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One of the most important elements of Citigroup’s leadership has been our longstanding commitment to diversity.
For our clients, our diversity means a workforce that is 98 percent local in the 100 countries in which we operate, with employees who understand our clients’ needs and aspirations. For our employees, it is a culture where the best people want to work, where people are promoted on their merits, where we treat each other with dignity and respect, and where opportunities to develop are widely available to all—regardless of differences.
We’ve made great progress embedding the principles of diversity and inclusion at Citigroup. We’ve done this by holding management accountable, by strengthening our efforts to attract and develop talent, and by creating innovative programs so our employees can share an even greater sense of pride and fulfillment in what they do. Among the highlights in 2005 and so far in 2006:
- Our senior managers continued to develop diversity plans and review their progress with our Board of Directors.
- We continued to attract top diverse talent through core partnerships.
- We launched a global initiative on flexible work by developing a common set of guidelines, tools, and resources through which employees and managers can consider and strengthen their flexible work strategies.
We’re proud of our employees’ efforts and their commitment to diversity, but we know there is still more work ahead. Embedding the principles of diversity and inclusion in everything we do is essential to achieving Citigroup’s goal of being the most respected global financial services company.
Three years ago, we shaped our diversity strategy along four lines—to be the employer, service provider, business partner, and neighbor of choice. By the end of 2005, we had made important progress toward achieving these goals.
EMPLOYER OF CHOICE
Management Accountability
Since 2002, Citigroup businesses and managers have been required to develop annual diversity plans and, through quarterly reviews, have been held accountable for the progress of those plans. These reviews culminate in an annual review of our franchise efforts with our full Board of Directors. In total, 162 diversity reviews were conducted in our businesses in 2005.
Management Committee members are responsible for attending diversity training and serving as mentors to more junior employees. They are also encouraged to be personally involved as business champions of diversity initiatives, including business diversity councils and employee networks. Senior managers’ overall efforts are linked to compensation and are part of the performance appraisal process launched in 2005 for Citigroup’s top 3,000 managers.
Diversity Councils
Citigroup’s 24 diversity councils are fundamental to the successful implementation of our overall diversity strategy. The Citigroup Diversity Operating Council is made up of senior diversity and Human Resources leaders from core businesses and regions. It meets biweekly to review the progress of our strategy, share best practices, align policies globally, and develop and execute initiatives.
The councils focus on gender along with other dimensions of diversity, such as disability, ethnicity, race, or sexual orientation. The Global Consumer Group and Corporate and Investment Banking diversity councils in India were among the new councils launched in 2005.
Attracting Talent
In 2005, we continued our relationships with longtime association partners while working to develop new relationships to strengthen and diversify our recruiting efforts. We also work with select undergraduate and graduate schools to attract and recruit diverse students. Building successful relationships with the career placement offices at these schools has been instrumental in our search for top talent.
- Diverse Graduates and Professionals
- We marked the tenth year of our partnerships with the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) and the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA). Citigroup continues to be one of the top corporate recruiters at both organizations’ professional and MBA recruiting events and serves on their corporate advisory boards. Citigroup managers and recruiters from 34 businesses attended the organizations’ annual career fairs, which attract many diverse MBAs and professionals. We hired 36 individuals from the conferences in 2005—a 16 percent increase over 2004.
- Citigroup remained a lead sponsor for two minority MBA fellowship organizations: the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management and the Robert Toigo Foundation. Four candidates from the Consortium and two from Toigo accepted offers of employment with Citigroup.
- We continued to build our partnership with Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), a nonprofit organization focused on increasing the rate of minority students’ admission to top-tier business schools. Citigroup, a corporate partner since 2003, is the lead financial services sponsor of the Citigroup Career Transition and Leadership Seminar, geared toward students who have been accepted by MBA programs. In 2005, 104 students were involved in the program and Citigroup hired 12 pre-MBA students for summer internships. Citigroup is also engaged in MLT’s undergraduate program, and five undergraduates were hired in Corporate and Investment Banking. We are also pleased that content from Citigroup’s financial education program has been added to the MLT high school program’s curriculum.
- Diverse Undergraduates
- Citigroup continued its longtime partnership with INROADS and the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) programs. In 2005, we sponsored 65 INROADS interns in various U.S. metropolitan areas and Mexico. Out of 12 graduating interns, five students accepted offers of employment. Also in 2005, 25 SEO interns worked in Corporate and Investment Banking in the U.S. The SEO Career Program, begun in 1980 with Citigroup as a founding member, has been one of the most effective sources of diverse undergraduate candidates in the U.S.
