Apple and
Religious
Inclusivity
A recommendation for promoting religious diversity,
inclusion, and equity in Apple's policies and culture
“Take good care of your
employees, and they’ll take
good care of your
customers, and the
customers will come back.”
- J. Willard Marriott
Source: "Marketing Fundamentals," Edition 3 (2023) 10. 4, Swenson, Michael; Whitlark, David; Rhoads, Gary;
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Neglecting religious inclusivity in the
workplace lowers employee
satisfaction, diminishes a company’s
potential customers and employees,
and decreases company productivity.
Attentiveness to
Transparency
impact of Discrimination
Criteria Weight about Religious
religion on Reporting
Inclusivity
stakeholders
Inclusivity 50% 5 4 5
Employee
Satisfaction
30% 2 1 5
Mission
Alignment
20% 1 3 2
Total 100% 3.3 3.2 4.4
RECOMMENDATION
Facilitating the report of religious
discrimination in the workplace will
increase Apple’s employee satisfaction,
expand its reach to potential customers
and employees, and grow its company’s
productivity.
AGENDA
01 02 03
Discrimination Transparency Impact on
Reporting Stakeholders
01
DISCRIMINATION
REPORTING
DISCRIMINATION REPORTING:
RISKS
“Many managers—rather than
change their own behavior or
address discrimination by
others—try to get even with or
belittle employees who complain.”
Source: Harvard Business Review, “Why Diversity Programs Fail”, 2016.
How do you do it?
Accountability Anonymity
If an employee reports Anonymous reporting
discrimination and nothing increases reporting rates
happens, why would they
report in the future?
Committed Leadership Ombuds Office
A company’s leadership An informal opportunity to
needs to take complaints get advice on conflict
seriously and not dismiss resolution
them.
Source: Harvard Business Review, “Do Your Employees Feel Safe Reporting Discrimination and Abuse?”, 2020.
DISCRIMINATION REPORTING:
INCLUSIVITY
“Inclusion is multi-faceted. It involves who you let in,
how you see them, who you let them be, what you let
them do, and how you let them do it.”
Glen Llopis
Source: Forbes, “How To Measure Inclusion: Hint, It’s Not As Simple As Numbers”, 2021.
DISCRIMINATION REPORTING:
EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION
If Apple adopts a discrimination reporting system,
there will be extra costs with the legal process.
But, if action is not taken, employees are more absent,
less productive, and more likely to leave.
Source: Harvard Business Review, “Breaking the Silence”, 2018.
DISCRIMINATION REPORTING:
MISSION ALIGNMENT
"Apple strives to bring the best personal computing
experience to students, educators, creative
professionals, and consumers around the world through
its innovative hardware, software, and internet
offerings."
Source: Apple’s Product Feedback Page
DISCRIMINATION REPORTING:
MISSION ALIGNMENT
Especially for More Revenue
customer-facing
positions, a great
employee experience
Great Customer
could increase revenue Experience
by as much as 50%.
Great Employee
Experience
Source: Harvard Business Review, “Research: How Employee Experience Affects Your Bottom Line”, 2022.
02
TRANSPARENCY
Diversity and Inclusion Landing Pages of Fortune 100
companies
Source: Corporate Religious Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI) Index
TRANSPARENCY:
INCLUSIVITY
“Develop a formal policy on
religion that is distinct from a
general diversity policy to show
employees that their religious
beliefs are respected.” - Rebecca
Hastings
Source: Society for Human Resource Management. "Handling Religion in the Workplace." SHRM, 2008.
TRANSPARENCY:
EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION
of workers want to
80% know more about how
decisions are made in
their organization
87%
want their future
company to be
transparent
Source: Trust, tools and teamwork: what workers want | Slack
TRANSPARENCY:
MISSION ALIGNMENT
“We’re
committed to
leaving the world
better than we
found it.”
Source: “Shared Values” page at “Careers at Apple” website
03
IMPACT ON
STAKEHOLDERS
IMPACT ON STAKEHOLDERS:
INCLUSIVITY
By taking small steps to integrate religious symbols and
prayers in their workplace, the KT bank has been able to
help their stakeholders “embrace different and
potentially even opposing views” and help companies
“find unity in diversity.”
Source: Harvard Business Review, “Creating Space for Religious Diversity at Work”, 2020.
The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate
Governance has identified “decreases in the
employees’ perceptions of firm culture and top-tier
management as well as a decrease in the company’s
number of employees” when shareholders are
prioritized.
Source: The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, “The Causal Effect of Corporate Governance on Employee
Satisfaction”, 2018.
Employee satisfaction decreases by
approximately when 10%
shareholder proposals pass by a small
margin compared to when they fail by a
small margin.
Source: The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, “The Causal Effect of Corporate Governance on
Employee Satisfaction”, 2018.
IMPACT ON STAKEHOLDERS:
MISSION ALIGNMENT
“When stakeholders perceive
that their values are being
violated in relationships with
an organization, they will
actively engage in punishing
the offending organization,
even to the detriment of their
own utility.”
Source: Strategic Management Journal, “Organization-stakeholder fit: A dynamic theory of cooperation, compromise, and conflict
between an organization and its stakeholders”, 2017.
Alignment with BYU Marriott Values
Faith in Christ Integrity in Action
Our recommendation promotes religious Our recommendation allows Apple’s
freedom for all faiths, aligning with Christ's employees to act with integrity for their own
teachings on love and inclusion. religious values.
Respect for All Excellence
Embracing religious friendliness demonstrates Promoting workplace religious freedom is an
respect for people of all faiths and excellent business strategy that improves
backgrounds. employee engagement, productivity, and
reputation.
Source: BYU Marriott School Website
THANK YOU
DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?
Sydney Pexton Jonah Brooks Jenny Carlson Camarie Cardon
Experience Design Experience Design Experience Design
Marketing
and CREDITS: This presentation
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Closing Point
OUR AIM THE GOAL
Improve the facilitation Increase employee
of religious satisfaction and grow
discrimination reporting company’s productivity.
in the workplace.
REDI Index:
REDI INDEX CRITERIA
$96 billion. Apple’s 2023 fiscal year net income
Source: Apple’s 10-K SEC Filing on 3 November 2023
