Macy's announces 5-point plan to promote diversity and inclusion

Fashion companies continue to invest in strategies that promote inclusion. Macy's is the latest such company, as the American retailer, which operates Macy's and Bloomingdale's stores, has announced a new approach intended to ensure that it reflects the diversity of the communities it serves.

The company has outlined a 5-point plan to reach its inclusivity goals.

As the first of its five points, Macy's has updated its Customer Bill of Rights and expanded colleague training to ensure the company remains welcoming, accepting and respectful to all customers. All Macy's and Bloomingdale's locations will have a copy of the new Customer Bill of Rights by the start of the 2019 holiday season.

Secondly, Macy's has established inclusive marketing practices as a means to reflect and reach the full spectrum of its consumer-base through imagery and messaging. Under its new practices, Macy's requires 50 percent representation of gender or gender identity, ethnicity, age, size and differently abled subjects in its advertisements by next year.

The third point in Macy's plan is the implementation of inclusive workplace training for leadership. The company aims to achieve more ethnic diversity and senior director levels and above by 2025, with a goal of 30 percent.

Macy's will drive growth of underrepresented suppliers, with a goal to achieve a diverse supplier spend of at least 5 percent by 2021. With this goal, the company hopes to contribute to the growth of the number of diverse suppliers in the retail industry.

And lastly, Macy's plan includes expanding economic development partnerships. It will look to build meaningful relationships with community partners with similar values of driving economic growth while reinforcing social good. In 2019, the company will launch economic development partnerships in at least five cities through its business accelerators, which include The Workshop at Macy’s, The Market at Macy’s and Story.

“We are proud of the work we’ve done over the last 10 years to become a more inclusive organization," said Shawn Outler, Macy's chief diversity officer, in a statement. "Today’s announcement marks the next step on our journey as we continue to challenge ourselves to do more.The strategy and goals we’ve set put us on a clear path to becoming best-in-class, and we hope to be the beacon of change that motivates other retailers and companies outside of our industry to do the same.”