- People with Disabilities
- In the U.K., we launched a collaborative venture with Mencap, the U.K.’s leading organization for people with learning disabilities, and Pitney Bowes, our management services provider. The pilot program, WorkRight, aims to give people with learning disabilities job placements that may lead to full-time job opportunities. An online interview guide for helping these students through the recruiting process was also created in the U.K.
- In recognition of Disability Awareness Month, Citigroup employees in New York mentored more than 20 students and professionals with disabilities on Disability Mentor Day.
- LGBTCommunity
- Our outreach to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community is ongoing. In the U.S., Citigroup organized and participated in four MBA receptions in Boston, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia to recruit LGBT students at eight schools: Stern, Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Kellogg, Sloan, Tuck, and Wharton.
- We were an event sponsor at Reaching Out MBA Conferences in Boston and Chicago. This year, 33 employees attended. Citigroup provided speakers for four panels and employees delivered opening remarks at two separate events.
- In the U.K., Citigroup was the first financial institution to target the LGBT student networks at schools such as Oxford, Cambridge, the London School of Economics, Imperial College, and Edinburgh. In all, more than 200 students attended our various recruiting events. “Out in the City,” hosted by Citigroup and eight other leading financial services companies, provides unique insight into what a career in investment banking could offer to LGBT students from across the U.K.
- Women
- Citigroup continues to work to recruit more women through our ongoing partnership with Women for Hire and its recruiting fairs in five U.S. cities—Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Tampa, and Washington. We also recruited talent through a new initiative focusing on women returning to work, “When ‘Mother’ Is On Your Resume.”
- Citigroup is involved in many on-campus women’s efforts, including the Michigan Women in Leadership Conference, the Stern Women in Business Conference, and the Wharton Women in Business Conference. We also participated in a new venture, the National Association of Women MBAs (NAWMBA), that provided a forum to educate MBA-level women on the industries and job opportunities that would be available to them upon graduation.
- Our Corporate and Investment Banking business’s diversity efforts in the U.K. were recognized in 2005 when they received the 2005 City Focus Award from Opportunity Now, the leading U.K. organization dedicated to promoting gender equality in the workplace. The award recognized our holistic approach to recruiting, identifying, and developing high-potential female employees.
We are working to help our employees build productive and rewarding careers by providing a wide array of workforce development and training programs. We assess our company’s top talent annually, including the positions of women globally and minorities within the U.S.
Our CFO, Sallie Krawcheck, is business sponsor of the Citigroup Women’s Initiative, a new global effort that will align 28 different women’s groups. The Initiative will let the groups share best practices that foster and promote the development of women throughout the organization.
We promote employee development through informal networking and structured mentoring initiatives. Our leadership has embraced mentoring: 86 percent of our Management Committee members participate in mentoring relationships and more than 4,600 of our employees are involved in a mentoring relationship coordinated through the company, including an open mentoring program that pairs an employee with a mentor online.
We have successfully worked with other organizations to help develop the leadership skills of our diverse employees and provide unique mentoring opportunities. Since 2002, Citigroup has nominated emerging African-American leaders to participate in the Executive Leadership Council’s (ELC) Mid-Level Managers Symposium, held every year in Washington, D.C. A national membership organization comprised of senior-level African-American executives from U.S. Fortune 500 corporations, ELC provides a forum for offering perspective and direction on national and international economic and public policy issues. In 2005, 48 of our employees attended the program that included a networking session with senior Citigroup African-American leaders.
Citigroup also sponsored the inaugural Harlem YMCA’s Black Achievers in Industry (BAI) Leadership Summit, a professional development event for 2005 BAI honorees as well as past recipients. The summit was created as a forum to discuss issues that challenge African-American professionals in business, develop strategies to improve leadership skills, and foster professional networks with BAI alumni. Citigroup, a sponsor of BAI since the program’s inception in 1971, has honored 123 employees to date through the program. In 2005, we were recognized for our long-term commitment to the Harlem YMCA by receiving the BAI Chairman’s Circle Award.
Work Environment
In 2005, Citigroup launched a new initiative on flexible work that featured global guidelines that align our existing policies. We also launched an intranet site that hosts the guidelines and tools to use when discussing the potential for flexible work. Training was provided for Human Resources professionals and managers to increase awareness and build skills for managing flexible work at Citigroup. Human Resources officers in Banamex and our Latin American businesses, as well as those in Turkey and other countries in the Middle East and Africa, were among the first to participate in the global training effort.
Flexible Work training for managers and Human Resources professionals will continue in 2006 to further execute the initiative.
Training and Feedback
We continue to make strong progress in providing diversity training throughout our businesses globally.
