Daimler AG became a global diversity leader through self-commitment and accountability. It's one way to ensure delivery of quality products and services to the world.

- By Peter Scott

Daimler AG is recognized as a diversity leader, but the company's management is still not fully satisfied with its current status. Although diversity is organizationally driven from the corporate level, the work of ensuring the regional diversity initiatives fit seamlessly into the global business operations is an ongoing process.

Diversity strategies are a core component of talent attraction and retention. It is under the guidance of Ursula Schwarzenbart, Daimler AG's Director of Global Diversity, Management Performance, and Potential Management, that diversity is addressed on a broad basis as a business imperative connected to changing customer and talent pipeline demographics, behaviors, and preferences. While attending the Global Summit of Women held in Paris June 5-7, a conversation with Schwarzenbart naturally turned to managing the diversity dimension in a globalized marketplace where there is no room for unconscious bias.

Daimler AG is well known for its Mercedes-Benz Cars, Mercedes-Benz Vans and Daimler Trucks divisions. The global manufacturer also has the Daimler Buses and Daimler Financial Services divisions. Schwarzenbart has over 25 years of experience with Daimler, working at various times in engineering and human resources. After assuming the position in the chief diversity office in 2005, she first focused on gender diversity, followed by expanding the scope to include internalization and generational diversity. In 2011, she assumed responsibility for management performance and potential management within the context of diversity.

Zeroing in on the Real Issues

Daimler approaches diversity from many directions – the role of women, guiding the intergenerational discourse, helping managers recognize unconscious bias and stereotyping, and using metrics to ensure continual progress. Daimler's leadership role in the diversity space is reflected in Schwarzenbart's deep understanding of the complex makeup of today's marketplace and talent pool. She has an uncanny ability to zero in on the real diversity issues.

Asked about helping women grow within the Daimler organization, Schwarzenbart elaborates, "Women cut through every diversity dimension, so I find it very helpful to especially care for the women."

Asked about the multigenerational characteristic of the workforce, she says, "At Daimler, we always say that age discrimination is not a question of age. It is a matter of unconscious bias, like making the assumption that a young person in the organization is not capable of handling a senior role."

Asked about the role of government mandates and quotas, her answer is, "Legislation may be worthwhile, but voluntary commitment is worth more."

Stereotyping and unconscious bias are two barriers to diversity that also cut across the diversity dimension.

"We looked at how many women versus men are promoted and discovered the percentage of women is lower than it is for men, indicating bias. So we looked at how many women versus men have the potential to advance to the next level, and the surprising answer was that women get even more potential. They could not realize that potential due to bias," she said.

Stereotyping and unconscious bias have impacted talent in other ways, leading managers to make assumptions about people with different national and ethnic backgrounds, cultures, and styles of learning.

Europe has another diversity issue not necessarily found in other locations around the world. People can look alike and be quite different culturally. For example, Eastern and Western Germans have cultural differences though physically indistinguishable.

"We make sure our workforce members understand that people may look alike but are different in other ways. It is an issue we must deal with at every management level to ensure people in the workforce are not forced to assimilate by denying their differences," she said.

Diversity Through the Eyes of Daimler

Looking at diversity through Daimler's eyes is an interesting journey into an evolving competitive environment. Customer demographics are changing as vehicle buyers are increasingly female and come from different nationalities. Customers are taking a "younger" approach to car buying. This leads to a need to grow a talent pipeline in engineering so that Daimler has people working for the company who understand customer needs and preferences.

"There is no way we can build cars for the world and only have German employees," Schwarzenbart says. "We must help people from other countries enjoy and successfully work in our culture. We also constantly work with managers to help them understand that other cultures bring something different and vary valuable to the table."

The Daimler top management is committed to diversity and that has everything to do with the company's focus on ensuring the diversity dimension is pervasive on a global basis and embraces the workforce and supply chain.

"We have a lot of network in Germany and internationally where we are collaborating on an operational basis to figure out what other companies are doing and not pretend to have invented everything. We are always looking for fresh, inspiring ideas," she said.

A Measurement by Any Other Name

Given the size and global reach of Daimler, it is natural to wonder how the company ensures it stays on track for achieving progress. Management decided in 2005 that what gets measured, gets done. While considering the need to increase the number of women in executive positions, it was decided to grow by 1 percent each year starting in 2006, while striving to reach a goal by the year 2020.

"At the end of 2013, 13 percent of women were in executive positions. We will have 14 percent by the end of 2014. We review progress with management four times a year and are doing monthly forecasts to make sure we know by the middle of the year how many women we need to bring to the executive table to reach our goal. Reaching or missing the target has a big impact on executive bonuses," she said.

Daimler has also developed aspirational guidelines. The company instituted 60 degree feedback on diversity and has included diversity in the two-hour performance measurement so that everyone knows his or her contribution to diversity. The diversity initiative is nearly 10 years strong, and the curve is still heading upward.

Daimler is committed to diversity in everything it does because the organization believes diversity will keep it competitive. For Daimler, a voluntary commitment to diversity equates to committing to success.