Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

Mandy Cornell

Professor Huddleston

HRM 582 Course Project

January 17, 2016

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

Contents

Executive Summary...................................................................................................................................3

Company Background..............................................................................................................................4

Audit Method.............................................................................................................................................5

Corning INC diversity initiatives.............................................................................................................8

Evaluation of Diversity Initiatives............................................................................................................9

Recommendations...................................................................................................................................10

Reference..................................................................................................................................................11

Appendix 1................................................................................................................................................13

Appendix 2................................................................................................................................................14

Appendix 3................................................................................................................................................15

Appendix 4................................................................................................................................................16

Appendix 5................................................................................................................................................17

2

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

Executive Summary

Diversity is a major part of American company’s in terms of its demographics and

workplace makeup. As diversity grows in the workforce, companies who understand how to

utilize diversity as a source of competitive advantage are emerging as the frontrunners in the new

workforce culture.

Corning was established in 1879. “Corning is one of the world’s leading innovators in

materials science. For more than 160 years, Corning has applied its unparalleled expertise in

specialty glass, ceramics, and optical physics to develop products that have created new

industries and transformed people’s lives. According to Weeks (unknown), “Diversity is vital to

Corning because of our distinctive identity as a company that grows through global innovation.

Innovation depends on diversity of ideas, experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds. The more

diverse the team, the better the output.”

Thru out this report, we will review Corning INC. background. We will also determine

the audit method and criteria on which will be the bases for Corning’s diversity audit. Once the

criteria are determined, we will discuss what initiatives Corning has implemented to encourage

diversity. We will then evaluate the organization’s initiatives and provide recommendations on

how to improve the diversity within the organization.

The manufacturing facility had several gaps between the ages, gender, and ethnicity of

the employees. The purpose of this audit will be to show Corning Inc. where the gaps are and

how they can improve to make their business perform better in the future.

3

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

Company Background

Corning Inc. is the company this report will be on. Corning Inc. is an American

manufacturer of glass, ceramics, and related materials. The products are primarily for industrial

and scientific applications. The company was known as Corning Glass Works until 1989, when it

changed its name to Corning Incorporated.

“Corning is one of the world’s leading innovators in materials science. For more than

160 years, Corning has applied its unparalleled expertise in specialty glass, ceramics, and optical

physics to develop products that have created new industries and transformed people’s lives.

Corning succeeds through sustained investment in R&D, a unique combination of material and

process innovation, and close collaboration with customers to solve tough technology

challenges” (Corning, para. 1, 1994).

“In 1998, Corning divested itself of its consumer lines of CorningWare and Corelle

tableware and Pyrex cookware selling them to World Kitchen. As of 2014, Corning had five

major business sectors: Display Technologies, Environmental Technologies, Life Sciences,

Optical Communications, and Specialty Materials”. (Gardiner, 2012)

Corning is involved in two joint ventures: Dow Corning and Pittsburgh Corning. Corning

was established in 1879. Corning has approximately 35,000 employees in nations across North

America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. With Corning Inc. having a major

appearance within the manufacturing community around the world, it is very important to make

sure they have a high quality of diversity within the organization. When I was previously

employed with the company, the location I worked at was very limited in the amount of

diversity.

4

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

Audit Method

I will begin my audit by researching press releases and looking at Corning Inc. current

annual reports. I will also perform research online to determine if the company has been involved

in any discrimination lawsuits while in business. The company website is going to be used for

some of my research. I will also be looking at interviewing with the local human resource

manager and possibly some current employees.

Since I have been previously employed with this company in the past, I will also use

some of the knowledge and experience I have to conduct my audit. The criteria I will be using to

base my audit on several different items.

The first criteria will be the number of women and people of color on the board. The

number of women and people of color on the board will give insight onto what type of company

Corning Inc. really is. According to Corning (2015), The Board of Directors is made up of

twelve members. There are three women and nine men currently on the Board of Directors. The

board members are predominantly Caucasian. There is only one minority currently on the board.

Board Of Directors

Females Males African Male

5

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

The second criteria will be based off of the company’s supplier diversity program. The

supplier diversity programs that the company has will offer insight to determine the amount of

diversity the company works with. This information will allow me to see the use of minority-

owned, women owned, veteran owned, service disabled veteran owned, historically underutilized

business, and small business vendors the company uses. Please refer to Appendix 1 for a current

list of the supplier diversity programs Corning Inc. offers.

The third criteria will be the amount of funds spent on diverse community causes. The

amount of funds spent on diverse community causes will offer insight on how active in the

community the company may be. It will also help to determine if the company is remaining

diverse outside of the company. All donations are made through the Corning Inc. Foundation. A

portion of the foundations charitable donations can be found in Appendix 2.

