Business owners and executives weigh in with ideas for creating a diverse workplace

Diversity. It’s something most employers strive for but often find difficult to achieve. It’s a buzzword that gets tossed around workplaces but remains difficult to define. Most employers say they favor it, but fewer prioritize it. Diversity goes beyond hiring workers of different colors, ages, sexualities and abilities. To be truly diverse, a workplace needs to be full of people with different personalities, life experiences and worldviews.

How does an employer achieve that? We got some insight into best practices from local business owners, managers and corporate executives.

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Fred Keeton, vice president of external affairs/chief diversity officer, Caesars Entertainment

Too often, businesses commit to diversity because someone told them they need to, because it’s good or it’s the right thing to do. When that happens, the results are often not as productive.

You can have diversity on the surface that doesn’t benefit your business. What’s important is to have people who bring different perspectives into the workplace. If you don’t have that, you have a lot of people who look different but all think the same.

There are diversity initiatives that result from legislation, regulation or litigation that tell businesses what they have to do. These lead businesses to diversify only until they become compliant.

There’s diversity that comes to the workplace as part of a moral code. It’s a good thing to do, but when times get tough, it’s also the first thing to go.

Then, there’s diversity that becomes such an ingrained part of a business that it brings together people of divergent backgrounds, talents and ethnicities to solve problems and reach goals. This is the level you should strive for.

Caesars placed its diversity initiative under our finance department. We have teams that use diversity to help solve problems and reach company goals.

“Diverse by design” teams include employees and outside partners — for example, workers from different levels or regions or properties who come together with vendors or suppliers. Maybe they’ve had a similar problem where they found a solution no one else had thought of. That’s when diversity and inclusion can lead to problem solving and valuable outcomes for a business.

Our business resource groups comprise workers from diverse backgrounds and departments. Someone from finance might be paired with someone from marketing. The idea is to get people together who can look at problems from different perspectives.

Caesars Entertainment also takes a cognitive diversity approach to management. Cognitive diversity looks at identifying and managing individuals based on the way they think and solve problems, including looking at how people from different cultures and belief systems handle their jobs. A 55-year-old African American who grew up in Mississippi, for example, brings his specific world view and experiences into the work place. By understanding cognitive diversity, managers can leverage a person’s whole self in the workplace.

Our managers are trained in the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument to better understand how employees think and act. We want our employees, especially our leaders, to understand colleagues’ cognitive styles. How does my colleagues view the world? What part of their brains do they use in making decisions? How do they process information? Understanding that makes it much easier for people to work together.

Michael Yackira, president and CEO, NV Energy

NV Energy provides in-depth diversity training through its diversity-centered leadership course. Offered several times a year, this program brings together employees from all areas of the company to discuss and explore the value and principles of diversity. The course promotes stronger relationships and a renewed sense of teamwork and inclusion. To date, nearly 40 percent of our employees have participated in this training.

Our focus and commitment to diversity extends outside our walls to the communities in which we live and work and, importantly, to our suppliers. Through our award-winning Supplier Diversity Program, we are building partnerships with women-, minority- and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, making them an important part of how we do business today and in the future. This effort has resulted in a 69 percent increase in spending with diverse suppliers over 2010.

An important element of our successful Supplier Diversity Program is an intensive two-day event called Camp Supplier Diversity. The event provides minority-owned business owners with insights into the purchasing needs of NV Energy and connects them with key NV Energy purchasing decision-makers. Camp Supplier Diversity also provides participants with information and tools to help them grow their business. In 2011, 200 minority businesses took part.

NV Energy also strongly encourages its prime suppliers to offer subcontracting opportunities to qualified diverse suppliers.

Rebecca Henry, vice president of people services, Allegiant Travel Co.

We have six different flight attendants speak with recruits. This helps us because not only will a candidate get different views from different current employees, we get more perspectives about the potential hire.

In addition, the company uses social media to advertise job openings. When more people know who we are and know that we have a diverse workplace, it attracts a larger pool of candidates.

Karen Clark, senior vice president of multicultural strategy, City National

City National formed caucuses to develop diversity policies and address strategies for blacks, Hispanics, Asians, women, and gays and lesbians. They are internal groups that share information and knowledge during monthly telephone conference calls. Because the different groups have differing issues, they meet separately on their own timetables.

Employees who volunteer don’t have to be of the ethnicity of their caucus. They just have to have an interest in furthering the company’s multicultural policies. The most recent one formed was the gay and lesbian caucus. I got 18 volunteers right away after announcing it in a newsletter, and some of them aren’t gay.

City National also has community diversity advisory boards in both Northern and Southern Nevada. The external advisory boards comprise bank clients and non-clients. Former Latin Chamber of Commerce Chairman Luis Valera, who is UNLV’s top diversity officer, and Robert Young, chairman of the Las Vegas Asian Chamber of Commerce, serve on the Southern Nevada advisory board. The groups brainstorm ways the company can be more responsive to community needs, particularly when working with minorities.

Debra Alexandre, president, Nevada State Development Corp.

At the Nevada State Development Corp., we believe that diversity in our workplace leads to a better understanding of the needs of our small business clients. The success of our business depends on our ability to analyze projects and communicate with clients from varied perspectives, including different age groups, ethnicities, gender, educational backgrounds and time with the organization.

