No Senior Prom: Cable Still Has a Way to Go on Diversity

Cable is at "a relative standstill" when hiring and promoting sr multicultural employees, NAMIC pres Jenny Alonzo declared Mon (the same day Lifetime announced it was upping Alonzo to a sr exec of color in cable). Alonzo did offer a silver lining-cable is ahead of print media and technology companies in overall diversity and senior execs of color. Still, the industry is "doing OK. It’s not doing great," said Luke Visconti, partner of DiversityInc., the magazine/Website collaborating with NAMIC on its annual employment survey. Highlights from the survey kicked off the assn’s annual conference and "Diversity Week" Mon morning. Responses from HR personnel at cable companies (10 unidentified companies participated) were benchmarked with the makeup of DiversityInc’s annual "Top 50 Companies for Diversity." A few outcomes: top minority exec representation was similar to the ratios of DiversityInc.’s list, but lower than their proportion to the general population; African-American top execs declined by half from the ’02 NAMIC survey, while top Latino and Asian execs increased slightly; African-Americans are better represented in middle management than either Latinos or Asians. One way to expand exec diversity is to create new opportunities through advanced services. Time Warner Cable did so with VoIP, creating VP/telephony jobs at each of its 31 system divisions and filling more than half of the posts with women and people of color. "… I’m dedicated to doing more as we go along with new projects," said TW Cable CEO Glenn Britt. NY Times COO Janet Robinson said her company ties compensation and bonus incentives to diversity hiring/promotion; succession management plans; career development and more. — Jenny Up The Block: Alonzo became svp, promotion planning/production and multicultural strategies Mon. She will spearhead all diversity initiatives at the channel and its spin-offs Lifetime Movie Network and Lifetime Real Women. Alonzo stepped into the NAMIC president’s chair 2 years ago, and is expected to turn that role over to someone else. The identity of the new pres may be announced as soon as today or tomorrow. – Simon Applebaum