Leveraging the diversity of Marathon’s workforce enables us to build the relationships and business partnerships that will ensure we meet our goals for sustainable value growth. Marathon’s Diversity initiative and Supplier Diversity Program are designed to provide competitive advantage in a constantly changing and increasingly diverse marketplace. Marathon considers diversity a way to compete in business, not a project to be completed. Diversity is an “inclusion” process designed to foster an environment where the talents and differences of all employees are respected and valued for business success. These differences include age, race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, mental and physical circumstances, education level, work experience, geographic location, religion, language, and style.
Creating a workplace culture of respect and common ground for all is the benefit of our diversity initiatives. It enables Marathon to fully tap the talents, energy and knowledge of all employees to successfully compete in the 21st century. Diversity is respecting and valuing the similarities, differences, and full range of talents that all employees bring to the workplace.
Marathon also endeavors to carry the diversity message into the community. At the Robinson, Ill., refinery the Diversity Team has created two events to get local students exposed to diversity concepts. The first event was geared toward first grade students, and involved explaining diversity in basic terms and leading them in an interactive exercise. A second event involved the fourth graders of Crawford County “traveling” to five countries on four continents. Through active imagination, the students learned about the cultures and traditions of Australia, Brazil, Korea, Poland and Switzerland. They also learned a little Spanish.