A public policy advocacy group has named semiconductor chip maker Intel Corp. as the “most faith-friendly” Fortune 500 company.
The nonprofit Religious Freedom & Business Foundation released on Monday its “2023 Corporate Religious Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI) Index” at the group’s annual conference on faith at work. The index tracks “corporate America’s inclusion of religion as an integral part of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives,” and ranks companies on their support of employee religious expression.
The index monitored companies that listed religion on their main diversity webpages, sponsored employee resource groups (ERG), included faith in diversity training, provided corporate chaplains and offered religious accommodation to workers, among other factors.
Following Intel, American Airlines took second place in the REDI Index and data center firm Equinix took third place. Rounding out the top 10 were PayPal and Salesforce (tied for fourth place), Dell Technologies (sixth), AIG (seventh), Tyson Foods (eighth), and Google and Texas Instruments (tied for ninth).
Most of the firms noted for inclusion have set up employee resource groups, in which colleagues can meet to observe religious occasions — for instance, Muslim workers gathering during Ramadan — as well as educate management about spiritual needs.
The groups also can get involved in social action: Equinix’s FaithConnect ERG supported the A21 campaign against human trafficking and slavery by holding three global calls with more than 600 individuals who raised more than $30,000 for the effort.
“No one should have to worry about hiding their beliefs out of fear of facing harassment, hate or discrimination in our country,” foundation President Brian Grim said in a statement. “[Fifty] percent more companies are benchmarking progress in this area than last year, three times more companies are utilizing corporate chaplains, and there is greater collaboration than ever before among companies.”
Among Fortune 500 companies, 219 firms (44%) discuss religion on their main diversity landing page, up from 202 (40%) last year, according to the foundation. Forty-three companies (8.6%) publicly report having faith-oriented employee resource groups, up from 37 companies last year.
Mr. Grim told The Washington Times that it’s noteworthy that companies are sharing with competitors their efforts to promote religious inclusion for employees.
“In this past year, PayPal, for instance, Equinix, American Airlines, [software firm] SAP, they all hosted events, bringing in other companies and saying, ‘Here’s what we’re doing. We wanted to share it with you,’” he told The Times before the announcement of the REDI Index release.
Mr. Grim said the rise in corporate chaplains — evidenced by American Airlines and Tyson Foods efforts — indicates the growing importance of religious understanding for employers.
He said Tyson Foods CEO John Tyson explained that the firm employs chaplains throughout the company, including its processing facilities, because “we need people that just are there to care for employees and hear what they’re needing, what their issues are, and then they work to accommodate the best they can.”
During the foundation’s conference on Monday, Naomi Kraus, who heads Google’s Inter Belief Network, will explain how employee resource groups help fight religious discrimination and antisemitism.
“In my 10-plus years at Google, I’ve watched this tech company evolve and embrace the inclusion movement, encouraging Googlers to bring their whole selves to work,” Ms. Kraus said in a statement. “One’s faith and ethnic identity is very much a part of that process, but as of late, many have become more wary of expressing it due to the hate they fear they may experience. Businesses must take steps to end the scourge of antisemitism and to support their Jewish employees.”
The three-day conference will be held at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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