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Most savvy employers understand the business case for diversity, which has been well-documented over many years. It should be evident that diverse employees bring new ideas and fresh viewpoints to the table which can promote positive change and spark business innovation. A diverse workforce challenges traditional and antiquated thinking with out-of-the-box business concepts.
This can subsequently improve productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of overall business operations and boost profits. Moreover, embracing diversity in the workplace can help companies expand their consumer base and improve recruitment, retention, and advancement of talented employees.
Fostering a work culture of diversity on a national and international scale means large employers will not miss out on hiring the best available talent in a global marketplace. That’s because talented job candidates, if passed over for discriminatory reasons, may end up working for the competition — and ultimately costing your company money via lost revenue.
Much Work Remains
Most large employers have adopted workforce diversity to some extent because, as noted, it simply makes good business sense. This is particularly true in an increasingly diverse society undergoing major demographic shifts. However, there remains much work ahead if companies want to be ‘equal opportunity employers’ in more than name only. Building a successful workplace culture of diversity requires concrete actions rather than empty rhetoric. It’s not enough for corporations to simply check off boxes, conduct sporadic training and outreach, and develop diversity management plans just for the sake of it.
Effective diversity management plans must be repeated, updated, and reinforced for a company to make real progress. They must also fully comply with applicable federal, state, and local employment laws. Diversity management plans are not a one-time exercise to be put on a shelf to gather dust. Rather, these plans should be closely incorporated and aligned with an employer’s mission, strategic goals, and key business objectives.
Moreover, diversity management plans should be considered “living documents” which address novel legal theories and changes in the law. And top managers and business leaders, from CEOs on down, need to clearly communicate to all employees that workforce diversity remains an urgent business priority in 2020.
Mid-level and front-line managers and supervisors are much more likely to follow through when an unequivocal and sustained message comes from the very top of the organization, as opposed to just the HR department. It should be noted that Good Men Project recently announced the launch of diversity and inclusion corporate training workshops.
Michael Kasdan, GMP’s Director of Special Projects, wrote the following in May:
Our culture at work informs not only our daily lives as people, but the bottom-line of the businesses we lead. . . Organizations that lead in Diversity & Inclusion have substantially higher profitability, productivity, and customer satisfaction and lower employee turn-over. . . We recognize that Diversity & Inclusion requires focus, intentionality, and engagement across a complex set of issues. . . These issues run through every aspect of our corporate function and lives, from hiring and promotion to client delivery to our everyday behaviors in the hallways and conference rooms.
Range of Views
I spoke to a few diversity and inclusion experts, with whom I previously worked, to get their first-hand take on the issues. Their comments represent a range of views. Here’s what they had to say:
Gilbert Casellas chaired the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) during the Administration of President Bill Clinton and also served as General Counsel of the U.S. Air Force. He is a leading expert on workforce diversity and EEO issues. In addition to his public service, Mr. Casellas has held executive management positions in corporate America and sat on several corporate boards. He told me:
The singular greatest strength of the United States is that we are a diverse society, comprised of individuals of many backgrounds, races, languages, ethnicities, religions and abilities. Smart employers — whether of the public or private sector — can only address and overcome the complex challenges they face each day by drawing broadly on these diverse skills, perspectives and experiences.
Luke Visconti, the founder and CEO of DiversityInc, told me:
Every CEO will reflexively tell you they want the best possible talent, yet our data from hundreds of companies shows that there is significant discrimination against women and/or non white people. . .Changing the processes that have led to only 5.2% of Fortune 500 CEOs being women — while women have earned over 50% of bachelors degrees since the late 1980s — requires discipline. The companies on the ‘DiversityInc Top 50’ are committed to that process.
Cari Dominguez chaired the U.S. EEOC during the Administration of President George W. Bush, in addition to serving as an Assistant Secretary of Labor. She has also held top executive leadership and management positions at Bank of America and Manpower, Inc. She told me:
Statistics and reports serve to inform, but it is leadership that drives results. Developing individuals of all backgrounds into leaders achieves results. Leadership is not rank, privileges, title or money; it is responsibility and results.
Final Thoughts
While it’s true that corporate America, mid-sized companies and small employers have made important strides in fostering workforce diversity, problems remain. For instance, there are still major disparities within high-level job categories involving leadership and management. There are still too many glass ceilings and sticky floors, so to speak, which hold talented employees back from reaching their full potential.
Ideally, all employment decisions should be strictly based on merit, talent and ability to do the job — rather than non-job related criteria based on race, color, sex (including sexual harassment and pregnancy), national origin, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation or other discriminatory factors.
All employees and applicants deserve the freedom to compete and advance in the workplace on a fair and level playing field without artificial barriers. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. That’s why effectuating diversity and inclusion at every level of an organization remains an urgent business priority in 2020 and beyond.
This simply makes good business sense.
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A version of this article was previously published on LinkedIn
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