Diversity in Action

Hewitt Associates is walking the walk

The company's diversity interest goes beyond its own and even its customers' workforces. "We're about making the world a better place," an officer notes

Walter Smith, product control scheduler.

Hewitt Associates, founded in 1940, is the world's largest human resources (HR) outsourcing and consulting firm. The company embraces diversity as a key element of its own business strategy, and has developed innovative programs to increase the diversity of its workforce and help employees in their professional and personal lives.

Hewitt has eighty-six offices worldwide, including twenty-five in the U.S. It works in the areas of benefits, HR strategy and technology, healthcare, organizational change, retirement and financial management, and talent and reward strategies. Its clients include more than half the Fortune 500 companies and more than a third of Fortune's Global 500, according to Andrés Tapia, chief diversity officer at Hewitt.

Information technology is an important segment of the Hewitt offerings. Hewitt staffers are involved in IT, both for clients and for the company itself. They do software development and evaluation, LAN admin and apps development, and work in all phases of the IT life cycle, from requirements development to the design and implementation of client business apps, Tapia explains.

Adrian Adriano, tech support technician.

Hot areas of expertise, he notes, include ERP packages like PeopleSoft and Oracle, information security, data warehousing in Cognos, Informatica and ETL, information integration tools such as Corba and Vitria, and IBM's Websphere.

The goal of diversifying Hewitt's own workforce has become more strategic and focused in recent years, Tapia declares. The company now has organized affinity groups, which it calls associate networks, at all its offices. These include groups for African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Asian Americans, gays and lesbians, working parents, and employees over forty.

The company offers diversity training. In addition, "diversity dialogues," featuring lunch-hour speakers and discussions, have been in place for several years.

Domestic partner benefits have been offered for the past four years. Hewitt always does well on the Human Rights Campaign organization's index, especially since the domestic partner benefits went in, Tapia says. The index tracks how well companies score on being friendly to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transvestites (GLBTs).

Andrés Tapia: community relations help build tomorrow's diverse workforce.

The company, in fact, is walking the walk. "We are about making the world a better place," Tapia declares. "Hewitt wants its community relations to be about building tomorrow's diverse workforce. We look at education, job training and infrastructure."

Company recruitment programs reflect the focus on diversity. Summer Folk, program manager for the talent acquisition and transitions group, notes that recruitment goals at Hewitt have changed substantially.

"Five to seven years ago our diversity recruiting was a decentralized, grassroots kind of effort," she says. But in recent years, the strategy "also includes building long-term relationships and sustainable programs."

Hewitt currently has strong relationships with BDPA and the Hispanic MBA and Black MBA associations. Top company management meets regularly with the leaders of these groups to develop goals and identify issues important to minority communities and employees, Folk says.

"We also focus on minority-serving institutions and partner with their student organizations, professors and administration," she adds.

Hewitt Associates www.hewitt.com Headquarters: Lincolnshire, IL Employees: 15,000 worldwide Revenues: $1.7 billion Business: Global human resources outsourcing and consulting

Once the workforce is in place, the company helps out with a number of helpful work/life programs. For example, folks who live in the city of Chicago are offered free transportation to Hewitt's suburban headquarters, and childcare during school vacations is available at some sites.

Kerry Astar, work/life program coordinator, points to a resource and referral service called Life Care, which is provided by the company. "They help people find childcare and eldercare services and parenting information," she explains.

A few years ago a different company provided those services, but not on a broad enough basis. An employee survey indicated a need for more minority-specific information: about day camps in minority communities, for example, or contacts with minority professionals like lawyers and psychologists.

The result was a switch to the Life Care group, because they were in a position "to provide more diverse information for our diverse population," Astar notes.

D/C