Diversity, equity and inclusion: A key to success

Rachel Sankey

Staff

July 1, 2024

GREEN BAY – While the heart of a company is in making sure it has a strong foundation and a healthy, supportive team – among other factors – receiving awards for the business’s efforts can be both gratifying and help show that it’s on the right track.

This, Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusions Programs Manager DJ Daniels said, is exactly the case for Schreiber Foods – which recently received the 2024 New North Workplace Excellence Award.

The award from New North Inc. recognizes organizations that are successful and improving their people practices.

Barb LaMue, CEO/president of New North Inc., said much of Schreiber’s success can be accredited to its DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) efforts.

“Schreiber’s commitment to a diverse workforce is one companies should seek to emulate,” she said. “It also has been a primary factor in their unprecedented success in recent years.”   

LaMue said currently, Schreiber has more than 10,000 employees across five continents, and its annual sales are more than $7 billion. 

Application process

To be eligible for the Workplace Excellence Award, Erin Hughes, talent and global mobility team leader at Schreiber, said the company had to go through a three-phrase process – which included two applications and a site visit.

She said the company had to share information on:

• People practices
• HR practices
• Talent management practices
• DEI practices

Hughes said Schreiber also had to share how it gains alignment within the organization and its results.

“We enlisted partners from different parts of the organization to assist in our presentation for the site visit,” she said. “This was a detailed process, and as an organization, we continue to benchmark against Fortune 100 companies to make us better.”

It’s a win-win

Making DEI a priority at Schneider, Daniels said, benefits everyone.

Diverse candidate slates – a list of potential hires with various backgrounds – he said, are one example.

“If we’re hiring for a position, we look everywhere for candidates,” he said. “We have internal candidates who are applying, (and) we look everywhere for external candidates.”

Daniels said the company will not move forward in hiring U.S. salaried, hourly and home office positions if they do not have a diverse candidate slate – which can vary between areas of the business.

For example, Daniels said, “we need more men in HR,” which means when hiring for a position in that area, the diverse candidate slate would have more men on it. 

“That has been transformative,” he said. “We’re always going to hire the most qualified candidate, but what we’re doing from the beginning is making sure all pools are as diverse as possible.”

This, Daniels said, not only allows Schreiber to create the best team possible but also makes sure everyone has a chance to work at the company if they choose to apply.

“We’re getting candidates with more experience in the pool with a different mindset, with a different geographical area,” he said. “What works in the Midwest and what we’re used to – they could be doing something different in the south or the west.”

According to Schreiber’s website (schreiberfoods.com), the company’s Richland Center and Stephenville, Texas plants welcomed their first workers from Nepal through the EB-3 work visa program.

Schreiber’s Logan, Utah, plant also had the opportunity to hire Afghan refugees thanks to its relationship with an English Language Center in the area.

At Schreiber, Daniels said, “our people make the organization.”

“One of the things unique about Schreiber is we are an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan), so when I say partners (regarding employees), I mean partners because they are partners in the business,” he said. “They are stakeholders and stockholders, like I am.”

Additionally, Daniels said Schreiber allows its internal partners to talk about what programs are working and matter to them.

“It’s not just people in higher positions telling us we’re doing great – some of our partners are telling us as well,” he said. 

Zack Vanscoy, a customer account specialist on the export sales team, said Schreiber’s public DEI efforts are what drew him to the company.

“I wanted to make sure I worked for a company that shared some of the same values I had,” he said. 

At Schreiber, Vanscoy said he is a member of the following business resource groups:

• MOSAIC – a group encouraging its partners to get to better know one another
• LIFT (Leveraging and Inspiring Female Talent) – seeks to create a gender-balanced leadership team through empowering women
• PRIDE – a resource group focused on LGBTQ+ inclusion

“I have never once felt since working for the company that I wasn’t able to come in and share my perspective and be myself,” he said. “I think that resonates across the board within Schreiber.”

Additional business resource groups Schreiber offers for its employees include:

• BBN (Black Business Network) – encourages and develops Black partners in their personal and professional lives
• EMERGE – develops emerging talent within Schreiber
• ENABLED (Enhancing Abilities Leveraging Differences) – provides opportunities for those with diverse abilities through education and creating a welcoming and inclusive culture
• VETS – provides support to both active military partners and veterans, as well as their families

“The company’s global diversity, equity and inclusion efforts were critical to the creation of a welcoming and safe culture where employees can grow, develop and have a sense of belonging,” LaMue said. 

Validation, right direction

Receiving the Workplace Excellence Award, Daniels said, “validates the direction we’re going in.”

“What the award does, and the series of awards we’re applying for, it lets us benchmark against other great companies,” he said. “And it’s the validation that the work we are doing is impactful and matters.”

Daniels said it’s important Schreiber is “an employer of choice for everyone.”

“We want to have a place where everyone can come, develop, get opportunities to be promoted, thrive, be successful and find a sense of belonging,” he said. “That’s the most impactful thing for us.”

Hughes said awards like this helps Schreiber understand if it is developing relevant programs that resonate with today’s workforce.

Striving for better

Though the Schreiber team celebrates their recent achievement, Hughes said “this is not the end of our journey.”

Especially because, she said, the workforce is constantly changing – “and we have to change with it.”

“This is a milestone that motivates us to continue to invest in our partners and programs,” she said. “We are committed to DEI and being a global company. It’s especially important to take care of our partners around the world and create development relevant to them.”

Daniels said he couldn’t agree more, and that Schreiber is continuously looking for ways to grow its success – and care for its partners – globally.

“We have 30-plus facilities around the world,” he said. “The next evolution of what we’re going to do is… Are there awards we can participate in and showcase what we’re doing in Europe? Is there something we can do in Latin America?… We have three manufacturing plants and two hubs in India – are there things we can look for in India?”

Essentially, Daniels said Schreiber wants to take the foundation of what it has done in the U.S. and apply it to its global partners in spots where it’s needed.

“We want to tell those candidates in Madrid and India (for example) that we’re a great company to work for,” he said.