We encourage diversity in our hiring. We are always looking for the best talent, and we recruit across multiple communities to ensure that we are selecting from a diverse range of candidates. Our staff is already quite diverse, and we seek recommendations for candidates from our own employees whenever possible. We work hard to retain excellent employees and provide training and advancement opportunities to all employees based on their performance and desired career path.

We recognize that a diverse workplace requires a top-down commitment to fairness and opportunity from management through every level of the organization. We promote an inclusive environment in which differences are celebrated and everyone’s opinion matters. We encourage our employees and management to participate in outside activities benefitting their communities, and we provide financial and other support to deserving community organizations.

Vicki Wenger, vice president of human resources, Cox Communications Las Vegas

Our goal is for Cox Las Vegas to be a place where employees thrive because their point of view and expertise are valued. We’re able to achieve this objective largely through our “People” and “Communities” pillars.

The People Pillar focuses on proactive efforts to recruit and retain a diverse employee population and provide diversity training and education for all leaders and employees. Training includes in-classroom work for new hires and online classes for leaders and employees. We also conduct internal diversity events aimed at celebrating diverse cultures within our work environment.

On the recruitment side, we partner with various recruitment organizations to assure that our job openings are shared with a diverse population of job seekers. We also participate in numerous job fairs throughout the city to gain exposure to people from all backgrounds, ethnicities and cultures.

We’ve implemented steps to ensure a smooth transition into our company for our newly-hired or promoted leaders so we may assist them with their growth and development from the very beginning. We also conduct internal diversity events for all of our employees for events such as Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month and Women’s History Month.

Complementing the People Pillar is the Communities Pillar that focuses on involving our employees in diversity events as well as our sponsorship of events conducted by diverse organizations around Southern Nevada. In 2011, we provided support and were involved in the Gay Pride parade on Cox 96, the Human Rights Campaign’s annual gala, the Hispanic International Day Parade, the Las Vegas Asian Chamber of Commerce, Pure Aloha spring festival, the Urban Chamber of Commerce annual gala and the Martin Luther King Jr. parade.

Our cash and in-kind donations to community causes also are significant, with a large portion directly benefiting people of color and women in Southern Nevada.

Gordon Miles, COO, Prudential Americana Group and American Companies

We have a worldwide customer base and actually reflect that within our company. Our 1,200 real estate executives in Nevada are a direct reflection of the cultures, languages and lifestyles we represent.

In real estate, clients want to work with a realtor they can connect with, which naturally creates one of the most diverse industries in Las Vegas.

Phyllis James, senior vice president / chief diversity officer, MGM Resorts

Our company has been fortunate to have top leaders who have been thoroughly immersed in diversity and its importance. Our leadership has embraced this, not as a program they’re doing for today, but from the very beginning as a formal business initiative.

MGM Resorts holds two-day training sessions conducted by Guardian Quest called Diversity Champion Workshops. Employees have certain exercises to accomplish in a short amount of time. They are set up so they can only be done as a team.

Most employees who have been through it will tell you it is one of the best experiences they’ve ever had. They talk about how it taught them to relate to each other. ... To date, 11,000 employees, including CEO Jim Murren, have graduated from the program.

MGM also has employee councils that meet regularly to keep diversity issues at the forefront. We regularly hold diversity and inclusion recharges, which are hour-long sessions that reinforce diversity issues and remind employees why it’s important. They’re like rallies. In February, the company held a recharge for all 2,500 employees in Southern Nevada.

Windom Kimsey, president and CEO, Tate Snyder Kimsey Architectural Firm

We believe that a diverse staff helps us to create distinctive and balanced designs. These designs have helped establish our firm as a national architectural leader and have recently helped launch us into the international arena.

Our firm does not have a set hiring protocol to target a certain demographic because we believe such actions are counterproductive to the spirit of equality that the firm employs. We place primary importance on talent and ambition, as well as personality and fit. Our atmosphere is casual, and our design process is inclusive. We strive to give each member of our team the freedom and opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas on each of our projects.

Statement from Southwest Gas:

Southwest Gas Corp. believes that a reputation is a very fragile thing, and we work hard to preserve ours through responsible leadership and action. That means valuing the diversity of our employees and suppliers.

We know that having a diverse workforce is the right thing to do and makes good business sense. We also know that simply having diversity in our workforce is not enough. Our inclusive work environment is one in which all employees, regardless of their differences, feel welcomed, valued, respected and engaged.

Our strategies for this include employing representatives of the communities we serve, mirroring the demographics of the marketplace, and nurturing relationships with diverse suppliers and partners.

James Kilber, executive director, Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada

The Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada have partnered with the Latin Chamber of Commerce to recruit more bilingual candidates for a variety of jobs, from clerical workers to highly skilled oncology nurses.

It’s valuable to us to have a diverse cultural background with employees who can speak other languages. It helps us better serve our patients.

Karen Kyger, executive director, Hopelink of Southern Nevada

At Hopelink of Southern Nevada, we deal with a diverse client base, so having employees who are ethnically diverse is essential. It is also important to have employees who come from diverse backgrounds and have different lifestyles and experiences.

We have employees who have experience with domestic violence, substance abuse, who are veterans, have different sexual orientations and family configurations, and have diverse ethnic backgrounds. We have employees of many different ages and educational backgrounds. This enables us to empathize and bring a wide range of perspectives to the challenges that we face from our clients.

Not only does this diversity help our clients, but it makes our own workplace a rich environment where we can come together and share our background and life experiences with each other. Working together with others from differing backgrounds, ages and life experiences gives us the benefit of learning from others on a daily basis.