Caesars Entertainment works to achieve diversity, equity and inclusion by striving to attain both equity and equality within our corporation, our affiliates, partners and suppliers. Evidence clearly states that companies that embrace diversity and inclusion by setting measurable actions in all aspects of their businesses outperform those that don’t. We strive toward a best-in-class diversity, equity and inclusion leadership strategy through: (1) workforce and workplace, (2) supplier and contracting diversity; (3) community reinvestment, (4) marketing, branding and sales and (5) policy advocacy and thought leadership. All of these components ensure continuous improvement and feed into one another.
Our goal is to create an environment that manages and minimizes the unconscious bias we all carry in making decisions about recruiting, hiring, developing and promoting employees, with the ultimate goal of a best-in-class equitable and inclusive workplace and a diverse workforce.
Our vision for a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce and workplace is multifaceted. It addresses the environments our employees work in; their promotions, professional development and attrition rates; and our recruiting strategies. Seven Business Impact Groups (BIGs) are our Diverse Employee Resource Groups and support our vision.
The way we drive diversity in our procurement processes and proactively seek to engage with diverse suppliers, designers and contractors, helping them gain entry and grow with our business. Supplier and contracting diversity is a core strategy governing the way we reach out to, select and engage suppliers in our supply chain. In 2019, our addressable spend with certified diverse vendors represented 10.8% of operational and 17.6% of capital expenditure.
Our community reinvestment strategy comprises community engagement, local market reinvestment, and businesses, civil rights, advocacy and charitable partnerships in areas local to our properties. It also includes our work with national associations to offer practical support to diverse populations.
At Caesars, we know that we can’t achieve success alone. We collaborate with National Diversity Partners – organizations like Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, National Association of Asian American Professionals, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Catalyst and National Urban League, to name just a few.
Our National Diversity Partners strive to achieve a variety of goals in the areas of workforce development, immigrant integration, voter registration and activation, financial literacy, supplier diversity and youth development. Now and in the future, we will continue to collaborate on desired outcomes as we know that’s the true catalyst for change.
We proactively reach out to diverse guests, business conventions and leisure group sales managers to inform how we create events and offerings tailored to their needs and marketing materials that both appeal to and ensure sensitivity to each group’s needs.
With a long history of welcoming people of all backgrounds at our casinos and hotels, our vision has always been to have the best service in hospitality. Today, our vision is to ensure that guests of all backgrounds have the same great experience, and to grow our guest base of underrepresented populations. Accordingly, our marketing and branding will better reflect the unique populations that enjoy our properties – and that we hope to invite to come more often in the future. Similarly, we seek to create a consistently great experience for all our corporate meetings and conventions clients.
We are committed to continuing and deepening our engagement on matters related to diversity and inclusion to help change perceptions and influence public policy. Caesars has long spoken out about equity and equality for many groups of people – with just two examples of many being LGBTQ communities and immigrant communities. Our vision supports this legacy, extending our commitment to go beyond policy positions and integrating specific issues like human rights more deeply into our corporate behavior, our DEI strategy and our comprehensive CSR platform, PEOPLE PLANET PLAY.
Caesars has four intersectional programs under our policy advocacy and thought leadership pillars: gender and racial equity, community-based workforce development, counter-trafficking strategy and immigration integration in the areas of health as well as our existing work in naturalization.
