MetLife Named a Best Company for Multicultural Women

MetLife has been recognized by Working Mother magazine as a 2008 Best Company for Multicultural Women for the third year in a row. The Working Mother Best Companies for Multicultural Women initiative celebrates employers that are establishing groundbreaking diversity policies and programs to encourage the hiring and advancement of African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American and Native American women.

Just one example of MetLife’s programs to support diverse women is its Global Women’s Leadership Forum. Launched in 2007, this forum brought together MetLife’s senior women officers and diversity leaders from across the company and the globe to promote networking and knowledge-sharing among women leaders. The forum kicked off with a discussion about how to take diversity, inclusion and women’s advancement to the next level, and will continue throughout the year with webinars, regional small group meetings and other opportunities for candid conversations.

Best Companies for Multicultural Women show a dramatic increase in the number of women of color who are senior managers and that women of color represented 13% of all new hires last year, 14% of all employees, and 7% of top 20% earners at the winning firms. The report also finds that Gen Y thinks about race and gender far differently than Gen X and Baby Boomers—and are changing the discussion about race and ethnicity in the process. Unlike their Boomer parents, Gen Y’s tend to look beyond skin color for their identity, choosing instead to define themselves by age or lifestyle. This shift is causing companies to rethink their diversity strategies so that they resonate with a group that’s eager for speedy advancement.

The 2008 Working Mother Best Companies for Multicultural Women were selected through a detailed application process that covers a wide variety of questions about a company’s workforce (such as number of women of color in top positions); culture (programs for women of color); external programs (diversity activities); and work/life programs (child care, elder care). This year the most weight was given to questions involving the representation, recruitment and retention of women of color.

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