FEATURES
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Posted Mar 13, 2009
 From the deep and public commitment of Chairman and CEO J.W. (Bill) Marriott Jr. to the longstanding culturally competent customer service to the remarkable community-building supplier diversity and hotel-franchise program, Marriott is the textbook definition of a great company for diversity. Their improvement this year, in the face of tough economic times, is even more proof of that. |
 Chairman and CEO Marriott is a visible force for diversity both in the company and externally, serving as a member of the Executive Leadership Cabinet for the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation and honorary co-chair of the American Foundation for the Blind's Helen Keller Achievement Awards. He will be one of the featured CEOs at the DiversityInc Top 50 CEO event Nov. 2 in New York City.
Marriott signs off personally on executive compensation tied to diversity, which accounts for 13 percent of the bonuses of his six direct reports. He also chairs the company's internal diversity council, which meets quarterly.
Befitting its industry, Marriott has strong work-force diversity, with Blacks, Latinos, Asians and American Indians 60.4 percent of the U.S. work force. Management demographics are also very diverse, especially for the hospitality industry.
Marriot has exemplary work/life benefits, including subsidized membership in wellness and fitness facilities, infertility testing, smoking-cessation programs, and a leave-sharing donation program in which employees can apply for additional paid time off when their available leave has been exhausted because of illness or hardship. The company has extremely deep employee-resource groups. As Jimmie Walton Paschall, senior vice president of external affairs and global diversity officer, tells us, "These groups are geographically dispersed and have been responsible for the adoption and implementation of a number of policies and programs directly impacting our associates and customers. For example, all of the groups have focused on literacy and language development, as this is a business need for our associates and customers. They also were the driving force for the expansion of Marriott's benefits programs to include domestic-partner benefits."
To make sure all its employees are culturally competent when dealing with customers from all backgrounds, Marriott has mandatory diversity training offered every month. Its training programs are "World Class Customer Service in Marriott's World of Differences for the 21st Century" and "Generations at Work."
Marriott's commitment to building hotels in urban areas and creating jobs, especially for Black and Latino people in low-income communities, is unsurpassed. Marriott had pledged to spend $1 billion with minority-business enterprises by 2010 and already has nearly doubled that goal. |
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J.W. "Bill" Marriott Jr., Chairman and CEO
"We are broadening how we think about global diversity and inclusion, reaching across cultural borders to compete for customers and talent worldwide. In this competitive marketplace, we must continue to embrace the unique talents and experiences of our employees--who speak more than 50 languages in 66 countries and territories--to help us meet the changing needs of our customers." |
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Jimmie Paschall, Senior Vice President, External Affairs and Global Diversity Officer
"Our business is all about people. That's why we view our 'spirit to serve' culture of more than 80 years as a source of strength that our competitors can't easily replicate. We strive to create an inclusive environment where the talents and unique ideas of 300,000 employees at our managed and franchised properties worldwide can flourish. When our employees feel respected and valued, we know that they'll make our guests, suppliers, owners and franchisees feel the same way too. This is more than a philosophy--it's a strategy that works." |
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Specialty Lists
- No. 4 in The DiversityInc Top 10
Companies for Supplier Diversity
- No. 9 in The DiversityInc Top 10
Companies for African Americans
- No. 10 in The DiversityInc Top 10
Companies for Executive Women
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Industry
Hospitality
Main Competitors
Hilton Hotels Corp., Hyatt Corp., Starwood Hotel & Resorts Worldwide
U.S. Headquarters
Bethesda, Md. |
Number of U.S. Employees
119,359
Annual Revenue
$13 billion
% of Operations Outside U.S.
17.6 |
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