Managing diversity: implementing a diversity strategy

Recruitment and selection

One of the strongest indicators of an inclusive, fair and transparent organisation has to be the way it conducts itself when filling vacancies either externally or internally. As outlined earlier, there are compelling business reasons why this has to be right, but to embed diversity into the wiring of the organisation requires a best practice recruitment and selection process.

Outlined below are the typical stages associated with this process and then some best practice tips on ensuring equality and inclusiveness at each stage. These tips should improve the chances of retaining a motivated workforce as well as reducing possible litigation claims for poor or discriminating practices.

Mainstreaming diversity into recruitment and selection

Area Setting the criteria

Best practice tips

Comments

The frequency of irrelevant selection criteria bearing no relevance to the actual job that is on offer is considerable.

When attracting a broad ethnic minority base, qualification equivalents need to be understood by job designers.

Area Advertising Process

Best practice tips

Comments

Places with high 'footfall' access to jobseekers can be rewarding in terms of attracting a broader base of applicants, for example, supermarkets and petrol stations.

Some organisations have been advised at employment tribunals not to have 'bounty' payment recruitment schemes as these may in some cases constitute indirect discrimination.

To ensure a set of broad applications, use a mixture of methods if possible. Research has suggested that relying purely on online applications could marginalise some groups.

It would be wise to ask to see the proposed agencies' policy on equality and diversity together with the training that agency staff have received.

Area Application form and process

Best practice tips

Comments

Refrain from allowing interviewers to see data and only supply the application form.

By retaining different application methods, people with specific requirements can still apply (for example, using online voice recognition software).

Area Shortlisting

Best practice tips

Comments

The rating system helps the shortlist process retain objectivity.

Retaining data on the rejected applicants is useful data both for future recruitment, but also general HR data.

Area Interview process

Best practice tips

Legislation

Bias and stereotyping

Interview questions

Cross-cultural awareness (if possible)

Comments

The interpretation of answers, and behaviour needs to be understood across cultural boundaries.

Probing questions will naturally vary depending on circumstances but 'headline' questions should be the same.

The best advice is to avoid questions related to childcare or families irrespective of whether the candidate is male or female. The question is not relevant to obtaining job-related criteria and could be potentially discriminatory.

Area Selection tests/exercises

Best practice tips

Comments

Increasing evidence has shown that some psychometric tests may have subtle bias within them.

Screen wherever possible and trial beforehand ensuring that appropriate groups are given exposure to them.

Exercises should avoid stereotyping and bias and assessors should be trained in interpreting exercise outputs across cultural and gender boundaries.

Area Decision making

Area feedback

Best practice tips

Comments

Both internal and external candidates should be offered feedback, not only through adopting best practice but to ensure the organisation has a strong reputation and credibility.

Communication Do's and Don't's

Reviewing the process

Good practice would be to review the overall process and to assess how successful, fair, and objective the exercise has been. The overall objective will have been to attract the best candidates for the job and for them to accept that position. Useful measures that should be recorded for Diversity purposes are:

This data will help to identify any issues that need addressing regarding the source of applicants, the skills and experience of the interviewers, the exercises used, and the use of psychometric tests. Some organisations are now issuing 'feedback forms' to all candidates encouraging them to feedback on any aspect of the process in order to continually improve it and enhance the equity of the system, and ultimately the organisations reputation.

Diversity - effective communication

H = High, M = Medium, L = Low
Source: IES Report 382, 2001

Communications programmes

Communications strategies have become a main strand of Change Management programmes and through the technique of 'a little, drip-fed often' will raise awareness and increase the motivation to change amongst people.

It has also become a great 'hygiene' factor among employees - in other words, it doesn't necessarily make them perform better when it does happen, but it will surely demotivate them if it doesn't happen. For this reason, any diversity programme must contain techniques to update, educate and motivate otherwise the momentum will be lost quickly.

Organisational cultures will again determine style and method, but a general view appears to be that a 'big bang' approach raises too many expectations, loses momentum and fizzles out in the short term.

Change through diversity is a long-term programme and the accompanying communication needs to be:

The table below indicates the relative effectiveness of communication techniques relating to diversity programmes.

Not surprisingly as for most effective communications, the two way face-to-face methods enable people to understand and identify with the issues. The encouraging issue here is that this would usually take place via a cascade briefing programme through management reporting lines. This in itself will begin to instil a sense of ownership and accountability at most levels of management which has been shown to be a key contributor to successful change.

