What are the top companies for diversity? The leading publication for diversity, DiversityInc, recently announced its annual listing of the Top 50 Companies for Diversity and the leading ones for African-Americans’ “inclusion.”

The concept of “diversity” has been good for African-Americans in the workplace. As it is adopted as a part of their culture, companies attempt to attract, hire, develop and advance the best people to do their jobs. As it has tracked this important dimension of the national economy, DiversityInc reports that more American corporations appear to be getting the message—diversity can build stronger, more competitive companies.

DiversityInc editors annually compile reports to highlight enlightened corporations and executives that have taken diversity beyond the recruiting process into their core business functions. The reports help companies rethink internal processes toward better job development of people of diverse backgrounds and going far beyond tokenism.

In their 2008 listings, DiversityInc named the following as the top 10 companies for African-Americans:

No. 1: Turner Broadcasting System. Turner reported that 22 percent of its workforce and 28 percent of all new hires were Black. The media company spends 25 percent of its advertising budget at media aimed at multicultural populations.

No. 2: Darden Restaurants. Chairman and CEO Clarence Otis Jr. is one of five Black CEOs in Fortune 500 companies. One-third of Darden’s board of directors was Black, compared with a national average of 8 percent.

No. 3: McDonald’s. The fast-food chain spent more than 40 percent of its procurement for Tier I (direct contractors) with minority-owned businesses. Blacks were 20 percent of its workforce and 28 percent of new hires.

No. 4: Wachovia. The bank reported 21 percent of its workforce and 31 percent of new hires were Black. Fifteen percent of managers were Black.

No. 5: Bright Horizons Family Solutions. This company is a leading provider of employer-sponsored child care, early education and work/life solutions. It reported 21 percent of its workforce and 23 percent of new hires were Black.

No. 6: Macy’s. The retailer reported 20 percent of its workforce and 23 percent of new hires were Black.

No. 7: General Motors. General Motors, which has a strong employee group for Blacks, reported 13.5 percent of management promotions went to Blacks.

No. 8: Kaiser Permanente. The board of directors was 21 percent Black at this health care company. Kaiser also has a commitment to its minority-owned suppliers, spending almost 6 percent of its Tier I (direct contractors) procurement budget with minority-owned businesses.

No. 9: Sodexo. This company has very strong employee groups and metrics and reported that 26 percent of its workforce and 28 percent of new hires were Black.

No. 10: Cox Communications. The media company noted that 15 percent of its managers are Black and 16 percent of its management promotions went to Blacks. Of all its women managers, 19 percent were Black and 22 percent of promotions to women managers were to Black women.

DiversityInc reports that “Corporate diversity efforts have clearly accelerated dramatically in the past several years.” They say their top 10 companies for African-Americans average 19 percent Blacks in their workforces and 22 percent of new hires. Blacks were 14 percent of the managers in these top 10 companies, compared with a national average of 6.7 percent. DiversityInc reports that this ratio is important to note because it illustrates the talent pipeline, that African-American managers received an average of 14 percent of management promotions at these top 10 companies. The publication says that diversity training is extremely important to these companies and nine of the top 10 have mandatory diversity training for the entire workforce. And it reports that 50 percent of its top 10 companies have mandatory employee surveys on diversity.

All the data reported is from DiversityInc. The monthly business magazine and daily news Web site was launched in 1997. It is a leading media source on corporate diversity and can be accessed at www.DiversityInc.com.

(William Reed can be reached at www.BlackPressInternational.com)