The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) – a US association for in-house counsels, has developed the DEI Maturity Model to support firms implementing and measuring their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) goals.
The ACC DEI Maturity Model (DEI MM) will help corporate legal department leaders measure their current DEI policies and programmes and identify the necessary improvements and next steps to take.
The tool is the product of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), the ACC Foundation (ACCF), and an advisory committee of high-level corporate executives with DEI expertise.
The DEI MM has 13 categories, each detailing three levels of maturity for DEI functions – early, intermediate, and advanced – which shows leaders how their department is performing and how to achieve future goals.
The categories include:
- Strategic Planning
- Governance and Resourcing
- Operational Model/Workstreams
- Recruitment
- Talent Development – Career Development
- Professional Development
- Talent Development – Advancement
- Talent Retention
- Succession Planning
- Measurement
- Goal-setting/Communications
- Incentives and Consequences
- Community Engagement
Members of the committee include Mary Gardner Burrelle, Head of Legal Operations and Chief of Staff at McDonald’s Corp, Adonica-Jo Wada, Associate General Counsel, Privacy at Facebook, and many more.
The complete list of committee members is below:
• Diana Barlow, Voya Financial
• Mary Burelle, McDonald’s Corp.
• Elizabeth Campbell, Campbell Soup Company
• Earnest DeLoach, Balfour Betty US
• Sneha Desai, BASF
• Andre Green, Freddie Mac
• Kristen Jones, McDonald’s Corp.
• Christine Juhasz, MassMutual
• Bobbie Jo Kalamaras, Freddie Mac
• Jennifer Lagunas, AbbVie
• Eric Mahler, Meritor
• Jim Michalowicz, TE Connectivity
• Alison Nelson, Ford Motor Co.
• Sam Ranganathan, AbbVie
• John Seward, Intel
• Adonica-Jo Wada, Facebook
• David White, Accenture
Veta T. Richardson, President & CEO of ACC, said: “We developed this practical resource to assist our members who are working to improve their organisation’s internal and external DEI policies. With 73% of ACC 2021 CLO Survey respondents reporting that the focus on DEI will accelerate and 27 ACC chapters holding DEI-related programmes this past year, it was clear that this important issue is a priority for our members. We look forward to collaborating with our members, working group, and partners to refine, distribute, and develop additional programming using the DEI MM moving forward.”
Jennifer Chen, Director of the ACC Foundation, said: “The DEI Maturity Model is designed to help corporate legal departments and others easily evaluate and identify improvements for their DEI programmes. We expect that the business and legal communities will find this to be a useful resource for advancing their DEI efforts. We are grateful to everyone who assisted in bringing this model together, and we are committed to continuously updating and improving it based on feedback from those who apply it in their organisations.”
You can download the DEI Maturity Model here or read more about it here.
