Macy’s launches 5-point plan to promote D&I across all its stores

American retailer Macy’s, Inc, which operates Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores, has announced a five-point plan to ensure all its establishments reflect the diversity of the customers and communities it serves. 

“At Macy’s, diversity and inclusion [D&I] are essential to our culture and core values. Our mission is to embed D&I into how we think, act, and operate by fostering an inclusive culture and an environment that inspires, reflects, and embraces everyone,” commented Jeff Gennette, Chairman and CEO of Macy’s, Inc. “We hope the steps we are taking will encourage others to reaffirm their commitments to inclusion for all.”

UPDATED PRACTICES

The company’s ‘five-point’ plan is focused on achieving its D&I goals across all its stores. The first of the five points, focuses on strengthening its commitment to welcome, accept and respect every one of its customers. Macy’s has updated its Customer Bill of Rights (CBOR) and expanded training to ensure staff welcome, accept and respect all customers. 

The CBOR outlines Macy’s commitment to its customers, and states that “discrimination, unreasonable searches and profiling will not be tolerated, and provides new direction on how customers can report incidents in its stores”. The newly updated and expanded CBOR will be in every Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s store by the start of the 2019 holiday season. 

Secondly, Macy’s has established inclusive marketing practices to ‘consistently’ and ‘genuinely’ reflect and reach the full spectrum of its consumer-base through all its imagery and messages. Under its new practices, Macy’s requires 50%  representation of gender/gender identity, ethnicity, age, size and differently abled subjects in its advertisements by next year.

INCLUSIVE STRATEGIES

Thirdly, Macy’s has introduced an inclusive leadership programme to ensure its future leaders also reflect the diversity of all its workforce. The retailer has established MOSAIC, a 12-month programme designed to strengthen leadership skills for a select group of top-talent managers/directors of Black/African-American, Hispanic-Latinx, Native American and Asian descent. Its goal is to achieve more ethnic diversity at senior director level and above by 2025 – by at least 30%.

Macy’s says it also wants to achieve a diverse supplier spend of at least 5% by 2021 by “driving growth with under-represented suppliers”. Its aim is to “increase expenditures with suppliers who bring unique merchandise and perspectives, contribute to the economic health of local communities, and help grow the number of diverse suppliers in the retail industry”. The retailer’s Supplier Diversity Programme is designed to connect suppliers that are more ethnically diverse (women-, veteran- and LGBTQ-owned businesses) to opportunities within Macy’s by ensuring they are integrated into merchandising and business development strategies. 

BUILDING MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS

Lastly, the retailer’s plan includes building meaningful relationships with community partners with similar values of driving economic growth while reinforcing social good. In 2019, the company will launch economic development partnerships in at least five cities through its business accelerators, which include ‘The Workshop at Macy’s’, ‘The Market at Macy’s’ and ‘Story’. The company has also set clear goals for a more sustainable future. 

“The strategy and goals we’ve set put us on a clear path to becoming best-in-class, and we hope to be the beacon of change that motivates other retailers and companies outside of our industry to do the same,” stated Shawn Outler, Chief Diversity Officer of Macy’s, Inc.

For more information on Macy’s, Inc D&I plans, CLICK HERE.