Federated Honored for Diversity

Federated Department Stores Inc. (Cincinnati) was ranked one of America’s top 50 companies in terms of employment, management and operational diversity in DiversityInc’s fourth annual ranking.

Federated, ranked 45th overall for its practices, was the only retailer selected.

“Federated is honored to be selected,” said Bill Hawthorne, Federated vp for diversity. “We’ve adopted diversity as a core philosophy in managing our workforce, marketing to and serving our customers and working with our vendors, and we’ve seen great results. Simply put, we believe diversity affords Federated a distinct competitive advantage.”

“Diverse markets are driving our economy,” said Luke Visconti, partner/co-founder, DiversityInc., a publisher and consultant with the mission of providing education and clarity on the business benefits of diversity in hiring. “Household income, college attendance, consumer spending and other indicators for people of color are all rising at more than double that of white Americans. Managing diversity is a competitive factor for any business, from sales and marketing to recruiting and retaining the best talent.”

To assess companies’ measurement programs for evaluating diversity success, they were asked, specifically, if they had data on four key areas: ceo commitment, human capital, corporate communications (internal and external) and supplier diversity.