Dive Brief:

• Accenture, Mastercard and Abbott earned the top three spots on DiversityInc’s 2022 list of top companies for diversity. The organization considers leadership accountability, human capital diversity metrics, talent programs, workforce practices, supplier diversity and philanthropy, according to the May 4 announcement.
• Notably, “board and senior management accountability and a measured focus on equitable access to talent development programs were two areas of marked improvement of this year’s survey participants,” Carolynn L. Johnson, the firm’s CEO, said in a statement.
• Hilton, which took the top spot last year, moved to DiversityInc’s “hall of fame” along with other past winners.

Dive Insight:

DiversityInc’s focus on leadership accountability highlights a growing trend in D&I. As employers responded to calls for racial equity, some said they would tie executive pay to diversity and inclusion goals. Uber, Wells Fargo and Starbucks all announced such moves in recent years.

HR consulting firm Mercer has backed the idea, too: As of late 2020, few companies linked executive pay to D&I strategy outcomes, it said in a report, presenting a missed opportunity to reach company goals.

But accountability can take other forms. Some have suggested the diversity metrics that DiversityInc mentioned — advancement of diverse talent, for example — be part of managers’ performance reviews. HR can make D&I goals personal and urgent for supervisors, a Gartner research director previously told HR Dive.

Employers can make such metrics public as well — and several high-profile companies like PwC and Target have opted to do so — effectively holding themselves accountable to the public.