This is most effective when the entire workforce is on board — something that can’t be achieved unless management is actually listening. This isn’t something that can be faked, but requires a collective shift in the culture of a company toward one where every member of the team feels valued and heard, Walker said.

“It’s really critical that you establish a relationship with your employees, that you’re open to hearing all their ideas and thoughts,” he said. “You have to create the environment that encourages people to speak up.”

The key is cutting egos from the conversation and resisting the urge to shoot down an idea immediately. “A big part of that is when someone does share, even if it is totally stupid — which sometimes it is — never make the employee wrong.”

Continue reading at Talent Management magazine!