TJ - The Publication for Learning and Development

Focus 'Opinion' on diversity

By Dianah Worman (April 2005 Issue)
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The labour force is diverse, and in order to recruit, retain and nurture talent employers need to recognise that everyone is different in some way and that differences such as size, skin colour, age and religion should not get in the way.

In fact, differences should be seen as assets, not problems, and they are central to business success. Today diversity is something that should be embraced by employers, not ignored. It is important to look at age, gender, race, disability, religion and belief positively – these are all personal characteristics that will help to develop an organisation’s customer base. Managing diversity will help organisations to deal with the challenges presented by the war for talent.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) latest recruitment and retention survey found that more than 85 per cent of organisations experienced recruitment difficulties. Skills shortages and high levels of employment within the UK have triggered a war for talent and many employers cite this as a key problem in filling job vacancies. Employers risk losing out on this war for talent unless they address diversity issues and train line managers to understand this in the way they manage their teams.

The evidence is that more employers are addressing diversity to solve the problems of staff shortages and filling vacancies. Managing diversity is about being creative and opening doors to different people and new ideas. Having access to a wider range of perspectives and views may result in higher quality ideas or solutions, in a creative or problem-solving environment. Organisations such as Asda and B&Q are often used as examples because of their diversity strategies, which have helped to make significant savings in recruitment and training costs by targeting older workers, a traditionally unused group.

To take diversity forward employers should start by creating and implementing a diversity strategy, then communicating this so that the whole organisation understands it. It is important to identify the business needs and then create a policy or strategy that supports the delivery of business goals. This is not something that needs to be costly. A good strategy can actually save the organisation lots of time and money in the long term. It will help to improve the competitiveness of the organisation. In implementing their diversity policy, organisations should help to change the way individuals think about diversity. Mindset changes are key to success.

Employers must monitor the diversity strategy and engage with employees to ensure it is effective. There are legal obligations that employers would be foolish to ignore because there is no limit to how much an employment tribunal may rule an organisation to pay if it is found guilty of discriminating against someone.

However, there is a growing need to investigate the way law has influenced the progress of equal opportunities and managing diversity in order to expose where there are tensions between intent and effect, and where that effect is confusion rather than clarity. Increasing discrimination law to protect people against disadvantageous treatment on the basis of factors such as race, disability, sexual orientation, religion and age (to be introduced in 2006), and new rights for part-time workers, parents with young children, protection against harassment and bullying are just a few examples of more pervasive regulation.

Although the law will continue to have an important role in providing protection to individuals from discrimination, it is important to reassess the current situation to determine what impact litigation has on the way employers behave. It is important to consider whether or not over-regulation is leading to a ‘tick-box’ mentality, where the wider cause of diversity is harmed by a mixture of resentment of the law on the part of the employer and an approach where compliance takes precedence over genuine cultural change.

Over-reliance on legislation could be setting back the true cause of diversity. This is frustrating and hinders progress rather than helping it. The anecdotal evidence from organisations points to a strong business case for action and this is what most employers say convinces them to go forward. In fact, managing diversity itself is about cultural learning.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to ensuring progress on diversity. Diversity is too big, too different and too challenging for a single, fixed solution. We must be open minded enough to accept this and the fact that diversity is about the management of change – a process and not a fixed state.


The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has produced a new guide, Managing Diversity at Work: People make the difference at work but everyone is different. This highlights the business case for diversity and uses practical examples to show organisations how to manage diversity. For further information visit www.cipd.co.uk

 

Dianah Worman has led a number of national-level equal opportunities initiatives, including work against age discrimination and bullying. She has also led research on diversity, race and employment, work and the family, and disability. Recent projects include work with the newly formed Criminal Records Bureau, and the production of guidance for employers – an analysis of alternative legislative and voluntarist options for promoting diversity and research into employers and equal pay. She sits on a number of national-level steering committees and government advisory bodies concerned with a range of equality issues. Dianah can be contacted through the CIPD at www.cipd.co.uk

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