At Aflac, building a diverse workforce isn't just a line item on a post-COVID to-do list. Instead, DEI has been a building block of the organization for decades.
"Hiring women and people of color and diverse candidates is part of our DNA," says Keyla Cabret-Lewis, Aflac's VP of DEI. "As the labor market changes, along with the changes that came about by COVID, we've had to be more intentional, but it is just part of what we do."
Cabret-Lewis has worked at Aflac for more than two decades, and has seen how diversity through leadership, partnered with
Read more:
Cabret-Lewis cites
The efforts you've made to hire women at Aflac started well before COVID — how have you prioritized gender equality at the company over the long-term?
I started at Aflac in 1995 as a recruiter, and I remembered being surprised at how many women we hired back then. And this was in all levels of the company, not just in entry level roles. So it just becomes part of what you do.
There is complete support and leadership by our C-suite, and specifically our chairman. He walked the talk as he built out his team, and he's made decisions that are reflective of our diversity values. Half of his direct reports are either people of color or women. He'll tell you himself that's how he works and that's how he wants the company to work. So it's definitely been a part of our success.
What are some of the ways you're "walking the talk" when it comes to providing opportunities internally for women and people of color?
It's important that companies don't just have a yearly process when it comes to talking about an equitable workplace. At every point of the process, you have to have checks and balances — for example, when we have reorganizations, when we have promotions, and each of those steps, our processes require us to check and understand what the landscape is both internally and externally to ensure that we have equitable pay. We work with third-party auditors to help us do that, and of course with our compensation team here.
We also really value internal recruitment — what we're doing now is really hunkering down and identifying opportunities throughout the employee life cycle where perhaps development has not been requested, but maybe we provide it. I spent about five years as a senior manager, and when I was asked to take on my current role, I felt a little bit unsure, to be quite honest. And my boss asked what would make me feel more prepared? A colleague
How are you creating those experiences for other women at Aflac, so they can see their own trajectory here and feel empowered?
We have a Career Connections area here which is specifically designated to help employees with their career choices and aspirations. And from the DEI perspective, we've been able to really allow for employees to communicate with us more clearly and more honestly and have conversations that we may not have felt comfortable having in the past. For example, we brought in a speaker to talk about Imposter Syndrome and the challenges that women face with that.
Read more:
How does mentorship and allyship from both men and women help these efforts?
When I came into this environment, I've managed to be mentored or sponsored by brilliant females as well as brilliant males. And I think they're both necessary. We're in this together, and in order to understand everyone's perspectives, and really serve everyone, we can't just talk to people who look just like us.
Read more:
When you're talking about this type of work, this is not a sprint, it is a marathon. If you have the buy-in and support and allyship of your leadership — especially your senior leadership — that's half the battle. We've been rewarded with representation at the very top that looks like the communities that we serve and the people who work here. To continue that, we've put in accountability metrics in order to continue that representation.
