Diversity Blueprints: Workforce and Workplace




Blueprint I was the first major deliverable developed by the Chairman's Diversity Council. Council was chartered by the company's former CEO in February 2001. Blueprint I outlines the reasons why the Council was chartered, provides facts on changing demographics, and outlines reasons for change as it relates to attracting and retaining a more diverse workforce.

Originally, the thought behind Blueprint I was to create an outline for International Paper on ways to attract and retain talented women and people of color. However, what was discovered as the blueprint was being created International Paper's talented people of all races and genders could benefit from effective people management. So the Blueprint became a useful tool to help us understand how to win the war for talented individuals, not just the war for talented women and minorities. The result was Diversity Blueprint I - Changing the Workforce.

The second deliverable from the Council is "Blueprint II – Changing the Workplace." Blueprint II builds upon Blueprint I with the intention of furthering an environment that is progressive, flexible, and inclusive. Blueprint II, with a focus on the workplace, will recommend ways to further engage employees in finding ways to manage the conflicting demands of work and personal responsibilities. These demands exist for virtually every employee – whether they are balancing career/partner, career/children, career/aging parent, career/school, career/commuting or career/personal life.

With each blueprint, our goal was to create documents that would be useful to company leaders and relevant to employees. Input was sought and received from different groups and individuals throughout the company such as members of the Chairman's Diversity Council as well as a broad section of International Paper employees who participated in focus groups. Senior executives within the company also contributed their thoughts and ideas to the development of each Blueprint. Further input on the concepts of Blueprint II will be obtained through beta tests conducted with three International Paper facilities.