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Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Diversity Recruiting is Not the Job of the Recruiter!
By Eliana M. Hassen
Corporate America finally got the memo - Diversity is a tool that can help build a stronger, more competitive and forward thinking company. So now, with guns blazing, diversity recruiting has become a major business initiative, often left in the lap of HR to figure out. I hate to tell you, but diversity recruiting is not the job of a recruiter; it's the job of every employee!
Diversity recruiting is not a task. It is a process that, if mastered, becomes an art. With the growing demand of talent, finding diverse employees is more difficult than ever. The key to successful diversity recruiting is to build a program that is embedded in the corporate culture. This will quickly make it everyone's job.
So where do you start? How do you build a program? How do you embed diversity recruiting into the overall company culture and make it everyone's job? There are specific steps that an organization can take to jump-start their overall diversity recruitment initiatives.
In recent years, companies have been hiring Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs) that report directly to the CEOs to ensure that aggressive diversity initiatives are met. Having dedicated resources to cultural diversity is a step that should not be missed by any organization. Your company may not need a CDO, but there should be a team that is dedicated to diversity recruiting.
Five steps to build a diversity recruitment process, making it everyone's job!
Step 1 - Build an internal team. This should consist of recruitment or HR professionals and business unit participants. The more people throughout the organization that are involved, the more exposure diversity recruitment gets. There are many advantages to building this team, including a constant line of communication with the business units regarding cultural diversity challenges and initiatives. Senior level managers should also be targeted to join the team. This will help solidify the overall culture and drive the diversity recruiting initiative into their various groups. This not only strengthens diversity in the corporate culture, but it quickly engages different employees on different levels - creating an area of development or interest for many.
Different people on the team can have various roles. Some can serve as a board and drive the initiatives. Others can participate in marketing to candidates and even interact with candidates, relating the corporate diversity goals to potential new employees. The key is getting as many people involved in the process as possible.
Step 2 - Define the corporate goal for diversity recruitment and then brand it. Diversity recruitment - like every major initiative in a company - should have a communication strategy outlining its audience, purpose and desired results. Everyone in the organization should have access to this information.
Educating the organization on cultural diversity is a big part of that. Don't take it for granted that everyone in the organization understands diversity. Diversity is defined to include groups beyond race and gender; now it addresses age, disability, sexual orientation, religion and language as well. Getting everyone educated and in sync with the diversity recruitment goals can be as simple as featuring information in the company newsletter, receiving a memo from an executive, or featuring the message in a section of the intranet.
Step 3 - Talent acquisition marketing is the next step. Diversity recruitment should be strategic, targeted and measured for results. Often, a company doesn't follow basic business principals in recruitment that they would in other business areas. If a campaign were being launched for a new product marketing research, analysis, and development would be required. Then strategic and tactical outlines are created: how to market, define the audience and how to measure the results. This process will yield the best results in diversity recruitment, as well.
I encourage you to define the goals for the various diversity areas and then create a targeted marketing plan to recruit those groups. Then, identify what the audience reads and how it searches for employment. An even bigger part of this is the ability to write compelling ads and optimize technology. Use the Internet and word of mouth to make the path from diverse candidates to your organization clear as the sound of a bell. (This should be a big hint to invite members of your marketing organization to be a part of the diversity recruitment team!)
Step 4 - Employee Referral Programs (ERP) have proven to be invaluable in many organizations around the globe - use them to drive diversity! Create different incentive plans or programs around diversity recruitment in your existing ERPs. This turns every employee into a diversity recruiter for the company. Employees should not only understand the diversity initiatives around recruitment, but also participate in them. Regular information, with goals, metrics and new initiatives should be communicated on a regular basis to every employee.
Step 5 - The final step to creating a concrete diversity recruitment process is to build a diversity employee development program. It may seem like a function outside of recruitment or talent acquisition, but it isn't. The reality is that everything drives recruitment and talent to an organization. What better way to attract top diverse talent than to have a proven track record of your success in developing and retaining them? Creating a development plan to ensure that diverse talent is equally distributed in different business areas and growing within the company creates a buzz. It also stands behind your overall commitment to diversity. Work with your career planning folks, find volunteer mentors, define job stretch and opportunity for the diverse employees you have now - and watch the reaction through word of mouth. It will impact the bottom-line.
In summary and succinctly put, the five building blocks to create a diversity recruitment program for your company:
• Build a team dedicated to diversity recruiting.
• Define your diversity recruitment initiatives and brand them internally.
• Focus talent acquisition marketing.
• Create diversity referral programs.
• Develop and retain the diverse employees you have through a special development plan just for them.
Recruiting diverse candidates is everyone's job and you must give everyone the tools they need to do it.
Source : The Adler Group
Corporate America finally got the memo - Diversity is a tool that can help build a stronger, more competitive and forward thinking company. So now, with guns blazing, diversity recruiting has become a major business initiative, often left in the lap of HR to figure out. I hate to tell you, but diversity recruiting is not the job of a recruiter; it's the job of every employee!
