Herman Miller, Inc. has been named a 2020 Women on Boards Winning Company. Companies selected for this recognition are considered champions of board diversity with 20 percent or more of their board seats occupied by women.
Only 12 companies in Michigan were awarded “Winning Company” status. Herman Miller and General Motors top that list with each having 42 percent of their board comprised of women. Herman Miller was in the top three when 2020 Women on Boards did their calculations in the fall of 2015, before a new appointment to the Herman Miller board in February 2016 moved the company’s ranking to the top.
“Herman Miller is built on the belief that every employee brings a valuable perspective to the table, and this culture of inclusiveness extends from the boardroom throughout the company,” said Brian Walker, Herman Miller’s Chief Executive Officer. “We’re very intentional about aligning our leadership with our corporate values, and we firmly believe the diversity in our workforce allows us to better meet the needs of our global customers and create a stronger, more competitive company.”
Herman Miller has a longstanding commitment to promoting equality and inclusion, and has earned nine consecutive perfect scores on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index. In 2007, Herman Miller launched the Women’s Initiatives Network (WIN), one of 12 Inclusiveness Resource Teams (IRTs) responsible for developing initiatives and organizing grassroots efforts to help individuals thrive in meeting their business objectives. WIN promotes a supportive environment for women by enhancing work-life integration, professional development, and community involvement, not to mention a sense of camaraderie. WIN’s 77 current members work closely with the 40 members of ChanGE, Herman Miller’s International Women’s IRT.
Founded in Boston in 2010, 2020 Women on Boards is the national campaign to increase the percentage of women on U.S. company boards to 20% or greater by the year 2020. In 2015, its Gender Diversity Index of Fortune 1000 Companies showed that just 17.9 percent of Corporate Directors were women, despite the fact that women comprise about half of the total U.S. workforce, hold half of all management positions, are responsible for almost 80 percent of all consumer spending, and account for 10 million majority-owned, privately-held firms in the U.S. that employ over 13 million people and generate over $1.9 trillion in sales.
To learn more about Herman Miller’s commitment to equality, visit the company’s Inclusiveness and Diversity page.