Major Law Firm

Business Case

Named one of Fortune’s "Best Places to Work". Dedicated to continuous improvement, they wanted to unearth and address several diversity challenges – recruitment, retention, lack of openness in culture, the plight of women and minorities in the firm – to insure their continued placement on this listing.

Approach
Obtained leader/partner buy-in and commitment
Discovery Phase: Unearthed key challenges (through focus groups and interviews) within the company that were hindering talent from entering the firm and staying and making a full contribution
Implementation Phase: Trained all leaders, associates and staff level employees in five offices across the country, supported an already standing Diversity Committee
Maturity Phase: Took firm-wide workforce forward in a deeper understanding of diversity management by holding application sessions (learning and doing).

Strategies
Employed practices that reflected visible "inclusion"
Provided diversity management education and training for managers
Practiced using My Diversity Manager™ across the firm
Equipped a group of internal key stakeholders with the necessary skills to guide leaders and associates in appropriate action and behavior (HR Group, Diversity Committee Members).

Outcomes
Moved up in Fortune’s "Best Companies to Work" listing
Disbanded a tradition of having a “leaders only” dining room; opened to associates and staff
 Increased minority-representation in Summer Intern Program; which in turn resulted in improved hiring of minorities
Began participating in numerous community-focused efforts on diversity and diversity management
Sharpened focus on women’s issues; developed a Women’s Forum
Coached managers who were not “walking the talk” of the firm’s espoused values for diversity
Saw improvement in managers' confidence level with talking about and responding to diversity management matters; greater finesse in tough conversations; identifying and acting on business requirements rather than traditions; making appropriate referrals to HR or Diversity Committee.