Verizon Communications ranks sixth nationwide, and Cox Communications ranks 25th, in DiversityInc magazine’s 2007 Top 50 Companies for Diversity, announced yesterday.
Verizon, which DiversityInc partner and cofounder Luke Visconti described as “a true champion of diversity,” also ranked 3rd for recruitment and retention of women and minorities and tied with Cox at 8th for African-Americans.
This was the Verizon business unit’s first year as a participant in the survey-based rankings but the second year for Cox, which last year ranked 32nd on the DiversityInc Top 50. “Diversity is a critical part of our culture, values and operations,” said Cox President Pat Esser.
The Top 50 companies employ 5 percent of the U.S. work force, but 17 percent of the nation’s college-educated people of color. People of color make up 42 percent of their staff, versus 29 percent for the national work force, and 25 percent of management at Top 50 companies, versus 12 percent for companies nationwide.
One hundred percent of the Top 50 offer domestic-partner benefits for same-sex couples, compared with 53 percent of Fortune 500 companies, the magazine added.
Top 50 companies spend 9.7 percent of their procurement budgets with minority- and women-owned suppliers, compared with just 2 percent nationally. And 96 percent of the Top 50 companies link executive compensation to their diversity goals.
Other companies in the Top 50 that have local operations include: 12th, PricewaterhouseCoopers; 22nd, Citigroup; 23rd, Prudential Financial; 28th, Sprint Nextel Corp.; 40th, Allstate; 41st, Wal-Mart Stores; 43rd, Ernst & Young; 46th, FedEx Express; and 47th, Marriott International.
“Top 50 companies demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of diversity management,” Visconti said in a statement. And, he said, “they are better prepared to compete globally and with our rapidly diversifying domestic market.”
Together, the DiversityInc Top 50 companies beat the 10-year, 5-year and 1-year performance of the Standard & Poor’s 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq – for the fourth year in a row.
The list’s composition is determined by companies’ answers to a 230-question survey that this year was completed by 317 companies, the magazine said. Winners must demonstrate consistent strength in four areas: CEO commitment to diversity, human capital, corporate communications and supplier diversity. The survey data is also used by DiversityInc in nine other lists.
DiversityInc is a a monthly business magazine and daily Web site. Its full Top 50 list and related information can be found at www.DiversityInc.com/top50.
