Just about every medium or large U.S. company talks about its
dedication to diversity, whether in a prominent section of its Web site
or in its corporate mission statement.
But the definition of what, exactly, these firms mean by diversity is often vague.
Only
30 percent of human resources professionals say that their company even
has an official definition of diversity, according to a 2007 survey by
the Society for Human Resource Management.
Beyond Simple Demographics
While
diversity has traditionally referred to categories like race and
gender, companies and diversity experts are increasingly considering a
wide range of factors from age and sexual preference to disabilities
and even weight.
Definition Of Diversity?
In
2007, the Society of Human Resource Management asked human resource
professionals if their organizations had an official definition of
diversity. Larger and public-sector employers were more likely to say
that they did.
"More
and more organizations define diversity really broadly," says Eric
Peterson, who works on diversity issues for SHRM. "Really, it's any way
any group of people can differ significantly from another group of
people — appearance, sexual orientation, veteran status, your level in
the organization. It has moved far beyond the legally protected
categories that we've always looked at."
This is all part of a larger trend of moving beyond simple demographics when it comes to evaluating diversity. Increasingly, experts say, the field is becoming about how companies can best manage a truly diverse workforce.
"Height,
weight, the sport you play, socioeconomic status — all of these are
things we sort people by," says Laura Liswood, the secretary general of
the Council of Women World Leaders and a senior adviser to Goldman
Sachs. "If you and your boss play football, that's fine. If your boss
plays football and you play basketball, you're subtly disadvantaged,
because you don't get to know the boss as well as your colleague who
plays football."
This doesn't mean that many companies are spending time tracking the sports their employees play or their height or weight.
But
more and more firms are finding that paying attention to differences
such as age is becoming central to their efforts to retain top talent.
"You
have Gen Xers and millennials, whose definition of loyalty and what
keeps them engaged [is] significantly different than for baby boomers,"
says Michael Hyter, the president of Novations Group Inc., a global
talent development firm. "That's a huge diversity issue that, if you
looked at diversity in the traditional sense, you'd miss."
Adding
in all these new factors obviously makes the effort to promote
diversity much more complex. But it does have the advantage of widening
the debate beyond politically divisive topics like affirmative action
programs.
"It takes the toxicity from this race and
gender defensiveness and moves the debate to what it takes to motivate
that 22-year-old in order to be engaged enough to stay longer," Hyter
says. "You have to do business differently."
Hard To Track
Several key areas are likely to emerge as increasingly important ones for companies to manage.
Minorities In The Workplace
Phil
Harlow, the chief diversity officer at Xerox, says he expects that
companies will have to pay more attention to religion and sexual
orientation in the future. He notes, for example, that gay and lesbian
employees at Xerox have formed a group that has formal meetings with
senior executives.
"The issues and sensitivity
associated with the gay and lesbian community will be picking up
increased momentum in the next few years when it comes to expectations
and putting systems in place to support the sensitivities those groups
have," Harlow says. "It will represent some significant challenges for
how companies will deal with that."
Some of these areas
are also very hard to track because of legal restrictions when it comes
to employers asking about their workers' religion, sexual preference or
certain other characteristics.
"Someone with a mental
health problem or someone who is gay or lesbian might not disclose it,"
says Kathy Krepcio, who runs a project on disabilities in the workplace
based at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at
Rutgers University. "Companies might see themselves as undercounting,
which makes it hard to measure the return on investment."
Affinity Groups
In
some ways, experts say the ultimate aim of any diversity program should
be to create a culture that produces and rewards the best work from
every employee.
"These companies realize they already
accommodate the diversity of people every day — whether it's more
flexibility to help parents take care of kids or a screen reader for a
person with disabilities," Krepcio says.
Of course, the
expansion of diversity can be taken to extremes. Some companies have
formed many of these so-called affinity groups for employees of
different ethnicities or nationalities, only to decide later it may
have been a mistake.
"Some companies have dozens of
affinity groups. Other people who have gone down that road decide
they've gone too far," says Carl van Horn, the director of Rutgers'
Heldrich Center. "Everybody has multiple identities. You're a woman, a
parent, a gay, a disabled person, and of Hispanic origin, so which
group do you go to?"
Source: NPR
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