Johnson Controls Named One of the Best Companies for Multicultural Women 2021 by Seramount

Johnson Controls, the global leader for smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, has been named one of the 2021 Best Companies for Multicultural Women by Seramount (formerly Working Mother Media) – an honor recognising companies that create and use best practices in hiring, retaining and promoting multicultural women in the United States. 

Through its Diversity and Inclusion mission to empower every employee to take an active role in creating a culture that values uniqueness, celebrates creativity and drives innovation, Johnson Controls works to elevate each employees’ responsibility to contribute to its culture. Business Resource Groups (BRGs) are an integral part of the company’s overall workforce diversity strategy. Currently, there are nine employee-driven BRGs with more than 70 chapters globally. Equally important are its corporate partnerships with global, national and local diversity and professional organisations.

Key findings of the 2021 Seramount report include:

• Formal sponsorship with senior leaders is one of the most essential ways to advance multicultural women. Sixty-eight percent of the 2021 winners offer formal sponsorship (versus 18 percent of nonwinners), and 61 percent offer cultural competence training for sponsors and/or proteges (versus 14 percent of nonwinners). Mentoring with a DE&I lens is crucial as well.
• Seventy-five percent of the 2021 winning companies have specific anti-racism training (versus 45 percent of nonwinners); CEOs have led organized discussions on racism at 65 percent of the 2021 winners (versus 45 percent of nonwinners); and 89 percent have specific programs to address racial trauma (versus 57 percent of nonwinners).
• Accountability and leadership involvement are critical in advancing DE&I goals. Ninety-five percent of the 2021 winning companies hold managers accountable for DE&I as part of their annual performance reviews (versus 43 percent of nonwinners), and CEOs oversee or approve management compensation tied to diversity goals at 75 percent of the winning companies (versus 20 percent of nonwinners).

Since 2003, Seramount’s Best Companies for Multicultural Women has tracked corporations’ progress in creating cultures that encourage multicultural women to join and rise through the ranks. Participation in this initiative is up 19 percent year over year, and over the last five years, it has increased by 358 percent. Seramount’s Insights team attributes the uptick to increased interest in hiring and promoting women of color as well as improvement in the types of questions asked, especially the specific evaluation of women at each level by individual race and ethnicity, and the introduction of questions on anti-racism efforts.

“The increased participation in this initiative confirms that the importance of retaining and advancing multicultural women is not lost on corporate America,” says Subha V. Barry, CEO of Seramount. “By offering programs and implementing policies instrumental to their success, whether it’s sponsorship and mentoring programs or tying managers’ compensation to diversity goals, our Top Companies for Multicultural Women continue to demonstrate their commitment to this critical talent pool.”