Case study: How Bloomberg promotes workplace diversity
Bloomberg is the world’s business and financial information and news leader, operating in 5 million owned and leased square feet of space in 72 countries, including 3 significant data centres crucial to its operations and customers, 10 television studios, 12 radio studios and 6 printing facilities. Bloomberg seeks to create a diverse, inclusive workplace where all employees can thrive and innovate Tweet This!, investing in data-driven initiatives to increase diversity and inclusion, recruiting underrepresented employees, and promoting a culture where all employees feel valued and included, aiming for diverse representation in leadership roles.
This case study is based on the 2019 Impact Report by Bloomberg published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Abstract
Bloomberg leverages the strengths of all of its employees, developing their talents to help everyone fulfill their potential and deliver innovative solutions to its clients, creating a culture where inclusion means everyone. In order to promote workplace diversity Bloomberg took action to:
- promote inclusion
- work towards gender parity
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Bloomberg has identified;
- How Bloomberg proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Bloomberg to promote workplace diversity
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2019 Impact Report Bloomberg identified a range of material issues, such as customer privacy/ data security, energy, risk management/ compliance, ethics, competitive behaviour. Among these, promoting workplace diversity stands out as a key material issue for Bloomberg.
Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:
Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.
Key stakeholder groups Bloomberg engages with:
To identify and prioritise material topics Bloomberg engaged with its stakeholders through the following channels:
Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement |
Customers | · Bloomberg Professional Services annual customer survey · Market research · Customer education · Help desk tickets · Sales visits · Market-led initiatives and events |
Employees
| · Events and training · Emails and newsletters · Diversity & Inclusion Communities · Sustainability Squads, employee ambassador groups that promote sustainability activities locally |
Suppliers | · Supplier Code of Conduct · Sustainability requirements in relevant requests for proposal and master service agreements |
Nongovernmental organisations (NGOs)
| · Nonprofit and industry group consultation and collaboration · Sustainability conferences · Newsletters and other publications |
What actions were taken by Bloomberg to promote workplace diversity?
In its 2019 Impact Report Bloomberg reports that it took the following actions for promoting workplace diversity:
- Promoting inclusion
- Seeking to create an inclusive workplace culture, Bloomberg partners with its eight Bloomberg Communities, employee-run networks structured around different dimensions of diversity, to activate diversity and inclusion in business processes and outcomes. Additionally, Bloomberg’s global Inclusive Leadership programme, mandatory for managers and team leaders, is led by the Centre for Inclusive Leadership, and includes a two-hour training course that provides tools to help facilitate the shift to conscious inclusion. Throughout 2019, Bloomberg also brought together team leaders and managers across the globe for Inclusion Dialogues. These were a series of open and honest discussions on diversity and inclusion, covering topics such as mental health, race and gender, religious bias and accommodations, advancing LGBT+ allyship (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) and intersectionality. Led by guest speakers, these dialogues aimed to raise awareness, bring ideas and suggestions to the fore and equip managers with practical approaches they could immediately implement with their teams.
- Working towards gender parity
- Fostering a culture where all employees, regardless of gender or any other classification, are empowered to thrive is a long-time commitment and an ongoing focus at Bloomberg. Currently, 33 percent of Bloomberg’s employees are women. Bloomberg is determined to achieve greater gender balance in its workforce and has launched a variety of external and internal initiatives to hire, retain and advance more female talent. In 2019, Bloomberg continued its GOAL (Growth, Opportunities, Access and Leadership) development programme, led by its partner, Diversity Practice. The four-day, in-person programme is designed to boost the careers of female and ethnically diverse employees by enhancing their existing skill sets to better prepare them to become experts in a particular domain, develop new projects or pursue leadership roles. Already running in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) since 2016, GOAL was rolled out in the U.S. in 2019 and offered in APAC (Asia-Pacific) in 2020. Bloomberg also created its Senior Women’s Forum, a group for women in senior positions at Bloomberg, and established the Bloomberg Women’s Buy-side Network, an informal community for women in the asset management industry in Asia.
Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?
The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 405-1 Diversity of governance bodies and employees
Disclosure 405-1 Diversity of governance bodies and employees corresponds to:
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Gender Equality
- Targets: 5.1, 5.5
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Targets: 8.5
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References:
1) This case study is based on published information by Bloomberg, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:
http://database.globalreporting.org/
2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/
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