Navistar's DEI culture: employee groups and a barbecue that became a lesson in inclusion

Navistar, the US commercial vehicle manufacturer, has been part of the TRATON GROUP since June 2021 and is taking its work on diversity, equity and inclusion to a new level through lively exchanges across the group. The company, whose International Trucks carry a diamond logo, employs about 14,500 people and says its culture is shaped by employees' differences rather than in spite of them. Its argument is that too much homogeneity makes teams uncreative and inflexible, so room has to be made for difference. The approach is captured in the acronym DEI: D for diversity, E for equity and I for inclusion.

Wiggins says the groups show that diversity at Navistar is not only about skin color and origin but also about different orientations and interests, and that they give likeminded people a place to represent their interests without alienating others. Equity, she says, means meeting people where they are, for example by supporting someone who has difficulty with the corporate language, English. Regular meetings let an individual member of staff present on a diversity issue that matters to them, often controversial topics such as what privilege means or what it is like to belong to a certain generation. Her core message is that you don't have to fit into the group because everyone is welcome.

The sense of belonging is not just theory. Pradeep Bhatt, a Senior Project Manager at Navistar, described in an emotional LinkedIn post how his team had discussed barbecuing and a teammate later asked whether the topic had offended him, since cows are sacred in Indian culture. The two ended up having a long conversation about his culture, rituals and traditions, and he was moved that his coworkers thought about how the subject might feel to him and wanted to learn about his background. He says inclusion at Navistar feels like safety, like compassion, and like your team's got your back and you've got theirs.

Wiggins says the effect cannot be measured directly or translated into sales figures, revenue or other performance parameters, but it noticeably improves employee satisfaction, the sense of community, creativity and spirit. Since Navistar joined TRATON in June 2021, she has held workshops with Scania, MAN and Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus about what pluralism and inclusion mean for all of them, and was struck from the very first meeting by how curious and enthusiastic her new colleagues were. She describes this as healthy integration: not just adapting to each other, but achieving a win for diversity. Diversity also shapes hiring, because applicants often ask in interviews what the company is doing for diversity, which Social Impact Manager Haydee Núñez credits with making Navistar particularly attractive as an employer to people looking for purpose in their work.