Resource Guide for Implementing Diversity in Your Workplace

Compounded by a shrinking talent pool and an increasingly diverse customer base, diversity in the workplace is quickly becoming a bottom line business imperative.

The most certain way for your organization to benefit from diversity is to incorporate diversity into the way you do business. That means conducting a thorough review of all organizational structures, processes, and policies that set up your employee for success. This resource guide will provide suggestions for integrating diversity practices in all aspects of talent management, from recruitment to retention. This way, you too can reap the benefits of attracting and retaining a diverse workforce.

Getting Started

Before you can effectively integrate diversity in your organization, determine the exact outcome for which you are striving. Consider the following:

What you would like the program to achieve

Draw links to your organization’s mission, vision, values, goals, and objectives.

Decide how you will develop and implement diversity. For example, will you focus on developing a few select initiatives across the company, or will you develop a full set of initiatives and only pilot in one area of the company?

Assess the resources required

Gain input into the diversity plan and approach taken from senior executives and line managers. This will increase buy-in into the program and accountability across the organization.

Identify and involve other individuals and departments that can help you implement the diversity plan.

Gauge where are you are now

Gather information about your company’s current environment as this creates a starting point for objective setting and prioritizing. You may wish to review:

  • Corporate and business plans.
  • The demographic profile of current employees.
  • The prevailing culture of the company, including previous workplace diversity performance.
  • Existing human resources policies and practices, such as recruitment and selection practices, anti-harassment strategies and performance management schemes.
  • External factors that will affect the organization during the program. For example, a downturn in the market, a shortage of skilled labour, etc.

Where do you want to be?

Theabove information will provideyou baseline data you can use to measure the success of the workplace diversity program. Your next step is to set out the program’s intended outcomes, such as:

  • A commitment to the company’s diversity principles.
  • The value that the diversity workplace program brings to the company. For example, will the diversity program broaden your labour pool so that it is easier to attract qualified talent, provide innovative ideas and fresh perspective, strengthen the company brand, etc. How will you measure if this value has been realized?
  • Integration of diversity principles in business and human resources practices and systems.

Selecting a Program

Once the program's objectives have been agreed to, strategies and initiatives that reflect the company’s business and Human Resources needs can be identified.Initiatives can span all the human resourcesprocesses that an employee will experience during their employment with the company. However, the most effective way to decide on which initiatives to implement is by reviewing the company’s current employment systems for gaps. These gaps will give you a system for prioritizing initiatives based on greatest benefit to the company.

The following six step approach can be used to review employment systems.

Step 1: Establish a Committee

One of the most important steps in implementing a diversity strategy is including employee opinion and feedback in all steps of the process. A process that includes a cross section of employees (employees from different departments, at different levels) is more likely to generate employee support for implementing diversity. The first step is to form a representative committee of employees, who will have a voice in reviewing employment systems and the selected programs that result from this review.

Step 2: Create a Communication Plan

An effective communication plan is essential to raise awareness and communicate information about the company’s diversity goals and objectives. You will want to identify and document the type, timing and amount of information you will share throughout the project.

Step 3: CollectData

A review of Human Resources policies and practices should be undertaken to identify any barriers that may unintentionally exclude members of designated groups. The review should encompass policies for all groups of jobsto ensure that these policies are consistently and fairly applied in all circumstances.

At a minimum, the company will want to examine employment policies and practices relating to recruitment and selection, employee development and general employment policies. A more in-depth review can include reviewing policies and practices related to recruitment, selection, training and development, promotion guidelines, job evaluation, compensation and benefits, employee performance, health and safety, and other existing employment policies.

Each of these areas should be reviewed based on questions relating to the legality, job-relatedness, adverse impact, accommodation, and consistency of application.

Step 4: Gather Employee Feedback

Employees are an excellent source of information for finding out how policies and practices are really applied in the organization. Focus groups, one-on-one interviews, anonymous employee surveys are all excellent sources for further understanding any strengths, weaknesses and gaps of existing Human Resources policies and practices. All information gathered must be handled with utmost confidentiality and integrity, and with an eye to communicating the purpose and intent of soliciting this feedback. If conducted properly, not only will this information provide an inside look at the employee experience, it will also increase employee support for the initiative.

Step 5: Analyze Data and Provide Recommendations

Employment legislation and HR best practice benchmarks should be applied when analyzing data. The outputs of your analysis should include a report containing action plans for the elimination of any employment barriers identified; recommendations for program implementation; and a timetable for each action item. You should also identify examples of existing Human Resources policies and practices that exemplify positive contributions to implementing diversity. You are now well positioned to implement the decided upon programs.

Implementing the Program

There are numerous, policies and resources that you can use to implement diversity in your workplace. Regardless of the programs you choose to implement, all programs should have a link to the following components: strategy, structure, and people.

Strategy

The program must be linked to the organizational strategy. The answer to ‘why’ implement the program should be based on the support it provides to the broader organization. For example, it could be said that implementing diversity training is the right thing to do. Which it may be, but that’s not the reason you should implement diversity training. The reason you would implement diversity training is that it communicates the company’s expectations around creating and supporting diversity in the workplace. Employees are more likely to stay with a company which offers a supportive work environment, which in turn, offers the company a competitive edge in retaining talent. Similarly, all programs being implemented should have a similar logic. That is, the program is being implemented because it aligns with specific company goals.