Diversity recruiting is not a task. It is a process that, if mastered, becomes an art. With the growing demand of talent, finding diverse employees is more difficult than ever. The key to successful diversity recruiting is to build a program that is embedded in the corporate culture. This will quickly make it everyone's job.
So where do you start? How do you build a program? How do you embed diversity recruiting into the overall company culture and make it everyone's job? There are specific steps that an organization can take to jump-start their overall diversity recruitment initiatives.
In recent years, companies have been hiring Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs) that report directly to the CEOs to ensure that aggressive diversity initiatives are met. Having dedicated resources to cultural diversity is a step that should not be missed by any organization. Your company may not need a CDO, but there should be a team that is dedicated to diversity recruiting.
Five steps to build a diversity recruitment process, making it everyone's job!
Step 1 - Build an internal team. This should consist of recruitment or HR professionals and business unit participants. The more people throughout the organization that are involved, the more exposure diversity recruitment gets. There are many advantages to building this team, including a constant line of communication with the business units regarding cultural diversity challenges and initiatives. Senior level managers should also be targeted to join the team. This will help solidify the overall culture and drive the diversity recruiting initiative into their various groups. This not only strengthens diversity in the corporate culture, but it quickly engages different employees on different levels - creating an area of development or interest for many.
Different people on the team can have various roles. Some can serve as a board and drive the initiatives. Others can participate in marketing to candidates and even interact with candidates, relating the corporate diversity goals to potential new employees. The key is getting as many people involved in the process as possible.
Step 2 - Define the corporate goal for diversity recruitment and then brand it. Diversity recruitment - like every major initiative in a company - should have a communication strategy outlining its audience, purpose and desired results. Everyone in the organization should have access to this information.
Educating the organization on cultural diversity is a big part of that. Don't take it for granted that everyone in the organization understands diversity. Diversity is defined to include groups beyond race and gender; now it addresses age, disability, sexual orientation, religion and language as well. Getting everyone educated and in sync with the diversity recruitment goals can be as simple as featuring information in the company newsletter, receiving a memo from an executive, or featuring the message in a section of the intranet.
Step 3 - Talent acquisition marketing is the next step. Diversity recruitment should be strategic, targeted and measured for results. Often, a company doesn't follow basic business principals in recruitment that they would in other business areas. If a campaign were being launched for a new product marketing research, analysis, and development would be required. Then strategic and tactical outlines are created: how to market, define the audience and how to measure the results. This process will yield the best results in diversity recruitment, as well.
I encourage you to define the goals for the various diversity areas and then create a targeted marketing plan to recruit those groups. Then, identify what the audience reads and how it searches for employment. An even bigger part of this is the ability to write compelling ads and optimize technology. Use the Internet and word of mouth to make the path from diverse candidates to your organization clear as the sound of a bell. (This should be a big hint to invite members of your marketing organization to be a part of the diversity recruitment team!)
Step 4 - Employee Referral Programs (ERP) have proven to be invaluable in many organizations around the globe - use them to drive diversity! Create different incentive plans or programs around diversity recruitment in your existing ERPs. This turns every employee into a diversity recruiter for the company. Employees should not only understand the diversity initiatives around recruitment, but also participate in them. Regular information, with goals, metrics and new initiatives should be communicated on a regular basis to every employee.
Step 5 - The final step to creating a concrete diversity recruitment process is to build a diversity employee development program. It may seem like a function outside of recruitment or talent acquisition, but it isn't. The reality is that everything drives recruitment and talent to an organization. What better way to attract top diverse talent than to have a proven track record of your success in developing and retaining them? Creating a development plan to ensure that diverse talent is equally distributed in different business areas and growing within the company creates a buzz. It also stands behind your overall commitment to diversity. Work with your career planning folks, find volunteer mentors, define job stretch and opportunity for the diverse employees you have now - and watch the reaction through word of mouth. It will impact the bottom-line.
In summary and succinctly put, the five building blocks to create a diversity recruitment program for your company:
• Build a team dedicated to diversity recruiting.
• Define your diversity recruitment initiatives and brand them internally.
• Focus talent acquisition marketing.
• Create diversity referral programs.
• Develop and retain the diverse employees you have through a special development plan just for them.
Recruiting diverse candidates is everyone's job and you must give everyone the tools they need to do it.
Source : The Adler Group
Monday, January 28, 2008
Corporate America -- Don’t Preach Diversity, Practice It
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
New America Media
Editor's Note: Stanley O’Neal, forced out of the top job at Merrill Lynch, is the highest ranking casuality of the sub-prime loan fiasco -- even as diversity in corporate America is still an issue.
With the forced retirement of Merrill Lynch CEO E. Stanley O’Neal, the ranks of African-American top gun Fortune 500 company CEOs was sliced from six to five. O’Neal’s fall had nothing to do with race, but rather questionable investments that caused the company’s stock to plunge, and supposedly being a loner type in a corporate culture that thrives on “good old boy” insider networking. But the demise of O’Neal, for whatever reason, still raises fresh questions about how committed many corporations are to making diversity a reality in their boardrooms and in management.
