Every month, Chip Bergh virtually “sits” with all employees across Levi Strauss & Co., where anyone can air issues of concern, and where diversity is often addressed.
The agreeably named Chip(s) and Beer town hall (pre-pandemic, there was actually beer on offer, but now things are more on screen) puts the company’s chief executive officer squarely in the hot seat and he seems to welcome it, answering any questions that arise with as much transparency as he has or can provide.
Levi’s is taking an “all-hands-on-deck” approach to its diversity — not relegating it to one individual or team — and those hands include Bergh’s.
“DE&I is not separate from, or in addition to what we’re doing on the business side. It’s integrated into everything we are doing now,” the CEO said in the opening of Levi’s first Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Impact Report.
Related Articles
From a numbers perspective, the report reveals some wins in U.S. representation for 2021, like a jump to 9.4 percent (from 5.3 percent the previous year) Latine representation at the top management level, and an increase to 7.3 percent (from 5.6 percent) Black representation at the corporate level.
You May Also Like
Things at the executive leadership level, however, are slower going: there was no change in representation from 2020 to 2021. The executive team is 84.6 percent white, 7.7 percent Asian and 7.7 percent Latine. There is no Black representation at the highest level of Levi’s.
In 2020, amid the black square bonanza, Levi’s had said: “We will work until the racial makeup of our U.S. corporate employees and our leadership at least match that of the United States. We pledge to improve the Black and Latinx representation numbers every year as we work toward that goal.”
At the broader workforce level, Levi’s reported representation among Black employees was 18 percent in 2020, and according to this latest report, Black team members now comprise 20.5 percent of the company’s U.S. workforce. Over the same period, Latine representation has gone from 28 percent reported in 2020 to 36.8 percent in the new report.
“What I’m proud of in the report is that those are our accomplishments for our first year as a whole cohesive global team…this was really the C-suite leaning in, the employees leaning in, our people managers leaning in. That’s how we’re able to begin to move the needle on representation,” Levi’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer Elizabeth A. Morrison — who recently spoke at Fairchild Media’s Diversity Forum — told WWD.
When it comes to gender, progress was sizable at the executive leadership level, which went from 46.2 percent women in 2020 to 61.5 percent in 2021. In fact, all levels from corporate up saw more women added to the company, though the overall representation of women slid 1.7 percent.
Incentive bonus pay for executive leadership tied to progress on diverse representation is one feature helping to nudge things along.
When it comes to the overall aims around diversity, equity and inclusion, as Morrison notes in the report, Levi’s is on a mission to ensure “our insides match our outsides,” meaning the brand’s energy and inclusivity out in the world should also be what drives the company from within.
To get there, the company is adhering to a deceptively simple four-step roadmap: 1) build and commit to a multiyear strategy; 2) assess practices, policy and culture; 3) challenge our status quo; 4) be all-in.
And if you ask Morrison, DE&I work really can be that simple. The approach is “part of my secret sauce,” she said.
“I try to make it as straightforward as possible. We’re really talking about management 101, how to engage your workforce and how to really be an empathetic leader. And that’s not all these fancy plans and strategies, it’s about talking to your talent, it’s about listening to your employees, it’s about creating spaces for people to use their voice and be seen,” Morrison said. “I mean, the perks are great, everybody loves a free lunch and different things that employers can provide, but people really just want to be seen and I think really getting down to those brass tacks…
“It’s getting back to basics, kind of that book [‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten’], how to treat people with respect, etc. It’s a little bit like that.”
So far, according to Morrison, the model has been working well for Levi’s.
The company, similarly to others in the industry, is working on building its pipeline and engaging students through its Diversity and University program. Interns were integrated into existing teams at the company, they were mentored by leaders across the company and even had their own Chip(s) and Beer session. And when that was all said and done, there were job offers.
“We had our highest rate ever of acceptances by interns that we hired out of that class,” Morrison said.
Testimonies throughout the DE&I Impact Report show insight from employees, where one comment sought “clarity on career growth and development” because “processes and policies seem inconsistent and aren’t transparent or consistent.”
To that Morrison said, “We have to do several things at the same time. We have to grow our pipeline of early career talent and we have to deliver for our existing employees…unless we want to lose that talent we’ve got to create that dynamic career growth. And that’s something that’s important to us because, of course, we’re trying to grow our capabilities, we’re trying to grow the dynamic nature of our product for our consumers.”
On pay equity, around which the conversation always picks up during Women’s History Month, which ends Thursday, the report said, through independent audits every other year Levi’s has been able to determine that it does “not have any systemic pay differences across gender and ethnicity.”
“Essentially it means that the pay gap was minuscule,” Morrison said, addressing the gap between the average pay for women versus men, and among ethnicities. “The number was so small that it really didn’t show a systemic pattern or really evidence of bias across the board.”
Levi’s is working to develop and maintain transparency around its pay practices and salary ranges, both to keep things equitable and to “drive a more comprehensive and a deeper understanding [among employees] of how pay works,” and the company admits to having more work to do “to ensure equity within compensation globally.” As such, Levi’s said it’s expanding its pay audits to “new markets.”
It’s also undertaking a global self-identification, or GSID, initiative, where employees can voluntarily disclose other things, like gender identity, sexual orientation and disability status, in order for the company to uncover other areas where it needs work on representation. So far, GSID participation has reached 14 percent of the Levi’s workforce.
With the report’s release, Levi’s will be undertaking what Morrison called “a book tour” of sorts, reviewing it with employees and employee resource groups for feedback, which executive leadership will then use to inform detailed ‘Diversity Action Plans’ to ensure the company makes good on its goals and promises.
“We are doing a complete socialization tour internally,” Morrison said. “Yes, obviously, we want to put it out in the industry, in the ethos and have people understand what we’re doing, but this is as much from our employees as it is for our employees.”
While she credits wholehearted C-suite investment and support with the progress Levi’s has been able to make on DE&I in the last year, there’s more Morrison wants to see when the 2022 report drops next year.
“Very obviously, I want us to continue to increase our representation and I want us to continue to have a story to tell about our culture, celebrating our culture and how we’re really leaning into creating safe spaces and a culture of belonging,” she said. “But I want to see more manifestation of more employees leaning in and helping us to move the needle.”