The fourth criteria will be based on the Equal Opportunity Act. The Equal Opportunity

Act will set a guideline for the laws that Corning needs to follow with their hiring process to

insure the company is not discriminating from a certain minority. According to EEOC, the types

of discrimination covered under the law are:

Sexual Harassment Religion Race/Color

Sex Pregnancy Harassment

Retaliation National Origin Genetic Information

Equal Pay/Compensation Disability Age

The Fifth criteria will be based on the amount of diversity in the work place. This

information is important on determining the amount of diversity within the company. Corning

6

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

INC. produces a global diversity and inclusion report annually. A portion of the 2015 annual

report can be found in Appendix 3.

The sixth criteria will be based on Corning’s employee retention and progression

programs. This information will be used to determine what the company is doing to keep their

employees once they have been hired. A few of the retention and programs that Corning offers

their employees are tuition reimbursement and web-based career tools. According to Corning

(Career tracks), they also offer:

•Supervisory training programs

•Leadership development programs

•Advanced Management Education programs

The seventh criteria will be based on the company’s advertisement. The advertisement

will show what their target audience maybe and the diversity of the audience. This will help to

determine if the company is only directing towards a certain group of people or a more diverse

audience. A sample of one of their advertisements can be found with the following link,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38.

The eighth criteria will be based on Corning’s employee recruitment process. This

information will help to determine the group of individuals the company is looking to hire. An

interview with a current employee, stated that “Corning INC. has four steps to their recruitment

process. The first step is an informal interview followed by two hours of testing. The testing is

on mathematics and mechanics for every applicant. If you pass the test, which is not easy, you

are scheduled for a second interview. If things go good with the second interview, you then must

pass a hair drug test and physical before you are offered a position”.

7

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

The ninth criteria will be based off of Corning INC. employee turnover rate. This

information will show the amount employees tend to stay and give insight on if things within the

company may need to change to decrease the amount. This information will be retrieved from

the company’s annual reports.

The tenth criteria will be based on the organization’s culture. The culture of a company

shows how they relate to their employees. If the company has a great culture, it will make the

retention of a more diverse work environment more possible. Having a great work culture also

decreases the company’s employee turnover rate.

Basing my audit on these criteria’s will give me insight on what to be looking out for to

determine if the company is creating the best diversity environment they can within their

organization.

Corning INC diversity initiatives

According to Corning (Diversity), “To support our employees and their families, we

proudly sponsor a variety of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), which together form our

Diversity Network. These groups raise awareness around important issues that often stimulate

the company to respond with new policies, services, and development and training opportunities.

ERGs draw employees into cultural activities, thereby increasing cultural understanding among

colleagues that enhances working relationships.”

A list of the Employee resource groups that Corning INC offers are listed under appendix

4. One of the groups is CCA. CCA means Corning Chinese Association. This group represents

the Chinese community in the Southern Tier region and welcomes all other Corning employees

8

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

who are interested in the Chinese culture. They host Chinese cultural events, facilitate

networking, and offer personal/ professional development opportunities for their members.

Evaluation of Diversity Initiatives

The diversity initiatives set by Corning INC does help to encourage diversity within the

organization. The main issue with the diversity initiatives is they are only available in some of

the Corning facilities. Please refer to Appendix 5 for a full list of locations for each program.

Diversity within Corning as a whole is very clear. The company meets all of the

standards set by the Equal Opportunity Act. The organization makes it a mission to send out an

annual Global Diversity and Inclusion report for public view. This document goes into detail on

the organization’s current diversity statistics and what the company is doing to grow those

numbers.

The one area that was able to show a diversity problem is within the individual facilities.

After interviewing a current employee of the organizations local facility, she stated “this facility

does not have an equal amount of diversified employees. The facility is mostly Caucasian

employees, most of which are males. The facility has begun to change their employees over to

add more of a diversified group.”

Another area showing an issue with diversity, is the board of directors. The board of

directors is currently made up of twelve employees. Three are Caucasian females, one is an

African American male, and the remainder are Caucasian males. This area is lacking the

diversity aspect to make the company more successful. Within the following section, we will

discuss solutions to make the company fully diversified.

9

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

Recommendations

Corning INC has been able to accomplish a diversified organization so far which means

they are moving in the right direction. To continue to move in the right direction, Corning should

begin to change their Board of Directors over to include a more diversified group. With the

organization doing business all over the world and looking to expand to more countries, it would

give them more of an advantage to have more diversified individuals on the board.

Within the facilities, it is already clear that the organization is making headway into

adding more diverse employees to those locations. This is very important for each facility to

have multiple views on running those facilities. If Corning continues to move in the right

direction, they will be able to continue to be successful in the fiber optics market.

