The Why: Jennings knows the many ways working with a diverse supplier base can benefit a company. In 2022 he led Comcast’s West Division to use diverse suppliers for more than 21 percent of its total spend, and in the past two years the division has moved more than $92 million of its spending to diverse suppliers. But Jennings takes representation to his own workforce as well. Last year, 57 percent of director and higher external hires were BIPOC and 43 percent were women, and so far in 2023 25 percent of director and higher external hires were BIPOC and 100 percent were women.
He Says… “Reminder that diversity comes in many, many facets beyond just gender or ethnicity. We should be mindful of diversity of experiences, thoughts/thinking, generation and so on.”
What is an overlooked aspect of DEI? Perhaps more forgotten than overlooked. Reminder that diversity comes in many, many facets beyond just gender or ethnicity. We should be mindful of diversity of experiences, thoughts/thinking, generation (age), and so on. Being mindful of the broad scope of diversity will help us stay focused on inclusion.
What practices should be adopted to make the hiring process more inclusive? Diverse interview panels, for one. Another is to think about being intentional on asking questions that require and will force candidates to display their ability to leverage diversity in their jobs in their answers (examples of inclusivity, leveraging data to drive decisions and checking for bias in data sets, etc.).
How has advocating for DEI benefited your company or department? Advocating for DEI shows teammates that you are truly interested in who they are and that you value the unique perspective they bring. When people feel you are interested in them and their opinions as an individual, they are more apt to return a higher level of discretionary effort applied to the organization. I think we’ve seen this benefit play out across our company.
