Do you remember the last time you had that feeling of being in the right place, at the right time, doing something you love with a great group of people? You had that sense of belonging that bonds people together and, hopefully, brings out the best in each other. Now, when was the last time you felt that way at work?
Companies are increasingly bringing in individuals from all walks of life. While this variety of perspectives drives innovation and creativity, there is also a growing need to ensure all employees feel like their contributions are valued, respected, and that they belong.
For people in many workplaces, that feeling can be hard to come
by, especially for people of color, women, the LGBTQ community, or those living with a disability. Although more and more companies are embracing inclusion and diversity initiatives and working to create safe spaces where employees can be themselves, the reality is, people of color and other “diverse” groups are still underrepresented across nearly all industries. This hampers the ability to create an inclusive culture, which not only influences our ideas of fairness and opportunity, but impacts the bottom line as well.
A study by McKinsey found that diverse companies outperform non-diverse companies by 35%, yet the majority of C-suites and boardrooms are still overwhelmingly white and male. The tech industry, in particular, has been called out for its lack of diversity, where 83% of tech executives are white.
There have been significant efforts across industries to uproot this imbalance. Mastercard has been at the forefront of driving progress, which has earned us recognition from organizations like DiversityInc, Human Rights Campaign, and Forbes as a best place to work for diversity.
However, it wasn’t always this way. We had to adjust our approach and take time to reflect and ask ourselves some important questions. And in our mission to answer those questions, we recognized that we needed to shift our internal dialogue and rethink how our leaders and each of our employees embraced inclusion and diversity. We started with aligning on what diversity and inclusion meant to us.
We define diversity and inclusion as follows:
Diversity enables us to bring together the best talent, with similarities and differences we can and cannot see – from age, gender, race and ethnicity to ability, thinking style and perspectives.
Inclusion is a leadership skill – one that we can develop to drive business results and lead us toward being a company where the best people choose to be. Leaders are expected to develop skills such as business acumen and executive presence. Why not require them to learn how to build and keep
diverse teams?
Diversity and inclusion is not just an initiative at Mastercard. It is infused throughout our organization in the way we hire, develop and retain diverse teams who are equipped to execute on big ideas and achieve a competitive advantage. It’s embedded in our business in the way we engage our nine Business Resource Groups to serve as internal consultants providing consumer segmentation, research, and cultural insights for product development. And it’s ingrained in our winning culture in the way we compete in the marketplace with a sense of decency at our core.
We want every employee at Mastercard to feel inspired to do their best work, have the right tools and opportunities to excel, and bring their unique selves to help us better problem-solve and innovate.
Does this sound like a place you’d want to be? We are looking for amazing individuals who bring different perspectives, are thoughtful, humorous, intelligent, and genuinely care to join us and make our organization stronger, smarter, and more vibrant. If you want to bring your heart and your mind to work every day, Mastercard may be exactly where you belong.
To learn more, visit us at mastercard.com/inclusion.
