Question

What steps are today’s organisations taking to promote diversity and are these efforts effective?Atleast with two peer reviewed articles?

Answer 1

Diversity includes all characteristics and experiences that define each of us as individuals."Diversity includes the entire spectrum of primary dimensions of an individual, including Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Age, Religion, Disability, and Sexual orientation (referred to by the Diversity Task Force as “REGARDS”). Secondary dimensions commonly include: communication style, work style, organizational role/level, economic status, and geographic origin (e.g., East, Midwest, South).

Organizations that promote and achieve a diverse workplace will attract and retain quality employees and increase customer loyalty. For public organizations, it also translates into effective delivery of essential services to communities with diverse needs

Today, the organisation is taking the following steps to promote diversity.

1. Get leaders and employees with influence to set a good example

CEO Indra Nooyi regularly speaks openly and honestly about the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and what her company is doing to improve it. She wants and demands that her organisation be a diverse and inclusive place, where all people regardless of their race, religion, gender etc. can flourish. Under her influence, the company have taken a stand for gender equality, developed a global anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policy, publicly supported and paid tribute to the nation’s (and the company’s) war veterans, and developed several programs to help give those with disabilities equal opportunity and treatment within Pepsico. Nooyi is leading very much by example.

2.Communicate the diversity policy regularly and clearly

Your diversity policy is a statement of an your organisation’s values when it comes to making your workplace a more inclusive place to be. It’s also a formal written promise to your current employees and future employees that your organisation will put anti-discriminatory practices in place and do what you can to foster equal opportunity.As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. The best way to communicate your diversity plan to employees (and the greater public) is through action. When you practice what you preach, you become more credible in the eyes of your employees and of the public (read: potential candidates). If your organisation is serious about it’s commitment to diversity, you shouldn’t communicate it through words alone. People should see the results of your commitment in your business.

Here’s several ways you can communicate your diversity policy:

• Send a press release to the local media – The press release should be about the development and establishment of a diversity program that focuses on enhancing the culture and effectiveness of your business. In it you should list the various ways your organisation will implement these plans.
• Hold group meetings for employees – Ask for and encourage your employees to provide input and feedback on your plan. When employees are involved in a process from the beginning, they will naturally buy in more to the changes that the plan will evoke within the business. When the final plan is in place, it can be useful to hold educational sessions with employees to ensure they understand the plan and are able to communicate it to others who may ask.
• Include an article about the diversity plan and its goals in all employee and customer publications – Got a weekly round-up or a monthly newsletter? Use it to keep employees updated about how your business is doing in relation to meeting the goals set in your diversity policy. You can also use your publications to highlight new and existing initiatives like employee-led groups, just like CEB do.
• Design marketing materials with diversity in mind – Ensure that any images featuring employees and customers used in company advertisements and marketing collateral represent the diverse culture and environment your company is aiming to promote. If you preach about diversity but all your advertisements feature white males aged 30 to 50, the image your company is putting out is not consistent with your message.
• Host educational classes for the community as well as your employees – How about holding an open seminar in your local chamber of commerce about the benefits of diversity in the workplace? By teaching a class on diversity you can establish your organisation as a leader in diversity planning in the community and as an attractive place to work.

3. Train and educate

Google are leading the field in this regard. One of their key diversity-related initiatives is to have their 60,000+ employees across the world undergo unconscious bias training. First implemented in 2013, the training lasts between 60 to 90 minutes and is run by a coordinator who has undergone at least 12 hours of training. The training helps Google staff recognise their own personal biases and how those biases affect the decisions they make in the workplace, whether that be who they hire (if they’re a recruiter) or how they acknowledge an idea (if they are a manager).  In a statement preceding their training, Google state that “combatting unconscious biases is hard, because their influence on our decisions in a given moment doesn’t feel wrong; it feels intuitively right. But in order to create a workplace that supports and encourages diverse perspectives, talents, and ideas, you need to give people the platform and tools to begin unbiasing, Google’s term for mitigating unconscious bias and giving your first thoughts a second look. Google is early in the unbiasing journey, but making the unconscious conscious is critical to create a welcoming and inclusive workplace for everyone.”

Not only that, but Google have also gone and made the slides and guides used in the training they give to their own staff, available for free to anyone who wants them.

4. Allow minority groups to have a voice

You need all of your people to feel like they can contribute and share their ideas with the wider business and be heard. One of the best ways to help them do that is to encourage your employees to establish resource groups. For example, Pepsico have a grand total of 11 employee resource groups including ones for women, veterans and even those with hearing impairments. CEB have groups for women, people of colour, veterans and LGBT.