The answer varies widely from corporation to corporation. Fifty companies appear on Fortune Magazine’s list of corporations with the best track record for cultural diversity. Minorities made up almost 21 percent of their boardrooms in 2003, compared with 11 percent two years earlier. The figures almost certainly have edged up even more since then.
But for every one of the 50 corporations that makes diversity more than a buzz word, there are dozens more that pat themselves on the back for having one Latino, Asian or African American on their board, or for hiring a handful in lower-level management positions.
In recent years, some of America's biggest and best-known corporations that have been widely praised as having a good track record on minority hiring and promotions have been plastered with discrimination lawsuits. Texaco, Coca-Cola, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Toyota have been thrust into the legal hot seat and have made costly settlements or signed consent decrees with the EEOC.
Forty years after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that forbade workplace discrimination and Executive Order 11246, signed by Lyndon Johnson in 1965, that prodded firms to promote management diversity, many companies still practice their own subtle brand of workplace apartheid. Despite the well-publicized rise of O’Neal and other black executives at AOL-Time Warner, American Express and Aetna, black CEOs are still a rarity at most of the Fortune 1000 corporations.
The overwhelming majority of senior managers at these companies are white males, and as is evident from the rash of management discrimination lawsuits, women and minority managers are still paid less on average than their white, male counterparts. They are still just as likely to be pigeonholed in departments such as head of “special markets” or “minority affairs.”
An embarrassing and highly publicized corporate discrimination case may bring the issue onto the public radar, but then it’s back to business as usual. That business, more often than not, is discrimination. It takes place quietly and far out of public view. The worst offending corporations employ a variety of tactics to mask discrimination. They issue glowing press releases, brochures, assorted handouts and annual stockholder reports loaded with pictures of smiling women and minority employees that tout their commitment to diversity. With much public fanfare, they establish minority and women hiring and training programs.
The refusal of many companies to make cultural diversity the watchword in middle and upper management is bad enough, but even worse is the relentlessly hostile environment that many companies create and maintain toward minorities.
Since 1990, the number of complaints of racial disrimination toward employees has climbed. Black and Latino employees have been poked with sticks, called racial slurs, have had pictures of burning crosses and white sheets placed near their lockers, have discovered the initials KKK carved on tables and benches, and even found nooses hanging at or near their desks.
Most CEOs are not hypocrites when they say that they work hard to hire and promote more minorities and women. But the degree of real commitment to cultural diversity hinges on the commitment of a corporation’s top CEO and its board. When CEOs implement an outreach program that includes a diversity task force, aggressive recruiters, and a mentoring program aimed at moving talented female and minority employees up the corporate career ladder, cultural diversity will be readily apparent in the company’s hires and promotions.
O’Neal’s departure was disappointing, given the still relative paucity of minority and women Fortune 500 CEO leaders. But even if O’Neal had stayed in good grace with Merrill, and had a long shelf life there, the challenge to corporate laggards on diversity wouldn’t change. And that is, don’t just preach it – practice it.
About the Author
New America Media Associate Editor Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation between African-Americans and Hispanics (Middle Passage Press).
Source : New America Media
New America Media
Editor's Note: Stanley O’Neal, forced out of the top job at Merrill Lynch, is the highest ranking casuality of the sub-prime loan fiasco -- even as diversity in corporate America is still an issue.
With the forced retirement of Merrill Lynch CEO E. Stanley O’Neal, the ranks of African-American top gun Fortune 500 company CEOs was sliced from six to five. O’Neal’s fall had nothing to do with race, but rather questionable investments that caused the company’s stock to plunge, and supposedly being a loner type in a corporate culture that thrives on “good old boy” insider networking. But the demise of O’Neal, for whatever reason, still raises fresh questions about how committed many corporations are to making diversity a reality in their boardrooms and in management.
The answer varies widely from corporation to corporation. Fifty companies appear on Fortune Magazine’s list of corporations with the best track record for cultural diversity. Minorities made up almost 21 percent of their boardrooms in 2003, compared with 11 percent two years earlier. The figures almost certainly have edged up even more since then.
But for every one of the 50 corporations that makes diversity more than a buzz word, there are dozens more that pat themselves on the back for having one Latino, Asian or African American on their board, or for hiring a handful in lower-level management positions.
In recent years, some of America's biggest and best-known corporations that have been widely praised as having a good track record on minority hiring and promotions have been plastered with discrimination lawsuits. Texaco, Coca-Cola, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Toyota have been thrust into the legal hot seat and have made costly settlements or signed consent decrees with the EEOC.
Forty years after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that forbade workplace discrimination and Executive Order 11246, signed by Lyndon Johnson in 1965, that prodded firms to promote management diversity, many companies still practice their own subtle brand of workplace apartheid. Despite the well-publicized rise of O’Neal and other black executives at AOL-Time Warner, American Express and Aetna, black CEOs are still a rarity at most of the Fortune 1000 corporations.