Some additional guidance regarding communications techniques are:

The positioning of diversity as a mainstreamed business issue can be reinforced through some of the external communication opportunities. This will enhance the overall brand of the organisation as a service provider and prospective employer. Typical opportunities are:

In the spirit of customer or client relationship management, the respective needs of individuals should be borne in mind whenever communicating externally. At the moment there is still an element of 'newness' about some of these communication and profile activities, which market leaders are maximising to the full.

Effective performance management systems

Performance management systems

Performance management has a pivotal role to play in integrating diversity into everyday practices and behaviours within an organisation. Not only does it reinforce some strong messages about the organisation's culture, but it enables individuals to build diversity management into their own and their team's individual objectives.

For this to happen does not necessarily require explicit objectives regarding diversity and equality. A lot of good diversity management practices simply reflect a lot of good people management practices and developing these themes within objectives will effect required behavioural and attitude change. Fair, dignified, respectful management together with an ability to maximise the talent and contribution of all team members is the backbone of good diversity management and within performance management systems, HR and diversity managers have an excellent tool in which to integrate diversity practice.

Training and development

The importance of training and development as a component or part of a diversity programme cannot be underestimated. There are two separate, but equally important parts to the role training plays:

Access to training

Organisations can be surprisingly naive regarding the accessibility of training for all their employees. On the surface, it would appear there is equal access, but the following considerations need to be borne in mind.

Take-up across full-time and flexible working staff

Indeed, the Part Time Workers Directive (2000), the flexible working regulations, and the Sex Discrimination Act would seriously question the legitimacy of many training strategies.

Residential training

While specific programmes may necessitate some element of residential training, care needs to be exercised regarding this. Delegates who have caring responsibilities may have serious problems in attending such programmes and discussions will have to take place regarding the length of notice needed to allow them to make provision for care, the provision of alternative means of study, or to question the validity of any residential arrangements.

Some sectors are decentralising management training and looking to provide local, non-residential, delivery which would not marginalise certain populations. Combine this approach with online learning and the process becomes a very inclusive approach to learning and development.

It seems slightly ironic that we are beginning to see some creative techniques used to attract employees from non-traditional pools, but once in the organisation the existing processes still seem to marginalise the development of this population.

Reasonable adjustments

Both face-to-face and online learning still require considerable thought at the design stage to ensure employees with disabilities are not disadvantaged through not having access to this training. To prevent considerable adjustment costs down the 'design line', designers should build in adaptations at the front end of the process. Too many online training packages are halted at the eleventh hour when the diversity manager questions access and compliance in relation to the Disability Discrimination Act. B&Q, HBOS, Asda and many local authorities design training provision as though the products are always catering for people with various disabilities from the outset. This way, a very inclusive system is built up.

Naturally, face-to-face training should make sure:

Monitoring training attendance and nomination

Linked to the importance of measurement and data collection is the need to track training uptake. To establish and root out any trends can show some revealing cultural issues. For example, when employees are 'nominated' by their managers, usually via an appraisal meeting, what data is there to track attendance by:

Research has shown that, in some instances, ethnic minority and female employees do not have the same access to, for example, management development programmes. This may be through a reluctance on behalf of their line manager to nominate or a reluctance of their own part to attend a programme where they will undoubtedly be in a minority and may not find the experience conducive to learning. This tracking will provide useful data and enable nomination systems to be examined and addressed.

Employees on maternity/paternity leave

To keep in regular contact with these employees is good management practice and training provision can be factored into this. To keep employees informed and advised of briefings, updates and structural changes is an excellent way of maintaining the relationship, and ensures that if the employee does return to work, they will still be relatively well informed. This needs to be discussed with the individual as it will not apply in all instances. Formal training materials may not be appropriate, but the key thing is to offer access to materials if the individual is keen to do so.

Training materials

The design of materials for any form of training (face-to-face or online) is an excellent opportunity to project an inclusive approach to the way the organisation operates. Materials will touch delegates with great impact and therefore designers have to get it right.

To have materials that do any of the following will work against all the good work being done on diversity:

The learning environment is a great opportunity to break down people's own stereotypes and prejudices, and by introducing case studies where traditional roles and norms are reversed or at best challenged is in itself a very subtle learning outcome.

