DiversityInc Announces 2017 Top 50 Companies for Diversity List

NEW YORK, May 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- DiversityInc Tuesday announced its 2017 Top 50 Companies for Diversity list and global professional services company EY took the number one slot. Prior to this year's competition, EY has been among the Top 10 for the past eight years

"Like the other companies high on the DiversityInc Top 50, EY understands diversity and inclusion is critical to business and rooted in finding the best talent," said DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti. "EY is number one because the company worked harder than all others and has deep CEO engagement with Steve Howe, who has empowered his people to do their job, and they did it."

The DiversityInc Top 50 list, issued yearly since 2001, recognizes the nation's top companies for diversity and inclusion management. These companies excel in such areas as hiring, retaining and promoting women, minorities, people with disabilities, LGBT and veterans.

In addition to its position on the Top 50, EY also landed on nine specialty lists, including No.1 for Executive Women, People with Disabilities, Diversity Councils, Employee Resource Groups and Mentoring.

DiversityInc's extensive annual survey yields an empirically driven ranking based on recruitment, talent development, senior leadership commitment and supplier diversity. This year's competition was improved by new survey questions, increased emphasis on fairness over chasing numbers and more sophisticated analysis from DiversityInc data scientists.

To view the complete Top 50 and specialty lists, visit http://www.diversityinc.com/top50.

Joining EY on the Top 10 list are:

2-Kaiser Permanente
3-AT&T
4-PricewaterhouseCooper
5-Johnson & Johnson
6-Sodexo
7-MasterCard
8-Marriott International
9-Wells Fargo
10-Abbott

Visconti noted that the DI stock Index of the Top 50 companies shows a three-year return of nearly 28 percent, outperforming the S&P 500's 26 percent and the Dow's 25 percent.

Companies with more than 1,000 U.S.-based employees are eligible to enter the DiversityInc Top 50 competition each year, and there is no cost to compete. Each company's rank is based on an objective analysis of numerous factors, based on data from an extensive survey. The four equally weighted areas of measurement are Talent Pipeline, Equitable Talent Development, CEO/Leadership Commitment and Supplier Diversity.

In addition to the Top 50 list, DiversityInc also revealed the following specialty lists:

• Top 13 Companies for Diversity Councils (EY, No. 1) 
• Top 12 Companies for Employee Resource Groups (EY, No. 1) 
• Top 15 Companies for Mentoring (EY, No. 1) 
• Top 12 Companies for People with Disabilities (EY, No. 1) 
• Top 12 Companies for Recruitment (AT&T, No. 1) 
• Top 11 Companies for Supplier Diversity (Dell, No. 1) 
• Top 10 Companies for Veterans (Northrop Grumman, No. 1) 
• Top 12 Hospitals and Health Systems (Mount Sinai Health System, No. 1) 
• Top 11 Regional Companies (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, No. 1) 
• Top 5 Utilities (Ameren Corporation, No. 1)
• Top 9 Companies for Executive Women (EY, No. 1)
• Top 11 for Progress (Southern Company, No. 1)
• Top Companies for Global Diversity (not a ranked list)
• Top Companies for LGBT Employees (not a ranked list)

The announcement dinner in New York City featured speakers including Trevor Noah, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show"; Steve Howe, U.S. Chairman and Americas Managing Partner of Ernst & Young; Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., Founder and President of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition; and Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, recently retired Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and past President of Spelman and Bennett colleges, who received DiversityInc's Lifetime Achievement Award.

The 2017 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity event is made possible thanks to the following sponsors: Abbott, Accenture, ADP, Altria, AT&T, BASF, Bayer, Boeing, Cox Communications, CVS Health, Dell, Deloitte, EY, General Motors, Hilton, Inc., Humana, Johnson & Johnson, Kaiser Permanente, Kellogg Company, MasterCard, Marriott International, MasterCard, Monsanto, Nielsen, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sodexo, Southern Company, Target, TD Bank,

TIAA, TimeWarner, Toyota Motor North America, US Bank, Wells Fargo and Wyndham Worldwide.

About DiversityInc The mission of DiversityInc is to bring education and clarity to the business benefits of diversity. The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list began in 2001, when many corporations were beginning to understand the business value of diversity-management initiatives. The 2017 Top 50 Companies for Diversity results will be featured on ‪DiversityInc.com and in DiversityInc magazine. DiversityInc is a VA certified veteran-owned business and a USBLN certified business owned by a person with a disability. For more information, visit www.diversityinc.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn @DiversityInc.

SOURCE DiversityInc