When Tanuj Gupta joined AstraZeneca in 2006, she didn’t know many of her coworkers. “When I found out there were Employee Network Groups, I thought it was a great way to meet more people within the company,” says the executive director of external medical relations. And it was: “I met a fantastic group of people and got involved in the core activities of the group.”

In 2007, those people asked Gupta to help lead the group, the South Asian Network, and she continues to do so today.The South Asian Network is one of AstraZeneca’s 16 Employee Network Groups (ENGs), which include several ethnic groups, an Eldercare ENG, a Military Support ENG, a Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual ENG, and a Special Needs Advocates ENG. (Incidentally, the groups with the highest memberships are the Women’s, African-American, and Chinese-American ENGs.)

read more…

Margaret Rivera, AstraZeneca’s senior manager of diversity, helps oversee 16 successful employee network groups. Here are her tips for making such affinity groups work:

1. Don’t force it. “Companies . . . should understand that the most successful employee groups often start out as grassroots organizations — they are volunteer organizations,” she counsels.

2. Make sure they’re tied into the overall diversity strategy.

read more…

The December Dilemma: practicing inclusion during the winter holidays. The top religious accommodation companies have made in the past 12 months? Considering different religious beliefs of employees when planning holiday-related events. That what was found in the recent Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) “Religion and Corporate Culture Accommodating Religious Diversity Survey.”
Taking differing beliefs into account is never more necessary than in December. “For our many colleagues who celebrate Christmas, December is a time filled with happy reminders as well as the usual daily pressures. But for those who don’t celebrate, that same drumbeat of Christmas images and messages can be uncomfortable, both in and out of the office,” says Joyce Dubensky, Esq., executive vice president of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding.

The ramifications are not insignificant, Dubensky admonishes, “Tensions emerge, morale falls, and productivity often suffers. For employers, the December Dilemma is real and addressing it proactively can yield significant bottom-line results.”

read more…

A federal jury in Portland recently awarded $19 million to four African-American former employees of Asbury Automotive Group, LLC ? the former corporate owner of Thomason Toyota in Gladstone. The workers alleged they were forced to endure a hostile, racially charged work environment.

Four salesmen, Carlos Barfield, Marcus Arnold, Jahaeel Hardy, and Kent Paul, sued Asbury Automotive in 2006. They alleged that managers and other workers at the dealership created a racially hostile atmosphere and that management failed to take action to remedy the situation. According to the four men, managers and coworkers used highly offensive and hostile language in their presence, including terms such as “redneck,” “nigger,” “black slave,” and “half black bastard.”

read more…

Christmas Day   99%
Christmas Eve    44%
Good Friday       29%
Easter                19%
Yom Kippur         2%
Ash Wednesday   1%
Passover             1%
Hanukkah           1%
Rosh Hashanah   1%
Other                   4%

Source: Religion and Corporate Culture Survey Report
(SHRM, 2008)