NEW YORK, June 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Nielsen earned the #4 ranking on Diversity MBA's 2016 list of "Best Places for Women & Diverse Managers to Work." Diversity MBA is a national leadership and talent management organization.

The Diversity MBA honor follows a series of workforce diversity and inclusion recognitions for Nielsen this year. The company attributes its rise in position on the list to milestones like the following:

• Increased retention across diverse groups and increased racial/ethnic representation at 36% of the U.S. workforce. Both global and U.S. female representation are at or above 50%, with females in over one-third of Nielsen senior leadership (SVP or higher) roles.
• Increased ERG (Employee Resource Group) membership by 3.5% with 38% of employees participating in at least one ERG.
• Introduced "Unconscious Bias" training to bring awareness to all managers around hidden biases and recognizing and mitigating them in daily leadership decisions.
• Launched the Nielsen Supplier Diversity Academy with a financial webinar for diverse suppliers, hosted by Nielsen Chief Financial Officer, Jamere Jackson. 
• Hosted first Diverse Supplier Competition providing small diverse businesses with pro bono consulting services.
• Kicked off third Diverse Leadership Network class (an 18-month leadership development program). In 2015, the program had 100% retention of its alumni and 100% in new roles.

"We know empirically that diversity and inclusion can lead to superior financial results for our clients and Nielsen," said Nielsen Chief Diversity Officer Angela Talton. "Throughout our organization, our leaders are working to connect the dots between the global, multicultural population shift, and our need for diverse skills, talents, experiences and cultural backgrounds in our workforce. We're proud to not only earn a spot at the top of Diversity MBA's tenth annual Best Places for Women & Diverse Managers to Work, but to move up on the list is an exciting indicator that we're accomplishing our goals."

More than 500 companies participated in the survey. Rankings were based on scores for representation, board diversity, recruitment, workplace inclusion, retention, succession planning and accountability.  

ABOUT NIELSEN
Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global performance management company that provides a comprehensive understanding of what consumers Watch and Buy. Nielsen's Watch segment provides media and advertising clients with Total Audience measurement services across all devices where content—video, audio and text—is consumed. The Buy segment offers consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers the industry's only global view of retail performance measurement. By integrating information from its Watch and Buy segments and other data sources, Nielsen provides its clients with both world-class measurement as well as analytics that help improve performance. Nielsen, an S&P 500 company, has operations in over 100 countries that cover more than 90% of the world's population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

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SOURCE Nielsen