Workplace Diversity 2010
Bringing diversity to the workplace in
2010?
Authored by Karl Simpson,
Liftstream Ltd – March 8th 2010
If the recent economic tsunami has
taught us anything about the modern economy, it is that it is
now truly global. The financial mechanisms and monetary policy
needed to bring stability to our domestic markets had to be
globally coordinated. Countries such as
Consequently, it is from here that we
should once again pick up the argument for diversity in our
corporate organisations. It seems totally ridiculous that, as
yet another decade ticks by, the sophisticated thinking that
goes into managing the world’s most important industries has
not be able
to resolve the diversity
problem.
In 2005, I wrote an article for the
Pharmaceutical Executive Europe magazine about the need for
diversity to be more about the principle of opening our minds
to the contributions made by people of different ethnicity,
gender, culture, disability or a combination of all. Diversity
in
recruiting should not simply be about targets and opening our
doors. The true benefit comes more from the inherited
intellectual and experiential enriching. But as we hobble away
from 2009, towards the more optimistic horizon of 2010 and
beyond, the debate continues to rage about how to eliminate
prejudice and improve
diversity.
This is not to say that no progress has
been made, it has. Companies now articulate very positive
messages about their commitments in this direction. Some have
moved to instigate procedures to improve these diversity
figures, where others now have dedicated people in their human
resource functions to manage these activities proactively.
Yet progress is glacially slow, and
there are reasons.
“The bottleneck is at the top of the
bottle”
“Where are you likely to find people
with the least diversity of experience, the largest investment
in the past, and the greatest reverence for industry dogma?”
“At the top!” – Gary Hamel – Harvard
Business Review
Firstly we must recognise that
companies are led. It is the executive management that drives
the changes in a company. A company’s culture is not easily
changed or even transformed, but it is the role of the
executive management to map out the direction, the values and
behaviours from which all employees take their lead. Swathes
of management literature have
been written about the role of executive leadership and how a
company’s cultural behaviours are correlated to those of the
bosses.
When we look at this in the context of
diversity recruitment, it is not difficult to draw the
conclusion that the managerial diversity is insufficiently
rich to encourage the same diversity across the business.
Where this remains most evident is in
gender equality and so it seems logical to jump immediately
here to the role women play in executive leadership and board
-level roles. Women have been pushing for workplace equality
for a very long time and it therefore represents an
interesting examination of the rate of change. According to
the European Professional
Women’s Network, of 5,146 board seats, the number of seats
held by women grew from just 8% in 2004 to 9.7% in 2008;
further evidence of the slow rate of change.
We have to acknowledge that culture
plays a key role in the professional progression of women.
However positive we are about promoting women to positions of
seniority within our organisations, these are not prescriptive
beliefs that can be handed out around the globe with an
expectation that others will follow. In certain parts of the
world, such as
The fact remains that women, owing to
deep rooted social beliefs, are more maternally inclined to
want to care for their children and, to some extent, their
ageing parents. This puts them at a professional disadvantage
to those that remain in the working system based on the common
practices of assessing experience and job suitability. It
prompts the question
as to whether a more socially conscious society can redress
this balance in the home and thereby provide a greater chance
of equality at work. Or is it the case that these social
values and genetic inclinations are only likely to change with
the passing of
generations.
It is worth contemplating this notion
in the context of ethnic equality. In many cases the ethnic
diversity in organisations is more positively represented than
that of gender. The genetic hard-wiring that is shared by a
sex seems to transcend race, more so than same-race transcends
gender.
It is widely accepted that the volume
of women entering the workplace after school, college or
university is roughly equal to that of men. The imbalance
begins as you look up the corporate structure. The evidence is
that some 70% of senior managers, 80% of executives and at
least 90% of board-level appointees are male. Implicit in this
is that women are lost
from the working environment as they progress in experience.
There are many possible reasons for this. Some centre on the
maternalistic issues cited earlier, others are social welfare
mechanisms that are inappropriately structured to allow women
to work and care for their families. But there remains a large
problem with gender prejudice that we must collectively
eradicate.
What is alarming still is the amount of
effort that has to go into raising people’s consciousness
about discrimination. This constant drive towards bringing
awareness to issues of discrimination has to be renewed with
each generation, instead of a progression of the social values
that would allow us all to begin to adhere to the codes of
acceptable tolerance
and open-mindedness towards diversity.
This pestilential social problem is
more severe in certain countries than others. In
It is quite often difficult to pass
comment on the subject of diversity without perhaps inferring
that those that run business are in some way presiding over a
culture of mendacious duplicity or are inculcating a
discriminatory purpose. The truth is that despicable acts of
discrimination are rare and most gender discrimination is not
done surreptitiously.
Yet, until we create an open environment where these
discussions can occur unreservedly, and a culture of
challenging decisions flourishes, it becomes difficult to
institute change towards greater equality.
Few believe that women should be
promoted to make up a quota. Success and progression have to
be meritocratic and this should be true for women as much as
men. The moment that companies promote mediocre performers who
lack ambition or a competitive mentality in order to simply
meet a target for diversity, the whole value system is broken.
It has to be led by
achievement and by a fair and equal assessment of candidates.
But where we need to change our mindset is in how someone is
assessed. If women are leaving the workplace to have children,
then we need to look at different ways of assessing the
contribution they can make when they re-enter the work system.
This new approach needs to be coupled with creative frameworks
that will allow flexibility, logistical convenience and re-
introduction programmes that ensure high performers can be
recruited and
retained in the most productive way possible and have equal
chance of kicking-on into executive positions.
Ultimately this comes back to the fact
that businesses, large and small, sell their products and
services to societies that are diverse and often gender
balanced. Their opportunity is to maximise their potential in
these markets by having influential women, in equal measure,
at every level of their company so they reflect their markets
and can understand how
to connect with them. Once it becomes evident that it is
commercially advantageous, we might see a natural gravitation
towards a balanced and fair gender-equal workplace. ●
Given
that there is so much empty rhetoric that commonly crowds out
actionable steps that could move us forward, here is a short
list of canvassed opinions on things that you could do
instantly to improve the gender equality in your organisation:
- Look at each recruited position. Is it as attractive to
female applicants as it is to male? If not, why not and what
can be changed.
- Succession plans must include women, preferably in
equal numbers and certainly of equal quality.
- How could your business be more flexible to accommodate
women? Hours, location, and travel - all of these have
technological solutions that could make your organisation more
retentive of women or attractive to
them.
- Engender the gender agenda – make sure your male
employees understand the value to your business of having
gender equality at all levels of the board. Appoint male
‘Champions’ who can promote the benefits. It is likely to
carry more weight coming from people who are not allied to HR
compliance.
- Where can you introduce metrics to measure the
company’s performance in this area?
- Encourage your board to publish gender employment
statistics in the quarterly or annual reports. Display the
relationship between gender equality and performance.
- Could your company publish the total salaries of the
male employee base alongside the total of female salaries?
- Plan more effective means for women to get back into
the workplace after leaving for childcare.
- Is assessing people’s credentials on number of years’
constant employment the most appropriate for the roles you’re
looking to fill.
- Develop career plans for women that will see them go
into areas that have historically been largely serves by male
employees.
Do something for
your organisation during International Women’s Day – March
8th 2010.
http://www.internationalwomensday.com
Also, if you’d
like to nominate someone for the Top 50 Women Executives in
the Pharmaceuticals industry, visit our twitter site @liftstream
and nominate followed by #50pharmawomen