Celebrating Differences,
Valuing Voices
Building a diverse workforce and an equitable and inclusive work culture is another important tenet to Chesapeake’s success. We view DEI as a key business objective that aligns with our core values and underlies how we operate as an organization.
Diversity At-a-Glance
27%
women in workforce
19%
women in leadership positions
22%
ethnic minorities in workforce
10%
Ethnic minorities in leadership positions
As of Dec. 31, 2022
Our DEI vision is to create a culture of trust and fairness that leads the industry and makes us an employer of choice. With a vision this bold, we must lay a firm foundation to build upon as we grow. This starts by defining DEI within our organization so we can encourage accountability and alignment.
Diversity: Recognizing true disparities
Diversity reaches wide, honoring differences, demographics and backgrounds. While all diverse perspectives matter, true diversity recognizes disparities experienced by traditionally marginalized groups.
Equity: Rebalancing access to opportunities, free of barriers and systemic exclusion
Equity considers the needs and experiences of the individual (vs. equality, which assumes everyone is the same). It’s a belief that certain people or groups of people have been systemically excluded and deserve to be seen and included.
Inclusion: Creating a culture of voice, value and equal opportunities
Inclusion works to ensure that all have equal access to opportunities and feel empowered to contribute to company success. It’s the difference between being invited to a meeting vs. feeling like a valued participant and member in the meeting.
Leadership Committed to DEI
Our Board and executive leadership team are committed to cultivating a workplace where employees feel safe to discuss their differences, respected for their diverse perspectives and supported by our DEI efforts. These senior leaders are accountable to our DEI commitments with support from our DEI Advisory Board and Council.
Our DEI efforts are led by our DEI Advisory Board and Council, chaired by Josh Viets, EVP and COO. Comprised of diverse senior leaders from across the organization, the Advisory Board, in partnership with a dedicated human resource professional, is tasked with setting DEI strategy to achieve and sustain our vision. Our DEI Council is committed to executing our strategy and representing the voice of our employees.
“We know that inclusive workplaces are more innovative and often outperform competitors. But more important than the business case are our employees’ experiences. We want to continue to foster a workplace culture where every employee feels valued and knows their voice will be heard.”
–Josh Viets, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and DEI executive sponsor
Advancing Our Efforts
While we’ve historically valued diversity within our workforce, we seek to do more to advance DEI both within our culture and outside of our organization. We pledge to be transparent and intentional in our progress and in the way we measure success.
Key Impact Areas
Recruiting and Retention
Pay and Performance
Benefits
Programs and Support
Education and Events
In 2022, we made progress in a number of these areas, working to advance our DEI strategy and commitments. We:
- Identified a new executive sponsor for our DEI efforts
- Re-established our DEI Advisory Board, Council and support network
- Initiated senior level leadership coaching on building DEI into daily work, decisions and interactions
- Developed an annual training program for all employees, including special events to raise DEI awareness among employees
- Launched an annual compliance training for all new hires and regular employees
- Utilized internal demographics, measures and external survey results to develop data-driven DEI objectives
- Built a dedicated intranet section to encourage transparent communications around DEI initiatives
Annually, as required by law, we report on the diversity of our workforce as defined by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Supporting DEI Outside of Our Organization
Through supply chain management and our community investment activities, we can support DEI progress.
Our Supplier Diversity Program works beyond our workforce to increase the number of diverse suppliers hired by Chesapeake and to encourage the availability of a healthy and diverse supplier base to support our business. Although definitions vary, we identify diverse suppliers as businesses at least 51% owned, managed and controlled by people with disabilities, minorities, women, veterans or LGBTQ+ individuals.
Through this program, we have the ability to measure the number of diverse suppliers included in bids and hired by the company — enabling us to set future goals and evaluate our progress. We also added a requirement to our application requiring all vendors to have their own zero-tolerance anti-harassment policy in place to be considered for approval and hiring.
In our local communities, we seek to build meaningful partnerships focused on strengthening and celebrating diversity within our operating areas. We do this in many ways, including through financial donations, in-kind gifts and employee volunteer efforts.
