Organization Diversity Planning Presentation Paper.

Choose: Disney

Locate information on your organization’s diversity policy. You may need to interview your organization’s diversity officer or human resources manager to obtain this information. If you are unable to find or use information about your organization, you may research another company’s diversity policy.Organization Diversity Planning Presentation Paper.

Complete the Diversity Planning Grid. You may add blocks if you wish.

Your team wants to improve or create the organizational diversity policies and provide an implementation plan for the company.

Create a 6- or 7-slide presentation or a brochure to demonstrate your plan to the company’s chief executive officer (CEO).

If you choose to create a brochure, you may click on the link for Brochure Builder and follow the instructions to build your brochure.

Include the following components in your presentation or brochure:

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· Provide brief background information on your chosen organization.

· Identify the organization’s need for the diversity planning improvement services.

· Provide an outline of the proposed training or employee development plan.

· Identify legal issues and obstacles that this organization could encounter.

· Provide management a recommended course of action.

Workplace diversity is the collective mixture of differences and similarities that include individual and organizational characteristics, values, beliefs, experiences, backgrounds, preferences and behaviors. A Strategic Workplace Diversity Management Plan includes the following components, which are covered in more detail below:

Diversity Competencies. These are attributes a person must possess in order to complete a particular job.
Business Case for Diversity. A successful diversity plan is one that is relevant to an organization’s mission, vision and business objectives.
Commitment from the top. Those who will eventually implement the plan must have the backing, support and active involvement of the organization’s leadership, including the CEO, board of directors, executive team, etc.
Vision, Mission and Strategy. The “where, what and how” of a strategic diversity management pPlan.
Diversity Recruitment and Sourcing. Diversity recruitment means companies recruit individuals with a collective mixture of differences and similarities that include individual characteristics, values and beliefs, experiences and backgrounds.
Employee Retention. Retention is the rate at which current employees of your organization stay in their jobs. Retention is the opposite of “turnover.” Therefore, if turnover is low, retention is high.
Training and Development. Activities designed and implemented to support an employee’s knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs, or “competencies”).
Onboarding. The process used to welcome and educate new employees to an organization.
Communications. Messages that facilitate the transfer of knowledge and ideas from one party to another.Organization Diversity Planning Presentation Paper.
Marketing, Advertising and Branding. External communications used by organizations to reach potential customers, clients, donors, patients, voters or stakeholders.
Leveraging Employee Diversity. Building and then making use of a workforce that is more diverse and more inclusive than it was before plan implementation began.
Strategic Alliances and Partnerships. These are formal relationships between two or more parties who remain independent while working together to achieve a specific goal or enhance an element of the diversity strategy.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). A term that has been used since the 1970s, CSR refers to ethical and socially responsible business behavior.
Customer/member experience. The experience customers have when they enter a place of business or interact with employees, product or service.
Supplier/vendor diversity. An integral part of any organization’s diversity program is to ensure that it promotes diversity outside of the company by doing business with a variety of suppliers and vendors.
Measurement and Accountability. Tools used to determine if diversity efforts have achieved the desired results, and if not, who will be responsible for a correcting the methodology so that those desired results can be achieved.

General Questions to Consider

Do we already have a Strategic Diversity Management Plan? If yes, what are the key elements?
Do we need a Strategic Diversity Management Plan?
What are our diversity objectives and goals?
Who within the organization will benefit from a Strategic Diversity Management Plan?
Who within the organization will benefit the Strategic Diversity Management Plan?
What is our timeline to develop, implement and evaluate our Strategic Diversity Management Plan?
Who would be involved in our Strategic Diversity Management Plan?

Recommended Action Steps

Identify whether an existing Diversity Management Plan exists. If not, move towards developing a Strategic Diversity Management Plan.
If there is a plan in place, use these resources to evaluate its effectiveness.
Conduct a gap analysis to understand your specific areas of focus.
Assess interest level in a Strategic Diversity Management Plan and identify individuals with greatest and least level of interest. Include individuals with greatest level of interest and educate those with the least level of interest.
Identify and evaluate goals and outcomes.
Develop education for those identified as key stakeholders.

Diversity & Inclusion Practitioner Competencies

Competencies are attributes that are necessary for a person to possess in order to complete a particular job. Competencies include knowledge, skills and abilities. For instance, the competencies for a professional baseball player might include knowledge of the game and its rules, the ability to hit the ball without making a foul, an understanding of strategy and the ability to work effectively on a team. Additionally, if a player gains much success, the skills necessary to give a good interview to the press might also come into play.

The competencies for a diversity practitioner are wide and varied. They include, but are not limited to, a deep knowledge of diversity and identity theory, communication skills, adaptability, business acumen, big picture thinking, stress management, persuasive speaking, political savvy, active listening, data gathering and analysis, and – perhaps most important – self-awareness.Organization Diversity Planning Presentation Paper.

Even though more and more businesses and organizations are paying attention to and allocating resources for diversity and inclusion initiatives, this is no guarantee they will succeed. In fact, even when there is broad consensus throughout the organization that diversity is the right thing to do, actually implementing your plan is an uphill battle. If it is done correctly, it will reveal a significant amount of resistance from the system and from individuals within that system.

Unfortunately, when a diversity and inclusion initiative fails, it is twice as hard to get the next one off the ground. Therefore, it is very important that your Strategic Diversity Management Plan be fostered and led by the right individual(s), with the knowledge, skills and abilities to ensure success.

Self-Assessment to Determine Competency Level

Have you led a major organizational change effort before? What were the greatest strengths you exhibited during that time? What were your development areas?
Can you articulate the case for diversity, particularly in business terms that a CEO or CFO would likely respond to? If not, who can you partner with to develop a business case?
Have you ever worked in a setting that was removed from your primary culture? Were you able to adapt to a different cultural environment easily?
Can you empower champions and delegate authority well?
What are your own biases and prejudices? Will you be able to effectively manage around them while advocating an inclusive workplace for all? Conversely, do you have a “burning platform” (one diversity issue or identity group that you feel is primary in your worldview)? If so, can you broaden your own definition of diversity to include all issues and groups?
Are you familiar with the many different audiences that will be expected to embrace and enact this plan?

Competency-Related Action Steps

Take a cross-cultural competency assessment to learn more about your ability to work across and between different cultures.
Actively solicit feedback from trusted mentors, advisors and colleagues. Seek advice from people you trust to be honest with you, even if the news is not immediately to your liking.
Be brutally honest with yourself. Realize that if you take sole ownership of a diversity initiative without the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities to do the job, you are hurting the process, not helping.
Recognize that no one person is the perfect diversity practitioner, and if you realize that you fall short in just one or two specific competency areas, you can assemble the right team around you that will supplement your own skill set.
Recognize that a passion for diversity is one competency that can be put to use by a diversity practitioner – but that it in no way makes up for the lack of other competencies that have been listed above.

Business Case for Diversity

A diversity plan that is successful must be relevant to an organization’s mission, vision and business objectives. A strong business case states these reasons in clear and compelling terms. It serves as a call to action and as a set of guiding principles for all that is done as part of the diversity plan.

Research and experience clearly show that one primary success factor for a diversity initiative is strong personal engagement and accountability on the part of the CEO and the entire senior leadership team. CEOs and senior executives consistently focus on specific issues that directly help ensure the ongoing success of their organization. A strong business case will generate this personal engagement and accountability with its compelling link between business success and diversity and inclusion. Moreover, as CEOs come and go, a strong business case will ensure that your diversity programming survives turnover at the leadership level.

The business case should contain the minimum amount of information needed to clearly make the compelling statement and link described above. The most effective business cases are simple and straightforward, but depend upon your organization’s unique situation, including where it is located and its customers, employees, suppliers, regulatory environment and organizational culture. The questions and action steps will help you create the business case appropriate for your situation.

Business Case Self-Assessment

Who are your organization’s key internal and external stakeholders whose needs and concerns must be taken into account by your diversity business case?
What are your organization’s key business objectives that the diversity business case must directly support?
What changes are needed in your workforce to help ensure that your organization can meet its key business objectives?
What changes are needed in your workplace (i.e., how people work together) to help ensure that your organization can meet its key business objectives?
What changes are needed in your products and services, or in how they are produced, to help ensure that your organization can meet its key business objectives?

