Five Questions for Audrey Grimm on Inclusion, Diversity and Equity at Corteva Agriscience

1. Why is Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (ID&E) a business imperative for Corteva Agriscience?

Inclusion, Diversity and Equity is a business imperative for Corteva for several compelling reasons. The one that resonates most with me relates to innovation. I am continually amazed by the creativity that’s possible when individuals with diverse backgrounds, worldviews and experiences come together. Imagine the infusion of ideas, insights and new ways of thinking we’ll gain when we multiply diversity throughout our company. Think of what that will mean for our customers. As an innovation-driven company in an innovation-driven industry, it’s absolutely essential that we cultivate and nurture inclusion, diversity and equity.

2. As Corteva’s new SVP, Chief Human Resources and Diversity Officer, do you plan to make significant changes in the company’s ID&E Strategy?

While I’m new to my Chief HR and Diversity Officer role, I’ve been leading our global ID&E efforts for some time.  We recently simplified our strategy to sharpen our focus around a smaller number of more clearly defined goals. We also expanded the scope of our representation goals to include hourly as well as salaried employees (without changing our targeted percentage increases). While we may evolve some of the tactics that we use to implement this strategy as we continue to learn and gain insights into what works and what doesn’t, I don’t envision making other significant changes in the near-term.

3. How would you characterize Corteva’s ID&E progress to date?

We’ve established solid foundations that have allowed us to deliver results in the first full year of our strategy, and that’s incredibly exciting. Let me give you four examples. In 2021, we increased our global female representation within our salaried employee population, putting us on track to achieve our 2026 goal in this area. We also conducted our first global pay equity analysis in alignment with our commitment to reward employees fairly for the work they do. Additionally, we received largely favorable marks from our employees on creating a culture of belonging at Corteva and promoted external dialogue around ID&E with content that reached millions. One area where we have not yet progressed as planned is with our U.S. racial and ethnic minority representation. We have further work to do to meet our 2026 goals in that area and it is important to be transparent about it. I am looking forward to continuing to intensify our efforts and partner with our Business Resource Groups to drive progress.

4. What are some of your priorities for 2022?

We are intensifying our efforts to attract, develop and retain diverse talent with focused initiatives, including assessing our recruitment and hiring practices, enriching our university relations strategy, and enhancing our approach to succession planning and management of underrepresented talent within our leadership pipeline. We are also continuing our efforts to include diverse suppliers and small businesses in our supply base and to prompt dialogue and understanding across our industry. Our Executive Leadership Team is very committed to our ID&E journey and as a signal of how important these initiatives are to us, we are tying a portion of our executive compensation to our progress in ID&E.

5. You assumed responsibility for Corteva’s global ID&E efforts toward the end of 2021. What’s an example of an ID&E-related learning or insight that you’ve gained since then?

One of my learnings is that when it comes to talent and ID&E, progress is not always linear or predictable. Despite our best efforts, we may move ahead in some areas and lag in others. This is to be expected. There are many elements which impact representation in our workforce, some of which we can control and some we can’t – such as a highly competitive talent market, for example – but we can’t let this deter us. ID&E is too important for that. While in the short term it may feel sometimes that progress is not uniform, we need to remember that our commitments are long term. We must remain committed to our goals, learn from our experiences, and continually adapt to ensure we achieve our objectives over time – and that’s exactly what we plan to do.