Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are nothing new for Eaton Corp. In 2011, the Cleveland-based power management company established a corporate governance framework and a Global Inclusion Council. These efforts have accelerated in recent years—including aggressive commitments for 2030—yielding myriad real-world benefits and a growing cache of industry accolades, according to the company. For the past seven years, Eaton has achieved a 100% on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index. The company also was recognized as a Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion, and it earned 100 out of 100 on the 2022 Disability Equality Index. Most recently, Eaton was named to Newsweek’s inaugural list of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity.
Manufacturing Engineering (ME) Senior Editor Steve Plumb spoke with Eaton’s Monica Jackson, vice president, Global Inclusion and Diversity, and Petra Godoy, director, Human Resources, Vehicle and Corporate Groups, South and Central America, to discuss the company’s plans. The following transcript is edited for length and clarity.
ME: Why is DEI important to Eaton?
Jackson: One of our aspirational goals is to be a model of inclusion and diversity in our industry. This is important for us to be stronger as a company, to be more innovative, and to win in the marketplace. The power of perspectives drives innovation, and if you think about our sustainable growth, that benefits not only our employees but our investors, customers, and communities. So it’s really about embracing the uniqueness and the power of various perspectives to win. That’s why we believe it’s important and therefore it allows us to attract, retain, engage, and develop the best people around the world.
ME: Is it possible to quantify the benefits?
Jackson: When you think about the ideas that bring teams together with unique perspectives, you have a better product, which translates into winning in the marketplace. You’re looking at the results and your earnings. That’s what it’s about, right?
ME: As a large multinational company with $20.8 billion in global revenue in 2022, how difficult is it to implement common programs across regions?
Godoy: It can be challenging. But, on the other hand, for me it’s the beauty of inclusion and diversity, because we need to challenge ourselves every time. As an example, in Brazil we speak English but it’s not our natural language. So, when we receive deployment plans, we really need to pay attention—we have many words that do not mean anything when translated. So, looking at the big picture, we have a solid strategy for inclusion and diversity .... and Monica has our support in the regions. But we may need to adapt (for local and cultural differences) to better fit my region and teams. One example is our affinity group for administrative employees to talk about inclusion and diversity, and we are now using the same model in manufacturing. This is the challenge—how we make these programs available, concrete, and robust for the entire organization.
ME: How are special needs handled?
Godoy: We use sign language translators for all-employee meetings in Brazil. So when there’s a video we can quickly communicate what’s being said. It was hard in the beginning, sometimes we’d forget to hire the translator. Now it’s ingrained in our DNA.
ME: What are some of the biggest challenges in implementing DEI initiatives?
Jackson: As we all know, this notion of inclusion and diversity has been around for quite some time, and you’ll see companies are committed and making an effort in this area. But when you start to talk about sustainable progress, I think that’s where many organizations are challenged to some degree on improvements over time.
So, I have this thing about the word initiative to be honest. I think that the term in and of itself can create challenges. This work must be embedded in your operations. It has to be part of your day-to-day cadence and review, if you will. It can’t be separate, to the side, or just the latest initiative. It has to be the standard, and we have to continue to embed and integrate this focus into our normal operations. If you’re at a manufacturing site or if you’re sitting in a corporate office, when we talk about talent or when we talk about business, this is just part of that conversation. It’s integrated and natural. It’s what you do. That’s where I think the overall opportunity lies—not something just happened in society, so now we’re focused on this but then lose sight of it.
ME: Do any specific examples come to mind?
Jackson: Sure. When we run a manufacturing line, it’s not by happenstance. There are inputs such as raw materials, you monitor the process, and conduct quality reviews. If there’s a defect, you go and you see what happened, and do root-cause analysis. To me, that’s how you have to approach this (DEI). If it is a critical business challenge and opportunity, let’s make sure we know the true root cause of why we are not achieving our goals. In our Global Inclusion and Diversity Report, we have some primary areas of focus. What are we doing in terms of attracting and retaining the right talent? How do we ensure that we have a workplace that is viewed as inclusive, so people feel valued and a sense of belonging, which ties back to retention and attraction.
