By Beverly Stallings-Johnson, manager of Xerox Global Diversity and Inclusion
Xerox’s long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion has been part of the company’s DNA for more than 60 years. As a company, we continue to learn and adapt every day; building and sustaining a global workforce and supply base that represents and connects with the different people and communities we serve.
Through our policies and actions, we demonstrate our commitment to inclusion every day. For example, the Wilson Rule, which we introduced in August 2015, marks enhanced efforts to increase the ranks of minorities and women in management and senior-level professional positions.
The Wilson Rule requires that women and minorities be among the final pool of qualified candidates for open management and senior-level professional positions in the U.S. Outside the U.S., women must be considered among the final pool of qualified candidates for the same management and senior-level professional positions.
“Diversity and inclusion is an essential part of the Xerox culture,” CEO Jeff Jacobson said. “Through diversity of backgrounds and perspectives, we gain the benefit of different ways of looking at our business, leading to innovative breakthroughs for our customers and more engaging work for our people. The Wilson rule is a critical enabler in our efforts. Our goal is to find the best candidate for every role, and we want to be sure we open the aperture and consider a broad and diverse group of candidates.”
For more information about Corporate Social Responsibility at Xerox see our Report on Global Citizenship.
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Our diversity policies and initiatives continue to be recognized by a range of organizations and publications globally.
- Latina Style magazine rated Xerox as one of the Top 50 best companies for Latinas to work for in their annual evaluation of over 800 corporations. This publication is recognized as one of the most respected source of employment and career information for Hispanic women in the country.
- State Street Global Advisors Gender Diversity Index –Xerox has been recognized as one of the U.S. companies with the highest levels of gender based leadership positions. More than 3,500 companies have been contacted by SSGA.
- Black Enterprise – Xerox Board member William Curt Hunter was named to Black Enterprise’s 2017 registry of African American corporate directors.
- Diversitycomm.net— Xerox was recently recognized as a Top Veteran-Friendly company in the “Best of the Best” lists in the summer print and digital issues.
- AT&T Supplier Diversity Crystal Award — AT&T recognized Xerox as a recipient of their 2016 “Supplier Diversity Crystal Award” for Xerox’s commitment to increase opportunities for minority, women and disabled veteran business.
- Diversity MBA Magazine recently published “Best Places for Women & Diverse Managers to Work” included Xerox.
- EnvironmentalLeader.com included Wendi Latko – vice president of Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability in their inaugural list of the 50 top environmental leaders.
- Spain’s Women´s International Day selected Paloma Beamonte, who leads Xerox Spain and Portugal, to participate in Spain’s Women´s International Day. Additionally, Paloma’s initiatives helped to garner a ‘Distintivo de Igualdad’ (equality distinction) award by the Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality.
About the Wilson Rule
The Wilson Rule is named for modern day Xerox founder Joseph C. Wilson. This is the same man who committed his (then) tiny company’s resources to develop an unproven technology into the commercial powerhouse that we know as xerography. That was in 1947. Twenty years later, after witnessing racial strife in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y., Wilson met with the city’s black leaders. He understood that inequality existed, and he asked how he could help. As a result of that meeting, Wilson committed Xerox to a policy of diversity, and it’s a policy that has been affirmed, promoted and improved upon by each and every Xerox CEO since.
The Wilson Rule refers to more than one man’s prescient foresight; it is a testament to the people of this corporation who made it happen, and who today continue to make it happen.
