Diversity Leadership Forum closes with new findings from 2014 Asian Pacific Americans Corporate Survey
This year marked the 6th Annual Diversity Leadership Forum, a tour de force, one-of-kind platform that brings together CEOs, CDOs, COOs, Asian ERG Leadership and Executive Advisors, Business Managers of Fortune 1000 companies and Diversity and Inclusion Managers, Educators and Consultants. The Forum attracted 250 participants from more than 35 companies. The program kicked-off with opening remarks by Nusrat Durrani, Senior Vice President, General Manager, MTV World, Viacom Media Networks who spoke about "Winning (& Losing) in the New America”, followed by a Thought Leadership conversation featuring Tina Edmundson from Marriott and Chris Lee from Medtronic. There was great conversation throughout the forum, with sessions that covered strategies on leveraging APA talent, and uncovering unconscious bias and cultural competency, business resource groups, and industry roundtables—the drivers of building globally competent leaders.
One of the highlights from the forum was the sharing of findings from the 2014 Asian Pacific Americans Corporate Survey, a national benchmarking study of employees from Fortune 500 and other companies considered the authoritative resource on Asian Pacific American employees, and the distinctive qualities and talents they bring to corporate America. With APAs making up the fasting growing portion of the U.S. population, the importance of this group cannot be overstated. For the second year in a row, the work-life dimension was the #1 driver of employee engagement. Other key findings include: 95.4% of APA employees care about the success of their company; only 40% of those surveyed believe APAs are well represented on Boards; employees feel underutilized in the companies’ efforts to engage APA and Asian markets; the longer in the U.S. the lower the level of overall satisfaction; only 55% of those surveyed are being mentored; and the more educated, the less satisfied. For the first time, the survey also includes a longitudinal analysis of the last five years of data and for the first time we were able to analyze the data around area or work, industry, and sexual orientation, to name a few. The survey is also chock full of suggested action items for both companies and employees, along with a section on key best practices from recognized companies. Find out more about the survey key findings here.
In the evening, the Forum closed with the annual Corporate Diversity Awards Ceremony, which recognized the best employers for Asian Pacific Americans in seven categories. Find out more about the winners here.
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