Structure

Structure refers to the framework around which the company is organized, for example, how leadership is chosen, how decisions are made, and how information is communicated. Existing structures can greatly impact the success or failure of diversity programs. Aligning diversity initiatives with the prevailing structure will greatly enhance your chances of sustaining the diversity initiative so that it becomes part of how the company conducts its business over the longer term. You may wish to ask yourself the following questions in determining how and to what extent structures will impact diversity initiatives:

Is this a new company with few structures in place, or an established organization with many structures?

Is the organization considered relatively small or large?

Are employees located in a single location or geographically dispersed?

Does the company have experienced leadership, or is the leadership team relatively new and still developing?

How is information typically communicated – formal communication channels, or through the grapevine?

Does the company currently have successful human resource programs or practices in place? If so, what does it take to make an initiative successful?

Are employees motivated to remain with the organization, or do we typically experience a lot of turnover?

People

Since individuals ultimately make up the culture and prevailing atmosphere of any organization, understanding the current employee profile is central to creating successful diversity initiatives. The first step is to understand how employees feel about the company.

Do employees work together, thereby fostering familiarity?

Do employees understand what behaviours are expected and rewarded?

How employees feel about the prevailing culture and atmosphere?

What types of programs employees want and value?

If employees are committed to remaining with the company?

Answering these questions will provide clarity as to what programs and practices are most needed. You may also want to implement additional practices that are necessary to further embed diversity in your company. In this case, you’ll want to assess the readiness of employees to accept and adopt additional diversity initiatives. Identify the extent that diversity can be embedded:

The employee base is diverse throughout the company and across functions (e.g. minority groups are not highly concentrated in a specific function or type of work)

Do managers give equal consideration to skills and abilities and do not include irrelevant data or personal biases when making hiring decisions.

Managers support flexible work arrangement and other existing policies intended to accommodate a diverse employee base.

Managers and employees consistently treat one another with dignity and respect.

Ultimately, ensuring ongoing support from senior management, employee involvement, and ongoing communications will play an integral role in ensuring that diversity initiatives can be sustained.

Communicating the Program

How you communicate is as important as what you communicate about diversity. This is because used appropriately; language can serve as a powerful tool to reflect the company’s beliefs, andinfluence the attitudes and behaviours of its employees. No matter what programs you choose to implement – whether they are standard company policies, employee development tools such as performance reviews and feedback, or diversity marketing and communication material – make sure the language used is consistent with the company’s diversity message. Following are some suggestions to help you develop respectful and impactful communications.

Avoid…. / Instead Use….
  • Adjectives that suggest a negative image e.g. The aged / elderly.
/
  • Use neutral descriptors e.g. seniors.

  • Forms of address that are considered slang e.g. Indian, Eskimo.
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  • Use professional language e.g. Aboriginal, Inuit.

  • Grouping language that implies one gender is inferior e.g. man and wife.
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  • Use language that recognizes men and women as equals e.g. spouses.

  • Job descriptions that identify gender eg: the engineer will finish his report.
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  • Job descriptions that identify the role eg: the engineer will finish the report.

  • Language that focuses on a single characteristic rather then the whole person e.g. the Jews.
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  • Language that puts the person first e.g. the Jewish community.

  • Putting a characteristic before the person e.g. wheel chair bound.
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  • Words that recognize the person first e.g. Person who uses a wheelchair.

  • Stereotyping job roles by gender e.g. The secretary…she….
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  • Gender neutral reference e.g. Secretaries…they / he or she….

  • Using words that suggest that a program or policy is viewed as offering out of the ordinary privileges e.g. do not use words such as special needs.
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  • Words that suggest a program is available to all employees as required e.g. refer to programs as providing accommodation needs.

  • Words that denote masculine or feminine characteristics e.g. Foreman.
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  • Use gender neutral language e.g. Supervisor.

  • Words that patronize men or women e.g. best man for the job.
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  • Use gender neutral language e.g. best person for the job.

Program Evaluation

You will want to monitor your progress to ensure that the initiatives you have implemented are having the desired impact. This information will enable you to make any necessary adjustments to ensure the program’s continued success. Monitoring can take various forms; of course the more methods you apply to monitor, the more accurate information you will source.

Both quantitative and qualitative data can be used to assess the effectiveness of the diversity program. You can compare the information you will gather after you’ve rolled out the program to the baseline data you gathered during planning stage to assess the amount of impact the diversity program is having. Some methods you may wish to use to gather your data post program rollout include:

Changes in employee data such as absenteeism, retention rates, number of diversity related complaints, etc.

Employee feedback obtained through formal surveys, informal feedback and conversations.

Assess the impact your program is having on a regular basis, and at least annually. The initial evaluation is only a starting point, and your results are bound to change with changes you make to the program, changes in the employee profile, as well as business and even external market changes. Keeping a pulse on outcomes will ensure the continued success of the diversity program.