Asbury taps consultant to craft diversity program

For Asbury Automotive Group, the death of George Floyd and the ensuing civil unrest nationwide was a turning point.

Amid a backdrop of companies managing turbulence among their employees — some of whom had taken to social media to share inciteful and bigoted attacks against protesters of police brutality and racial injustice — Asbury sought external consultants to help craft a more formal program focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Diversity and inclusion "became a much larger focus with the events that took place last summer," said Jed Milstein, the retailer's chief human resources officer and leader of the company's DE&I strategy. "We saw a more acute need, as many peer companies did, to have a very intentional program around this."

As auto retailers wrestle with hiring and retention issues, Asbury in November "developed a diversity and inclusion initiative and launched a companywide effort ... to identify our strengths and areas of opportunity," the company said in its annual 10-K filing.

Last summer, the company selected KJR Consulting, a Connecticut-based firm that has worked with Coca-Cola, Papa John's, Harvard Business School — of which Asbury CEO David Hult is an alum — and several government and nonprofit programs.

The result, known internally as Asbury's Diversity and Inclusion Initiative, aims to improve company culture and refocus the retailer's community outreach to address systemic inequalities.

After a month of fact-finding with KJR Consulting, Asbury's top 250 leaders at the store and corporate level underwent a six-week inclusive leadership training program. After that, a survey was fielded in October among Asbury's over 8,300 associates, requesting input about what programs they would appreciate and the efficacy of current inclusion efforts.

Following the survey, Milstein says, dealerships host monthly "action plan" meetings with human resources to review progress on employees' suggestions. Workers requested improved communication and feedback from superiors, expanded methods of achieving a diverse work force and business resource group development, he said. A digital copy of the companywide action plan is accessible at the corporate level, he said, so executives can monitor a dealership's progress, or the entire company's, at any point.

KJR also helped the public dealership group establish a collective within the organization to focus on strategies. Diversity and inclusion objectives are divided into five "swim lanes," Milstein said — awareness, compliance, operations integration, market integration and talent integration. The collective kicked off in June and contains a diverse slate of 60 employees — 12 devoted to each objective — across stores, including receptionists, service workers, general managers and marketing directors, Milstein said.

"This isn't just a top-down approach," he said. "We want to be educated by people who work here what's important to them."

Another initiative prompted by the events of last year for Asbury was a focus on charitable services. The dealership group believed that employees could spend their allotted 40 hours of paid volunteer time more thoughtfully on local causes with a strong focus on addressing social and economic inequality.

Another program across the company is a partnership with HBCU Change, a charitable organization that directs donations to local historically Black colleges and universities.

The primary donation method involves rounding up purchases to the nearest dollar amount, where the excess is sent directly to the fund. The partnership, which began with a pilot program at an Atlanta Asbury dealership in April, launched companywide in May and is slated to last for at least a year. So far, "tens of thousands" have been donated from Asbury customer purchases, Milstein said, which can include anything from vehicle sales to service work.

Asbury's work on shaping its DE&I doesn't end there.

"Improving the inclusive culture and diversity across the company is ultimately our focus," Milstein said. "We've got a multiyear plan to work with our consultants and move forward from here."