ORC Sightlines
May 2010
In this issue:
- Working with Minority Communities in the U.S.: Advice from Advocacy Group Leaders
- Improving Sustainability in the 21st Century Corporation
- Featured Practice: Review Compensation Processes to Ensure Nondiscrimination
- Complimentary Compensation Compliance Seminar: Risk Management in the New “Era of Enforcement”
- Forbes.com Interviews ORC’s Syd Robertson
Working with Minority Communities in the U.S.: Advice from Advocacy Group Leaders
The financial hardships experienced by so many people during the last couple of years have hit minority communities the hardest, not only with increased unemployment, but indirectly in terms of health care, education, life expectancy and community safety. The problems are so widespread they may seem insurmountable, but at last month’s meeting of the Workforce Opportunity Network (WON), Blair Taylor of the Los Angeles Urban League urged companies that want to get involved to start one neighborhood at a time.
The first step is understanding the issues. Frank Quevedo, board member of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) and former head of diversity for Southern California Edison, observed that corporations often make the mistake of thinking that what is important to them is important to the neighborhoods. Another obstacle to progress, noted Linda Akutagawa of Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc. (LEAP), is the tendency to lump members of minority groups together. More than 26 different ethnicities are represented under the label “Asian American” and it’s impossible to address their concerns without understanding the differences among them. For example, the high incarceration and dropout rates in Hmong, Lao and Vietnamese communities often go unnoticed because statistics are hidden among those of the greater Asian American population which includes many highly educated and economically successful groups.
Before they offer help, Quevedo, advised, companies should take time to build partnerships in their communities to find out what the needs are. For example, one company at the meeting, a financial services firm, offered basic bank services in a community where many residents didn’t have them. Another partnered with a local school to mentor low-income students. Many WON member companies turn to their employee resource groups to forge these relationships and to spearhead projects that respond to local problems. Another important role that corporations can play, Taylor suggested, is facilitating collaboration between nonprofit groups and encouraging joint ventures to leverage their resources better.
The next meeting of WON, ORC’s network for U.S.-based diversity leaders, will be hosted by PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York City on July 27-28. For more information, contact Bonnie Arrix, bonnie.arrix@orcww.com, +1-212-852-0339.
Improving Sustainability in the 21st Century Corporation
Ceres, a national network of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups, has issued a new plan for creating a sustainable economy. The plan, Ceres 20·20, calls for honest accounting, acceleration of “green” innovation, new policies to reward sustainability performance, and new expectations and standards for business leadership. Focusing on this last item at a meeting of ORC’s Occupational Safety & Health Group in May, Ceres’ Director of Corporate Programs, Roseann Casey, suggested four areas companies could address:
Governance
- Establish a Board committee charged with developing and implementing sustainable business practices.
- Hold managers accountable—and reward them—for achieving sustainable goals.
- Align the company’s public policy advocacy with its sustainable commitment.
Stakeholder Engagement
- Recognize that stakeholders are involved whether you want them to be or not; the question is whether you are participating in the conversation in a way that is productive for the company.
- Bring senior leaders into the discussion.
- Involve investors (who, by their presence, will get senior leaders interested).
Disclosure
- Measure not just for the sake of disclosure, but in a way that is useful to the company and drives performance.
- Use the framework and guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative which are the basis of reporting for 1,500 companies worldwide.
Performance
- Set ambitious public goals.
- Consider the entire supply chain; examine the procurement process and help suppliers meet expectations.
Ceres’ report, The 21st Century Corporation: The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability, includes detailed recommendations in each of these four areas as well as hundreds of case studies and resources. It is available for free download at http://www.ceres.org/Page.aspx?pid=592.
ORC’s Environmental, Health, & Safety practice area and its networks of corporate EH&S leaders help companies around the world manage their programs more effectively, meet compliance obligations in global operations, and control workplace risks. For more information on sustainability or other EH&S issues, contact Cord Jones, cord.jones@orcww.com, +1-202-293-2980.
Featured Practice: Review Compensation Processes to Ensure Nondiscrimination
As many human resources professionals in the U.S. know by now, recent federal activity has increased employers’ compliance responsibilities. In last month’s Sightlines, we reviewed many of these changes, including the passing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the increase of resources at the EEOC and Department of Labor focused on uncovering systemic pay discrimination. Faced with this new assertiveness from the enforcement agencies, as well as the possibility of further equal pay legislation, proactive employers are auditing their compensation practices to ensure that pay patterns are nondiscriminatory. Such an audit might include the following steps:
- Assess job descriptions in terms of ADA compliance, internal consistency, descriptive accuracy, and the ability to differentiate between jobs in different functional areas and at different levels.
- Recommend solutions to ensure that the formatting and content of job descriptions, as well as the process of gathering job information, all support the goals of compliance, consistency and accuracy.
- Perform an audit of pay practices, again using the job descriptions as the basis for the assessment, to determine if there are any patterns of differentiation in pay that disparately affect employees in “protected classes” and might suggest or indicate systemic discrimination based on gender or racial status.
- Recommend processes for further analysis and/or solutions to identified problem areas.
Whether you choose to conduct such an audit in-house or turn to external partners such as ORC to help, we strongly recommend that every employer conduct such an audit. ORC is offering a complimentary one-day seminar in New York on June 30 to help U.S.-based compensation, compliance, and equality and diversity professionals learn more about the impact of recent federal action and how to protect their organizations. (See next article for more information.)
For more information on legal compliance aspects of compensation practice, contact Andy Rosen, Executive Vice President or Nita Beecher, Chair, ORC's Workplace Compliance practice.
Complimentary Compensation Compliance Seminar: Risk Management in the New “Era of Enforcement”
ORC’s compensation and employment law experts will teach compensation, equality and diversity, and compliance professionals the ins and outs of new U.S. legislation and enforcement strategies and how to ensure the protection of their organizations against claims of pay discrimination or misclassification of jobs. The full day agenda will include sessions on recent and pending legislation, how changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act may affect your job classifications, and a “Parking Lot” discussion when participants can get answers to their questions and share best practices.
Date: June 30, 2010
Location: ORC Worldwide, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York
Who should attend: Compensation managers and specialists, EEO/diversity professionals, workplace compliance professionals
Forbes.com Interviews ORC’s Syd Robertson
Forbes.com’s Video Network interviews ORC Executive Vice President Syd Robertson about how employees can get ahead during this economic downturn:
http://video.forbes.com/fvn/human-capital-10/climb-the-corporate-ladder
