Boeing President and CEO David Calhoun shared the following message with employees today:
Team,
Our company's success and innovation is driven by how we work together and live our values in everything we do. This includes prioritizing diversity and inclusion as measurable business imperatives that are vital to achieving better business outcomes.
Today we published our diversity metrics for the second time in our company's history as part of our commitment to openly share and track our efforts annually. Our 2022 Global Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Report mirrors what we have experienced firsthand in our offices, factories and communities - we are making progress, we are seeing how inclusion makes us stronger collectively, and we are resolute in our commitment to continue improving. This commitment to continuous improvement, as well as our Seek, Speak & Listen habits, is apparent in the report itself which responds to feedback we heard from some of our team members by providing more metrics including data related to women of color, disability, gender identity and sexual orientation.
The report shows key indicators of progress and reinforces the need for our continued focus:
- Racial/ethnic minority representation within our U.S. workforce has increased from 31.2% in 2020 to 32.7% in 2021, which is above average for the aerospace and defense industry yet not improving at the rate we want to see.
- Compared to last year's report, the representation of women in our U.S. workforce has increased due to hiring efforts and stronger retention. While the pandemic spurred challenges for many companies and industries, the exit rates for women, men and teammates of all races at Boeing were within 1 point of each other for each quarter in 2021, an improvement compared to 2020.
- The Seek, Speak & Listen habits we are building across the enterprise have been a significant driver of inclusion over the last year. Since we introduced these simple yet impactful habits in 2021, 85% of team members surveyed reported using the habits in their daily interactions; 74% feel the habits are helping teams identify and address issues before they become major problems; and 73% feel the habits are helping their team achieve better business results such as improved performance, safety and quality.
We took steps to accelerate this progress - such as the enterprise rollout of bias mitigation training and inclusive interview guidance provided last year and recently announced performance metrics changes that incentivize transparency and equity in talent selections. These efforts will continue to be informed by our Racial Equity Task Force, Business Resource Groups and Inclusion Ambassadors.
We have more work ahead of us to achieve our aspirations and further advance equity, diversity and inclusion as the critical business imperatives they represent. I encourage all teammates to engage in these efforts. You can start right away by having a Seek, Speak & Listen conversation with your teammates about what you can do to advance equity, diversity and inclusion through your role at Boeing.
Dave