The overwhelming majority of senior managers at these companies are white males, and as is evident from the rash of management discrimination lawsuits, women and minority managers are still paid less on average than their white, male counterparts. They are still just as likely to be pigeonholed in departments such as head of “special markets” or “minority affairs.”
An embarrassing and highly publicized corporate discrimination case may bring the issue onto the public radar, but then it’s back to business as usual. That business, more often than not, is discrimination. It takes place quietly and far out of public view. The worst offending corporations employ a variety of tactics to mask discrimination. They issue glowing press releases, brochures, assorted handouts and annual stockholder reports loaded with pictures of smiling women and minority employees that tout their commitment to diversity. With much public fanfare, they establish minority and women hiring and training programs.
The refusal of many companies to make cultural diversity the watchword in middle and upper management is bad enough, but even worse is the relentlessly hostile environment that many companies create and maintain toward minorities.
Since 1990, the number of complaints of racial disrimination toward employees has climbed. Black and Latino employees have been poked with sticks, called racial slurs, have had pictures of burning crosses and white sheets placed near their lockers, have discovered the initials KKK carved on tables and benches, and even found nooses hanging at or near their desks.
Most CEOs are not hypocrites when they say that they work hard to hire and promote more minorities and women. But the degree of real commitment to cultural diversity hinges on the commitment of a corporation’s top CEO and its board. When CEOs implement an outreach program that includes a diversity task force, aggressive recruiters, and a mentoring program aimed at moving talented female and minority employees up the corporate career ladder, cultural diversity will be readily apparent in the company’s hires and promotions.
O’Neal’s departure was disappointing, given the still relative paucity of minority and women Fortune 500 CEO leaders. But even if O’Neal had stayed in good grace with Merrill, and had a long shelf life there, the challenge to corporate laggards on diversity wouldn’t change. And that is, don’t just preach it – practice it.
About the Author
New America Media Associate Editor Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation between African-Americans and Hispanics (Middle Passage Press).
Source : New America Media
From Diversity to Inclusion
By Katharine Esty, PhD
In the last few years, the focus of efforts in companies across the land has shifted from diversity to a focus on inclusion. This sea change has happened without fanfare and almost without notice. In most organizations, the word inclusion has been added to all the company's diversity materials with no explanation. This article is a short account of why this shift has happened and what it means.
Probably the most widely-read article on cultural diversity in organizations was Roosevelt Thomas's "From Affirmative Action to Affirming Diversity," which appeared in the Harvard Business Review in 1990. Diversity, said Thomas, was no longer about complying with a legal mandate but about seeking to create a diverse workforce because it would be beneficial to the organization. Before 1990, most large companies had an Employment Equity and Affirmative Action Officer, usually a lower-level employee who worked in the bowels of the organization compiling statistics about how many employees were in targeted groups, eg, people of color and women.
Diversity - A Numbers Game
Throughout the 1990's, diversity continued to be about the numbers of different kinds of people in the workforce as a whole and at each level. Diversity staffs tried to increase the number of people of color and women in their organizations. They saw this primarily as a hiring task.
During that decade, the definition of diversity expanded. Diversity came to include many dimensions beyond gender and race: age, class, disability, ethnicity, family situation, religion, and sexual orientation. Companies started to pay attention to their representation of all these groups.
It became clear over the years that it was not enough to focus on hiring alone. It became important to retain "diverse" workers, as well. Some organizations were astonished to learn that after years of effort, they had fewer African Americans than they had earlier. Companies became aware that for the most part the upper ranks of their organizations remained heavily white and predominately male. These were the years when companies offered cultural diversity awareness training and diversity skills training to help their newly diverse employees work well together.
It's the Culture
Today, in the 2000's, as organizations try to retain diverse employees in their workforce, companies have started looking at the quality of these employees' experience in the organization. Do employees in all groups and categories feel comfortable and welcomed in the organization? Do they feel included and do they experience the environment as inclusive? To answer these questions, diversity staffs need to assess their environment and identify the barriers to inclusion, whether they are practices, policies, or the informal culture of the organization. Having identified barriers, the job of the diversity staff is to change the company culture and to create an inclusive workplace environment.
Systems and Policies
As inclusion becomes the focus of diversity work, the attention switches to the systems, policies and practices of the company. Several systems influence the degree to which the climate is inclusive:
• Communications
• Work assignment
• Training and education
• Performance management
• Mentoring
• Coaching
• Hiring
• Career development
• Flexible work arrangements; and
• Managers' accountability.
Companies that are known for their inclusive climate do not rely on the goodwill of their managers but work hard so that each organizational system is equitable. Once barriers are identified, they take action to address them. Each system is analyzed to determine the degree to which it provides equitable access and benefits to all employees.
