Expert Eye View - Is Diversity the Sat Nav for Business Success?

John Dyer, Diversity specialist and Chief Executive of Manchester based Credibility talks about Diversity.

There is a maxim that goes as follows:

"If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there." When it comes to diversity and its delivery within organisations, this sadly, is often the case.

Organisations know, that in this day and age, it makes sense to tackle issues of equality and diversity but, many are not sure how exactly to proceed.

Most organisations will now have an equal opportunities or diversity policy and will probably have put their staff through the obligatory awareness raising training, where a trainer will have told them exactly the same thing she/he told the staff of all the other organisations they have worked with…..

‘That diversity is about valuing and respecting difference. Our society is becoming increasingly more diverse; some people are disabled, others are older, some are younger, black, Asian, gay, lesbian,’ and the list goes on.. we should all be mindful of those differences. They will say.

Up and down the country organisations public, private and voluntary are paying consultants to tell them this. Why? If it’s simply about respecting differences, what’s the big deal? Anybody can do that! I reckon: keep the money and do it yourself, if that’s all there is to it.

Why on earth pay someone to tell your staff that diversity is about individual differences and then go on to underpin the training by talking about equal opportunities legislation which in essence is about sameness, and therefore not diversity!

If that’s what organisations want, then as my teenage daughter would say …"cool" – but at least be certain that’s what is genuinely required. However, which other bits of business development training do organisations undertake without building in evaluation criteria? It seems that, with diversity, so long as staff enjoy the training, then that’s fair enough. If it’s just about enjoyment, send them to the cinema. It would be cheaper. If I was paying for training or advice I would want to know what has been learned or achieved and be able to measure the benefit to my business.

The truth is, diversity goes way beyond simply valuing differences there is a much more tangible explanation.

My definition is that it is about:

• economic,
• demographic,
• social and
• cultural change

that no organisation can afford to ignore.

It is the Sat Nav to future business success - helping organisations to place themselves in a position to stay ahead of the game and reap the benefits of our rapidly changing and increasingly more diverse society.

Essentially, all organisations perform three things: they develop products and services, market them and deal with issues of customer satisfaction. Given that a generalised market approach will not reach the many areas of value to be found in a diverse group of customers, a competitive edge can be gained from variety in a workforce and customer base. Benefits will accrue by paying specific attention to market variation in, for example, age, gender, sexuality, disability, educational background, ethnic background, etc.

So, ultimately a diverse organisation encourages, embraces and manages diversity to gain the best from its staff and to provide the best service for its customers. It encourages the breaking down of barriers of the past and looks at things in a new way to find effective customer solutions. HSBC say that they regard diversity as a competitive differentiator in both employment and customer markets. Diversity is:

• Recognition of diversity as a business issue. Every level of the organisation holds responsibility not just HR.

• The existence of a widely accepted and practised set of values that ensure the respect and dignity of all.

• An environment where the insights of diverse groups are sought and welcomed; where people are not alienated or sidelined because they don’t "fit" into a set expectation

• Innovation and creativity are rewarded and recognised

• A climate where people feel that their background and lifestyle does not affect perceptions of them as a professional, or affect their opportunities for development

• Flexible working practices are made available , as there is an appreciation that not everyone can and will work the same hours and in the same way. This removes disadvantage and discrimination to participation in work

As you can see, in today’s business environment the effective management of diversity is crucial to business success. Leaders, managers and staff in organisations require diversity management as a skill not as participants in a one-off event where they emerge from it surprised that they enjoyed it and then go back to their work stations and completely forget about it . . . . . waste of time and money.

Diversity is too serious an issue not to get the best specialist advice and guidance; any training should be integrated with existing leadership, management development and customer handling programmes and be properly accredited.

John is the chief executive of Credibility an international diversity and business development training and consultancy business. He has been involved with training, development, coaching and consultancy for over 20 years and is a multi award winning consultant, who works with a wide range of organisationsadvising ondiversityand other human resource issues. John is the consultant of choice for ITV and ITN,is a guest consultant at the Civil Service College and has also worked with Manchester Business School.

If you would like more information about an accredited human resource development approach to diversity training or advice and guidance on the subject please contact Oakridge on 01625 572474.