“Making Every Day Count through Managing and Developing Diverse Talent” with Sodexo’s Pat Connolly and Karen Penn

In their talk at NCHL’s Human Capital Investment Conference this past November, Sodexo’s Pat Connolly, COO and President, Health Care Market, and Karen Penn, Market Vice President for Diversity, illustrated how Sodexo has improved employee engagement by enhancing their commitment to diversity policies.

A key development was the creation of a diversity scorecard that tracks both quantitative (e.g., rates of hiring, promotion, and retention), as well as qualitative measures (e.g., engagement and involvement of leadership). They then began to utilize a top-down, a bottom-up, and a middle-out approach to engage leadership, build grassroots support, and empower middle management. Many years after implementation, their efforts have improved overall engagement significantly as well as increased both minority and female professional growth rates.

Does your organization have an organized diversity and inclusion strategy? Have you measured the impact of your diversity and inclusion work?

Karen Penn is also an adviser to NCHL’s Diversity and Inclusion LENS™ Council.