Creating an Inclusive Environment: A Case Study
Here is an example of how one company addressed inclusion issues:
A division of an institute in the defense industry had the reputation of not being welcoming to women. For years, they had experienced difficulty in both hiring and retaining female employees at all levels but particularly in the highest ranks of management. For years they clung to the idea that what they needed to do was to hire two or three high-level women. But to their chagrin, as soon as they would hire a new high-level female executive, it seemed one of the other high-level women would resign. At first they explained these recurrent departures in terms of the personalities of the women - "She has family problems," "She is too aggressive," or "She is too timid." Gradually it dawned on them that these resignations were not about the women, they were about the culture and the organizational climate.
This led to a whole new strategy. The director of the division created a Diversity Task Force to suggest and implement changes that would create a more inclusive workplace in order to support the efforts to recruit and retain women. The Task Force was supported with resources and time for its work. Guided by an organizational consultant and working in small action teams, they first conducted a series of focus groups to identify the issues and concerns of women in the division. Then they moved into action, devising a number of changes and short-term projects to address the important issues. As soon as a team implemented a change or completed a project, they took on another.
Here are some of their accomplishments over the first two years:
• They created a buddy system for all new employees
• Senior Managers hosted a series of lunches to meet lower-level women engineers and learn about their projects
• All brochures about the division were revised to include pictures of women
• They created a website where articles about women in the workplace were posted
• They developed a special relationship with a women's engineering college, inviting students from that college to come on-site for field trips and setting up summer internships for women undergraduate engineers
• They instituted networking and professional development events for women
• Senior managers attended two training programs, "Men and Women Working Together" and "Flexibility."
Two of their learnings about creating an inclusive climate were: 1) It doesn't take huge amounts of money to make significant progress; and 2) Changing an organizational culture is about doing many small things, not one or two big things.
In reality, as this story attests, creating an inclusive environment is about a hundred small changes. As you look at your own organization, ask yourself: What are we doing, in ways large or small, to move from yesterday's diversity to today's need for inclusion?
About the Author
Katharine Esty, PhD, is the Founder of Ibis Consulting Group, Inc., a diversity consulting firm based in Waltham, MA. She is a NEHRA member as well as a member of the NEHRA "Ask the HR Expert" panel. She can be reached at esty@ibisconsultinggroup.com.
Source : Boston.com
In the last few years, the focus of efforts in companies across the land has shifted from diversity to a focus on inclusion. This sea change has happened without fanfare and almost without notice. In most organizations, the word inclusion has been added to all the company's diversity materials with no explanation. This article is a short account of why this shift has happened and what it means.
Probably the most widely-read article on cultural diversity in organizations was Roosevelt Thomas's "From Affirmative Action to Affirming Diversity," which appeared in the Harvard Business Review in 1990. Diversity, said Thomas, was no longer about complying with a legal mandate but about seeking to create a diverse workforce because it would be beneficial to the organization. Before 1990, most large companies had an Employment Equity and Affirmative Action Officer, usually a lower-level employee who worked in the bowels of the organization compiling statistics about how many employees were in targeted groups, eg, people of color and women.
Diversity - A Numbers Game
Throughout the 1990's, diversity continued to be about the numbers of different kinds of people in the workforce as a whole and at each level. Diversity staffs tried to increase the number of people of color and women in their organizations. They saw this primarily as a hiring task.
During that decade, the definition of diversity expanded. Diversity came to include many dimensions beyond gender and race: age, class, disability, ethnicity, family situation, religion, and sexual orientation. Companies started to pay attention to their representation of all these groups.
It became clear over the years that it was not enough to focus on hiring alone. It became important to retain "diverse" workers, as well. Some organizations were astonished to learn that after years of effort, they had fewer African Americans than they had earlier. Companies became aware that for the most part the upper ranks of their organizations remained heavily white and predominately male. These were the years when companies offered cultural diversity awareness training and diversity skills training to help their newly diverse employees work well together.
It's the Culture
Today, in the 2000's, as organizations try to retain diverse employees in their workforce, companies have started looking at the quality of these employees' experience in the organization. Do employees in all groups and categories feel comfortable and welcomed in the organization? Do they feel included and do they experience the environment as inclusive? To answer these questions, diversity staffs need to assess their environment and identify the barriers to inclusion, whether they are practices, policies, or the informal culture of the organization. Having identified barriers, the job of the diversity staff is to change the company culture and to create an inclusive workplace environment.
Systems and Policies
As inclusion becomes the focus of diversity work, the attention switches to the systems, policies and practices of the company. Several systems influence the degree to which the climate is inclusive:
• Communications
• Work assignment
• Training and education
• Performance management
• Mentoring
• Coaching
• Hiring
• Career development
• Flexible work arrangements; and
• Managers' accountability.
Companies that are known for their inclusive climate do not rely on the goodwill of their managers but work hard so that each organizational system is equitable. Once barriers are identified, they take action to address them. Each system is analyzed to determine the degree to which it provides equitable access and benefits to all employees.
