With their employee-friendly and innovative initiatives, two American corporate giants PepsiCo and Citigroup -- led by India-born chief executives have made into a list of best employers for multicultural women.

Evaluating the presence and prominence of coloured women in the US corporate world, the list of 20 companies has been drawn up by US-based Working Mother magazine. It is primarily on the basis of diversity programmes for such employees.

"These businesses recognise that it is not just about recruitment. Many use "real" inclusion programmes to actively develop, retain, and promote their multicultural employees," the magazine said in an accompanying report.

Beverages major PepsiCo is led by Chennai-born Indra Nooyi, named by Fortune magazine as one of the most powerful business people in the world, while Nagpur-born Vikram Pandit is the chief executive of banking giant Citigroup.

According to the magazine, PepsiCo has about 10 per cent employees who are 'women of colour', with seven per cent of them in the executives/managers.

"Since 2002, PepsiCo has prioritised the hiring, development and retention of women of colour in middle and senior management through its Women of Colour Multicultural Alliance, which aims to increase representation of multicultural women across the company.

"All told, senior-level representation of women of colour increased nearly three per cent from 2002 to 2006," it added.

Vikram Pandit-led Citigroup has a higher representation of women of colour in its ranks, making up 22 per cent of the total employees. However, when it comes to executives or managers, there is only about four per cent of such people.

Noting that nearly 28 per cent of new hires last year at the Citigroup were women of colour, the report said the figure was up from 25 per cent in 2006.

"Even better, 16 per cent of newly hired managers were multicultural women, up from 12 per cent. Recruiting efforts at historically black schools such as Howard University and partnership with groups like the National Society of Hispanic MBAs have helped boost the numbers," it pointed out.

Other prominent names in the '2008 Working Mother Best Companies for Multicultural Women' list include Colgate-Palmolive (13 per cent), Credit Suisse (14 per cent), Deloitte (16 per cent), Ernst & Young (17 per cent), IBM (8 per cent), MetLife (14 per cent), PricewaterhouseCoopers (16 per cent) and Wal-Mart (20 per cent).

The companies were chosen mainly on factors like representation, recruitment and retention of women of colour.

However, this year the magazine said it noticed a dramatic increase in the number of women of colour who are senior managers. Also, women of colour represented 13 per cent of all new hires last year, 14 per cent of all employees, and 7 per cent of top 20 per cent earners at the winning firms.

Prior to being selected to the list, the companies filled a detailed application covering a variety of questions including those related to "workforce (such as number of women of colour and women in top positions); culture (programmes for women of colour); external programmes (diversity activities); and work/life programmes (child care, elder care, time off following childbirth)."

"These companies recognise that it's not just about recruitment, inclusion programmes must work to develop, retain and promote their multicultural employees as well," the magazine said.

Allstate Insurance, American Electric Power, American Express, JP Morgan Chase, Chubb & Son, General Mills, Kraft, Tap Pharmaceutical Products and Verizon, are also part of the list.