Workplace Equity Disclosure Statement

We the undersigned, representing $4,715,516,371,418 in assets owned, advised or managed as of October 11, 2021, ask that companies increase investors’ accessibility to information related to their workplace equity policies, practices, and program outcomes. We seek quantified, comparable data so that investors are able to compare, understand, and assess the effectiveness of companies’ diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and to apply this analysis to investors’ portfolio management and securities selection process.

Numerous studies have pointed to the benefits of a diverse workforce. A small subset of their findings include

· Companies with the strongest racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their industry medians. Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 21 percent more likely to outperform on profitability and 27 percent more likely to have superior value creation. (1)

· More diverse companies had an average annual five year stock return that was 5.8 percent higher than least-diverse companies. (2) 

· Seventy-nine percent of board directors believe that diversity enhances board performance, and more than half believe it enhances company performance. (3)

· A positive correlation has been seen between board racial and gender diversity and return on assets and return on investment.(4)

· Recent census data projects that the nation will become “minority White” in 2045 (5)  making racial diversity critical for attracting and retaining employees as well as serving racially diverse markets.

Recruitment, retention and promotion rates of diverse employees are essential data sets for investors to review in order to assess the effectiveness of companies’ diversity equity and inclusion programs.

Corporate transparency associated with workplace equity also helps to attract top talent to a company. Sixty-seven percent of respondents to a Glassdoor survey said that they review workforce diversity when deciding to accept a job offer. Sixty-one percent of women have also said they consider the gender representation of the executive team when choosing where to work. (6) 

Morgan Stanley has found that retention rate data above industry peer averages “can indicate the presence of competitive advantage.” (7) This is, in part, because attrition is expensive for employers. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the average cost per hire is $4,425 (8).  According to McKinsey’s research, gender and race are linked to attrition rates within financial services firms; entry level Black employees are 1.4 times more likely, Latinx are 1.1 times more likely and Asian employees are 1.2 times more likely to attrite than White employees. (9)  

Promotion rates in financial services are equally concerning, as Black employees are close to half as likely to be promoted to management roles than White employees. Similarly, women are 24 percent less likely, and women of color are 34 percent less likely to attain their first promotion relative to their male colleagues. (10) 

Recent research has also indicated that abnormal returns exist for momentum-based strategies associated with improving human capital management. (11)  The workplace equity data investors are seeking would allow investors to better identify this alpha factor through more accurate assessments of the scope and depth of a company’s programs, its performance relative to peers, and improvement trends over time.

According to As You Sow, a nonprofit organization that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility, there is a significant divergence between the public commitments companies make to workplace equity and the disclosures they provide to investors showing how, and if, they are meeting their stated goals. As of July, 2021, 69.2 percent of the S&P500 companies had made a public statements on their commitments to racial justice. Of the S&P500, however, only 21 percent had released, or had committed to release, their workforce composition within a standardized format (as a consolidated EEO-1 form). Only 25 percent had released, or had committed to release any recruitment rate data by gender, race or ethnicity. Only 12 percent had released, or had committed to release any retention rate data by gender, race or ethnicity. Only eight percent had released, or had committed to release any promotion rate data by gender, race or ethnicity. (12)

Investors are concerned that companies are willing to make promises regarding workplace equity, but are unwilling to provide the corroborating data that shows these promises have been integrated into their own human capital management systems. It is essential that investors have access to the most up-to-date and accurate information related to diverse workplace policies, practices, and outcomes.

The undersigned investors ask that all companies ensure that they have made transparent and accessible key data related to the outcomes of their diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Sincerely,


CURRENT SIGNATORIES REPRESENT

4.7 Trillion

(. . . and growing)


SIGNATORIES AS OF JANUARY 20, 2022

(Be a Signatory - Click Here)

  • Abacus Wealth Partners

  • Achmea Investment Management

  • Adasina Social Capital

  • Adrian Dominican Sisters, Portfolio Advisory Board

  • AJL Foundation

  • Alameda County Pooled Investment Fund

  • Align Impact

  • Angeles Investments

  • Ardevora Asset Management

  • Arjuna Capital

  • Bailard

  • Bâtirente

  • BMO Global Asset Management (EMEA)

  • Bonwood Social Investments

  • Boston Common Asset Management

  • Boston Impact Initiative Fund

  • Boston Trust Walden

  • CenterSquare Investment Management

  • Change Finance

  • Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears Ervin

  • Christian Brothers Investment Services

  • Clean Yield Asset Management

  • ClearBridge Investments

  • CommonSpirit Health

  • Community Capital Management, Inc.

