FORTUNE and Refinitiv announced on Monday a new partnership that aims to make corporate diversity disclosure the new standard of doing business. At the 2020 FORTUNE CEO Initiative meeting, FORTUNE senior editor Ellen McGirt and Refinitiv CEO David Craig discussed FORTUNE’s Measure Up Initiative, powered by Refinitiv’s environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) data. Measure Up will help business leaders across industries tackle one of the biggest barriers to a just and equitable society: the continued lack of racial and ethnic diversity in corporate workplaces. FORTUNE and Refinitiv will begin this work by establishing diversity disclosure and accountability as a critical metric for stakeholder-driven businesses, and will disclose their own diversity and inclusion (D&I) data as well.
HR Technology News: TecHRseries Interview with Mark Sawyier, Co-Founder and CEO at Bonfyre
Companies frequently make commitments about diversity and inclusion, and about rethinking who rises and who leads in their workplaces. But very few companies report metrics on how well they’re executing on these commitments. The corporate world desperately needs public disclosure of such measurements, which will help companies set benchmarks, encourage high-performing companies to reach higher, and prompt companies lagging in these areas to step up.
FORTUNE and Refinitiv will support this call-to-action by providing executives with data-driven insights and in-depth conversations on key topics such as inclusive leadership, corporate anti-racism, and the racial wealth gap. Measure Up will help corporate senior leaders set transparent goals around inclusion, share tactics and strategies, and work collectively to deliver measurable returns to a broader set of stakeholders.
To further reinforce workplace inclusion as the new business standard, FORTUNE will launch a new D&I filter that will allow companies on the 2021 FORTUNE 500 List to be sorted and ranked using company’s self-reported data, provided by Refinitiv. FORTUNE will also use this data to identify the 2021 Most Progressive Companies in Racial Inclusion.
HR Technology News: TecHRseries Interview with Mehdi Daoudi, CEO and Co-Founder at Catchpoint
Of this partnership, and addition of D&I data to the FORTUNE 500, FORTUNE CEO Alan Murray says, “What gets measured gets managed. Until companies commit to measuring and disclosing their diversity data, it will be hard to make progress. FORTUNE is proud to partner with Refinitiv on this important initiative to hold companies to a higher standard, and to make business better.”
Refinitiv CEO David Craig says, “I believe the corporate world overwhelmingly wants to see change and understands how vital diversity is in building successful and sustainable companies. However, efforts to tackle minority under-representation in the workplace will fall flat unless companies first have an accurate picture of their racial composition. As one of the world’s biggest providers of ESG data, we are encouraging companies to share minority-related measures of their workforce with the world—just as they already do with gender. By teaming up with FORTUNE to create Measure Up, harnessing their unique link with the CEO community, I’m more hopeful than ever that the corporate world can fulfill its promises and respond to the cries for change that have only grown louder in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.”