Creating an Inclusive Environment: A Case Study
Here is an example of how one company addressed inclusion issues:
A division of an institute in the defense industry had the reputation of not being welcoming to women. For years, they had experienced difficulty in both hiring and retaining female employees at all levels but particularly in the highest ranks of management. For years they clung to the idea that what they needed to do was to hire two or three high-level women. But to their chagrin, as soon as they would hire a new high-level female executive, it seemed one of the other high-level women would resign. At first they explained these recurrent departures in terms of the personalities of the women - "She has family problems," "She is too aggressive," or "She is too timid." Gradually it dawned on them that these resignations were not about the women, they were about the culture and the organizational climate.
This led to a whole new strategy. The director of the division created a Diversity Task Force to suggest and implement changes that would create a more inclusive workplace in order to support the efforts to recruit and retain women. The Task Force was supported with resources and time for its work. Guided by an organizational consultant and working in small action teams, they first conducted a series of focus groups to identify the issues and concerns of women in the division. Then they moved into action, devising a number of changes and short-term projects to address the important issues. As soon as a team implemented a change or completed a project, they took on another.
Here are some of their accomplishments over the first two years:
• They created a buddy system for all new employees
• Senior Managers hosted a series of lunches to meet lower-level women engineers and learn about their projects
• All brochures about the division were revised to include pictures of women
• They created a website where articles about women in the workplace were posted
• They developed a special relationship with a women's engineering college, inviting students from that college to come on-site for field trips and setting up summer internships for women undergraduate engineers
• They instituted networking and professional development events for women
• Senior managers attended two training programs, "Men and Women Working Together" and "Flexibility."
Two of their learnings about creating an inclusive climate were: 1) It doesn't take huge amounts of money to make significant progress; and 2) Changing an organizational culture is about doing many small things, not one or two big things.
In reality, as this story attests, creating an inclusive environment is about a hundred small changes. As you look at your own organization, ask yourself: What are we doing, in ways large or small, to move from yesterday's diversity to today's need for inclusion?
About the Author
Katharine Esty, PhD, is the Founder of Ibis Consulting Group, Inc., a diversity consulting firm based in Waltham, MA. She is a NEHRA member as well as a member of the NEHRA "Ask the HR Expert" panel. She can be reached at esty@ibisconsultinggroup.com.
Source : Boston.com
Minority Hiring: The Do’s, Don’ts, Whys, How To’s and Rewards
By Jackie Headapohl
Diversity is strength. Financial experts know that a diversified portfolio is the best way to build wealth, and business experts know that a culturally-diverse candidate pool is the best way to build a staff that will provide the maximum performance and results.
“Study after study shows diversity creates a positive impact on businesses,” says Tracey de Morsella, who produces the Multicultural Advantage, a Web site with resources to help employers increase their effectiveness in diversity recruiting. Miami-based Convergence Media Inc., runs the site and publishes multicultural-focused directories.
“Studies show culturally-diverse companies increase productivity, creativity and develop new and more varied products and services,” de Morsella says. “Most new business owners think, ‘I’ll deal with that later.’ Cultural diversity seems out of reach, but there are benefits to doing it right away.”
Just don’t confuse diversity with representation, says Roosevelt Thomas, CEO of Roosevelt Thomas Consulting & Training in Atlanta, Ga., and author of Building on the Promise of Diversity (AMACOM Books, 2005, $27.95).
Plan to Manage Diversity
“Most companies who think they’re talking about diversity are really talking about representation,” Thomas says. He defines “representation” as a workforce that racially and ethnically reflects a company’s customer base.
“The main benefit to a representative workforce is that society expects it,” he says. “Truth be told, it’s difficult to get ‘diversity’ through representation because most employers want to assimilate their candidates to their way of thinking and doing things. Those companies may have a ‘diverse’ workforce, but they also have a sameness of thought.”
For example, Thomas says, if you hire African American, Hispanic and Asian candidates who all have Ivy League educations, you’re not getting diversity at all. Attribute and behavioral diversity don’t always come along with diverse ethnicities, he says. Functional diversity takes time to develop and it comes with its own set of challenges.
“True diversity breeds difficulties, tensions and complexities,” Thomas says, “and that can be difficult to manage.” Companies need to plan for training, building skills, policies and processes to effectively manage diversity.
Even so, Thomas says, companies are more likely to reach truly functional diversity with a representative workforce. “They should take on the challenge right away.”
Managed well, diversity helps companies avoid that innovation-killer called groupthink, which locks employees into one way of thinking and stifles the ability to compete. Study after study has shown that cultural diversity improves customer focus, spurs creativity and innovation, and leads to better decision-making and problem solving, de Morsella says.
Your Workforce Should Look Like Your Customer Base
The population of America is changing. According to the 2004 U.S. Census, Hispanics (14.1 percent) now are the largest minority group, with African Americans (12.8 percent) second. Experts predict that by 2050, people of color will outnumber white Americans.
Women, 51 percent of the marketplace, are also changing the American landscape. Research findings by BusinessWeek and Gallup led to a forecast that by 2010, women are expected to control $1 trillion, or 60 percent of the country’s wealth. They already buy or influence the purchase of 80 percent of all consumer goods.
