To underscore how serious it is about diversity, the company has vowed not to rescind the bonus, no matter how bad the economy gets.

In tough times, corporate diversity efforts can often take a backseat—but not at this food- and facilities-management services company, which ties 10% to 25% of its manager bonuses to how well managers hire, promote and retain women and multicultural employees.  In 2008, nearly 30% of Sodexo hires were women of color. Once on board, strong mentoring programs help multicultural women. The exchanges that this program encourages are so powerful that its positive effect has been Gaithersberg demonstrated in three separate internal studies looking at retention and productivity.

Multicultural Women: 28%

Multicultural Women Managers/Execs: 10%

Chief Diversity Officer: Rohini Anand

Hires who are multicultural women: 29%

Hires who are multicultural men: 25%

Multicultural women managers/execs: 10%

Multicultural men managers/execs: 13%

Top 20% earners who are multicultural women: 14%

Top 20% earners who are multicultural men: 18%

Multicultural women on board of directors: 0%

Offers formal compensation program to reward managers who specifically help multicultural women advance: YES

Rates managers on the number of multicultural women employees advancing: NO

Uses outside recruiter to focus on finding multicultural women candidates: NO

Offers support groups specifically for multicultural women: NO

Offers mentoring programs specifically geared toward multicultural women early in their careers: NO

Offers sponsorship program specifically geared toward multicultural women early in their careers: NO