Meet America’s Best Employers For Diversity 2024

Over the course of her career in tech, Alexandra Legend Siegel has been in plenty of business meetings in which she was the only woman of color. Each time, the experience was not only lonely, it was also bad for business. “Having diverse perspectives at the table is imperative to shaping our future,” she says. That’s why Siegel, the chief equality officer at Salesforce, champions building a workforce that represents our multifaceted society. With initiatives like Salesforce’s racial equality summit—called Representation Matters—Siegel has helped bring together a diverse group of leaders to elevate voices that are often underrepresented not just in tech, but in business writ large. “Looking out and seeing a room full of people of color, especially after being in so many rooms where there were often only a few, was energizing and inspiring,” Siegel says about the software company’s summit, which is one of many programs that helped Salesforce earn the No. 5 spot on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Employers For Diversity 2024.

This seventh annual list was created in partnership with market research firm Statista, and is based partly on survey responses from more than 170,000 individuals working for organizations with at least 1,000 employees within the United States. Participants were asked to anonymously rate their employers’ approach to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as it pertains to criteria such as age, gender, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation. Survey respondents were also asked to rate companies they knew either through their industry or through friends and family members employed there.

Analysts then researched and assessed more than 1,300 employers on four DEI best practices: representation (such as the percentage of women in leadership roles), accountability and communication (such as the publication of a yearly report on the demographic makeup of employees), internal initiatives (such as employee resource groups aka ERGs), and external involvement (such as the presence of supplier diversity programs). Survey results and research were then incorporated into a scoring model, and the 500 companies with the highest scores made the final list. (For more on the methodology, see below.)

For the third year in a row, the company with the highest score and the No. 1 spot was Progressive, which has been steadfast in its efforts to create a workforce that “reflects the customers we serve, and a leadership team that reflects the people they lead in a fair and inclusive environment,” says Marisa Afzali, the insurance company’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion. “We consider the U.S. adult population our proxy for current and future customers. And of course, we know that the U.S. adult population is very diverse and grows only more diverse every single day, so we’re able to capitalize on that growth to bring in a lot of very talented, highly qualified individuals from a variety of different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.”

To that end, Progressive is working to increase inclusivity for employees and customers who have disabilities. In collaboration with the company’s Disabilities Awareness Network—an ERG—Progressive holds an annual inclusive design conference to develop and improve the accessibility of products and services for people with physical, neurological or psychological disabilities. “We look at the range of human diversity and aim to fulfill as many user needs as possible when designing something,” says Afzali. That could involve a physical workspace, a technology interface, or an employee training module.

Given that about 27% of American adults have a disability, and about 70% of those disabilities are invisible, says Jill Houghton, president and CEO of Disability:IN, a global nonprofit that promotes disability inclusion in business, organizations can’t afford to dismiss their needs. And while much has been accomplished since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, a significant amount of work remains to be done. “Before the ADA, people couldn’t get on the bus; people couldn't get in the building, but the new front door—and it’s not so new—is technology,” says Houghton.

Case in point: Disability: IN’s 2023 Disability Equality Index report—which benchmarks disability inclusion policies and programs among 485 participating companies in corporate America—found that only 45% of companies have conducted studies to verify that their communications options work effectively with screen reading and other assistive technology; and just 58% of employers enable managers to access funds that accommodate the needs of employees with disabilities.

Still, in other disability-related areas, change has come more quickly. The same report found that 89% of companies have a disability-focused ERG, and 85% offer employee retention and advancement programs that focus on or include employees with disabilities.

Similarly, Statista’s analysis found that on the whole, the companies evaluated in our ranking continue to make progress in the realm of DEI, particularly those organizations in the healthcare, education, and financial services industries, which dominate our list. For instance, the percentage of women in executive leadership positions and in board member seats increased year-over-year to 34.2% and 35.2% respectively this year. Further, the percentage of female CEOs went from 12.2% in 2023 to 15.8% in 2024. And notably, the percentage of companies in our sample that have supplier diversity programs and ERGs each rose to more than 50%.

Reggie Willis, chief diversity officer at Ally Financial (No. 15), notes that both Ally’s supplier diversity program and its ERGs are thriving. “We started our supplier diversity program about four years ago to create an ecosystem with partners that really represent the communities we do business in,” says Willis. “So, we’ve had a symposium for the past three years where we bring diverse suppliers on site to have meaningful conversations with our folks that are making decisions—making sure that we understand the value of bringing in that diversity of thought and experience.” The program has created both opportunities and healthy competition—and last year, it led Ally to spend $176 million with minority-owned businesses.