Exercises, lectures and visual aids should all be 'health checked' in the first instance to ensure they are compliant with legislation, and then looked at to ensure diverse imagery and representation. It is of great benefit to have a diverse panel of training designers who themselves will bring in fresh and creative thinking as well as being aware of any issues with regard to cross-culture awareness.

Trainers

If the impact of training materials is considerable, the impact of the trainer is enormous in projecting a diverse culture. The trainer represents the organisation to a lot of course delegates and the messages they give out will remain not only with course delegates, but with other employees that the delegates talk to later. Because of this the following checklist provides some food for thought:

Checklist for trainers and facilitators

The strongest starting point will be to deploy a team of diverse trainers. Having a broad range of styles, together with varying backgrounds will increase the quality of delivery and generate innovative techniques.

Training teams should provide feedback and coaching to each other, which is particularly beneficial if a mixed team is employed. There is high value in peer feedback that will add to the richness of the team, and raise considerable awareness across the diversity agenda.

The role of the trainer in challenging behaviour and languages is critical. Naturally, trainers want to bond with the group and build rapport as soon as possible. However, if this is done through condoning inappropriate behaviour and language there is a major risk of marginalising and offending some course delegates. Trainers are not show people, they are facilitators of learning and anything that detracts from a conducive learning environment for all delegates has to be addressed.

Embedding diversity

The suite of learning programmes in a typical organisation provide a real opportunity to embed diversity in the way the organisation does things. Every programme, particularly those around interpersonal skills, leadership, management and coaching, should seize the moment to embed Diversity messages in their content. If the training teams can genuinely say in their programmes "this is the way we do things around here" and deliver inclusive and dignified messages, this will go a long way to challenging attitudes and behaviours.

Diversity training programmes

Educating and training employees around the subject of diversity will be one of the contributions to mainstreaming diversity and effecting changes in employee behaviour.

However, organisations need to be aware that training is not the panacea for all issues relating to equality and diversity. All too often, training will be thrown at the 'problem' as a box to be ticked, and expectations will be set for future progress.

The development of an appropriate intervention needs to be part of the co-ordinated strategy and needs to be precise in terms of objectives, content and timings. It needs to complement other strands of activity and address specific issues that the diversity audit will have highlighted. The programme needs to be bespoke to the organisation to generate ownership of the issues. There will, however, be some common themes that the programmes will typically address:

The majority of diversity programmes address issues around awareness, understanding and personal change. More progressive organisations are looking at the next stage of getting people to change behaviour, and also positive action training. Coaching, particularly at executive levels, is also developing momentum to ensure that leaders of organisations, have the requisite ongoing skills to lead diversity.

Some training programmes are outlined in the table below. These suggested formats are not meant to be prescriptive, but merely an indication of typical interventions.

Which Diversity learning interventions should you choose?

What is positive action training?

Positive action training is permitted by law in the UK and in some cases as part of an organisation's larger plan relating to affirmative action.

The objective of this type of training is to offer development to individuals or groups of individuals to 'level the playing field' with regard to employment and training. Typically, if an organisation can demonstrate that a group is under-represented at particular levels or throughout the organisation, it will be able to provide this development.

This type of training does have its critics, who claim that it reinforces pigeonholing of people into specific groups and is very much akin to equality and not diversity. However, some organisations have reported impressive increases in, for example, female and ethnic minority senior managers, as a result of initiating positive action programmes. The decision to go down this route will depend on a variety of factors relating to the organisation and its sector. Some points to bear in mind are:

Tips for implementing positive action programmes

Overall, positive training has proved beneficial for a lot of organisations. It should be seen as a 'jam tomorrow' intervention which will hopefully reap benefits in the medium to long term. The key risk of managing the fear and mystique needs to be addressed from the outset. Once all employees understand the principles behind positive action and the programme context, they should be a little more receptive to its presence.

Policy management

In any organisation, policies need to be constantly reviewed to ensure they are up-to-date and comparable to best practice policies wherever possible. This is particularly the case with diversity. There needs to be constant reviewing of the diversity policy itself, but the way that diversity weaves itself into a range of other policies means that regular health checks need to be undertaken across the board.

