An Interview with Corbette Doyle, Global Chief Diversity Officer, Aon

Amidst a growing labor shortage, Aon is striving to embrace a diverse workforce in order to gain top talent and a competitive edge.

“I firmly believe in the business case for diversity,” said Corbette Doyle, Global Chief Diversity Officer for Aon. “I truly believe that unless you can link your diversity strategy to something that is meaningful to the organization and is meaningful to the leaders at all levels within the organization, that it is probably doomed to fail.”

In today’s employment environment, companies have been forced to redesign the way they secure and retain top tier talent. Diversity becomes an important element going forward.

Doyle believes that the current market makes a strong case to establish a diverse workforce. As more workers are entering retirement age, companies will be forced to look at all demographics, from race to sexual orientation, to remain competitive.

It is estimated that 76 million baby boomers will retire in the next ten years, depleting the U.S. of one-third of its current work force. Many of these workers make up the most experienced and accomplished members of their industry. The knowledge lost in this process will be difficult to replace by the succeeding generation.

Doyle has been chosen to spearhead a program at Aon that will prepare the company for this impending environment.

“You have declining birth rates, immigration challenges, a decline in the rate of improvement that productivity can bring to the table, and you have the largest retirement age population that the world has ever seen,” she said. “It’s not hype.”

This is not strictly a U.S. problem, but rather a global issue as countries such as Germany, England, Italy, Japan, and China all expect to see the number of workers retiring continuing to rise.

However, just as this is a world-wide problem, part of the solution may be found on a global scale as well. As U.S. companies begin looking to non-traditional labor pools to replenish a shrinking workforce, this new talent may be able to help expand business overseas or into new cultures.

This requires not only a diverse workforce, but also a workforce that can handle its own diversity. “From the standpoint of our global diversity strategy, one of the two things that our advisory board identified was a need for cultural competence,” said Doyle. “They identified that as a diversity issue and as an increase in the global world.