To Celebrate Black History Month, Paradigm for Parity® Coalition Member Companies Reflect on how they Elevate Black Women Leaders
A conversation with David Casey, Vice President of Workforce Strategies and Chief Diversity Officer for CVS Health
To commemorate Black History Month, the Paradigm for Parity® coalition spoke with executives in our member companies who are responsible for diversity and inclusion programs to learn how each is using the coalition’s 5-Point Action Plan to address the unique challenges facing women of different backgrounds in order to close the gender gap in corporate leadership.
Below is our conversation with David Casey, Vice President of Workforce Strategies and Chief Diversity Officer for CVS Health. Casey offers specifics about the company’s journey to help elevate Black women within the company.
Why did CVS Health join the Paradigm for Parity® coalition?
CVS Health joined the Paradigm for Parity® coalition because we appreciate the coalition’s emphasis on ensuring commitment from the top, including a signature of approval from the CEO. Additionally, we appreciate that the organization facilitates collaboration between member companies and best practices for implementing the 5-Point Action Plan. We found the 5-Point Action plan to be very thorough,robust, yet practical and easy to implement.
Further, CVS Health appreciates the specific and explicit commitment to increasing representation for women of all backgrounds. There are not many women’s-focused organizations and initiatives that are specifically acknowledging the challenges facing multicultural women, and that stood out to us.
How does CVS Health support black women within the organization?
There’s a correlation between the diversity of our workforce and how we show up in the marketplace, I think it’s important to talk about both. We know that gaining trust in communities of color is foundational to building brand loyalty. And what companies do in the marketplace and community can serve as proof points for talent looking to join an organization.
We asked ourselves, “How can we best invest in our high potential and high performing black female talent in a culturally relevant way?” One way we do this is by sending 10 high potential black women to the Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit every year for the past five years. We have consistently gotten feedback from attendees that being in an environment with other professional black women gives them a sense of renewal and empowerment and is also a great networking opportunity for their professional growth.
Another example is our partnership with Bonnie St. John and the Blue Circle Leadership Institute to deliver our Strategies for Success Multicultural Women’s program, which is an eight month virtual leadership program for women of color. We have graduated more than 170 women from our company through this program. The program offers a series of monthly virtual learning opportunities that promote confidence, resilience and leadership skills. Notably, participants’ managers are actively engaged alongside them through a manager program overview session, one-on-one discussions with the participants regarding their progress, and finally at graduation.
As I mentioned earlier, we want potential colleagues to see how our commitment to their respective communities shows up in the marketplace as well. For example, in our stores, we’ve expanded the range of makeup shades, adding 600 new shades of foundation and concealers across thousands of stores and also launched a Shade and Foundation finder to help customers across a broad spectrum of skin tones and complexions find their matches. We’ve also expanded in other categories including textured hair, where we’ve brought in 15 new -independently owned brands. Our textured hair assortment is one of our fastest growing segments in our hair care business. It’s important for us to celebrate diversity internally as well as in our consumer products.
When you look at the Paradigm for Parity® coalition 5-Point Action Plan, is there a particular step that you think is most critical to ensuring women of color have the same opportunities for advancement as their colleagues?
I believe all the steps in the 5-Point Action Plan are critical. From our experience, one of the most important steps is Step 2 — significantly increasing the number of women in senior operating roles. Studies have shown that having representation in leadership is the most consistent factor in further increasing representation. Sounds like a no-brainer, but is important to note, given all of the pieces that make up talent strategies. Eliminating unconscious bias is also vitally important, but companies must remember that it isn’t a one and done training course, it must be part of a multi-faceted, ongoing strategy.
How can leaders advocate for, lift up and advise women of color to help them succeed in the corporate world?
Two words: Show up! Company leaders should join resource groups and really get to know the talent within their organizations. And when there are opportunities for promotions or key assignments, take the opportunity to advocate for the women you’ve met through internal and external networking. Leaders often assume colleagues will seek them out for mentoring and sponsorship, but not all professionals are comfortable with that. Leaders can, and should, take proactive steps to put themselves in environments where there may be talent they don’t know, but should get to know.
CVS Health states it aims for its colleague demographics to reflect the demographics of the community it serves. What are you most proud of in CVS’ current practices in ensuring a workforce that best represents its customers?
It’s true that what’s important and measured in corporate America gets done. Our strategy for managing diversity drives the numbers, the numbers alone don’t drive the strategy. The Strategic Diversity Management team isn’t the only team initiating these efforts, we have an infrastructure that provides an avenue for every colleague to play a role and understand how it benefits them personally, business more broadly and the people we serve. We have leaders and colleagues from every facet of the business coming to us who say, “We’re building out this strategy or initiative, and we know diversity needs to be part of it. Can you come and consult with us?” Having business leaders and colleagues proactively seeking consultation with the Strategic Diversity Management team on issues related to managing diversity, instead of us having to knock on their doors, is something I’m extremely proud of at CVS Health. We’re not done, there’s always more to do, that’s why we are excited to be a part of what the Paradigm for Parity® coalition is aspiring to do.