During 2005, employees in Ireland, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, the U.K., and the U.S. attended such training courses as “Valuing Diversity,” “Respect at Work,” “Diversity Awareness,” and “Respecting Diversity in the Workplace.” We value our employees’ opinions about their workplace and encourage them to make their voices heard. One of the ways we assess trends in the work environment and management practices is through our annual Voice of the Employee survey (VOE). VOE results for 2005 indicated significant progress in the area of diversity.
Employee Networks
Citigroup’s Employee Networks are initiated and led by employees. They are open to all employees in the country in which they are recognized and provide an opportunity to share common experiences and build awareness of diverse cultures and communities. Citigroup Employee Networks exist in 15 cities in the U.K. and the U.S. In 2005 and so far in 2006, 14 new networks were formed, bringing our total to 33. Groups continue to form and we expect to continue recognizing these new networks well into the future. As of the end of first quarter 2006, participation grew to more than 9,100employees, a 75 percent increase over 2004.
Recognized U.S. groups include: African Heritage, Asian Pacific Heritage, Hispanic, Pride (a group focused on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities), Women, and Working Parents. In the U.K., Pride, Women, Working Parents, and a multicultural network called Roots have been recognized. Our Business Heads—Bob Druskin, President and CEO, Corporate and Investment Banking; Ajay Banga, Chairman and CEO, Global Consumer Group – International; and Steve Freiberg, Chairman and CEO, Global Consumer Group – North America—are among the sponsors. Thirty-six Human Resources officers from across our businesses serve as liaisons.
Here is a sampling of activities conducted by networks in 2006:
- The African Heritage Network—NYC volunteered and participated in community outreach activities, including the delivery of financial education in partnership with Operation Hope and the New York Urban League to more than 300 students and 95 adults.
- The Asian Pacific Heritage Network—NYC celebrated the centennial of Filipinos arriving in the U.S. in Hawaii with a Filipino fiesta and a Hawaiian luau, cultural folk dancers, and guest speakers.
- The Hispanic Network—Dallas/Fort Worth organized an office supply collection in support of the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Citigroup donated more than 130 items to the organization.
- vThe Parents Network–-London sponsored parenting workshops on topics such as child and baby first aid, sibling rivalry, managing the teenage years, childcare choices, nutrition, eating disorders, and stepfamilies. More than 475 employees participated in the sessions.
- The Pride Network—St. Louis coordinated a food drive in which they collected more than 6,300 items that were donated to the Food Outreach, a local organization that focuses on the AIDS/HIV communities.
- The Women’s Network—Dallas/Ft. Worth volunteered to assist in supporting Girl’s Inc., a local non-profit organization, at their program events reaching more than 200 girls.
In the U.S., Citigroup sponsored more than 67 programs in conjunction with heritage months in 2005. The array of programs, often planned in partnership with our employee networks, helps employees learn about the achievements of multicultural groups and celebrate the diversity of our organization. Examples of these programs include:
- Women’s History Month—our employees heard a keynote address by the Honorable Ann Richards, former governor of Texas.
- Disability Awareness Month—employees were inspired by a successful Certified Public Accountant and financial analyst, Lisa Fittipaldi, who suddenly lost her sight in 1993 at the age of 47 and has since become a world-renowned artist, author, and founder of The Mind’s Eye Foundation—a nonprofit organization that serves as an advocate for blind, visually impaired, and hearing-impaired children in the U.S.
- Heritage and awareness programs were also conducted during Citigroup’s U.K. Diversity Week 2005, an annual series of events that aims to raise awareness of, and build support for, diversity across the organization. The week included a range of highly innovative and challenging workshops. This effort was mirrored in the U.S. at the inaugural West Coast Diversity Awareness Week launched by the Municipal Securities Division (MSD) Diversity Committee.
Citigroup recognizes that our employees strive to succeed in their work and their personal lives. The needs of one often affect the needs of the other. That’s why we continually seek to make tools and programs available to our employees around the world to help them meet the challenges of both their work and their personal responsibilities.
- The LifeWorksâ Program. This program helps employees and their dependents better manage the demands that people face throughout their lifetimes. Open to employees, their partners, and dependents in Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S., the program is available around the clock through a toll-free telephone number and the Web. It provides access to information, research, and resources, along with customized referrals to help employees achieve practical solutions on a wide variety of topics, such as parenting/child care, managing the needs of older adults, self-care, adoption, education, and legal issues. In 2005, LifeWorks resources also supported employees and their families coping with military deployment and natural disasters.
