Parity.Org Announces its Inaugural List of the Best Companies for People of Color to Advance™

In its first year, 18 companies are named to the list, the majority of which were also recognized on Parity.Org's 2023 Best Companies for Women to Advance^® List

NEW YORK, May 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Parity.Org today recognized 18 companies on its first-ever list of the Best Companies for People of Color to Advance. The assessment was based on the evidence-based best practices outlined in the Parity.Org ParityMODEL™ for People of Color. Nearly all of the companies represented in the inaugural list also earned spots on this year's Parity.Org Best Companies for Women to Advance list.

"People of color comprise 37% of the entry-level workforce, yet hold just 17% of C-Suite positions–with women of color facing the most striking lack of representation at the top," said Parity.Org President Dina Schenk. "The companies named to our first ParityLIST for People of Color are taking concrete actions to mitigate both individual bias and the structural inequalities that create such steep barriers for employees of color."

What makes a workplace great for people of color?

The inaugural Best Companies for People of Color to Advance honorees had a number of policies and practices in common, such as:

• Implementing targeted strategies to recruit people of color into the organization (89%), and actively monitoring recruitment, promotion, and attrition rates by race (94%)
• Conducting regular pay audits to identify and correct racial pay gaps (100%)
• Proactively informing and encouraging employees of color to pursue available opportunities (83%)
• Developing benefit packages that consider the unique needs of employees of color, not strictly the needs of the majority (71%)
• Prioritizing skills over formal educational credentials and years of experience whenever possible (89%)
• Conducting anti-bias training for all employees (89%), plus more specialized training for managers (83%)
• Establishing Employee Resource Groups (ESGs) for employees of color (89%) and leveraging feedback from those groups to directly inform policies and benefits (83%)

In addition, virtually every company on the list has a zero-tolerance policy for harassment and a safe reporting system that ensures employees are not punished in any way for reporting incidents of discrimination and harassment.

The full inaugural list of 2023 Best Companies for People of Color to Advance, arranged by organizational size, includes:

Large (>5K employees)
Alight Solutions
Atrium Health
Best Buy
BlueShield of California
Capri Holdings Limited
First Horizon Corporation
Nasdaq
Ralph Lauren
The Clorox Company

Medium (1K-5K employees)
Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA)
Motive
Overstock
PagerDuty
Satellite Healthcare

Small (<1K employees)
Aetion
Databento
Foley Hoag
United Way of Salt Lake

Companies on the inaugural ParityLIST for People of Color, as well as those on this year's ParityLIST for Women, were rated on a comprehensive rubric covering recruiting, promotion, and compensation practices, as well as specific employee benefits and policies and quantitative representation at the leadership level. The ParityLIST is an initiative of Parity.Org, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

About Parity.Org
Parity.Org is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to closing the gender and racial gap in corporate leadership, where the gap is the widest. We take a pragmatic and research-based approach, offering a range of proven best practices and industry-leading tools for not only reaching—but sustaining—parity in leadership. Learn more at Parity.Org and follow us on LinkedIn.

About the ParityLIST™
Parity.Org established the Best Companies for Women to Advance^® list in 2020, to recognize organizations that have benefits, policies, and programs that are particularly beneficial for women to advance in the workplace. In 2023, Parity.Org expanded to create a Best Companies for People of Color to Advance™ list. After being rated on a comprehensive number of attributes and quantitative metrics, 44 companies were named to the 2023 ParityLIST for Women and 18 to the inaugural ParityLIST for People of Color.

Parity.Org®, the ParityPLEDGE^®, the ParityMODEL™, the ParityINDEX^®, and the ParityLIST™ are trademarks of Parity.Org.

SOURCE Parity.Org