As for Ally’s ERGs, they serve several goals. For starters, they offer a sense of belonging and engagement for employees—and, importantly, are open to all who want to connect with members of the group as opposed to only employees who identify as someone with that specific background or experience. The groups also provide valuable feedback to the financial services company about the types of healthcare benefits and support they might need. And they’re fun. For instance, the veterans ERG and the Black/African American ERG teamed up for a three-on-three basketball tournament last year, while the Asian and Middle Eastern ERG participates in a yearly dragon boat race celebrating Asian culture. “They’re out on the water with their teams and they’ve got drums and oars and they’re racing their dragon boat,” explains Willis.

Another DEI-focused policy that Ally has instituted is to stop asking for pay history when interviewing job candidates. “Many times people from underrepresented backgrounds started their career under wage, so by eliminating that one very simple early step in the hiring process, we’re able to level, and then we continuously monitor to make sure that we are consistently giving equal pay to people doing the same work,” Willis says.

Ally also contributes outside the organization by giving employees volunteer time off (VTO), during which they can help a charity of their choice, whether it’s the local soup kitchen or their child’s school. Last year, Ally employees made good use of their VTO and collectively donated 60,000 hours of volunteer work. The company also donates financially—including $1.3 billion in community development loans and investments in 2023. “For us, giving back to our community and being a part of not just the banking industry but the community is significant,” says Willis.

TIAA (No. 2) is likewise focused on leveling the field financially through multiple channels, including its diversity supplier program, its advocacy for increased access to low-cost investment solutions and its financial literacy programs. The retirement and investment services company is also committed to closing “retirement savings gaps and inequalities that disproportionately impact women and minorities,” says Ahtis Davis, TIAA’s head of culture and DEI, so that “all working Americans achieve a secure and financially dignified retirement.”

At Vizient (No. 20), Damien Heath, the healthcare services company’s associate vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, credits CEO Byron Jobe for implementing a rigorous DEI plan. “I’ve been doing this work for a while, and typically what you see from companies is a pretty PowerPoint slide with two or three goals and three or four little actions—and the actions are all the same,” says Heath. Not so at Vizient where there is “an incredibly thoughtful and complex strategy, and my job is to see that through, and then build out the plan for the future.”

Heath adds that even the recent spate of anti-DEI bills introduced across the country has not deterred Vizient’s leadership from prioritizing equity and inclusion for their employees, customers and community. Despite the DEI backlash across college campuses and corporate America, Vizient’s CEO “has held the line,” says Heath. “He’s not asking us to change what we call our program, or bow back and be less visible; it’s the opposite. You’ve really got to be anchored to what your employees need, and your clients or providers, and I feel like we have a really good sense of what’s important to them.”

Click here for the full list of America’s Best Employers For Diversity 2024

Methodology

To create our list of America’s Best Employers For Diversity 2024, Forbes partnered with Statista, a market research firm that surveyed more than 170,000 individuals working for organizations with at least 1,000 employees within the United States. The survey respondents were asked to anonymously rate their own employers in addition to companies they knew well either through their industry or through friends and family members employed there. Participants evaluated each organization’s approach to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as it pertains to such criteria as age, gender, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation.

The analysis included survey responses from 2023 as well as those given over the course of the last three years, with a higher weight placed on recent survey data. Higher weight was also given to responses from employees themselves and from respondents who self-identified as being part of a relevant underrepresented group.

To round out the analysis, more than 1,300 companies were assessed on four DEI best practices: representation (e.g. the percentage of women in leadership roles, and the presence of a diversity officer on the leadership team), accountability and communication (e.g. the public availability of a yearly employment information report, which breaks down the demographic makeup of employees), internal initiatives (e.g. the existence of employee resource groups or other diversity-focused programs), and external involvement (e.g. the presence of supplier diversity programs and other DEI efforts outside of the organization). Ultimately, the survey data and research were incorporated into a scoring model, and the 500 companies with the highest scores made the final list.

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As with all Forbes lists, companies do not pay any fee to participate or be selected. For questions about this list, please contact listdesk [at] Forbes.com.