Edison International Shares Its Diversity Journey

Edison International has published its 2020 Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Report, sharing strengths and areas where the company can do better.

The new report includes Edison International, Southern California Edison and Edison Energy. In addition to describing charitable contributions and supplier diversity, the report includes candid employee sentiment and pay equity details — and what Edison is doing to improve employees’ experiences.

In listening sessions with a range of employee groups that have been going on since 2019, Black employees have reported feeling less included than the workforce overall, including experiences of bias and racial insensitivity.

“For us, along with the details of our workforce composition, pay and sentiment, and our charitable and supplier actions, it’s essential to share how employees feel about being part of the company, because being transparent about where we are on our DEI priorities is a critical step toward creating greater accountability and identifying those areas where we can continue to make progress,” said Pedro J. Pizarro, president and CEO of Edison International.

To advance DEI throughout the company and the communities it serves, Edison made six internal and four external commitments that include transparency, training, talent sourcing and development, detecting and remediating bias, and supplier diversity, among other areas.

Last year, Edison made the following commitments, all of which are in progress:

• Greater Workforce Data Transparency/Dashboard: Share data regarding representation, pay, turnover and employee sentiment; create officer-level dashboard for continued visibility.
• Inclusion & Cultural Literacy Training: Expand current training to include content on anti-racism and microaggressions.
• Talent Accelerator: Accelerate talent movement by pairing officers with high-potential talent (starting with Black managers with plans to expand the initiative).
• Talent Pipeline: Increase Black scholarship awardees and internships.
• Career Counseling: Hire career counselors to help employees navigate their careers at Edison International.
• Audit for Potential Bias in HR/Ethics Processes: Engage external third party to audit HR and ethics policies and processes for biases, such as racial and gender, and improve these based on findings.
• Greater Data Transparency on Economic and Community Impacts: Publish annual economic impact report highlighting contributions of supplier diversity spend; Publish annual community impact report.
• Industry/External Partnership & Allyship: Join the American Association of Blacks in Energy’s Energy Equity campaign; Commit incremental $1 million shareholder funding over the next five years to advance racial equity in communities.
• Skilled Craft Scholarship Program: Commit $1 million shareholder funding to pilot four-year annual scholarship program supporting lineworker students to expand diversity in the skilled craft workforce pipeline, starting with Black candidates. (The application deadline for the first class is May 17.)
• Marketplace Development & Supplier Diversity: Commission study to assess availability of diverse businesses in procurement categories where Edison has needs.

“Achieving our goal of leading the transformation of the electric industry relies on the diversity of our team — and a society that enables all people to thrive,” Pizarro continued. “We know that diversity, equity and inclusion foster innovation, creativity and collaboration. We work continuously to embed DEI into our company’s culture, programs, processes and policies.”

The company’s additional workforce statistics:

• 60.7% racially or ethnically diverse
• 32% female
• 5.7% veteran
• 4.5% disabled
• 1.3% LGBTQ+, (based on voluntary self-identification)

The DEI report will be followed in May by the company’s Sustainability Report and later by in-depth reports detailing Edison’s philanthropic impact and the economic impact of its spending with diverse suppliers.

For more information, including details of Edison’s commitments and progress as well as profiles of some of its team members, see the DEI report at edison.com/dei-report