With 50 years of moving the world forward through sport under its belt, Nike’s commitment to people, play, and the planet is stronger than ever.
As the world’s leading sportswear brand continues its mission to uplift the world through purpose by focusing on its community, findings from the company’s FY21 Impact Report is strengthening its stance on serving others and a peek into a future of sport rooted in athletes of all shapes, sizes, and colors.
“Nike is all about innovation,” said NIKE Inc.’s Chief Talent, Diversity, and Culture Officer Felicia Mayo in an interview with AfroTech. “How do we innovate through absolutely everything we do, whether it is our apparel or footwear? Our innovation is really number one for me. I recognize that innovation happens through diversity, equity, and inclusion. You’ve got to have diverse talent, you have to have diverse ways of working and thinking in order to have the uniqueness of innovation here.”
The People
With about 75,000 employees globally, it is Nike’s aim to build a future for the world’s next industry leaders.
“Our people are so passionate about sport and they’re passionate about our purpose here at Nike,” she continued. “We want our people to understand and know that we care about their careers and when I say people I’m thinking inside and out. So inside as employees and outside refers to our consumers. We’re always really trying to see how we can connect them with our consumers as well.”
It is one thing to say that people are at the forefront of the company’s mission and overall purpose, but another to actually have people that reflect all walks of life.
“From a talent acquisition perspective, we look at all diverse individuals that can work at Nike. We have three different segments in our workforce and we look at all of those segments and we feel like if anyone wants to come work at Nike, they have a passion for our footwear, apparel, or the work that we do here.”
Mayo continued: “We want to find them a role here at Nike and the way that we do that is we don’t just go to universities, because some companies actually have a university list and they target the universities, but we actually look at all walks of life. We’re looking at community colleges, we’re looking at high schoolers, we’re looking at where we can find the right talent for the roles that we have open across the globe.”
The Future
As Mayo and her team look ahead for a more inclusive and innovative brand for years to come, she says it is important that diversity is centered around the process of onboarding.
“From a futuristic perspective, my job is to really see how we can decrease any gap that we potentially have with what we do externally and internally,” said Mayo. “We’re making sure we’re always lessening that gap. We know that the closer that we are to our consumers or how we are working with our employees, the better we will be from that futuristic perspective. We continue to press boundaries. We have always been committed to the future.”
To dive deeper into the work that Mayo and Nike are doing, click here.
