Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Create Opportunity
Originally published in FedEx's 2023 ESG Report
As a global business, we value the diversity of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences of our people and recognize DEI is essential to our success and the communities we serve. DEI fosters collaboration, enables us to recruit, retain, and develop a talented workforce, and underpins our business performance and sustainability. The continued integration of DEI into our business strategies and progress towards our DEI objectives supported our ability to respond to the challenging labor market our industry faced in recent years. We are proud of the work our people accomplished over the past year but understand there is always more to be done.
FedEx has a long-standing commitment to fully embrace DEI throughout our organization, from the Board of Directors to every employee. This commitment is communicated through our DEI framework and our four strategic pillars: Our People; Our Education and Engagement; Our Communities, Customers, and Suppliers; and Our Story. We use this framework to influence and inform our business strategy as we invest in our workforce, culture, and communities.
Our people
We understand the importance of actively recruiting, developing, and retaining our diverse talent. One of the most important outcomes of our DEI efforts is to grow and advance the gifted group of individuals that comprise FedEx.
Over the past year, we continued to roll out programs to ensure our people are engaged and can develop at FedEx. The FedEx Ground workforce career track program, Purple Pathways, directly targets our most diverse population, frontline managers and package handlers, to support their career growth. FedEx Ground won the American Transportation Association DEI Change Leader Award in 2022 for Purple Pathways. We are inspired to see over 33,000 team members registered in the program, with more than 1,700 Purple Pathways mentors. The OnDeck program, launched by FedEx Express, provides our front-line workers with the training and skills they need to grow into managerial roles.
In FY22, FedEx participated in a variety of employment events, including partnering with the Society of Women Engineers, the National Black MBA Association, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to expand our talent pool, increase hires from diverse populations, and establish FedEx as a positive ambassador for DEI. At FedEx Express AMEA, we set a DEI objective to increase the number of team members with disabilities by 5%. FedEx is part of the Tent Coalition for Refugees in the U.S. and has set goals for hiring refugees for roles with the company nationwide.
See the Data appendix and our EEO-1 Reports for statistics on workplace gender, race/ethnicity, and generational diversity.
Our education and engagement
We foster ongoing employee engagement and provide educational opportunities to build an inclusive working environment and help our people succeed. We strive to promote DEI and maintain open dialogue across all levels of the company.
We work to expand our team members’ DEI knowledge through various learning opportunities. We recently introduced a DEI competency program for all our officers and directors. Through this program, enabled by the FedEx Learning Center, more than 87% of our FedEx Logistics managers, directors, and officers completed four DEI courses. In 2022, all FedEx Office leaders and key HR employees completed a year-long Inclusive Leadership program to address critical DEI topics. FedEx Express continued the Convene program, a virtual mentorship program between four vice president-level diversity sponsors and other team members. Across our operating companies, we offer a micro-learning platform to deliver digestible DEI content for all career levels.
Team members can participate in business resource teams, employee networks, and affinity groups to enhance DEI, build community, and inspire conversations across our operating companies. These groups include: Women in Leadership, Black Professionals Network, Hispanic Action Network, AllGenerations, Multi-Ethnic Leadership Community, Asian Network, Women Leading Change, LGBT & Friends, U.S. Military Veterans, Growing Professionals, Parents Working Together, EnABLE Network, Men Leading Inclusively, and Multi-Faith Network, among others. In FY22, FedEx Logistics launched its first business resource team, Women in Logistics, with plans to launch additional resource groups next year.
We include DEI-related questions in our FedEx Services, FedEx Ground, and FedEx Freight engagement surveys, allowing us to accurately capture employee perspectives on DEI within the FedEx workforce. The results from these surveys show that open dialogue regarding diversity and inclusion has improved since 2021. DEI metrics were added to FedEx Ground’s performance management system to ensure intentional focus and engagement on DEI for all team members.
Our communities, customers, and suppliers
DEI must extend further than our people and our business. We are committed to investing in the communities, customers, and suppliers we serve. In FY22, we contributed $5.7 million to various non-profits aligned with our DEI commitment to increase equity in the communities we serve. We work with community partners, including the National Action Network, and sponsor events, such as the Rise Up and Memphis Proud Exhibits at the Memphis Museum of Science and History, to strengthen our position as a positive community ambassador.
In FY22, we provided over $800,000 for leadership development programs in the U.S., mainly through our seven scholarship funds. We also support endowed scholarships at eight HBCUs where we are expanding opportunities for students through a $5 million multi-year contribution to prepare students for the workforce. In FY22 we launched the FedEx-HBCU Student Ambassador Program, which provides empowerment, engagement, and education for students, and access to resources that will help them prepare to enter the workforce after college. Additionally, FedEx Ground launched the College Pathways Career Expose with seven HBCUs in February 2022. The College Pathways program exposes students to career opportunities in specific fields that align with their studies and provides students insights on real career experiences.
We work to recruit diverse candidates and develop a talent pipeline to build a workforce reflective of the communities we serve. We work to improve the inclusivity of our recruitment process by offering materials in Spanish and English. FedEx Logistics hosts the FedEx Logistics Academy, a program designed to introduce high school students to a variety of career paths as well as provide interactive lessons on teamwork and workplace culture. FedEx Freight expanded “The Boardroom Experience” program, which introduces students of color to career possibilities at FedEx through a simulated Board meeting. FedEx Express AMEA partnered with the Asian University for Women to provide mentorship for female students from various countries in Asia and the Middle East. FedEx Services implements the College Connections program to improve recruiting efforts with colleges near main FedEx Services hubs. FedEx Ground proactively recruits from its High School Pathways program, which teaches students about different roles within FedEx Ground, including tips on networking, interviewing, and mentoring. The FedEx Express HBCU Student Co-op Program is designed to attract, develop, and retain diverse talent. Students focus on project-based assignments directly related to their academic degree and gain mentoring and networking opportunities with FedEx staff, including executive management.
As a global business, we have the power to support a diverse supplier base. See the Our supply chain section for information on our Supplier Diversity program.
Our story
Throughout FedEx, we encourage team members to share their stories, celebrate their differences, and foster collaboration. We provide team members with DEI-related resources, events, and employee stories through our enterprisewide online platform, the DEI Depot. In FY22, FedEx Logistics circulated communications for 15 significant cultural moments and FedEx Ground launched the Story Depot to collect and share a variety of employee success stories. Across FedEx Corporate, FedEx Logistics, FedEx Express, FedEx Freight, FedEx Ground, and FedEx Services, we circulate a quarterly DEI newsletter, which provides managers and officers with resources, information, and best practices to ensure they effectively promote DEI throughout their teams.
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