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The Road to Workforce Diversity
23 de June de 2021
“For the fat, for the skinny, for the tall, for the short, for those who laugh, for the nearsighted, for those who cry, for the optimistic, for the pessimistic, for those who have it all, for those who have nothing…”
That’s the start of one of the most iconic spots in history. Aired in 2002, this ad highlighted the importance of diversity. Since then, there have been many advances in this area and that’s because society has realised the importance and the need of accepting the world as it is, regardless of its characteristics.
Currently, with a completely globalised market, diversity has become of vital importance for the development of companies. Why? Because it’s easier to reach consumers when the workforce is a representation of the society they’re offering their service to. Also, there are many other advantages in going for workforce diversity:
- Different points of view help increase creativity and innovation.
- It attracts talent, because employee satisfaction is greater in teams that have diversity.
- It makes it easier to connect with different clients and cultures around the world.
- It helps get better financial results.
- It reduces the fear of rejection, not just because of the characteristics of each person, but also for the ideas they can bring.
For this and much more, diversity is becoming a strategic point in companies.
However, there’s still a long way to go. The thing is that, addressing just gender related issues, the numbers are disappointing — women make up only 36% of the senior roles and 18% of top management positions.
But, how can we create a diverse environment inside the company? Marina Navarro —EAE’s Head of the Human Resources Department— and José Luis Pérez Huertas —Ph.D.— go through some of the aspects that we must take into account when starting our journey towards workforce diversity.
1 - The First Step — “Wanderer, there is no road, you make the road as you walk”.
But, which way do we go? Where should we start?
Marina Navarro knows what to do first: “Creating a culture of trust in which employees feel comfortable with who they are. This will allow all of them to express their opinions, points of view and ideas without holding back”. There’s no doubt that, both as employees and individuals, we need to feel comfortable in order to freely and confidently express ourselves just the way we are. Something like “feeling like home”. But, who is in charge of fostering this culture? “A company’s top management has the responsibility of creating and fostering this inclusive culture. But, it’s also everyone’s responsibility to support it and respect it in order to secure its continuity. Thus, every member of the organisation is responsible for generating diversity”.
As for José Luis, he gives special importance to the social aspects as he thinks that we must first get people to change. “The first step is to accept diversity as something organic — it’s in the streets and in the market… it makes no sense to carry out policies that affect onboarding, internal and external communications or products and services that are disconnected from this reality”.
2 - What mistakes should we avoid?
Many companies have started their journey towards workforce diversity, but not all of them have had the same success. Which are the most common mistakes we should avoid in order not to share the same fate? Both José Luis and Marina think that the most common mistake is thinking only of numbers. “It’s not enough to be invited to the party; you must also be allowed to dance” — Vernā Myers, Inclusion and Diversity Vice President at Netflix.
The road towards workforce diversity is not a matter of data — it’s about purpose. Marina Navarro explains it like this: “If there’s no previous culture of trust where employees can feel free to be the way they are and express their opinions, then we’ll have amazing numbers but we won’t be taking advantage of the benefits of diversity and we would be risking employees feeling uncomfortable and leaving the company”.
3 - How can we foster inclusion among employees?
Companies are made of a lot of people and, regardless of their position, they must all contribute in this journey towards workforce diversity. The first step is the top managers’ job but, how do they pour these ideas down to their employees? José Luis and Marina Navarro agree that they must lead by example. Diversity and inclusion must be perceived from the top management and the highest positions of the organisation in order for employees to understand that this is the work environment that they move on. This is the main strategy, but there are many others that can help us reach our goal much faster: identifying and fighting prejudice, accepting and promoting differences, valuing employees for what they bring to the company, equality in human resources decisions, etc.
4 - Where are we now? Let’s take a look at the map.
The road towards workforce diversity is long and, after some time, we may start to wonder whether we’re doing it right. What should we do in that case? Usually, we go for measuring. However, we must avoid those metrics that only show competitive results. As we’ve seen previously, focusing on numbers can be a mistake. Marina recommends: “We can measure diversity through culture questionnaires, climate polls, commitment and satisfaction rates… These let us have a more qualitative vision”.
José Luis backs up that statement and expands: “Measuring is a good idea because it lets us know whether we are making any progress in diversity or if, on the contrary, we’re taking steps backwards or getting to a stalemate”.
5 - Are we there yet?
We’ve set on a journey that has no finish line and no GPS voice to tell us we’ve gotten there. So, how can we know when the journey is over? When can we finally say “We’re here!”? Well… Never!
“As is the case for any excellence aspect, it’s a journey for life — a marathon in which our greatest aspiration is to keep getting better and moving forwards with regards to the results of the previous year. The important thing is to be continuously on the lookout for areas that need improvement in order to work on them”, says José Luis.
So, the road towards workforce diversity and inclusive culture —where employees are free to be themselves and carry out their work— is an endless road. It’s one of those journeys in which we could happily be on forever and where it’s always a good thing to turn around and see the view from where we are right now.
Article in collaboration with:
Marina Navarro, EAE’s Head of the Human Resources Department
José Luis Pérez Huertas, Ph.D. - EAE BS