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Remarks of Eva S. Hardy
Senior Vice President - Dominion
at the
Women in Nuclear Conference

November 9, 2004

"Diversity: The Changing Face of the Nuclear Workforce"

Thank you… It’s a real pleasure to join you.

I want to commend the conference organizers for inviting me — a professional communicator — to address a group of women nuclear professionals. Any group whose acronym is "WIN" clearly has its act together.

I’m a big believer in the value of gatherings like this — and not just for the technical information that is shared. The networking opportunities can be invaluable — not to mention the good meals that often go with them.

As the last speaker on the program, I won’t be offended if some of you have to eat and run. I know all about busy schedules, deadlines and getting to the airport on time.

But I really want to encourage you to stick around if you can. I promise I won’t mention spent fuel, license renewal or new nuclear construction — not even once.

What I do want to talk about is another topic that affects each and every one of you — workforce diversity.

The fact is, you women are more than just affected by the topic of diversity. You have helped create it in the nuclear power industry.

Fifteen or 20 years ago, I could not have made this speech. There wouldn’t have been an audience for it. Virtually every seat in the room would have been occupied by a man, and the term "diversity" would have been a contradiction in terms.

You’ve certainly come a long way. And I’m bullish about the prospects for additional career growth and progress — for reasons I’ll go into shortly.

Today’s companies are diversifying their workforces — and they’re doing so for a variety of reasons:

Those are all valid reasons to embrace diversity. But they’re not the main reason.

Let’s be candid. Workforce diversity is a strategic business concern in the 21st Century. There’s a talent war going on out there. No respectable company can afford to limit its ability to attract and retain the best employees it can find.

We may be living in the Age of Information, but smart companies know their most prized assets are the ones that walk on two feet and have eyes, ears and brains.

The case for business diversity centers around competitive advantage… and learning to capitalize on the differences that people bring to the workplace.

As the old saying goes, "People have one thing in common – they are all different."

The challenge for my company — and for every company — is helping our employees understand, accept and make positive use of diversity to improve business performance.

I can’t tell you how many times in my career I’ve seen hidden resentments and misperceptions take a toll on productivity, profitability and employee morale.

Senior management that 1) values diversity and 2) promotes its principles to the workforce … is far more likely to reap the benefits of reduced employee conflict… and better teamwork and communication among the rank and file.

I had hoped to come here armed with some hard numbers showing the impressive gains women have made in the nuclear industry. Unfortunately, those numbers don’t seem to exist. Calls we made to the Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington and to the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations in Atlanta made that clear.

So the bad news is, we’re short on statistical evidence. Industry-wide data on diversity just isn’t available. But the good news is, there’s lots of anecdotal evidence to back the nuclear industry’s claim that it’s reaching out to women and minorities like never before.

For example, the industry has wisely identified a need to increase its visibility at career fairs and conferences sponsored by the Society of Women Engineers, the Association of Black Engineers, and the National Association of Black Engineers, to name a few.

To use the language of advertising, the industry is also devoting significant resources to re-brand itself.

It is reaching out to attract more women engineers and skilled craft people — just as individual companies are doing.

Exelon, for instance, has an outstanding diversity program that focuses on employee retention.

My company, Dominion, has a number of excellent programs that I will share with you momentarily.

The public sector is stepping up as well.

The U.S. Department of Energy has an aggressive program that’s getting good reviews.

It’s called the "Majority/Minority Program," and its goal is to partner small black colleges with major universities, such as Tuskegee University and the University of Cincinnati, to develop nuclear engineering programs at the smaller schools.

Another new and interesting DOE program called "The Harnessed Atom" was recently adopted by a Pittsburgh high school, the first in the nation to do so. This program promotes greater understanding among high school students of nuclear energy and engineering, power plant design and operation.

These are all encouraging signs.

It’s vital for the private and public sectors and the educational community to support and fund initiatives that broaden awareness and expose the next generation to opportunities in the nuclear field.

My company, Dominion, understands the value of inclusiveness and is actively working to promote diversity — on a variety of fronts.

We don’t look at diversity as some kind of “feel good” objective. We see it as a strategic business advantage and one more tool we can use to hit our corporate financial targets.

We address diversity through a number of different channels:

Dominion has produced this award-winning series of educational materials since 1991 in conjunction with Black History Month. The materials highlight the achievements of outstanding African-Americans and are distributed to schools and libraries in the states where Dominion does business.

Dominion’s Executive Diversity Council is made up of officers from each of our business units. The Council oversees all of our diversity initiatives and makes sure they are aligned with the company’s business objectives.

Four employee-led diversity councils currently implement our diversity programs and sponsor training for company supervisors, managers and directors. These employee councils are a critical link to the workforce and our efforts to promote a corporate culture that values different perspectives.

In 2005, Dominion will roll out a new five-year strategy for its diversity programs that will target four areas:

These examples give you some idea of what Dominion is doing in the area of diversity.

Our approach may not be right for your organization. Every company is challenged to find its own manner of addressing diversity in ways that support its business objectives.

I firmly believe, however, it’s the companies that do more than "talk the talk"… that truly value workforce diversity… that will have a significant competitive edge over those that don’t.

In today’s business world, the organization that employs people — not in spite of their differences but because of them — is the organization that will get the most bang for its diversity buck.

As American anthropologist Margaret Mead once said: "If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place."

You women in nuclear have made a place for yourselves in what was not so long ago a decidedly man’s world. But the nuclear world, like the larger world around it, is changing.

You are a big part of that change.

I applaud you for your courage… I congratulate you on your success… and I thank you for the opportunity to share some of my thoughts about diversity.

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