We have spent a great deal of money and effort on our new diversity policy but it’s being sidelined and ignored. How can we translate the policy into practice?
We have spent a great deal of money and effort on our new diversity policy but it’s being sidelined and ignored. How can we translate the policy into practice?
– Diversity officer in resources, Perth
Yours is a common complaint with diversity strategies and initiatives. In seeing through a diversity strategy that will ‘stick’ and survive the transition from global aspirations and publicity launches to changed daily practice, here are some recommended steps:
(1) Identify potential goals for cultural transformation within your organisation
(2) link these goals to measurable financial deliverables
(3) develop indicators to identify the issues that need to be addressed (gap analysis)
(4) identify options for addressing these issues
(5) consultatively integrate selected options into your diversity strategy
(6) ensure your diversity strategy is integrated and aligned with organisation-wide strategic initiatives. Include everyone, particularly senior management, and, where possible, link diversity progress to compensation and performance reporting, and
(7) monitor and modify as needed.
The two steps which you may need to consider or reconsider are 2 and 6. Have your diversity goals and strategy been anchored to business outcomes, and has this link and buy-in to the value of the strategy been secured from top-management downwards? These two steps are closely related; senior managers must have confidence in the business case for your diversity strategy in order to support it down the line.
In a comprehensive study of diversity and inclusion strategies in sixteen employers, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association found that “the common denominator of successful plans tends to be senior management involvement and accountability”. While plans vary structurally, if senior management is involved and holds leaders accountable for results, plans have a greater degree of success. (www.mcca.com/site/data/corporate/BP/Pathways/pathways1-05.htm).
By Jock Noble, CEO of Diversity@work Australia. www.diversityatwork.com.au.