Business Case Action Steps

Obtain agreement with your CEO and senior management team about the key stakeholders and key business objectives.
Define the changes needed in the areas considered by the above questions. Focus specifically on changes needed to achieve the agreed-upon key business goals.
Assess the current situation versus the changes defined in step 2 to characterize the “gap.”
Define initiatives to close the gap. Measure the extent to which the changes are put in place.
If your organization is global in nature, do not be satisfied with input strictly from corporate headquarters; rather, seek the counsel of all key world geographies represented in your organization.

Gaining Commitment from the Top

When building a strategic diversity plan, commitment from the top means that those who will eventually implement the plan have the backing, support and active involvement of the organization’s leadership, including the CEO, board of directors, executive team, etc. This commitment must be delivered in terms of both words and actions; it is not enough for organizational leaders to pay “lip service” to a diversity plan only to bend to other pressures when the journey becomes difficult.

While it is true that many diversity programs begin at the grassroots level of an organization, CEO and C-suite engagement is critical if a diversity effort will be successful or in any way impactful.

The commitment of senior leaders includes actively contributing to the vision, mission and strategy of your Strategic Diversity Management Plan; communicating the importance of diversity to employees, customers and the board of directors (and, in doing so, publicly holding themselves accountable for the success of the diversity initiatives) via annual reports, all-hands meetings and executive off-sites; holding directors, managers and supervisors accountable for moving the diversity plan to all levels of the organization; removing barriers to successful implementation; and adequately funding the plan. Organization Diversity Planning Presentation Paper.Leaders who commit to a diversity initiative in such a way will not do so lightly or on a whim. To receive this type of commitment, it will be necessary to build a strong business case for diversity that positions the plan as a business imperative.

Commitment-Related Questions to Consider

Who are your natural champions? Has your CEO or any senior leader been expressly supportive of diversity initiatives in the past?
What initiatives or change efforts at your organization have been wildly successful?
In what ways did senior leadership support those initiatives? What strategies were employed at the outset of those initiatives to garner executive commitment?
Who can you reasonably expect to resist the diversity message? (Keep in mind that a certain amount of resistance is healthy and will eventually improve the quality of your diversity initiatives.)

Commitment-Related Action Steps

Prior to meeting with the CEO or senior leader, research that individual’s evidence of commitment to diversity via company articles, blogs, web presence, etc.
Know your company’s diversity demographics, particularly the breakdown of women and people of color as a percentage of the general population and senior levels of the company.
Prepare a working “elevator speech” of the general business case for diversity.
Describe the specific actions you would like your CEO/senior leaders to take in the first three months of your Strategic Diversity Management Plan. These actions should, at minimum, include participating in the creation of your vision, mission and strategy, and a commitment to put his or her name to any and all company-wide communications about the new plan.
Be prepared to speak to the business case and the values case of diversity. The business case is essential if the work is to move forward, but certain individuals are naturally passionate about diversity & inclusion, and will want to know that their diversity leaders share that passion.

It is wise, especially in the event that your CEO might not immediately embrace the concepts of diversity & inclusion, to identify those individuals in the C-suite who are likely “next-in-line” candidates for the CEO’s job, and enlist their support as well.

Vision, Mission and Strategy

An organization’s vision, mission and strategy are essentially the “where, what and how” of your Strategic Diversity Management Plan. A vision statement presents an inspiring vision of the future for participants to work toward, or of where the organization would like to be. The mission statement presents the present work of the plan, or what it is that participants will do. Finally, the strategy links the mission and vision together, and communicates how the present (what) connects to the future (where).

Any large change initiative that is not grounded by a clear vision, mission and strategy is likely to lose focus. Because a Strategic Diversity Management Plan will need the participation and support of a large number of people, all of whom might come to the process with different ideas about what “diversity & inclusion” means, it is important to create a guiding principle that will unify the efforts of everyone involved.

In simplistic terms, a plan’s vision, mission and strategy consist of words and ideas. Without a framework within which they can be put into action, these words and ideas are easily forgotten or minimized, and the results (less focus, people working at cross-purposes, lack of direction) are the same as if they were never crafted. Therefore, it is crucial that once created, mechanisms are put into place that measure the working group’s activities against the vision, mission and strategy of the plan at every available opportunity.

Vision and Mission Questions to Consider

What inspires you about diversity & inclusion work? What, if anything, inspires your CEO and other senior diversity champions within your organization?
Does your vision statement present a clear and inspiring vision of the future?
Does your mission statement present a clear and accurate assessment of the work contained in your Strategic Diversity Management Plan?
Does your strategy statement link your mission with your vision, and present a clear path to get from here to there?
Can the daily work of your Strategic Diversity Management Plan be measured against your vision, mission and strategy?

