Karen Taylor, Reliant Energy

It was late 2001 when news of the Enron collapse captivated the media and created marketplace anxiety, as global concerns mounted over the potential effects of the conglomerate’s demise. Thousands, in some capacity, were touched by the calamity, prompting senior executives to focus their attention on the impact to the marketplace, the energy industry and their own companies’ futures. Reliant Energy, however, did not allow the backlash to divert attention from an intense commitment to diversity.

“In spite of the fact that there were significant company-altering events going on at the time, our CEO felt strongly enough to go ahead with the diversity initiative,” said Karen Taylor, senior vice president, human resources and chief diversity officer. “I applaud his willingness to even consider it when there were other things we could have been focused on. He had a passion for the subject. And as it turned out, it was a logical time to do that because we were reshaping the company culture.”

The year 2005 would see a documented charge by Reliant Energy to redefine its corporate identity around diversity. It was a time for the entity to realize how a strong diversity initiative could play a part in it “doing things the right way and creating business value for the future,” Taylor explained as she reflected back on the CEO’s interest in diversity.

A diversity quadrant

Reliant took a four-part approach with its diversity and inclusion initiative, where the workforce, the customer, the community and suppliers and business partners are integral to the organization’s business strategy. Executive leadership unites these forces to ensure that Reliant is bringing to market real business value and a positive impact on future customers, businesses, employees and the community. The company has developed initiatives that target diversity from within the Reliant organization as well as its external constituents.

“Soon after we began our diversity initiatives, we launched a customer campaign directed to the Hispanic population,” Taylor said, recognizing Reliant’s Houston demographic. “We have a large and growing Hispanic population in our service territories, and we want them to be our customers.” Taylor went on to describe how Reliant devotes resources to ensure its workforce understands the intricacies associated with diversity and inclusion. “We have been working our way through the organization with awareness training,”

Taylor explained. “When we say ‘diversity,’ we let employees know what Reliant means by that while acknowledging everyone starts with their own paradigm. We’ve had awareness sessions with our supervisors, and the workforce can go online to gain access to additional training that describes the various dimensions of diversity.”

Reliant’s diversity and inclusion efforts are realizing a positive response from its stakeholders where the feedback, according to Taylor, has been nothing short of exceptional.

“Managers [have said] that based on the awareness training, they tackle problems differently than what they would have before. Employees say, ‘I am glad the company is doing this,’” Taylor recalls. At the same time, she encourages a practical ideology about evaluating diversity and inclusion success. “One thing that I think people have to remember is that integrating diversity and inclusion into a culture is a journey, not a destination,” she said. “It’s hard not to be impatient, but we have to move as the organization will allow, while continuing to make progress and set aggressive aspirations.”

Becoming second nature

As Reliant builds on its campaigns and initiatives, Taylor has set her sights on avenues for increasing diversity and inclusion buy-in from all those associated with the organization.

“Getting the corporate understanding of what is important to the various constituents is a very good thing,” she said. “Success to me would be where diversity and inclusion are not just talk, or incremental to our core business, but are integrated in everything we do.” And to experience that level of diversity integration, Taylor emphasized the need for senior management support.

“It is very difficult to move the needle without the support of senior decision-makers in the organization,” the diversity officer said.

She also stressed the importance of evaluating benchmarks and best practices to determine the optimal outcome for the respective organization.

Taylor believes that working the diversity and inclusion metric from this perspective — where initiatives are paced in a manner that positively influences culture – garners a level of success that far exceeds external accolades.

“Obviously, we would appreciate recognition, but that’s not why we do this. We have completed major surveys to benchmark ourselves, and it would be great if our accomplishments are one day worthy of external recognition,” Taylor explained. “But I’m not in this to be on the cover of a magazine; I want to make a difference in our company, in the communities we serve and with our employees and business partners.”