OneTen at Delta Air Lines: Catalyzing Family-Sustaining Careers for Black Talent (A)

It was December 10, 2020, and Ed Bastian, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Delta Air Lines (Delta), had just finished a meeting with Joanne Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer, and Keyra Lynn Johnson, the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer. The objective of this meeting was to review Delta's first public communication about Bastian's decision to join the OneTen coalition, where he and 36 other CEOs committed to recruiting, hiring, training, and advancing 1 million Black Americans over the next ten years into family-sustaining jobs. For months, Bastian had been in continual dialogue with his colleagues about how to respond to the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black and Brown people and an increase in racially motivated violence, including the murder of George Floyd. Bastian had committed Delta to being the "Atlanta City Lead" of OneTen. Although Delta had been "bulldozed by the pandemic," he had signed onto OneTen with no hesitation. Smith and Johnson had raised many questions when first learning of OneTen, but they too had agreed that the initiative was consistent with Delta's own anti-discriminatory action plan. He agreed with his colleagues that Delta's approach to OneTen be strategic and sustainable. He recalled his response at the time: "I [don't] know what this will turn into," but "we have got to start somewhere."

• Organizational behavior
• Human resource management