Vision and Mission Action Steps

Assemble your diversity champions (including senior leaders, upon whom you’ll depend for support) and brainstorm the following questions:
–What are your hopes and goals connected to our work in diversity & inclusion?

–How do you see yourself contributing to the Strategic Diversity Management Plan?

–What concrete actions would you like to take to achieve your hopes and goals?
After an appreciative brainstorm (all ideas are captured, no ideas are shot down), work in teams to group answers into themes.
Select a core group or groups of individuals (including the CEO, if possible) to craft vision, mission and strategy statements based on these themes.
Ensure that the resulting statements support the organization’s overall mission, vision and strategy.
Test the vision, mission and strategy statements on potential stakeholders, or even those outside of your organization, and solicit feedback. Ask those being tested to paraphrase the vision, mission and strategy in their own words and compare the paraphrased responses for discrepancies (this will indicate a lack of clarity and a need to revise).
If working in a global organization, test statements to ensure that they are applicable to all key geographies, and yet broad enough to allow for relevant local interpretation.
Present statements and test results to the core group of diversity champions and gain consensus around them.
Involve senior leadership in the process of crafting vision, mission, and strategy. Your CEO should be looking at the business from a very long-term perspective, which will be a great asset to this portion of your work, and leadership involvement here helps to secure leadership commitment throughout.
Create a plan to communicate the vision, mission and strategy of your Strategic Diversity Management Plan to the rest of your organization.

Do not rush or minimize this part of your work. While a seemingly simple task, creating a vision, mission and strategy that is clear, both specific and inclusive, and measurable will have a significantly positive impact on your entire Strategic Management Diversity Plan. Conversely, a poorly-thought-out vision, mission and strategy with no measures or that is too broad or too limiting, unclear or not communicated effectively will hamper your work.

Diversity Recruitment and Sourcing

Diversity recruitment means companies recruit individuals with a collective mixture of differences and similarities that include individual characteristics, values and beliefs, experiences and backgrounds. Diversity recruitment is an important step towards creating an inclusive and multi-talented workplace that is reflective of the customers it serves and best prepared to compete in a changing economy and marketplace.

Research, legislation and demographics in the U.S. labor force now and in the future indicate the workforce will be comprised greater numbers of women, minorities and immigrants than we’ve ever seen before. Organizations now realize they must attract, retain, and promote qualified employees regardless of race, age, gender or ethnicity to keep the business running. As the labor market tightens and Baby Boomers retire, employers will need to expand their recruiting efforts to compete in global labor markets and comply with updated government regulations.

Globally, the situation is even more complex. Different countries define diversity in very different ways, and yet a significant majority of companies around the globe seek diverse workforces in order to remain innovative and, therefore, competitive.

Diversity recruitment can be wide-ranging (job board advertisements) or narrowly targeted (i.e., using websites to locate resumes of candidates who may not be looking for positions, but neatly match a set of exacting criteria). Diversity recruitment reaches out to everyone qualified, and the goal is to fill the talent pipeline with individuals qualified to perform the essential functions of the position.

Diversity Recruitment and Sourcing Questions to Consider

Does your organization have established goals around diversity and recruiting? If so, are these goals internally driven or mandated by law?
What organizations/agencies can the organization partner with to find a diverse pool of candidates?
Have job descriptions for open positions been updated recently? Are they still accurate reflections of the skills needed to perform the job effectively?
Have the hiring goals for this job group been communicated to the hiring manager, checked for understanding, and agreed upon to increase the likelihood of a good hire?
Is there a current job description for this position and clear-cut performance standards that can fairly evaluate any new hire without bias?
Where should the organization advertise to attract a diverse pool of well-qualified applicants for this position?
What policies and benefits are in place in the organization that would attract diverse candidates (i.e., flexible hours, job-sharing, etc.)?
What training has the organization provided to hiring managers to ensure the best candidate is selected?
Has the organization reviewed its on-boarding process to make certain candidates selected receive the right information and a welcome that will secure a partnership with the organization?
How will human resources follow up with the hiring manager and the new employee to make certain the new partnership is working?

