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commercial excellence

How Diversity is Helping Walmart Challenge eCommerce

November 14, 2017 by DavidH

The retail sector faces competition like never before from the continued growth of Amazon, eBay, and other eCommerce companies, and the world’s top retailer, Walmart, isn’t immune to consumers’ rapidly changing buying habits.  With nearly 12,000 brick and mortar locations across 28 countries and 2.3 million employees of all backgrounds, Walmart believes diversity will help combat the e-commerce challenge. Walmart leverages diversity and inclusion through its multilingual outreach, its addition of ethnic products, and its focus on science to ensure employees feel included.

The Walmart supercenter in Dearborn, MI, is a great example of the company leveraging multilingual outreach to ensure diverse customers feel included. Hanging from the ceiling as customers enter are large welcome signs in several different languages including Arabic, English, and Spanish. Multilingual employees in many stores across the country are easily identified by name tags which identify what languages they speak.  Employees are encouraged to speak in their native languages in order to help customers feel welcomed.  These may seem like small gestures, but to the shopper with an international background, it shows that Walmart is taking extra steps to provide as welcoming a store atmosphere as any corner store or bodega where employees speak a shoppers’ native language.  By embracing the diversity of its employees and customers, Walmart creates a diverse and meaningful shopping experience.   

Another way Walmart leverages diversity and inclusion is by adding ethnic products to their shelves. It’s one thing to have a welcoming atmosphere in the store, but by offering the same cassava bread shoppers grew up with in Guyana, Walmart can connect and bring a bit of home back to its customers’ daily lives.  Walmart collects and analyzes demographic data from communities within a 10-mile radius of each store. This data is used in part to help regions and individual stores decide what products to stock and display. Going back to the Supercenter in Dearborn, MI – Walmart’s “ethnic food aisle” includes everything from hummus, falafel, Caribbean spices, and European yogurt. The aisle helps attract shoppers with Middle Eastern, West Indian, and Greek heritage.  Other Walmart stores have incorporated hair care products (such as shampoos, creams, and pomades that specifically target African American shoppers) and greeting cards that feature diverse individuals from across the spectrum.  Again, what may seem like a small gesture to some is part of Walmart telling everyone in their surrounding communities – whether Asian, African American, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, or other – that whatever they need can be found at Walmart.  

“At Walmart, the vision is to include everyone” Ben Saba Hasan, Chief Diversity Officer at Walmart tells Raines International. Promoting an all-inclusive environment – regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious views, etc. – isn’t just a feel-good thing to do, it’s a great business practice. Hasan explains,  “We collect performance data from all of our stores, and can see firsthand the impact of our diversity and inclusion efforts.  We share that data along with best practices to our regions.”  Rather than forcing mandates from national headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, Hasan says, leadership at the regional and store level can look at the data and realize the case for D&I is a no brainer.  

“The science behind it speaks for itself,” says Hasan.  Walmart studied the work of Dr. David Rock, a neuroscientist who works closely with scientists, large organizations, and leadership experts to develop better leaders and managers.  Walmart also worked extensively with Dr. Steven Robbins, another neuroscientist who works on the science of human behavior.  Among Dr. Robbins’ many findings – people are “hard-wired to belong.”  The neurons at work when an individual feels pain are the same neurons at work when an individual doesn’t feel included.  “Imagine yourself in pain all day,” says Hasan. Not feeling included “can negatively hinder your performance because it makes it harder to do simple, day-to-day tasks.”  

People naturally want to feel included, and employees who feel included lead to more quality interactions, more innovation and more loyalty.  Customers who feel welcomed and included become loyal customers and repeat customers, helping Walmart attract and retain customers. Walmart may be facing new threats to traditional retail as customers use e-commerce as a channel to shop, but leveraging diversity and inclusion helps Walmart respond to the challenge.


