FAQs

The initiative launched on June 12^th, 2017.

CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ is the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion within the workplace. A unique coalition of more than 2,500 CEOs have signed on to this commitment, agreeing to take action to cultivate environments where diverse experiences and perspectives are welcomed and where employees feel comfortable and encouraged to discuss diversity and inclusion. All CEO signatories serve as leaders of their organizations and have committed to implementing the pledge within their workplaces, or where companies have already implemented one or several of the commitments, will support other companies in doing the same.

Click here to learn more about the CEO Pledge, review guidelines for becoming a signatory and download and submit the required documents for review.

Yes. As part of signing on to CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™, CEOs are committing to taking action to implement all of the elements within the pledge.

CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ was collectively formed by CEOs and leaders from Accenture, BCG, Deloitte US, The Executive Leadership Council, EY, General Atlantic, KPMG, New York Life, P&G and PwC. Today, the coalition is led by PwC US Chairman and Senior Partner Tim Ryan. Today, the coalition is led by SHRM.

• First, each of the signatories are focused on cultivating workplaces that support open dialogue on complex, and sometimes difficult, conversations about diversity and inclusion.
  
  
• Second, we believe that there is a gap around sharing and collaborating across enterprises in order to advance this issue within the business community. Some are making strides while others aren’t, and there are valuable lessons to be shared and learned in both of those experiences. To facilitate the exchange of actions, we built a hub that enables companies to share best known actions across different areas of diversity.
  
  
• Third, each signatory has agreed to implement unconscious bias education in their respective organization, and those who have already done so are committing to mentor others so they can effectively implement this education.
  
  
• And finally, signatories will create and share strategic inclusion and diversity plans with their board of directors, or equivalent governing bodies.

CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ assembles the largest collection of business leaders from various industries openly committing to sharing successful diversity and inclusion initiatives as well as lessons learned. The coalition was founded on a shared belief that diversity, equity and inclusion is a societal issue, not a competitive one, and that collaboration and bold action from the business community - especially CEOs - is vital to driving change at scale.

No. CEO Action is committed to advancing inclusion for all employees and making them feel supported in the workplace, regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, disability status, veteran status, or other aspect of diversity. We recognize that diversity, equity and inclusion are multifaceted issues and that we need to tackle these subjects holistically to better engage and support all of our employees, our communities and our stakeholders.

SHRM has a decades-long track record of championing inclusion and diversity leading practices in workplaces globally. As a leading authority on all things work, worker and workplace, SHRM combines industry-leading research with a focus on actionable strategies that help CEOs make tangible progress on inclusion and diversity initiatives.

SHRM will infuse significant resources into CEO Action, including additional tools, resources, events and thought-leadership opportunities, that will help better support business leaders in advancing and promoting inclusive workplaces. CEO Action is already global as many of the signatories are global companies. SHRM is a global organization, and we will make CEO Action available everywhere we serve.

Organizations that lead with inclusion are eight times more likely to have better business outcomes. We believe deeply in the importance of fostering inclusive work environments and remain steadfast in our commitment to creating positive and productive workplaces, for everyone. We believe in the power of CEOs to lead from the top on these issues and will continue to drive real change.

CEO Action is the largest coalition of CEOs dedicated to creating inclusive and diverse workforces. CEOs will continue to help us shape what tools, resources and experts are needed to measure and drive meaningful change in the workplace.

Yes, the name of this coalition moving forward will be SHRM CEO Action for Inclusion & Diversity.

We invite any CEO committed to creating inclusive and diverse workplaces to sign the pledge and become a signatory.

We will continue to listen to our signatories about how the pledge commitments can be refined to ensure they are driving measurable, meaningful change. 

CEO signatories will continue to help us shape what tools, resources and experts are needed to measure and drive meaningful change in the workplace.