Our commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion has for years been rooted in our company’s core values: Doing the Right Thing, Collaboration, Openness, and Respect. In 2019, we started to take a more overt and intentional approach to accelerate our progress. In 2020, when the push for racial justice reached national levels, the Black Organizational Leadership at Discover (BOLD) Employee Resource Group (ERG) hosted a listening session to give all employees a platform to share and learn. The impact of this session reverberated throughout the organization, spurring the launch of our DE&I Task Force. Later that year, we appointed our first Chief Diversity Officer.
Diversity, Equity and
Inclusion (DEI)
Discover’s DEI Belief Statement
We believe that our diverse perspectives and experiences make us stronger and better able to help our customers, employees, and communities achieve brighter financial futures. And we believe that all—regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, identity, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, religion or age—should feel valued, have a sense of belonging, be treated equitably, and enjoy the freedom to be themselves.
The past year has brought even more wins worth celebrating—such as being named a finalist for the NACD’s DE&I Awards, opening our new Chatham Customer Care Center, and publishing our first DE&I Report.
As we move toward making the changes we want to see, we’ve set our North Star Goals to help us get there. These measurable goals contribute to narrowing systemic gaps and take steps toward a more accepting workplace and society.
These goals are:
- In pursuit of diversity, we strive to increase representation of women and People of Color (POC)1 at all management levels to 50% and 40%, respectively, by 2025. Additionally, we strive to increase representation of Black and Latinx at all management levels to 15% by 2025.
- To ensure equity, we’re establishing measures to identify and address potential biases, which will improve recruiting, retention, and internal mobility.
- To foster inclusion, we’re working toward achieving equally strong inclusion scores in our annual employee survey across all identity groups by 2024.
- To increase our external impact, we’re using our full platform of jobs, supplier spend, charitable contributions, products, and more to advance equity and motivate others to effect change.
1 People of Color comprises all races/ethnicities that are not categorized as "White/Caucasion" in the U.S.
Workforce Diversity
Discover Talent Compared to the Local Talent Market
Our workforce diversity either exceeds or matches the workforce availability in each of the metropolitan areas where we operate.
| Discover workforce in operating cities relative to the local talent market | WOMEN1 | POC | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total US Discover Employees2 | Discover Employees2 | Local Talent3 | Discover Employees2 | Local Talent3 | |
| Chicago, IL Tech, Analytics, Marketing, Core Functions, Customer Care | Total US Discover Employees25,018 | Women1 - Discover Employees247% | Women1 - Local Talent347% | POC - Discover Employees251% | POC - Local Talent337% |
| Salt Lake City, UT Customer Care | Total US Discover Employees23,416 | Women1 - Discover Employees268% | Women1 - Local Talent345% | POC - Discover Employees233% | POC - Local Talent315% |
| Phoenix, AZ Customer Care | Total US Discover Employees22,862 | Women1 - Discover Employees269% | Women1 - Local Talent345% | POC - Discover Employees245% | POC - Local Talent330% |
| Columbus, OH Customer Care | Total US Discover Employees22,188 | Women1 - Discover Employees267% | Women1 - Local Talent347% | POC - Discover Employees230% | POC - Local Talent317% |
| Greater Philadelphia Area Customer Care | Total US Discover Employees21,251 | Women1 - Discover Employees273% | Women1 - Local Talent348% | POC - Discover Employees250% | POC - Local Talent325% |
| Houston, TX Tech, Payments, Network, Core Functions | Total US Discover Employees2402 | Women1 - Discover Employees245% | Women1 - Local Talent345% | POC - Discover Employees262% | POC - Local Talent349% |
- Current data on gender is measured Men/Women. We recognize this does not represent the full spectrum, but we are matching to the external benchmark.
- As of December 31, 2021
- Source: US Department of Labor
Our gender & race/ethnicity numbers are based on self-identification.
Discover Representation by Level Compared to Industry Representation
Another benchmark we look at is our workforce representation by level, compared to Banking & Consumer Finance and Technology. We evaluate ourselves against Women in the Workplace, a study conducted by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org since 2015, as well as against additional McKinsey & Company studies on racial equity in financial services.
At nearly every level, our representation of women and POC exceeds or is on par with industry numbers.
We have an opportunity to increase representation of women who are salaried Individual Contributors, particularly within our large technology workforce.
| Discover workforce compared to the Banking and Tech industries | WOMEN1 | WOC2 | POC | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discover 20213 | All US Companies | Banking & Consumer Finance | Technology (Software) | Discover 20213 | All US Companies | Discover 20213 | All US Companies | |
| Officers (EVP, SVP, VP) | Discover 2021336% | Women1 - All US Companies≤30%4 | Women1 - Banking & Consumer Finance≤33%4 | Women1 - Technology (Software)≤27%4 | WOC2 - All US Companies9% | WOC - Discover 20213≤7%4 | POC - All US Companies31% | POC - Discover 20213≤20%4 |
| Directors | Discover 2021341% | Women1 - All US Companies35% | Women1 - Banking & Consumer Finance37% | Women1 - Technology (Software)32% | WOC2 - All US Companies11% | WOC - Discover 202139% | POC - All US Companies28% | POC - Discover 2021324% |
| People Managers | Discover 2021353% | Women1 - All US Companies41% | Women1 - Banking & Consumer Finance45% | Women1 - Technology (Software)38% | WOC2 - All US Companies17% | WOC - Discover 2021312% | POC - All US Companies34% | POC - Discover 2021329% |
| Individual Contributors, Salaried | Discover 2021345% | Women1 - All US Companies48% | Women1 - Banking & Consumer Finance51% | Women1 - Technology (Software)40% | WOC2 - All US Companies19% | WOC - Discover 2021317% | POC - All US Companies46% | POC - Discover 2021334% |
| Individual Contributors, Hourly | Discover 2021374% | Women1 - All US Companiesn/a | Women1 - Banking & Consumer Financen/a | Women1 - Technology (Software)n/a | WOC2 - All US Companies33% | WOC - Discover 20213n/a | POC - All US Companies44% | POC - Discover 20213n/a |
- Current data on gender is measured Men/Women. We recognize this does not represent the full spectrum, but we are matching to the external benchmark.
- WOC is defined as Women of Color. In this report, Women of Color comprises women of all races/ethnicities in the US that are not categorized as White/Caucasian.
- As of December 31, 2021
- Source: McKinsey & Co. and Lean In, Women in the Workplace: The State of Women 2021. McKinsey & Co. benchmark data delineates VP, SVP, and C-Suite representation, but does not provide a cumulative figure for Officers. ‘Less than’ symbol reflects that what is shown is the highest number of the three.