These are the faces of the marketplace, and if they’re not seen in your company, they’re likely to take their business elsewhere, de Morsella warns.
Make Your Business Attractive to Diverse Candidates
Diversity candidates are like any others - they want to find an employer with whom they’ll feel comfortable, have opportunities to advance and make a decent income. But, de Morsella notes, “If you have 20 people on staff and they’re all white guys, you send a weird message.”
So how do you get a diverse staff? “You don’t go out looking for a black man or a Latino woman,” she says. There are potential legal minefields associated with diversity hiring, such as reserving spots or job openings solely for diverse candidates. It’s reverse discrimination and illegal.
“The biggest mistake that companies [startups or established] make is being afraid - afraid of being called racist, being accused of setting quotas, etc.,” says Damali Ayo, a Portland writer and artist whose book, How to Rent a Negro (Lawrence Hill Books, 2005, $14.95) is intended to encourage open dialogue about race in the workplace. “People are so afraid of ‘doing it wrong’ when it comes to cultural diversity that procrastination and cowardice easily find their way in. Thus some companies who are strong in many areas find themselves weak in cultural diversity.”
As you create your recruiting materials, build in a diversity message that says, “This is a great place to work,” Ayo says. “You just need to broaden your talent pool, and you’ll have no problem finding people from varied backgrounds.”
Does Your Web Site Reflect Diversity?
One easy way to attract a broad talent pool is by adding a diversity page to your Web site, de Morsella says: “This is a very low-cost method and will help your site show up on search engines for diversity.
“If you’re not sure how to do it, go to the sites of major companies with a reputation for good diversity programs – Microsoft and Merrill Lynch, for example - and use them as a model.”
De Morsella also urges including minorities and women on your board. “This puts a diverse face on your company and makes those from diverse backgrounds want to work with you,” she says.
Widen Your Candidate Pool
One of the simplest ways to recruit for diversity is posting your company on minority-focused Web sites that offer various combinations of job listings, recruitment-marketing services and diversity-related news (see related sidebar).
De Morsella suggests that when looking for highly skilled talent and executives, tap into the local chapters of national groups. “It’s much less expensive,” she says. “Working through the national organization could cost up to $20K.”
For entry- to mid-level, she advises looking to such advocacy groups as the Urban League. “I’ve done this to hire sales staff and interns, and it’s worked out great,” she says. “Most large cities have a local chapter and will be happy to send candidates right away.”
It Won’t Pay If You Delay
Begin your efforts to hire a representative staff as soon as possible because cultural diversity can make a huge difference in the bottom line.
Robert Rodriguez is faculty chair in the School of Business & Technology at Capella University online, and chairman for the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement, a nonprofit that helps companies attract, develop and retain Latino talent. On the Society for Human Resource Management Web site, he recounts how a representative and diverse workforce led to big profits for Frito-Lay.
The Latino Employee Network at Frito-Lay proved invaluable during the development of Doritos Guacamole Flavored Tortilla Chips, Rodriguez writes. Members of the network provided feedback on the taste and packaging to help ensure authenticity, helping launch one of the most successful products in the company’s history. The snack generated more than $100 million in sales in the first year alone.
“A diverse staff is going to give you the best performance and results,” Ayo says. “A diverse staff is only one of the tools you need to build the best business possible. You should treat it with the same immediacy and importance as you would in finding the right tools in every other area.
“Become a leader in creating a diverse staff. Your clients’ confidence, staff morale, press coverage, productivity and, of course, your profits will increase for doing it.”
About the Author
Jackie Headapohl is a freelance writer for StartupNation.
Source : StartupNation
Diversity is strength. Financial experts know that a diversified portfolio is the best way to build wealth, and business experts know that a culturally-diverse candidate pool is the best way to build a staff that will provide the maximum performance and results.
“Study after study shows diversity creates a positive impact on businesses,” says Tracey de Morsella, who produces the Multicultural Advantage, a Web site with resources to help employers increase their effectiveness in diversity recruiting. Miami-based Convergence Media Inc., runs the site and publishes multicultural-focused directories.
“Studies show culturally-diverse companies increase productivity, creativity and develop new and more varied products and services,” de Morsella says. “Most new business owners think, ‘I’ll deal with that later.’ Cultural diversity seems out of reach, but there are benefits to doing it right away.”
Just don’t confuse diversity with representation, says Roosevelt Thomas, CEO of Roosevelt Thomas Consulting & Training in Atlanta, Ga., and author of Building on the Promise of Diversity (AMACOM Books, 2005, $27.95).
Plan to Manage Diversity
“Most companies who think they’re talking about diversity are really talking about representation,” Thomas says. He defines “representation” as a workforce that racially and ethnically reflects a company’s customer base.
“The main benefit to a representative workforce is that society expects it,” he says. “Truth be told, it’s difficult to get ‘diversity’ through representation because most employers want to assimilate their candidates to their way of thinking and doing things. Those companies may have a ‘diverse’ workforce, but they also have a sameness of thought.”
