May 8, 2019

FirstEnergy recently earned the number 5 ranking on the 2019 DiversityInc Top Utilities List and received the honor at an awards dinner in New York City on May 7. Issued yearly since 2001, DiversityInc recognizes the nation’s top companies for diversity and inclusion.  These companies excel in such areas as hiring, developing, retaining and promoting women, minorities, people with disabilities, LGBT and veterans.

“The mission of DiversityInc is to bring education and clarity to the business benefits of diversity,” said Chris Walker, vice president of Human Resources. “So it’s a tremendous honor to be recognized by this organization for our efforts in enhancing the diversity of our talent pipeline, talent development, and supply chain as well as heightening leadership accountability.”  It’s a journey that FirstEnergy started in 2015 – and while we still have work to do, it’s exciting to acknowledge the headway we’ve made.”

To be considered, companies must complete an extensive annual survey that details the diversity of our workforce and management, senior leadership accountability, talent programs, workplace practices, philanthropy and supplier diversity. Participation in the list has increased every year with more than 1,800 companies – and the information provided by these companies is aggregated and shared among the group.

“We will be using the information that we receive through our participation in this process to further assess our company’s performance against our peers in the utility sector and in other industries,” said Chris. “This is helpful data that we can use to mark our progress as we strengthen our initiatives and implement best practices.”

In addition to an awards dinner, DiversityInc’s event featured several panel discussions with corporate diversity leaders that focused on the importance of supporting minority executives and women in senior leadership roles, how to increase employee engagement, implementing best practices to retain women of color, how to develop a successful mentoring relationship and the evolution of Employee Business Resource Groups.