Presented by Symba, #OpenUpTheWorkforce interviews feature executives advancing inclusion, diversity, and equity for the future of work. In these short audio-only episodes, we talk with the top about what it takes to develop and implement inclusive processes.
In this episode of #OpenUpTheWorkforce, Eloiza Domingo, Chief Inclusive Diversity, and Equity Officer and Vice President of HR at Allstate, speaks about investing in minority suppliers, how she implemented an accountability framework, and has ingrained inclusion in everything at Allstate. In Eloiza's words, "Together is Better." Listen to learn how she unites this massive corporation.
Me, We, Allstate. Diversity work is a company-wide effort and should not be siloed.
“Where a company houses the Chief Diversity Officer or the diversity work is a window into how they see the diversity work. But also the scope of the role of the Chief Diversity Officer is also indicative of how the company, again, views how this work is imperative and impacts and integrates into the business or the operations of the company.” - Eloiza Domingo
Allstate puts its money where its mouth is.
Two of Allstate’s top three diversity goals have to do with where they put their money. Their first goal has to do with spend on supplier diversity. Next is how they're investing in diverse organizations, and banks, and are building a diversified investment portfolio. In the United States, historically, women-owned and LGBTQ-owned businesses have not been provided the same opportunities. Allstate chooses to try to reverse that by investing in those companies. For every dollar invested in that company, they're then able to employ more people in their communities. Ultimately, this replenishes funds in those communities that need it the most and grows employment. Eloiza offers some financial metrics:
“Diversity is a key component of our broader IDE inclusive diversity and equity strategy.
It is also part of our value, as I said earlier, since 2004, we have tripled our annual spend with diverse suppliers to $5.3 billion in the last year, well, two years ago. And 2021 $366 million was spent with 2000 diverse suppliers. And our goal is that by 2025, we expect to increase that spending with diverse suppliers to $470 million. So we're very excited about that. The other piece too… just by investing in these diverse suppliers, we've actually created over $680 million of economic impact in the community. As I mentioned earlier, recent analysis shows that for every dollar you spend with diverse suppliers, that drives $1.9, in total economic production, so again, you know, for the work that we're trying to do, we're actually exponentially growing economic impact.”
The third goal is about representation – how they are mirroring the communities in which Allstate employees live, work, and serve and not just the current communities, but predictively. Eloiza shares Allstate’s progress toward this goal:
“We're really glad to be able to say that from our management levels and below, we match the market, which means that we match the United States of America, the demographics of the United States of America. As we get more into the leadership of Allstate, it doesn't look that way. That's a problem for us. Right? We want again, we want to make sure that we mirror that. So some of the metrics are things like hiring metrics, promotion metrics, or how are we moving our internal talent and value in that talent. Some of the metrics are also just general representation.“
Develop an accountability framework like Allstate’s, ACT: accountability, clarity, transparency.
Allstate has designated one to two points of contact in each department that are responsible for those three goals: representation, diverse spend, and diverse investment. They're all connected through this ecosystem, communicating and sharing best practices, and reporting out on a corporate scorecard. The diversity leaders in each department own independent areas of responsibility, building legacy programs in the business. This creates accountability because the business is doing the work, rather than the CDO and their team running the whole show. As Eloiza puts it “the business decides for the business, what they're going to do. We are directing traffic, and we're supporting it as subject matter experts.“ Eloiza expands on the role that CDOs play:
“Diversity is an inherently risky industry…we joke all the time CDO, Chief Diversity Officer, is really like Chief Disruption Officer, right? I am paid to disrupt and to push the company over the edge…That's also really hard when inherently insurance companies and insurance industries are inherently risk averse, right?”
How do you get buy-in to implement this framework for inclusion, equity, and diversity?
“One thing I always joke about with diversity officers, we don't own anything, we don't own anything. I don't own the talent management system. I don't own the way we hire. I don't own the way that we compensate our employees. I don't own the products. I don't own how we make commercials. But what my job is, is to be very influential, to create a place where diversity is easy to talk about because diversity can be really scary. It can be a really, really intimidating topic. I strive to make sure that at Allstate, diversity is approachable. You can see us as partners, we're not going to be the diversity police. We give you options and choices. And so then what happens is, others at the company then see us as partners to make things better.”
- Eloiza Domingo
What do leaders need to do to open up the workforce?
- Offer virtual first/flexible working arrangements. Eloiza says, “95% of employees, of our employees, voiced the need for more flexible work designations.”
- Ensure leaders have the tools they need to lead effectively in a virtual environment, like training them how to have hard conversations over Zoom.
- Eliminate biases, like in assessments, and challenge expectations. Is it always critical to have everybody on camera? To work in the same time zones, which is essentially proximity bias? The final point Eloiza drives home is to “...understand who your market is, first of all, and then again, unapologetically align to what their values are, and…what they need to be successful and productive.”
About Eloiza
Eloiza Domingo is the Vice President of Human Resources and Chief Inclusive Diversity & Equity Officer for The Allstate Corporation. She assumed this role in 2021 with responsibility for building on Allstate’s strong foundation and culture of Inclusive Diversity & Equity by shaping the multiyear IDE plan to create an enduring impact inside and outside of the company. Eloiza’s scope includes accountability for diverse representation, with an emphasis on senior leadership diversity; supplier diversity spend; and diversity in our investment portfolio. Within her first year, her list of quick wins includes participating as a witness at the Congressional hearing “A Review of Diversity and Inclusion at America’s Largest Insurance Companies” the establishment of a cross-company governance framework, the launch of enterprise IDE scorecards tracking progress against diversity goals, being featured by LinkedIn for a top company Juneteenth post, being named as a day-one partner of The Big Homecoming to benefit HBCUs, being recognized as a best company for women in both Canada and India, and leading the company to achieve all 2022 representation goals within the first two quarters. As she partners with colleagues and teams across Allstate, Eloiza will further the company’s goal of being the most diverse protection solutions company.
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