  • Compton Foundation

  • Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes

  • Congregation of St. Joseph

  • Corporate Responsibility office - Province of Saint Joseph of the Capuchin Order

  • Dana Investment Advisors

  • Daughters of Charity, Province of St. Louise

  • Didner & Gerge Fonder

  • Domini Impact Investments, LLC

  • Earth Equity Advisors

  • Ecofi

  • Everence and the Praxis Mutual Funds

  • Farm Girl Capital

  • First Affirmative Financial Network

  • Friends Fiduciary Corporation

  • FundX Investment Group

  • Future Super

  • Green America

  • GW&K Investment Management

  • Harrington Investments, Inc.

  • ICA

  • Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs

  • Impact Deposits Corp.

  • Impact Investors, Inc.

  • Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility

  • Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation

  • JLens Network

  • Laird Norton Family Foundation

  • Lazarus Advisors LLC

  • Le Regroupement pour la Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises (RRSE)

  • Los Angeles Capital

  • Marguerite Casey Foundation

  • McKnight Foundation

  • Merck Family Fund

  • Mercy Investment Services, Inc.

  • Miller/Howard Investments, Inc.

  • Minnesota State Board of Investment

  • Natural Investments

  • Nia Impact Capital

  • Niederösterreichische Vorsorgekasse AG

  • NorthLight Foundation

  • NorthStar Asset Management, Inc.

  • Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment

  • Office of the Vermont State Treasurer Elizabeth A. Pearce

  • OFI Asset Management

  • Oxfam America

  • Parnassus Investments

  • Polden-Puckham Charitable Foundation

  • Power Sustainable

  • Presbyterian Foundation

  • Promethos Capital

  • Proxy Impact

  • Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management LLC

  • Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner

  • Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment

  • Sarona Asset Management Inc.

  • Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investment

  • Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE)

  • SharePower Responsible Investing

  • Sisters of Saint Joseph of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia

  • Sisters of St Dominic Racine, WI

  • Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi

  • Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia

  • Sisters of the Holy Cross

  • Sisters of the Presentation of the BVM of Aberdeen SD

  • Sonen Capital

  • Stakeholders Capital

  • Swift Wings Foundation

  • Terra Alpha Investments

  • The Enterprise Engagement Alliance

  • The Ida and Robert Gordon Family Foundation

  • The Sustainability Group of Loring, Wolcott & Coolidge

  • Tides

  • Transformative Wealth Management, LLC

  • Trillium Asset Management

  • Unitarian Universalist Association

  • United Church Funds

  • Utor Wealth

  • Veris Wealth Partners

  • Vermont Pension Investment Commission

  • Vert Asset Management

  • Wallace Global Fund

  • Wesleyan Assurance Society

  • Wetherby Asset Management

  • Whistle Stop Capital

  • Zevin Asset Management

Footnotes

1) McKinsey & Company, “Delivering through Diversity”, January 2018

2) Holger, Dieter, “The business case for more diversity” Wall Street Journal, October 26, 2019

3) Governance Insights Center, pwc, “The governance divide, Boards and investors in a shifting world”, 2017

 4) Erhardt, Niclas L. James D. Werbel and Charles Shrader, “Board of Director Diversity and Firm Financial Performance.” Corporate Governance: An International Review, Vol. 11, pp. 102-111, April 2003.

 5) Brookings, “Youthful minorities are the engine of future growth”,William H. Frey, March 14, 2018

 6) Turban, Stephen Dan Wu, and Letian (LT) Zhang, “Research: When Gender Diversity Makes Firms More Productive” Harvard Business Review, February 11, 2019

 7) Morgan Stanley

 8) Talent-Acquisition-Report

 9) Racial Equality in Financial Services

10) McKinsey

11)  Garz, Hendrik and Claudia Volk, “The ESG Risk Ratings” Sustainalytics, October 2018

12)  As You Sow Workplace Equity