2015 Diversity Leader
Ingersoll Rand
Headquarters: Swords, Ireland
CEO: Michael W. Lamach
Employees: 40,000
Recent Recognition Includes:
- Latina Style Magazine, Best places to work for Latinas, honorable mention
- Workforce.com, 100 Best Places to Work
- Diversity Careers Magazine, Best Places to Work
- Diversity/Careers in Engineering and Information Technology Magazine, Best Diversity Companies
- National Business Group on Health, Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles
- Winds of Change Magazine, Top 50 Workplaces for Native STEM Professionals
- Military-Families.org, Military Friendly Workplace
- Achievers, 50 Most Engaged Workplaces
Neddy Perez
In today’s global environment, workplace diversity develops talent, opens markets, and results in a healthier ROI, says Nereida (Neddy) Perez, Vice President of Global Diversity & Inclusion.
“At Ingersoll Rand, we have taken our D&I efforts beyond senior leadership to middle management and the frontlines in the past four years. We have focused on building a common language and understanding of what diversity and inclusion looks like for us, and have leveraged one of our core values, respect, to engage in the conversation. We have also focused on unconscious bias—how it manifests and the impact it can have on trust. So far, more than 12,000 Ingersoll Rand employees that have completed certification courses in values training, and these programs are now part of our introductory coursework for new hires.
“We have also asked our businesses to identify their specific diversity needs, and built D&I metrics into our business scorecard, making this work a true business priority. The more we understand each other’s differences and leverage them for positive business results, the more each of us will grow professionally and the business will grow financially. Our businesses are now reaching out to partner on matters like generational awareness, supplier diversity goals, cultural coaching, niche recruiting of diverse talent, and the diversification of distributors.
“Diversity is also now an integral part of our talent and business review discussions. Each of our businesses has action plans in place that link to growing talent, supplier diversity, and market connectivity.”
I had an opportunity to meet and chat with Neddy at the 2015 Forum on Workplace Inclusion and she is a fountain of knowledge! She provided helpful insight in some challenges and questions I had around employee taskforce groups. I am looking forward to collaborating with her in the future.