Coke’s Elusive Goal: Boosting Its Black Employees
Twenty years ago, Coca-Cola Co. KO -1.45% agreed to pay $192.5 million to settle a race-discrimination class-action lawsuit, one of the largest such settlements in U.S. history. Though the company didn't admit the allegations had merit, Steve Bucherati, the soda giant's first director of workplace fairness after the lawsuit, said the facts were irrefutable.
"Make no mistake about it," the former human-resources executive said. "Coke was 100% discriminating against Black employees."
In November 2000, Coke agreed to implement far-reaching changes to its hiring, promotion and compensation practices. It also vowed to become what it called the "gold standard" of fairness, with a workplace that offered opportunities for all.
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One decade after the settlement, Coke's effort looked like an unqualified success. By 2010, Black employees held 15% of executive roles in the U.S., up from 1.5% in 1998, shortly before the lawsuit was filed.
Two decades after the settlement, that progress has reversed. The share of Black executives is back down to 8%, according to company data. And the representation of Black employees among Coke's U.S. salaried staff is now 15%, or 5 percentage points lower than where it stood in 2000.
"We didn't keep our eye on the North Star," said Valerie Love, who joined Coke last year to lead HR for North America.
In the wake of protests that swept across the country this year after George Floyd was killed in police custody, more companies, including Estée Lauder Cos. and Microsoft Corp., are launching efforts to diversify their workforces, with special emphasis on improving Black employment at their companies.
Coke's diversity push started as an effort to address discrimination against Black employees and broadened over the years to encompass gender and other races and groups.