2010 Catalyst Award Winners: Campbell’s Soup, Deloitte LLP, Royal Bank of Canada, and Telstra

By Elisabeth Grant (Washington, D.C.)

Each year the Catalyst Award recognizes businesses that support women’s advancement in the workplace. For 2010, Catalyst Awards were given to the Campbell Soup Company, Deloitte LLP, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), and Telstra Corporation Limited. See a list of the 69 companies that have won Catalyst Awards since 1974 on the Catalyst web site.

Companies apply for the award by submitting initiatives to Catalyst that promote “recruitment, development, and advancement of all women.” The Catalyst Awards Committee then evaluates each initiative through on-site visits and “interviews and focus groups with executive management, high-level women, human resources professionals, and other employees at various levels.” Through the evaluation process initiatives are judged on six factors (from the Catalyst web site):

• Business Rationale: There must be an explicit connection between the initiative and the business strategy.
• Senior Leadership Support: Upper management must demonstrate commitment to the initiative.
• Accountability: Formal monitoring mechanisms must support the initiative, measure its impact, and hold individuals accountable for results.
• Communication: There must be mechanisms for engaging and informing employees of the initiative and its business rationale.
• Replicability: All or parts of the initiative must be able to be implemented by other organizations and thus used as a model for change.
• Originality: Initiatives are compared against previous winners and must include elements that are innovative and provide new knowledge to the business community.
• Measurable Results: There must be documented evidence to demonstrate the impact of the initiative, and data must show improvement since the start of the initiative.

The four companies given Catalyst Awards this year underwent over 500 hours of review each to be judged worthy of these awards. These initiatives are meant to serve as models for other businesses and each will be available online to download on March 24, 2010, the same day as the Catalyst Awards Dinner at The Waldorf-Astoria in New York.

In a January Catalyst press release, Ilene H. Lang, President & Chief Executive Officer of Catalyst, said “These initiatives exemplify our Catalyst vision – ‘Changing workplaces. Changing lives.’ They impact the lives of employees, families, and communities by transforming organizations, and serve as models that inspire and encourage others to embrace inclusive workplaces that benefit women, men, and business.”

2010 Catalyst Award Winning Initiatives

Below we take a look at each company’s award-winning initiative for 2010.

Campbell’s Soup – Winning in the Workplace, Winning in the Marketplace, Winning With Women
Campbell’s Soup’s initiative “has utilized employee engagement, knowledge sharing, and innovation to develop a culture of diversity and inclusion and support the company’s overall plan to transform its workplace and marketplace performance.” The initiative, which began in 2005, resulted in more women in positions throughout the company. Between 2005 and 2009 “women in executive roles increased from 21 percent to 25 percent. In manufacturing roles, the percentage of women and women of color plant directors and managers increased from 14 percent to 21 percent, and from 1 percent to 3 percent, respectively” (emphasis added).

Deloitte LLP –  The Women’s Initiative: Living the Lattice
Deloitte LLP, which also won a Catalyst Award in 1995, built this year’s winning initiative on their Women’s Initiative (WIN), which began in 1993.

“The Women’s Initiative has fueled significant increases for women in leadership: women’s representation as partners, principals, and directors has risen from 6 percent in 1995 to 22 percent in 2009, and representation of women senior managers has increased from 23 percent to 36 percent in the same timeframe. In addition, the gender turnover gap decreased from 7 percent in 1995 to less than 1 percent during 2009. Deloitte reached an additional milestone in 2009 when it surpassed the 1,000 mark for U.S. women partners, principals, and directors.”

Royal Bank of Canada – Client First Transformation
This initiative from the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) “embeds diversity and inclusion (D&I) principles into its approach with employees, clients, and communities, reframing the company’s business strategy to be more client-focused and revitalizing its corporate culture.” Since launching in 2005, “women in executive roles (executive vice presidents, senior vice presidents, and vice presidents) increased from 35 percent to 39 percent from 2005 to 2009, and women’s representation as corporate officers (senior vice president level and above) has grown from 27 percent to more than 30 percent during that same time period. Women in the high-potential talent pool increased from 31 percent to 43 percent, with 21 percent being visible minority women.”

Telstra – Next Generation Gender Diversity
Telstra is Australia’s largest telecommunications provider. Their initiative worked to “increase women’s representation at senior and pipeline levels and engage men as change agents, creating an inclusive culture of mentoring and networking.” The results of the initiative include: “for women in the pipeline (general managers, area managers, and managers), total share of promotions grew steadily from 29 percent in 2006 to 41 percent in 2009. Representation of women on the CEO Leadership Team increased from 6 percent to 31 percent, and the number of women corporate officers has grown from 31 percent to 35 percent during that same time period.”

Catalyst says that it is “honored to be associated with organizations whose innovative and pioneering initiatives have proven so powerful in making change.” And they look forward to more years of recognizing companies’ efforts at promoting the advancement of women in the workplace.