Some organisations have disposed of specific policies relating to race, gender and so forth, and have integrated these areas into mainstream policies such as recruitment and selection. Whichever method is adopted, there needs to be cross checking to ensure all policies have considered all issues from a diversity angle. For example, pensions policies, while not immediately associated with the subject of diversity will need to be amended to reflect requirements relating to the European Union's Article 13 directive on sexual orientation possibly age as well.

Checklist for policy management

Business diversity plans

The strategic diversity plan outlined in section 4, helps to position diversity as a strategic concept, and secures support at senior levels. There is the question then of translating this strategic interest into everyday activity at operational level. Areas such as training, communication and policy management will all contribute significantly, but the functional links within business need to develop some accountability.

In an ideal world, business units would not have a business plan and a diversity plan - the two should sit nicely on top of each other and enable the integration of diversity into everyday business planning. However to ensure focus, engagement and accountability, a specific plan can help to at least get business managers to talk about diversity.

What is the purpose of the plan?

What is included in the plan?

Similar to the strategic diversity plan, its presentation, layout and format is secondary - it should however facilitate real action at local levels for which named people are accountable.

To mainstream diversity it should cover those areas both as an employer and as a business service.

An integral part of the plan will be analysing functional workforce metrics and agreeing what targets there are for the future and what the business is going to do to achieve these.

Although areas such as training, communication and performance management are centrally driven, line managers do have responsibility for rolling out these strands of the bigger picture in their own units. Ensuring that senior managers attend training programmes sends very strong messages to the rest of the business and demonstrates top-level support.

The plan should be reviewed at least on a quarterly basis and progress discussions should be placed on management team meeting agendas.

The benefits of having local business or functional plans are still as yet unproven. They do, however, act as a good kick-start for local action, particularly when people are made accountable, and they do start to position diversity away from the HR agenda. To be effective, their objectives and outputs need to be reinforced at all levels of management. Agreeing managerial performance objectives which include diversity is one way to integrate some accountability. These objectives do not need to expressly state a diversity objective, but can be built around other objectives relating to employee management and service provision.

The diversity function

The personnel involved within diversity teams have traditionally evolved from HR backgrounds, but are increasingly being seconded from business units. Organisations are realising that diversity teams are key change agents and facilitators of change and that this skills set can emanate from a wider background than HR.

A positive trend, particularly in the public sector, has been the use of secondments to the diversity function. Secondees bring lots of business thinking to the function and then after acquiring a new set of knowledge and skills, transfer a lot of the learning (and attitude) back to the business line. This also helps to remove a lot of the mystique regarding diversity as well as positioning the area as a business issue.

Some see the diversity function as a temporary unit which has a definitive time frame in which to operate. Indeed, some organisations measure the success of diversity by the 'disappearance' of the diversity function. They see this very much as a project in its own right which has a start and finish date. The date for terminating the diversity function is the day that diversity has been satisfactorily embedded into the mainstream organisation.

However, by contrast, the increase in the importance of diversity as a business issue has also necessitated a permanent diversity team, which exists to effect change and inclusion over a longer period. This team operates as a business partner role to the business line by supporting and challenging accordingly. This business partner role may best adopt an HR line or a direct business line, depending on the culture, but whichever route is selected the key objective is to effect sustained change both from a systematic and behavioural perspective. The thinking around the structural position of the diversity team will vary; but either as part of or external to the HR function some common lessons are emerging

Tips for developing the diversity function

Various approaches to the role of the diversity function have worked successfully. The culture, personalities and systems will determine the most appropriate ones. However, for the team to make a difference will require:

Measurement and Reporting

Once the strategy is in place and the various strands of activity are under way, there will be a need to report back to Senior Management and the business generally on progress to date. Measuring the impact of the programme on attitudes and behaviour can be more difficult and a longer term requirement but Senior Management will be very keen to compare workforce metrics data on a rough basis, possibly even half yearly.

The reporting process needs to contain a mixture of hard data and commentary to explain the reasons for any change in the workforce numbers.

The critical component to measurement and reporting is having access to timely, accurate and meaningful data. To have a robust Management Information database is vital to smooth tracking and interpretation of data. Public Sector organisations, subject to the reporting and monitoring requirements of the Race Relations Amendment Act are well aware of this method and are beginning to set the standard for the private sector to follow.

Annual or half-yearly reports to boards, senior management or diversity champions usually have some common elements in terms of scope and content. The table below is a template which can be tailored according to needs.