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Diversity
Lives at Bellsouth
BellSouth may be cutting costs and laying people off during this recession, but
its diversity initiatives are one thing it's not axing.
At the communications company, which employs about 100,000 people and is a
regular on "Best Companies for Minorities" lists, managers are still
trained in subjects such as building a business on inclusion. Bellsouth,
however, is using more internal trainers, rather than outsourcing the training.
"During times of economic declines, our shareholder's expectations are not
reduced, and our customer expectations are not reduced," says Ron Freison,
BellSouth's chief diversity officer. "Our diversity strategy helps meet
those expectations."
Four years ago, company leaders started talking about diversity, and spent two
years trying to define it. "Winning in the marketplace by respecting and
engaging the talent of all employees," was what the company came up with.
BellSouth benchmarked itself against companies such as Apple and Microsoft which
have "inclusive" reputations. Bellsouth added domestic-partner
benefits, for example, not specifically to attract gay candidates. They did it
because the company determined that Generation employees are looking for
progressive companies.
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