The pitfalls to avoid on the road to diversity
One of the defining features of a truly modern organisation is a strong commitment to promoting inclusivity
The world is now more linked and shared — men
and women from diverse cultures are consistently combining skills to create a
multi-faceted, self-sustained workforce. Diversity is the cornerstone of the
modern organisation.
But then what does one experience on this
road to diversity? How do organisations better equip themselves to proactively
drive the change? Is there a basic plan — a blueprint that could seamlessly
weave diversity into every sphere of your business?
The journey to the desired state of diversity
isn’t as easy as you may think it is.
There’s a revolution happening all around you
— companies, policy makers, thought leaders and opinion drivers are pushing the
envelope each day, laying greater emphasis on the essential need for a
‘balanced and socially-conscious’ workplace.
Organisations are endeavouring to graft
‘diversity’ into their style of working; and individuals across industries and
professions are seeking an environment that’s reflective of the communities
they operate in.
However, commitment to diversity is often
reduced to mere lip-service — with a set of interventions that only scratch the
surface. To create an office landscape that’s intrinsically diverse,
organisations must first assess key challenges.
While these could be unique to a company’s
individual context, studies have revealed a few fundamental factors that are
largely common and need immediate attention.
Checking resistance to change
It’s important for companies to effectively
and gradually bring in studied but definite alterations that open the door to
diversity. Bear in mind, even if a certain section of people oppose any efforts
to include marginalised groups of people, the situation can be damaging. It’s
therefore imperative that businesses have to be prepared to spend energies and
resources in aligning actions with an articulated intention and commitment to
be inclusive.
Fighting gender bias
It’s important to know that at times
prejudice and discrimination operate at different levels — be it belief,
intention, promise or action.
This can lead to women employees being
subjected to bias — during recruitment, their employment lifecycle and all the
way to their exit.
Fewer employment opportunities for women
means lesser representation in the workforce, and a resultant reduced role in
the running of the organisation. Enlightened organisations should address such
issues with immediate restorative measures, streamlining pathways and driving
comprehensive action plans that ensure inclusion.
Managing communication
Behavioural communication protocols vary from
culture to culture. In a workplace that has a representation from various
ethnicities, races, sexual orientations, and religions, employees can often
misunderstand those who behave and interact differently.
Organisations must proactively enhance
awareness and advocate an expectation of behaviour that is founded on inclusion
and fosters an environment where people nurture each other.
How is diversity then enmeshed within the
beliefs, intentions, promises and actions of an organisation?
What makes companies innately open to new
thoughts and modes of being, embracing the ‘new normal’ — a flexible,
multi-geographic and globally-expansive work ethos?
Here is a ground-level rubric on inclusivity
and how you could assimilate the same within your organisation:
Creating an inclusive environment
Transparency is fundamental to an
organisation. A heterogeneous workplace will witness conflicts and at times,
collisions, which could be resolved through dialogue, ahead of punitive
measures.
While an organisation on its part, can
discourage cliques/lobbyism/groupism of any category, the more important area
to focus on is to promote forums where employees can freely share opinions,
challenges and pain-points.
In this regard, emerging technologies and
state-of-the art digitalisation can play a pivotal role. Social media platforms
could be utilised to highlight how actions are being taken to address these to
make the ways of working in the organisation more efficient and effective. If a
bias/act of prejudice is reported at any quarter, regardless of the degree or
extent, it should be addressed and resolved with affirmative action.
Enhancing commitment to inclusion
Today, most organisations insist on regular
diversity sensitisation workshops — these aim to help acclimatise employees to
the basics of inclusivity and lay stress on how the organisation views its
commitment to the same. What’s more, diversity as an element of the
organisational promise should be clearly promulgated by senior management at
all relevant fora.
Further, today’s leaders must be able to
operate with a ‘global mindset’ ready to embrace a burgeoning multi-racial
workforce that’s spread across continents.
Making inclusion happen
The organisation must from time to time look
in the mirror and assess the policies, processes, practices and programmes in
place to ensure they engage, enable and empower people to be inclusive. The
organisation must use its feedback channels in a closed loop for their
employees to share their experience, and incorporate their suggestions to
continuously strengthen the sense of inclusion.
(Prithvi Shergill is Chief Human Resource
Officer at HCL Technologies)
Source
| The Hindu | 3 August 2016
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan
& Co
Upcoming Events | BOSLA-NIFT ANNUAL LECTURE
SERIES-2016 on Saturday,
20th August 2016 at 10.00 hrs in National Institute of Fashion Technology, Kharghar, Navi
Mumbai.
Note | If anybody use these post for forwarding
in any social media coverage or covering in the Newsletter please give due
credit to those who are taking efforts for the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment