Cleveland–based KeyCorp is one of the nation’s largest bank–based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $98 billion and more than 17,500 employees. As a result of this breadth of operational scope, KeyCorp needs the ability to relate to nearly every type of person. In order to develop a workforce and way of doing business that reflects the diversity of its customers and communities, KeyCorp actively seeks to diversify its personnel.
“At KeyCorp, we want the depth and power of different perspectives that only inclusion will bring us,” explains Paul Harris, the company’s executive vice president and general counsel. “We want people of differing talents, ethnicity, culture, faith, thought style, sexual orientation, life experience, physical ability, age, any measure you can think of that ensures we have a broader — and therefore stronger — collective mind at work. This isn’t a ‘good to do’ approach: it’s an ‘absolutely must do’ mandate. Today more than ever, this kind of diversity is a competitive advantage. An emphasis on diversity is an emphasis on success.”
Under the guidance of Harris, the law department is at the forefront of the company’s diversity measures. KeyCorp has established a “Balanced Scorecard” by which the department’s diversity track record is measured. Monthly diversity reports are aggregated into an annual review, and compared to specific goals as well as performance over previous years.
As head of the law group, Harris is responsible for selecting and engaging outside counsel on behalf of the company. When he was selected to his current position, the company was working with only one member of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF); today, KeyCorp is working with nine NAMWOLF firms, and another eight have been approved for handling future matters. KeyCorp tries to stress diversity to its suppliers. “We’re currently remodeling branches across our fourteen–state footprint, as well as adding new branches in targeted locations,” Harris explains. “Together with our lead construction firm, we’ve met targets of 35% minority and women suppliers in virtually all branches. This percentage is more than ten times the national average, and it’s one we’re very proud of.”
As KeyCorp continues to grow, so does the company’s diversity programs. “We have two new programs for next year,” Harris shares, “both of them additions to our existing groups of Key Business Networking Groups. The employee groups help us reach out to targeted customer groups, and provide their members with professional development and networking. Our new groups will include one for current and past members of the military, and anyone who wishes to support them. There is no political agenda —, just support for those who serve. The second will include employees who have disabilities, and those who champion them. We’re very much looking forward to getting both groups up and running early in 2010.” DB
From the November/December 2009 issue of Diversity & The Bar®