- Dependent Care Options. Citigroup offers full-time and back-up child care programs and elder care management services and back-up programs to more than 93,000 employees in Europe and the U.S. In addition, Citigroup owns or participates in 12 childcare centers in the U.S. and Europe where more than 6,600 employee children are cared for. Additional back-up centers are under construction at Citigroup’s Warren, NJ and Jacksonville, FL sites, and in Sydney, Australia.
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP). This program is open to employees and their immediate family members in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S., as well as to expatriate staff around the world who may need assistance dealing with personal problems. Access to the EAP is available around the clock via toll-free telephone numbers. This year, the U.S. EAP facilitated 24 worksite sessions and provided resources for employees and their family members coping with the devastation wrought by the hurricanes in the Southeast and Gulf Coast regions.
Citigroup strives to deliver products and services to our clients that reflect both our global reach and our deep local roots in every market where we operate. The diversity of our employees enables us to better understand our clients, while the breadth of our product offerings allows us to serve them better. African-American Clients
We continue to focus our efforts on reaching African-American consumers through a combination of activities that include community partnerships, event participation, media advertising, and direct mail marketing. In 2005, the Smith Barney African-American Initiative hosted educational symposiums focused on wealth management for affluent African-Americans in Baltimore, Birmingham, and St. Louis. The Initiative also hosted a symposium in Atlanta focusing on African-American women’s health issues.
Other highlights from 2005 include:
- Several Citibank Financial Centers hosted a variety of Black History Month celebrations which honored African-American culture and also gave consumers access to a wide range of financial products.
- Our New York region once again hosted the “Harlem Is” exhibition in conjunction with Community Works.
- Our new Financial Center in Mitchellville, MD, opened in May 2005 to great acclaim and placed us at the heart of a thriving and growing community in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
- Our Citibank at Work in the Community team established partnerships with a number of agencies serving immigrant refugees and asylum seekers to provide these vulnerable clients access to financial education and the mainstream financial system. A significant number of these immigrants are from Africa and the Caribbean.
- Citibank was also a sponsor of “Kreyol Fest,” organized by the Haitian Times in New York.
- CitiMortgage worked with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Home Depot, and the National Newspaper Association to produce inserts on homeownership that were distributed through 50 African-American-owned and -targeted newspapers. In addition, homebuyer education seminars were held in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and Washington, DC.
As part of our continued commitment to the Asian-American community, in 2005, Citibank Financial Centers celebrated the Year of the Rooster from January through March. To commemorate the Lunar New Year, 24-carat gold, collectible zodiac pendants were offered to new depositors. Home-buying seminars, including our American Homeownership program for immigrants, were conducted in Mandarin and Cantonese throughout the year. These well-attended seminars provided the community with information on building a credit history and the overall homeownership process.
Serving Asian-American clients who prefer to speak in-language is important to Citibank. The toll-free Asian Citiphone Client Service Unit is open to serve our Asian-American Citibank clients from coast to coast with extended hours, including Saturdays. Chinese-, Japanese-, and Korean-speaking representatives are well-versed in our suite of products and services. In addition, a full-color bilingual service aid is available to Chinese language-dependent clients to assist them in reading their monthly checking account statements.
Hispanic Clients
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics are the largest—and fastest-growing—minority population in the U.S. There are 40 million Latinos in the U.S. with a purchasing power of $700 billion. Close to 50 percent of Hispanics are unbanked or underbanked. In early 2003, our Global Consumer Group business increased Citigroup’s share of the Hispanic market in the U.S. by implementing a client-centered strategy focused on better serving Hispanic consumers. New initiatives launched in 2005 include:
- Expanded our money remittance services by offering a remittance service to Ecuador from some of our branches in New York. We will roll out the service nationwide in the U.S. during 2006.
- Developed a personal loan offer for people without credit history at both Citibank and CitiFinancial.
- Offered mortgage loans for clients without credit history through CitiMortgage.
In 2005, the Smith Barney Hispanic Initiative hosted educational symposiums focused on wealth management for affluent Hispanic Americans in Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City. The Initiative focuses on supporting arts and cultural events that promote preservation of Hispanic heritage while also emphasizing the importance of Latin American markets to the U.S. economy.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Clients
For the fourth consecutive year, the Citibank Retail Distribution Group sponsored the New York City Gay & Lesbian Business Expo, which reached more than 20,000 people. In April, for the second year, it also sponsored the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. In San Francisco, a Pride Expo was sponsored in June, as was a private CitiGold reception and opening night of the Broadway musical “Wicked” for the LGBT community in August.
