Our Commitment to Advancing Racial and Social Equity

The Kaleidoscope Group conducted an extensive independent assessment of our formal and informal business practices. The assessment, concluded in November 2020, was one of the most exhaustive people assessments in firm history and holistically assessed Booz Allen in five major areas:

1. 1. Culture
2. 2. People & Processes
3. 3. Workforce Analytics
4. 4. Communications & Brand
5. 5. Supply Chain

The assessment gathered insights from:

• A firmwide survey assessing favorability on seven workplace inclusion factors
• In-depth interviews with many leaders and employees
• Review of 620 documents and 50 data sets containing more than 10 million individual data points

This assessment illuminated areas that fully support a diverse workforce, but also uncovered systems and processes that require more intentional focus to ensure full equity. 

Working to build a more equitable world takes mental and emotional energy. To sustain this work over the long term, we identified additional opportunities to enable employees to be heard and recharge when needed. In 2020, we made the following changes:

• Converted the Columbus Day holiday into a floating well-being holiday that employees can use when they choose
• Enhanced our Employee Assistance Program offerings, including increasing the number of counseling sessions available
• Celebrated Juneteenth firmwide for the first time
• Provided more robust well-being programming, including new offerings on mindfulness, yoga, sleep improvement, and stress reduction
• Launched a listening series that engaged over 5,000 employees to enable them to share their stories and listen to one another in a safe space that deepened our collective understanding and empathy. These listening sessions are continuing quarterly, providing the opportunity and safe container to explore the impacts of sociopolitical flashpoints, such as the rising violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and Jewish Americans. 

While we’re proud of the progress we’ve made toward increasing representation over the years, as CEO and President Horacio Rozanski said, “this work doesn’t end until each and every person feels reflected in their leadership.”

• Using insights from the independent assessment, we identified the systems, processes, and talent practices that must be thoroughly re-imagined to mitigate any potential bias in order to attract and develop BIPOC talent and create the diverse pipeline of leaders we need in the future.
• In 2020, we publicly released firmwide diversity metrics for the first time. This data shows our progress to date and where we will continue our work. 

To ensure that we’re all operating from the same baseline of understanding, we enhanced our extensive DEI learning library available to all employees and sourced best-in-class industry trainings to enable a deeper understanding of certain concepts. We launched a DEI compass tool that provides a customized learning journey for employees, and we are finalizing a mandatory DEI training for all employees.

We will serve as a convenor—identifying the powerful cross-sections of thought leadership, innovation, and technologies – to bring together leading experts to partner in using our world class capabilities to make measurable impacts on driving equity.

We announced the expansion of our signature DEI program Unstoppable Together at last year’s summit, committing to use our voice and capabilities to tackle some of the most vexing social inequities of our time. Follow our Unstoppable Together announcements to learn more about the upcoming Unstoppable Together Incubator and teams of our fellow employees who will join together to do just this.

This work is now embedded in Goal 3 Inspire Belonging of the DEI Strategy and Action Plan.

• In the summer of 2020, when we launched a Racial and Social Equity giving campaign, we asked our employees about the organizations that they thought were doing the most impactful racial and social equity work.  Their responses guided our initial investments.
• The Race and Social Equity Employee Giving Campaign exceeded historic participation rates among employees and, with the 2-to-1 corporate match component, raised over $565,000 to support four organizations: Equal Justice Initiative, Black Girls CODE Inc., Thurgood Marshall College Fund, and Year Up.
• We launched the inaugural Race and Social Equity Grants. In 2020, we awarded $200K to support 16 employee-nominated nonprofits that are doing work in the equity space. The program will facilitate ongoing engagement between colleagues, nonprofit partners, and the communities where they live and work.