➤ Allstate focused on supporting all clients equally given that natural catastrophes can disproportionally impact economically disadvantaged people and minorities.

➤ Amid political divisiveness surrounding environmental, social and governance issues, Allstate is proud to keep pushing forward on diversity and inclusion.

➤ Becoming a more virtual workforce has allowed Allstate to seek out more diverse talent.

Eloiza Domingo has been vice president of human resources and chief inclusive diversity and equity officer for The Allstate Corp. since 2021. S&P Global Market Intelligence spoke with Domingo about how Allstate looks at diversity, equity and ESG and how the company is handling its operations in a post-COVID world.

This conversation was also featured in a podcast episode of S&P Global Sustainable1's "ESG Insider." Listen to parts of the podcast here.

The following has been edited for clarity and length.

S&P Global Market Intelligence: How have you tried to foster diversity at Allstate?

Eloiza Domingo: We have an entrepreneurial spirit at Allstate. What that means is that there's the ability to come up with an idea and apply it pretty quickly. There are pros and cons to that. The pros of an entrepreneurial spirit is that you can do a lot with an idea. The con of that is that it can create silos. When I came here, there was a lot of stuff going on with diversity. Allstate has had a 20-plus-year experience with inclusive diversity and equity. We call it IDE.

When I came in, we deployed a three-to-five-year strategy under the four pillars of inclusive diversity and equity: business practices, culture, people and community. We really do believe that if you implement or integrate inclusion, diversity and equity into your daily operations, you will create a culture that is inclusive, that is advancing equity. You will build a workforce that is diverse and mirroring the communities in which we live, work and serve.

We also have the ACT framework. ACT is essentially a cross-governance framework that pulls all of our departments together and optimizes on all of the IDE things that they're doing. So ACT stands for action, clarity and transparency. It is a proprietary model that we have that ensures that our global, complex Allstate is matrixed so that everybody can connect with their IDE work.

What would you say is driving your approach to diversity, equity and inclusion?

For Allstate, inclusive diversity and equity is personal for us. It's not just business. This is personal for us. This is a part of our mission. This is a part of what we call our shared purpose. It is a part of our values. It is within our performance management systems. It's in the way that we drive our accountability structures. I mean, it really is part of our DNA.

We also recognize that Allstate came from Sears Roebuck. We were created in the 1930s and our brand is pretty traditional, right? We recognize that, and that's part of our background. But at the same time we have to continue to be relevant. So diversity, inclusive diversity, and equity helps us to do that.

Do you see Allstate's policies regarding virtual and office work as being beneficial to your efforts around diversity and inclusion?

We have been figuring it out just like many other companies because we went almost entirely virtual after COVID. We sold our Northbrook location, which was our headquarters for many years. We are in that space of figuring out our cultural in-person identity. There was such a tie to this Northbrook space and other spaces around the country that our culture was attached to a brick-and-mortar. As we are moving more into this virtual workplace, we are trying to figure out if a hybrid model, three days in, two days out, or some version of that would work.

What's hard about that is that we are more global now. Becoming more virtual does allow for more diverse opportunities for talent. Sometimes not being in Chicago would be a restriction in the past. This has actually opened up our ability to look for great talent across the nation and now across the globe. So do I think that a hybrid model is helpful? Yes, I do. Are we still figuring out what that is for Allstate? Yes.

What do you think is one of the biggest mistakes that organizations make around diversity and inclusion?

In my opinion, one of the number one things is that they house it in human resources and only human resources.

What this is about is taking care of people ... creating inclusive workplaces, practices and policies that support the people and the culture. That's good and necessary.

I think we all know that catastrophes impact people of color and people of different socioeconomic statuses disproportionately. Allstate is having conversations internally about that. About how our products are ensuring that all of the people that we support are supported equally.

We live in a time right now where ESG and diversity efforts are actually starting to become almost politically divisive. How do you look at this changing landscape?

The divisiveness is, in my opinion, very surprising. I've been in this field for 20 years.

Here's the thing with Allstate, again, is that this is in our DNA. When it is in your DNA, all of the talk, all of the rhetoric, the conversations about being woke, the conversations about ESG, it's like just the wind blowing. Because it's a part of who you are, and who you have always kind of been, you just stand in that space. You stand with integrity, and you continue to push that.

So, yes, we recognize that there are rhetorical conversations going on. There's pushback about ESG, about companies being woke. We have been called woke in the past. But I have been really proud that Allstate stands its ground and says that those are certainly conversations going on, but this is actually who we are. So unapologetically, we continue to do what we believe in.