During a session titled “The Importance of Data Standardization During Leadership Changes,” Juan Otero, Senior Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Comcast NBCUniversal (No. 13 on the 2023 Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list), was keen to note the importance of external validators such as Fair360 (formerly DiversityInc), to drive the gap analysis that comes after survey season.
“I spend more time with our investor relations folks answering questions around what is the narrative (in the data)?” Otero said. “So it is about taking a whole bunch of lenses and looking at the data sets that you have. At the end of the day, if you’re not doing that rigor of analysis, you’re not going to fill up those gaps that were mentioned. You’re not going to get to the promised land, if you will, of fixing those opportunity areas.”
Otero was joined on stage by Kelly Copes-Anderson, Global Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Eli Lilly & Company (No. 5 on the 2023 Top 50 Companies list), and Denise Brownlee, Senior Vice President of Global Talent & Top Management at Stellantis (No. 30 on the 2023 Top 50 Companies list).
The session highlighted the importance of data standardization for new leaders who need to understand what’s working and what’s not in the company quickly. Copes-Anderson spoke about the standardization of business rules, alignment of definitions and centralization of data sources as essential for consistent data interpretation and accurate data analysis.
Brownlee emphasized the role of governance in ensuring consistent data collection and storage across different departments and business units within the organization. Internal audit groups must be delegated with the authority to audit data compliance and accuracy.
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