A joint partnership mailing with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reached more than 230,000 households in both June and December. In 2005, Citigroup became a platinum-level national sponsor of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest equality advocacy group for the LGBT community in the U.S. Support for HRC included sponsoring 23 local annual dinners across the U.S. and sending representatives to dinners in several client markets, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York City, St. Louis, San Antonio, San Francisco, and the national dinner in Washington, D.C. Citigroup was featured prominently in the HRC’s publication “Buying for Equality—A Guide to Companies and Products That Support Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Equality.”
Women Clients
In 2005, the Smith Barney Women’s Initiative hosted educational symposiums focused on women’s lifestyle issues. In New York City and Washington, D.C., programs were held in conjunction with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. These events educated women on health issues, especially breast cancer. Symposiums were also held in Armonk, NY, and Phoenix, AZ, with a focus on financial empowerment and women going through life transitions, such as divorce or widowhood. Most recently, the Initiative sponsored the California Governor and First Lady’s Conference on Women and Families, which promoted personal and professional empowerment through education on philanthropy, community involvement, and small business development.
Women and Company®, a membership program designed around women’s financial needs, conducted 29 conference calls headed by notable financial experts; hosted 20 educational “Master Classes” in major metropolitan markets, from New York to Los Angeles; and co-sponsored with Citibank and Smith Barney more than 125 educational seminars for women and their families across the U.S. In addition, Women and Company published some 26 information bulletins containing articles and tips addressing financial topics of particular concern to women. In partnership with the Citigroup Foundation, the program launched the Women and Company Microenterprise Boost Program, administered by the Association for Enterprise Opportunity. This innovative program provides equity awards of $1,000 to low- and moderate-income women entrepreneurs. Seventy-two women from urban and rural communities throughout the U.S. received the awards in 2005, with special outreach made to racial and ethnic minorities and women with disabilities.
BUSINESS PARTNER OF CHOICE
Citigroup works to create mutually beneficial business relationships with minorities, women, disabled veterans, and other people with disabilities. We recognize that working with a wide range of professionals, suppliers, and consultants strengthens the communities we serve while creating value for our shareholders.
Overall spending in our Supplier Diversity Program with business enterprises owned by minorities, women, disabled veterans, and other people with disabilities in the U.S. grew to $950 million. Our growth resulted from combining procurement-driven spending in commodity areas with new initiatives in the professional services sectors of our businesses.
A Business Priority
Our Supplier Diversity Program has expanded its role within Citigroup by fostering greater participation by the company’s businesses and working with our community relations teams on various programs. During 2005, the Supplier Diversity team made presentations to key community advocacy groups in support of Citigroup’s diversity commitment to our local communities. The collaboration fostered supplier relationships with organizations that included the Greenlining Institute, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Rainbow PUSH, and TELACU, as well as with Citibank’s California Community Advisory Committee on Supplier Diversity and the Citigroup Community Fund.
European Supplier Diversity Business Forum
Representatives from Citigroup Supplier Diversity, our U.K. diversity team, and our businesses in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa serve on the industry-wide European Supplier Diversity Business Forum. Established in 2004, the Forum aims to introduce supplier diversity to small and medium-sized enterprises owned by ethnic minorities, women, immigrants, and the disabled in five European countries over the next three to four years.
In 2005, Citigroup was selected to chair the Forum’s newly created Board of Directors, which will oversee a number of projects in Germany and the U.K. These projects include completion of a corporate members’ survey to identify potential diverse suppliers; hosting a Prime Contractors and Supplier Diversity in Action meeting to introduce supplier diversity to major U.K. companies; and hosting a presentation by a well-respected intermediary of London’s Women’s Enterprise and Prowess and the Ethnic Minority Business Forum. The Forum has also launched a public Web site (www.europeansupplierdiversity.com) and was highlighted in European Leaders in Procurement magazine. Citigroup was among the presenters at the 2005 European Leaders in Procurement Forum in Amsterdam and was represented on a panel at the Tenth Annual European Federation of Black Business Owners Global Summit Business Expo in London. In addition, an effort is under way to build relationships with intermediary groups that can assist us in expanding our outreach to more diverse suppliers in the U.K.
Diverse Suppliers Represented in Building New Citigroup Tower During 2005, Citigroup broke ground for a new, 15-story office tower in Long Island City, NY, that will house more than 1,500 employees. Citigroup Supplier Diversity, working with Citigroup’s Real Estate and Facilities Business, has set a goal to have 20 percent of those contracted for the construction project be diverse suppliers.
NEIGHBOR OF CHOICE
Citigroup believes it has a responsibility to make a difference in the neighborhoods in which we live and work around the world. We reach out to and form relationships with nonprofit organizations, civic groups, educational institutions, and local governments representing the diverse nature of these communities.
For further information on our efforts in the community, click here.
As of October 2006