Five Key Takeaways From the 2024 Catalyst Award-Winning Initiatives

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Attracting top talent and creating a strong workplace culture remain some of the biggest challenges for HR and DEI leaders today. For companies focused on remaining an employer of choice, the Catalyst Award is one way to demonstrate commitment to their people. The Catalyst Award recognizes outstanding organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that create workplaces that work for women. The winning initiative must embody programs, practices, and systems that drive inclusion across employees.

So, what does it take to achieve excellence in equity?

This year’s winners, Sephora and Zoetis, shared five ways any company can accelerate their DEI journey. We hope they inspire you to take action in your own organization and showcase your exceptional DEI efforts by applying for the 2025 Award.

Think you have what it takes? Apply by 10 May 2024.

1. CEOs Lead With Inclusion. For a DEI initiative to be successful, company leadership must model the organizational core values and be tireless advocates of inclusion. At Zoetis, CEO Kristin Peck is a driving force behind the company’s DEI initiative, positioning DEI as a strategic business priority. Her bold action opened opportunities in international leadership for top talent. Employees notice her engagement—for example she participates in Colleague Resource Group activities and hosts an annual DEI Summit. Sephora’s current and incoming CEOs, Jean-Andre Rougeot and Artemis Patrick, are also vocal champions of DEI. They demonstrate their investment by making commitments like the Fifteen Percent Pledge and by meeting with their eleven Task Forces that guide DEI strategy.
2. Empowered Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) Are Tied to Strategy. Strong ERGs with robust business plans aligned with organizational strategy are powerful assets, providing feedback to company management, developing programs, and monitoring regional initiatives. At Zoetis, Colleague Resource Groups regularly meet with senior leadership to provide feedback that directly impacts business strategy. They provide a platform for sharing the challenges faced by different groups with executive sponsors, information that commonly leads to the implementation of new programs.

   Sephora’s INCommunities participate in important business functions, such as targeted recruiting and providing feedback on company campaigns. Their work has a direct impact on employees’ workplace experiences by driving the adoption of new policies—for example, employee nametags now include preferred names and pronouns.
3. Take a Holistic Approach: Embed DEI Everywhere, Including the Front Line. At Sephora, employees appreciate that the company incorporates inclusion in all aspects of its business—employees, consumers, and communities. The initiative creates advancement opportunities in its retail and distribution centers and ensures that DEI is a focus for each employee’s annual goals. All Zoetis, employees know what critical skills and behaviors they must demonstrate (e.g., listening to others’ viewpoints, exercising cultural awareness). Frontline employees (and all employees) have access to individual development plans as well as enhanced flexibility, and DEI training is offered at frontline sites globally.
4. Think Big: Create a Ripple Effect in Your Industry. Engage with your business communities to create a more inclusive world outside your doors. Zoetis’ supplier diversity program has significantly increased the company’s number of—and monetary spend with—diverse suppliers. The Zoetis Foundation provides grant funding for veterinarians and livestock farmers, many of whom are historically underrepresented in those fields. Zoetis is also part of a coalition of companies that is advancing gender equity in their supplier communities, encouraging them to assess their gender equity initiatives.

   Sephora funded The Racial Bias in Retail Study to measure the problem of biased treatment in US retail settings—study insights led to a charter bringing 78 major retail brands together to take action against racial biases in the shopping experience. Additionally, Sephora’s brand incubator program Accelerate has focused exclusively on growing the brands of BIPOC beauty founders since 2021.

5. Cultivate Talent in Your Community. Zoetis partners with organizations focused on building a diverse pipeline in livestock farming and animal health. The company founded the Animal Health Care Academy with a commitment from MANRRS, among others, to expose historically marginalized undergraduate and graduate students to both veterinary and non-veterinary careers and mentors. Sephora provides Sephora Scholarship recipients tuition for cosmetology and esthetician school, a paid internship at Sephora, mentorship, and access to open roles following graduation. The company also offers the LEAP rotational management program to interns in marketing, merchandising, and supply chain, and All Abilities Hiring, a structured training program within distribution centers for people with disabilities.

   Organizations aspiring to create meaningful workplace change must tailor their DEI programs to meet their unique challenges and areas of opportunity. We hope these practices will help inform your own DEI journey.

   Feeling inspired? Apply for the 2025 Catalyst Award.

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