Continental lets employees lead the way in push to accelerate DE&I

Continental North America is letting its employees take the lead as the supplier looks to become more diverse and inclusive.

At the heart of Continental's diversity, equity and inclusion strategy are a variety of employee resource groups, each led and organized by employees, said Mary Arraf, the head of DE&I for Continental North America's automotive business. The groups are designed to foster a sense of belonging and inclusion among its members while raising awareness of different cultures represented throughout the supplier's work force.

"Our ERGs are not dictated by the business and what we might need. What we have is employee-led," she said in an interview. "The passion of the employees is huge."

Germany-based Continental has given each of its regions autonomy in figuring out how to best promote DE&I.

To be sure, the company has set overarching global goals for itself — including boosting the percentage of women in its top management positions to 25 percent by 2025, up from 19 percent in 2022, and increasing the number of managers it has worldwide that come from countries other than Germany.

But the company's global leadership recognizes that different regions and nations have different needs as far as promoting diversity and inclusion goes, allowing each region to develop a unique approach to boosting DE&I, Arraf said.

"The focus in Hanover might be more toward gender, whereas here, there's a lot more in addition to that," said Arraf, who was named a Notable Champion of Diversity by Automotive News in 2022.

That's reflected in the diverse array of employee resource groups that have been launched at Continental, including the Asian- American and Pacific-Islander ERG, the Black and African- American Network, the Continental Women's Network, the Continental Young Professionals network and a veterans group.

The most recent addition to that group is HOLA, short for Hispanic Origin and Latin American. Like the other employee resource groups, HOLA promotes mentoring and networking experiences for its members and helps to provide its members with tools to overcome challenges and to succeed in the workplace.

Co-Pride will launch this year as an employee resource group dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community, Arraf said.

"There might be specific needs in really supporting each community, and that's what they're there for," she said.

The groups work to develop programming to help boost awareness among the work force. The AAPI group, for example, is working on programming throughout May, which is Asian-American and Pacific-Islander Heritage Month in the U.S.

"It's all about strengthening that awareness, fostering dialogue and starting to break down bias," Arraf said.

The company also looks outside itself to promote diversity and equity. In Michigan, Continental has partnered with the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program and Wayne State University's Engineering Preparatory Excellence Academy.

By working with the pre-college program and Wayne State, Continental gets to host students and potentially get some of them interested in STEM fields — and to show off what working in the automotive industry could be like.

"What we're trying to do is go into communities and districts that maybe don't have the resources to really focus on STEM areas, particularly automotive STEM, or have access to mentors or leaders in that area," she said. "We're trying to fill that gap wherever we can, to provide access to leadership and to show some technology and have hands-on experience."

By helping to fill the equity gap in STEM education, Continental hopes the pipeline for automotive talent will grow more diverse, Arraf said. When working with students, the company makes a wide array of company leaders, engineers and experts available, showcasing diversity in not just race or gender but also their life experiences, Arraf said.

"It's important for students to see themselves represented," she said.

Continental ranks No. 8 on the Automotive News list of top 100 global suppliers, with worldwide sales to automakers of $22.4 billion in 2021.