Nielsen Advances in Ranking for Top Companies for Diversity and Inclusion for Fifth Consecutive Year

NEW YORK, May 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nielsen has earned the #19 ranking on the 2018 DiversityInc Top 50 list for corporate diversity and inclusion, moving up 13 places. This is Nielsen's fifth consecutive year moving up on the annual ranking of companies that excel in hiring, retaining and promoting women, minorities, people with disabilities, LGBT+ and veterans.

"Nielsen's results to date prove that leveraging our diversity of cultural backgrounds, experiences, talents and skills makes our company stronger and more useful to our clients and stakeholders," said Nielsen CEO Mitch Barns. "Diversity is key to our growth and ability to innovate."

Measurement and accountability are key components of Nielsen's diversity and inclusion strategy and have been critical to our improvements in workforce representation, promotions, recruitment, retention and supplier diversity spend. For instance, Nielsen reports a nine percentage point increase in the racial diversity of our workforce over the past five years. Similarly, our global female representation in senior leadership is 33.8%--which is higher than other global companies, where percentages of females in senior management range between 24% and 29%*.

"Nielsen's business is predicated upon people?their preferences, choices and behaviors," said Nielsen Chief Diversity Officer Angela Talton. "Global population shifts are causing those behaviors to change at a rapid pace. Our investments in diverse talent and programming, advance our ability to help clients anticipate and respond to those shifts."

As the leading global provider of insights and comprehensive understanding of consumer behavior, Nielsen's nuanced understanding of an increasingly diverse market' influence on consumer trends is driven largely by our diverse and inclusive workforce. 

In the U.S., Nielsen's Diverse Intelligence Series utilizes the breadth of Nielsen's measurement portfolio and the diversity within our workforce to produce reports that showcase the unique purchasing and media consumption habits of multicultural and diverse consumers. In 2017, the series focused specifically on the influence of multicultural women on mainstream culture, media representation and consumption.

Today, 70% of the countries where Nielsen operates have at least one Employee Resource Group. Nielsen's commitment to inclusion is also represented by the key milestones that our global ERGs achieved in 2017. Both the Sustaining Active Black Leadership and Empowerment (SABLE) and PRIDE (LGBT+) ERGs celebrated 10 year anniversaries. Last year, Nielsen also launched two new ERGs. Nielsen Generation (N-GEN), our eighth ERG, launched in China, is designed bring together legacy associates with associates earlier in their career. Multinational Organization Supporting An Inclusive Culture (MOSAIC), our ninth ERG, launched in the U.K. was created to recognize, celebrate and leverage the diversity of our associates. 

The DiversityInc Top 50 list, issued yearly since 2001, recognizes the nation's top companies for diversity and inclusion management. These companies excel in such areas as hiring, retaining and promoting women, minorities, people with disabilities, LGBT and veterans.

To view the entire Top 50 list, visit http://www.diversityinc.com/top50 or follow the conversation at #DITop50.

*according to Catalyst, a global nonprofit that advocates for inclusive workplaces for women

About Nielsen
Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides the most complete and trusted view available of consumers and markets worldwide. Our approach marries proprietary Nielsen data with other data sources to help clients around the world understand what's happening now, what's happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge. For more than 90 years Nielsen has provided data and analytics based on scientific rigor and innovation, continually developing new ways to answer the most important questions facing the media, advertising, retail and fast-moving consumer goods industries. An S&P 500 company, Nielsen has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the world's population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

SOURCE Nielsen