Norfolk Southern Takes A Grassroot Approach Towards Inclusive Diversity


12/27/2016

Norfolk’s workplace rich in diversity provides the favourable condition to nurture inclusiveness.


Dailycsr.com – 27 December 2016 – Norfolk Southern Corporation has identified the benefits of a workplace rich in diversity in terms of ideas, experiences and viewpoints which can be shared forming a collective value base by taking a “grass-root approach”.
 
As a result, in the year of 2015 NSC has pushed itself to promote “a more diverse and inclusive company”, whereby the “employee Diversity and Inclusion Councils” was created in every ten railroad “operating divisions”.
 
When it comes to talking about the purpose of these “grassroot councils”, NSC assures their contribution towards “a respectful workplace” that focusses on “business goals” while maximizing the potentials of the employees. As per NCS, by the time the year 2015 ended, councils were a serving hub for over two hundred employees, while the Manager of Diversity, Tom Winter, stated:
“Diversity influences Norfolk Southern’s performance. Diversity with inclusiveness enables us to produce better results while attracting and retaining the best employees.”
 
In an attempt to spread diversity across the NSC’s work place, it “formed the J. Whitaker Employee Resource Group”, which recruits, develops, and retain “minority employees” at NSC through “mentoring and networking”.
 
Besides, the above mentioned approaches NSC has turned to employ women workforce into their operations, as the COO, Mike Wheeler, said:
“We’re better as a company when we have women involved in our operations because of the diversity of views and experience. A gender-diverse workforce brings good ideas and viewpoints to the table, which leads to better results.”
 
While, Annie Adams, the Vice President of Human Resources at NCS, added:
“Being able to compete for the best talent is critical to Norfolk Southern’s success. Events like the Women in Field Operations session demonstrate the commitment of the operations departments’ vice presidents to retaining and developing women as leaders in field operations.”
 
Furthermore, NSC also celebrates various events of the employees coming from traditions and religions which falls in line with NSC’s inclusive approach towards diversity, whereby the “technology analyst”, Rajshree Doshi, said:
“The whole idea is to give everybody else insight into our culture and to make everyone realize that we can come from all over the world, but basically we’re all the same”.
 
Taking the example of the Diwali celebration at “Norfolk Southern’s Atlanta Midtown office”, the IT Vice President, Fred Ehlers, said:
“This is the best kind of diversity event because it happened on its own without prompting from the company. It grew organically from a group of folks who share their culture and their heritage with the rest of us. It’s a great time to meet and interact with your co-workers.”
 
 
 
References:
ethicalperformance.com
http://nssustainability.com/