 

Filed Under: Article, Diversity & Inclusion, Diversity and Inclusion, Ecommerce, Human Resources, Retail Tagged With: commercial excellence, diversity and inclusion, ecommerce, strategy & business development

How Major Companies Marked Black History Month

February 27, 2017 by DavidH

As Black History Month comes to a close, we at Raines Intel want to highlight some of the ways companies and their Diversity & Inclusion programs promoted and honored Black leaders and stories this month. This is certainly not meant to be an exhaustive list, but simply a chance to share some of the tributes for breaking boundaries and efforts to remember history.

Delta highlighted trailblazing African-American employees, including its first African-American female captain, Capt. Stephanie Johnson, who also was Northwest Airlines’ first African-American female pilot, Delta’s first black male flight attendant, Eugene Harmond, Delta’s first black pilot, Sam Graddy, and Rachelle Kerr, who “piloted the first all-black, all-female flight crew in U.S. history, which included first officer Stephanie Grant and flight attendants Robin Rogers and Diana Galloway” in Feb 2009 with Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines.

Johnson & Johnson highlighted three graduates of its Scientist Mentoring & Diversity Program (SMDP). The program matches “ethnically diverse students interested in STEM with mentors from the medical technology, biotechnology and consumer healthcare industries.”

The AFL-CIO profiled Black leaders including Muhammad Ali, Ella Josephine Baker, Stonewall Inn activist Marsha P. Johnson, activist Keith Richardson, and more.

Microsoft search engine Bing.com featured a picture of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.on Feb. 1.

United Healthcare interviewed a staffer about his thoughts on black history month and diversity at the company.

Universities and museums across the country hosted events and discussions, like the Detroit Institute of Art’s permanent collections on The General Motors Center for African American Art and African, Egyptian, Oceania Americas.

The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation held special events in honor of Black History, including musical performances, exhibitions and discussions.

Ford Motor shared its long history promoting diversity on its website, noting it hired its first salaried African-American employee in 1924, its first African-American senior manager in 1950, its first African-American on the Board of Directors in 1973 and its first African-American Vice President in 1987. According to Ford, in the 1920s, the company had “more African American employees than any other automotive company.”

Kroger holds an annual contest for Michigan students in honor of Black History Month, calling for children in grades 4-12 to submit art, music, essays or poetry. 2017 marks the tenth year of the I Can Make History contest.

Boeing’s South Carolina plant invited two Tuskegee Airmen to share their stories.

The Birmingham Times published profiles of “notable black Alabamians.”

JP Morgan Chase celebrated the first anniversary of its Advancing Black Leaders program, which works to recruit, retain and promote black talent.

The Disney Channel created special programming for Black History Month featuring segments educating viewers on black history. At Epcot, Disney hosts the private Kinsey collection, an educational exhibit of African American history, artifacts, art and more.

Coca-Cola introduced fans to some of the first African-American models and informed readers about the history of soda fountain protests

The UAW looked at some of the black leaders of its union.

Allstate Insurance continued its annual campaign “Worth Telling,” which shares the stories of African-American leaders. This year, the campaign highlighted Philadelphia comics and coffeehouse owner Ariell Johnson, the founder of Alabama’s White’s Barber College, Isaac White, Sr. and the founder/CEO of New Orleans’ Camelback Ventures, Aaron Walker.

Across the country, AMC Theatres and 21st Century Fox offered free screenings of “Hidden Figures,” the Oscar-nominated movie about three black female NASA mathematicians.

American Airlines hosted events honoring black pioneers, held employee events, and featured news in its in-flight magazine. Macy’s hosted a variety of events on black entertainers like Saul Williams.

Uber offered “free and discounted rides to African-American history museums and landmarks” during February.

UPS highlighted Patrice Clark-Washington, the first African-American woman pilot captain for UPS.

Comcast created a category of films and TV shows about “Black Women Behind the Scenes” and partnered with the American Black Film Festival and BlackStar Film Festival to share the work of the black film-making community.


 

Filed Under: Article, Current Events, Diversity & Inclusion, Diversity and Inclusion, Market Insights Tagged With: commercial excellence, diversity and inclusion

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