THE DIVERSITY DIVIDEND
The adage, `Birds of the same feather flock
together' may not ring true in today's corporate parlance. And companies that
foster diversity among their employees will agree. Here is light on the need
for a diversified workforce
“DIVERSITY SHOULD BE SEEN AS AN OPPORTUNITY“
SHAJI KURIAN, associate professor & HOD (OB
& HR), IFIM Business School:
Workplace diversity is understood by most people
as meeting certain quotas in employee race or gender categories. However,
diversity as it relates to human resources is a way of thinking and operating
that encourages an entirely new and positive outlook among co-workers.
Diversity means a work environment that integrates acceptance, team work and
mutual respect. Although workplace diversity provides many benefits, it also
poses many challenges to employees and managers. But it is for the benefit of
the organisation to create intercultural and diversified teams to achieve
task-related goals. For example, differently-abled employees may not be able to
travel a lot but would be great at developing a programme for a new app.
Leveraging the diversity of the workforce means ensuring that persons of all
dimensions are included in all aspects of the organisation; and reducing
barriers to enable all employees to fully use their talents for the
organisation. Therefore, companies should focus on the following: Diversity
should be seen as an opportunity and not a problem; The company must be
sensitive to the society and move beyond laws; The impetus for diversity should
come from the executive board of directors; There should be an
institutionalised corporate culture that appreciates and encourages diversity
at the workplace; A culture of reinforcement for employees who appreciate
diversity should also be put in place.
“TRAINING,
AWARENESS AND EXPERIENCES ARE NECESSARY TO BUILD A THOUGHT PROCESS“
PANKAJ KHANNA, VP-revenue assurance, Mindtree
Ltd:
Today, there is a need to be prescriptive on the
diversity agenda, be it education, caste, gender, etc. And the prescription
also needs an organisational understanding of the need for such diversity. It
is imperative hat the leadership as well as the frontline managers buy into
this aspect, so hat organisational prac ices can evolve to nurture and foster
diversity. Hiring s one factor in increasing diversity and many organisa tions
provide for numbers around gender or differently abled workforce including in
centivising such efforts. Train ing, awareness and experi ences are necessary
to build a thought process, which then needs to be translated l to actionables
denoting an organisation's commitment to diversity. Flip the hierarchy, so that
those delivering the engagement can speak out more, which will leverage dif
ferent views and approaches.
“MEASURING
THE LEVELS OF DIVERSITY IS VITAL“
SHAKUN KHANNA, country manager, India, Right
Management:
Compliance-based diversity initiatives (i.e.
diversity laws, regulations and affirmative action) are a good way to start
improving the demographic diversity. So organisations can hire the
desiredrequired number of people from various demographic groups to improve the
diversity and talent pool but they need to understand how the benefits of
diversity beyond this can be achieved. Just having the right headcount does not
mean you have automatically achieved the in tended outcomes or benefits it's
more complex than this and much more than a numbers game.The business case for
diversity stems from its link to a better team and ultimately, organisational
performance. However, achieving this is much more than simply placing
individuals from different backgrounds and demographics together. Whilst it may
be necessary to have a demographic variety (i.e. a certain percentage of
minority groups) at some levels within the organi sation, by itself, it may not
necessarily be sufficient to foster the desired outcomes.Once you have a
demographically diverse workforce, an organisation needs to address other
levers that will enable this diversity to function effectively. The focus then
needs to shift away from simply having a specific number of women or other
groups, to an integrated approach that creates a complementary and supportive
environment for these individuals. In saying that, measuring and tracking the
levels of diversity in the organisation (i.e. demographic diversity) provide
important indicators of progress in the right direction. Linking them to leader
and manager KPIs will then drive accountability and behavioural change.
“TO BE ABLE TO HIRE,
TRAIN AND KEEP DISADVANTAGED GROUPS IN THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT, IS AN EFFORT “
N BALACHANDAR, group director, HR, Coffee Day
Group:
Homogeneity of the workforce does not enable
innovation or a robust organisation. It is just not diversity. It is not an
overnight process to get diversified talent at the workplace. It is a demand
and supply situation as well. So you will see a more diverse workforce in the
next few years just by the sheer demand need for talent. I think it has to be a
deliberate talent management strategy to foster diversity. Training is one
element of building the pipeline. Conscious efforts to encourage, develop,
create policies and nurture is key. It is also important for the leadership to
embrace it and lead it from the front while hiring and seeking a diverse talent
at the workplace. To be able to hire, train and keep disadvantaged groups is an
effort and also you have to enable an environment that fosters it. Progressive
employers have seen the benefits and there are several isolated examples: a)
People from varied na tionalities: The need was not apparent, and hence low.
Skill-set requirements will help in improving this, as alluded to earlier; b)
Differently-abled individuals: There is a lot happening around this space.Their
trainingassimilation is a focus area for many corporates. We need to make
workplace friendly for them to succeed; c) Members of the LGBT community: This
is an area to work on. Only of late are we seeing an increasing acceptance from
a legal perspective, and it should translate soon to action; d) Returning
mothers: This is an area that many MNCs have been working on, partic ularly to
create a workplace that is friendly to mothers. Several programmes are designed
by corporates to ensure this is workable. They even educate women on topics
related to work-life balance. The speed of action will help here to mitigate
the talent shortage.
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Viren Naidu
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ETAS24FEB15
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