For example, Thomas says, if you hire African American, Hispanic and Asian candidates who all have Ivy League educations, you’re not getting diversity at all. Attribute and behavioral diversity don’t always come along with diverse ethnicities, he says. Functional diversity takes time to develop and it comes with its own set of challenges.
“True diversity breeds difficulties, tensions and complexities,” Thomas says, “and that can be difficult to manage.” Companies need to plan for training, building skills, policies and processes to effectively manage diversity.
Even so, Thomas says, companies are more likely to reach truly functional diversity with a representative workforce. “They should take on the challenge right away.”
Managed well, diversity helps companies avoid that innovation-killer called groupthink, which locks employees into one way of thinking and stifles the ability to compete. Study after study has shown that cultural diversity improves customer focus, spurs creativity and innovation, and leads to better decision-making and problem solving, de Morsella says.
Your Workforce Should Look Like Your Customer Base
The population of America is changing. According to the 2004 U.S. Census, Hispanics (14.1 percent) now are the largest minority group, with African Americans (12.8 percent) second. Experts predict that by 2050, people of color will outnumber white Americans.
Women, 51 percent of the marketplace, are also changing the American landscape. Research findings by BusinessWeek and Gallup led to a forecast that by 2010, women are expected to control $1 trillion, or 60 percent of the country’s wealth. They already buy or influence the purchase of 80 percent of all consumer goods.
These are the faces of the marketplace, and if they’re not seen in your company, they’re likely to take their business elsewhere, de Morsella warns.
Make Your Business Attractive to Diverse Candidates
Diversity candidates are like any others - they want to find an employer with whom they’ll feel comfortable, have opportunities to advance and make a decent income. But, de Morsella notes, “If you have 20 people on staff and they’re all white guys, you send a weird message.”
So how do you get a diverse staff? “You don’t go out looking for a black man or a Latino woman,” she says. There are potential legal minefields associated with diversity hiring, such as reserving spots or job openings solely for diverse candidates. It’s reverse discrimination and illegal.
“The biggest mistake that companies [startups or established] make is being afraid - afraid of being called racist, being accused of setting quotas, etc.,” says Damali Ayo, a Portland writer and artist whose book, How to Rent a Negro (Lawrence Hill Books, 2005, $14.95) is intended to encourage open dialogue about race in the workplace. “People are so afraid of ‘doing it wrong’ when it comes to cultural diversity that procrastination and cowardice easily find their way in. Thus some companies who are strong in many areas find themselves weak in cultural diversity.”
As you create your recruiting materials, build in a diversity message that says, “This is a great place to work,” Ayo says. “You just need to broaden your talent pool, and you’ll have no problem finding people from varied backgrounds.”
Does Your Web Site Reflect Diversity?
One easy way to attract a broad talent pool is by adding a diversity page to your Web site, de Morsella says: “This is a very low-cost method and will help your site show up on search engines for diversity.
“If you’re not sure how to do it, go to the sites of major companies with a reputation for good diversity programs – Microsoft and Merrill Lynch, for example - and use them as a model.”
De Morsella also urges including minorities and women on your board. “This puts a diverse face on your company and makes those from diverse backgrounds want to work with you,” she says.
Widen Your Candidate Pool
One of the simplest ways to recruit for diversity is posting your company on minority-focused Web sites that offer various combinations of job listings, recruitment-marketing services and diversity-related news (see related sidebar).
De Morsella suggests that when looking for highly skilled talent and executives, tap into the local chapters of national groups. “It’s much less expensive,” she says. “Working through the national organization could cost up to $20K.”
For entry- to mid-level, she advises looking to such advocacy groups as the Urban League. “I’ve done this to hire sales staff and interns, and it’s worked out great,” she says. “Most large cities have a local chapter and will be happy to send candidates right away.”
It Won’t Pay If You Delay
Begin your efforts to hire a representative staff as soon as possible because cultural diversity can make a huge difference in the bottom line.
Robert Rodriguez is faculty chair in the School of Business & Technology at Capella University online, and chairman for the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement, a nonprofit that helps companies attract, develop and retain Latino talent. On the Society for Human Resource Management Web site, he recounts how a representative and diverse workforce led to big profits for Frito-Lay.
The Latino Employee Network at Frito-Lay proved invaluable during the development of Doritos Guacamole Flavored Tortilla Chips, Rodriguez writes. Members of the network provided feedback on the taste and packaging to help ensure authenticity, helping launch one of the most successful products in the company’s history. The snack generated more than $100 million in sales in the first year alone.
“A diverse staff is going to give you the best performance and results,” Ayo says. “A diverse staff is only one of the tools you need to build the best business possible. You should treat it with the same immediacy and importance as you would in finding the right tools in every other area.
“Become a leader in creating a diverse staff. Your clients’ confidence, staff morale, press coverage, productivity and, of course, your profits will increase for doing it.”
About the Author
Jackie Headapohl is a freelance writer for StartupNation.
Source : StartupNation
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