10

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

Reference

Corning. (2015). “Board of Directors”. Retrieved from https://www.corning.com/au/en/about-

us/investor-relations/why-invest-in-corning/board-of-directors.html on February 9, 2016

Corning. (2015). “Career Tracks”. Retrieved from

https://www.corning.com/worldwide/en/careers/work-at-corning/career-tracks.html on

February 11, 2016

Corning. (2015). “Diversity”. Retrieved from

https://www.corning.com/worldwide/en/careers/diversity.html on February 19, 2016

Corning. (2015). “2015 Global Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report”. Retrieved form

https://www.corning.com/media/worldwide/global/documents/2015_Final_Global_Diver

sity_Inclusion_Annual_Report.pdf on February 10, 2016

Corning. (1994). “Our Company”. Retrieved from

https://www.corning.com/worldwide/en/about-us/company-profile.html on January 15,

2016

Corning. (2015). “Supporting a Vast Network”. Retrieved from

https://www.corning.com/au/en/about-us/suppliers.html on February 10, 2016

Corning INC. Foundation. (2014). “Financial Statements”. Retrieved from

http://www.corningincfoundation.org/about_us/financials/NEW%20FINANCIALS.pdf

on February 12, 2016

EEOC. (Unknown). “Discrimination by Type”. Retrieved from

http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/index.cfm on February 2, 2016

11

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

Gardiner, B. (Sept. 2012). “Glass Works: How Corning Created the Ultrathin, Ultrastrong

Material of the Future” Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/2012/09/ff-corning-

gorilla-glass/ on February 15, 2016

Weeks, W. (unknown). “Diversity”. Retrieved from

https://www.corning.com/worldwide/en/careers/diversity.html on February 21, 2016

12

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

Appendix 1

Categories of U.S. supplier diversity

Minority-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE)

Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE)

Disabled Business Enterprise (DIS)

Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE)

Service-Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (SDVBE)

Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE)

Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCU)

Historically Underutilised Business Zone (HUBZone)

Small Business Administration 8(a) Programme

Small Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (SDB)

Veteran-Owned Business Enterprise (VBE)

GLBT-Owned Business Enterprise (GLBT)

Corning. (2015). “Supporting a Vast Network”.

13

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

Appendix 2

CORNING INCORPORATED FOUNDATION

STATEMENTS OF ACTIVITIES AND CHANGE IN NET ASSETS FOR THE YEARS

ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2014 AND 2013

2014 2013

Educational programs 3,062,246 5,324,516

Community program 1,078,095 532,690

Cultural program 823,695 906,129

United Way 640,825 619,500

Civic programs 13,000 23,500

Total grants 5,617,861 7,406,335

Retrieved from Corning INC. Foundation 2014 Annual report

14

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

Appendix 3

Retrieved from 2015 Global Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report.

15

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

Appendix 4

Retrieved from

http://www.corning.com/media/worldwide/global/documents/ERG_One_Pager.pdf

16

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

Appendix 5

Locations of Corning Employee Resource Groups

•Abled and Disabled Partnering Together (ADAPT) locations in Corning, N.Y.; Strykow,

Poland; and Berlin, Germany

•Black Growth Council (BGC) located in Corning, N.Y.

•Black Technology Network (BTN) located in Corning, N.Y.

•Corning Chinese Association (CCA) located in Corning, N.Y.

•Corning Professional Women's Forum (CPWF) locations in Corning, N.Y.; Wilmington,

Hickory & Treyburn, N.C.; Tewksbury, M.A.; Reynosa, Mexico; Airport City, India; Berlin

and Hagan, Germany; Gebze, Turkey; Strykow, Poland, Vordinborg, Denmark; Clayton,

Australia and Lakeside, U.K.

•Corning Professionals Network (CPN) locations in Corning, N.Y and Hickory, N.C.

•Corning Veterans Engaged to Support (C-VETS) locations in Corning, N.Y. and Blacksburg,

V.A.

•Ethnically Diverse Group of Employees (EDGE) locations in Corning, N.Y; Wilmington &

Concord, N.C.

•Global Latino Advancement & Success Society (GLASS) located in Corning, N.Y.

•Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Employee Resource Group (SPECTRA) located in

Corning, N.Y.

•MTE Asian and Latin American Group (MTE ALG) located in Corning, N.Y.

•Native American Council (NAC) located in Corning, N.Y.

•Society of Black Professionals (SBP) locations in Corning, N.Y.; Hickory & Wilmington,

N.C.

17

Diversity Audit on Corning Inc.

•Southern Tier Indian Cultural Association (STICA) located in Corning, N.Y.

•Technology Community Women’s Network (TCWN) located in Corning, N.Y.

•Team Formerly Known as (TFKA) located in Corning, N.Y.

Retrieved from

https://www.corning.com/worldwide/en/careers/diversity/employee-resource-groups.html

18