One of the things that we are doing is integrating our high-five talent metrics throughout our operations. Every business leader now looks at these, because what you measure determines your success and reinforces its importance. It really comes down to transparency.
ME: Are there unique considerations for manufacturing?
Jackson: We have to put the lens on what’s different. While the basic hiring processes for manufacturing is the same, how we approach it will be different because the talent pool is different. And how you onboard these workers and their day-to-day work is different. They aren’t necessarily tied and tethered to a computer where they have immediate access to things. So we have to think about how we connect and communicate with them. We have to stop and say how do we ensure this demographic of employees is receiving our message as intended.
One example that comes to mind is our PRIDE Employee Resource group that focuses on LGBTQ+ issues. When we have a big event or something else underway that we’re trying to communicate, we can’t just send something via e-mail, right, and think manufacturing employees will consume it. Petra and the team in South America do a great job of incorporating things visually throughout the site. So it’s not a matter of someone having to come off the manufacturing line to participate and engage and feel immersed. They can see and feel it. The resource group painted sidewalks, put up signs, and had things throughout the building to represent the PRIDE flag and things of that nature. So it’s just a matter of being more intentional about your respective site, location, or region. You can’t just do a peanut butter spread.
ME: How do you reinforce key messages?
Jackson: Employee resource groups help. We try to find all kinds of ways to inform employees that we have these organizations where they can connect, build community, and get exposure to leaders. One thing we started a few years ago was this notion of “pop-ups,” which are quick 30-minute learning experiences. They address diversity, equity, and inclusion-related topics, where employees can learn, listen, talk about, share, or just observe why a topic matters. We recently showed two short movies about transgender individuals who had transitioned, then facilitated a discussion about it. I remember an employee, who had worked for Eaton for about 20 years, said "I can't believe this is happening." He just wanted to come and learn. And, you know, I'll take that.
ME: What are you doing to improve conditions for people with disabilities?
Jackson: We have to think about the entire employee lifecycle, even before someone is hired. What does it look like when someone with a disability is applying or seeking an opportunity? Is on-site assistance needed during an interview? Through our CIO, we’re partnering with a firm to help us expand our talent pool to include individuals on the neurodiversity scale, matching skills with our work needs. There are tons of benefits.
Godoy: In South America, we’ve been focused on this since 2013-14. A few years later, one of our facilities (Valinhos, Brazil) began planning how to upgrade its shop floor for workers who require a wheelchair. What types of investments are needed to facilitate this? The facilities engineer identified about 20 things we needed to change, which we did. But as the first two employees using wheelchairs began working in the shop, they said, “We do not need everything—we just need this and that.” It’s a learning experience. HR, manufacturing leaders, and workers, we build it together. So this was a challenge. It’s not common to find wheelchairs on a shop floor. It’s not easy but it’s not something that we think is impossible.
ME: Unfortunately, there are still many prejudices and biases throughout the world. How do you handle situations where employees don’t embrace DEI to the same extent?
Jackson: I go back to our goal of being a model of inclusion and diversity. It’s part of our culture and expectation—it isn’t really an option. I liken it to quality and safety. This is who we are at Eaton. You don’t get to say, “Oh, I don’t know if I want to work safely,” or “I don’t want to work in a quality manner.” And there are consequences, just like if you don’t follow lockout/tagout protocols. But we also recognize that we have to educate the organization, because a lot of the things that we’re talking about are impacted by social, cultural, and many other things people have learned along the way prior to joining Eaton.
ME: What’s the best way to go about this?
Jackson: There are moments where you coach and teach. We focus on providing ongoing learning experiences in a variety of ways to help educate people on why this is important, what it really means. We throw those words out a lot. Diversity. Inclusion. Equity. But what does it really mean and why does it matter to the organization?
It’s really about how do we help each other grow our cultural competency, learn more about each other as individuals, talk about the challenges that some have experienced. Sharing our lived experiences, which helps lift us all. Before there was a lot of talk about diversity, inclusion, et cetera. It was really about a matter of respect. That is fundamentally what we’re talking about: respect in the workplace for whatever uniqueness or difference that someone has. We all need to respect each other to ensure a collaborative, healthy, productive environment.
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