Supporting Change • Developing People • Promoting Ability

Managing Diversity

A positive tool for organisational development

by Marie Pye and Nick Goss

Taken from: Governance Now, the Hidden Challenge of Leadership - Cultural Leadership Programme 2009

Introduction

It was the Nigerian writer, Ola Joseph, who said "Diversity is not about how we differ. Diversity is about embracing one another's uniqueness." If this is true, then the UK is becoming increasingly unique and this has major implications and opportunities for how organisations are run and how they develop.

This article is about utilising diversity as a positive tool for organisational development and making sure that organisations reap the benefits.

Diversity Matters

In the UK today:

• One in five adults and one in twenty children are disabled in some way.

• One in twelve people are from black and minority ethnic communities. The figure rises to one in eight of under sixteen year olds.

• One in twenty people who have a religious belief belong to a faith community other than Christian.

• 70% of women between the ages of 16 and 59 are in paid work outside the home, compared with just 56% in 1971.

• At least 6% of the population defines themselves as gay or bisexual.

• One in four people are under sixteen and one in six are over 65.

By 2010 only 20% of the UK working population will be white, male, non-disabled and under 45.

Diversity Rewards

Diversity is not just about doing the right thing for its own sake; it actually makes good organisational sense. This is something that is now widely acknowledged by our leading companies and organisations.

The reality is that a diverse organisation brings a diverse range of skills and experience that benefit business and performance. It means that the best person can be selected for the job without assumptions or stereotypes getting in the way. It means that people are recruited, valued, promoted and rewarded for their contribution to the success of the organisation or project.

Just as Richard Lambert, Director-General the CBI, commented last year:

"A firm's success and competitiveness depends on its ability to embrace diversity and draw on the skills, understanding and experience of all its people. The potential rewards of diversity are significant. An organisation that recruits its staff from the widest possible pool will unleash talent and develop a better understanding of its customers."

The benefits of a diverse workforce are widely documented, everything from increasing the talent pool from which employees can be drawn through to increased staff satisfaction, and not forgetting a greater awareness of the requirements of a diverse customer or audience base.

Whether an organisation is trying to attract customers, participants, audience members or visitors, focusing on diversity can bring benefits. A diverse organisation is likely to have a better understanding of its diverse audience base, but also is likely to be more attractive to a wide range of participants, audiences and visitors. If they recognise themselves reflected in the organisation they are more likely to think this is somewhere that welcomes them and will cater for their requirements.

Diversity Confidence

When considering diversity it is really important to be diverse! Diversity means truly reflecting the incredibly wide range of people in our communities, older and younger people, people from different ethnic communities, those with a disability (and this doesn't just mean wheelchair users), as well as people from different faiths, from the gay and lesbian community and, of course, both men and women.

Becoming a diverse organisation does take some effort though. It doesn't just happen because you put recruitment adverts in particular newspapers. It happens by your
organisation taking a good look at itself and seeing how you can take some positive action to attract diverse employees, participants and audiences, to remove any barriers which may be deterring them and increasing your diversity confidence.

It isn't about positive discrimination or simply giving somebody a job because they increase your diversity. In fact, it's the opposite, it's about making sure you aren't putting off or discounting potential employees or audiences because of your lack of diversity confidence.

Achieving diversity also needs to be undertaken in an organisation that is committed to equality. Equality is fundamentally different to diversity but the two are mutually dependent. Some of the key barriers you will need to consider are around discrimination and inequality. Removing these will both support diversity confidence and act as foundation stones for a diverse organisation.

Diversity Milestones

Know your starting point

To develop an inclusive organisational culture, it is essential to know how diverse the organisation is to start with. So you need a map of your organisation. Much of the information will already be there. How diverse is your workforce? What about at senior levels? How diverse are your participants, your audience members or your visitors? Where are the gaps and the missed opportunities?

Have a plan

Once you have an idea of your starting point, then it is possible to identify where you want to get to and what actions need to be undertaken to reach that point. Most organisations accept they cannot do everything at once and that this is a journey. It may be that you prioritise particular areas, for example increasing the diversity of senior management if this is especially low. Whilst prioritisation is pragmatic it is important not to just do the high profile things or remove the easier barriers. Some things will be tough but they still need to be tackled.

Develop good governance

Diversity confidence needs to start at the top. It's essential that the ultimate decision makers, whether this is a Board, a Management Committee or a Governing Body, are aware of their responsibilities and are diversity confident. In the end they have the legal responsibility but they also set the standard. The Board may wish to identify a Diversity Champion from within their own ranks. However, the whole Board should take responsibility for identifying specific improvements in relation to diversity and ensuring there is an organisational structure to deliver and mainstream these. In the end, the buck will stop with them so they need to both drive and monitor progress.

Identify cost benefit

Altruism and social responsibility are good motivators, but in the current economic climate cost benefit is really important. Increasing diversity should not be expensive and the benefits that you reap should well outweigh any initial costs. There needs to be clarity around this, if nothing else to ensure that everybody in your organisation understands this is mainstream business. This is part of everybody's day job and not some add-on to be left to diversity specialists.

Celebrate success

When things work, celebrate and blow your own trumpet as loud as you can. Your employees, your participants, your audiences, your visitors and your funders need to know about your success.

Managing diversity positively is essential in modern organisational development, rather than a peripheral issue, often (mistakenly) associated with risk management. Achieving diversity needs to be at the heart of the business plan and owned by all staff. In that way diversity can really make a difference to organisational success.