Diversity Recruitment and Sourcing Action Steps

Obtain support from the CEO and executive team and include diversity recruitment as a commitment in the company’s business objectives. Assess the organization’s needs and opportunities.
Develop a policy related to diversity that includes the organization’s recruitment and retention plan to enhance diversity.
Provide training for management regarding the company’s diversity initiative including the business case for diversity.
Put the right tactics to work. Get everyone engaged, get involved in diverse communities and integrate with mainstream recruiting tactics. Attend career fairs and affinity receptions.
Allocate the money needed for diversity recruitment.
Borrow the best practices from other recruiting campaigns.

Employee Retention

Retention is the rate at which current employees of your organization are staying in their jobs. Retention is the opposite of “turnover.” Therefore, if turnover is low, then retention is high.

When crafting a Strategic Diversity Management Plan, retention is often framed as a key economic driver for diversity & inclusion efforts. It costs an organization a significant dollar amount whenever an existing employee must be replaced. These costs include termination processes, recruiting a new employee, onboarding processes and decreased productivity in response to the new employee’s learning curve as he or she acclimates to the new position.

Diverse & inclusive organizational climates, however, reduce turnover and increase retention. Retention is also important for an organization in intellectual and cultural terms. Organizations with high turnover (and low retention) often suffer from “brain drain,” a situation in which few individuals contain the organization’s long-term memory. Organizations with high retention (and low turnover) typically have strong, sustainable corporate cultures that can act as key differentiators in the marketplace. It is important to note that no organization can claim 0% turnover, and that new talent can often bring new energy to an organization; still, keeping retention high is a crucial success factor to consider.

Employees will decide to stay or leave an organization for a number of reasons. Many seek new opportunities outside their current organizations in order to find increased pay, more responsibility, a more agreeable commute, more challenging work or a friendlier work environment. Others may leave because they are relocating to a new city, and still others might be leaving the workforce altogether for any number of reasons. An organization cannot reasonably be expected to be all things to all employees; therefore, a certain amount of turnover is to be expected. However, there is much that an organization can control; organizations with healthy retention rates typically make a concerted effort to be an “employer of choice” within their industry, offering all employees competitive pay, opportunities for advancement, challenging work, and a diverse and inclusive work environment.

Employee Retention Questions to Consider

What is our organization’s current turnover rate? How does this number compare with those of our chief competitors?
How much does it cost our organization to replace a single employee?
Who typically leaves our organization? Are there marked differences among turnover rates for men versus women? White people versus people of color? Baby Boomers versus Gen X or Gen Y staff?
Does our organization conduct exhaustive exit interviews to find out why employees are voluntarily leaving? If so, what do these interviews tell you about why employees leave? Organization Diversity Planning Presentation Paper.
Is there any reason to suspect that those who feel excluded, unfairly treated or discriminated against would refrain from stating their true motivations during an exit interview? If so, what measures could be put into place in order to collect more accurate data?

Employee Retention Action Step

Communicate efforts to increase retention and reduce turnover in financial as well as numerical terms in order to tie these efforts toward business goals.

Training and Development

Training & development includes all activities that are designed and implemented to support an employee’s knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs, or “competencies”). For your Strategic Diversity Management Plan, training & development specifically relates to those activities that ensure that all employees are equipped to create a work environment that is both diverse and inclusive.

In addition to (or instead of) supporting knowledge, skills and abilities, many training & development initiatives related to diversity attempt to influence the attitudes (or values) of their participants. It should be noted that training & development initiatives that attempt to make significant change with regard to attitudes require a great deal of time and investment if they are to be successful.

Training & development ensures that employees have the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to do their individual jobs and further the aims of the organization. Simply put, it is both unrealistic and unfair for employers to demand competencies of staff without providing them with resources to attain and practice them.

Training & development includes but is not limited to classroom-based, instructor-led education initiatives; mentoring programs; competency assessments; on-the-job action learning; executive and manager coaching; team building; lectures and keynote speeches; posters; self-study; and e-learning programs.

Training & Development Questions to Consider

What knowledge, skills and abilities (i.e., communication, empathy) must employees of your organization possess if they are to effectively contribute to a diverse and inclusive workplace?
What additional knowledge, skills and abilities (i.e., issue identification, group dynamics) must managers in your organization possess if they are to effectively recruit a diverse team and manage staff in an inclusive way?
What additional knowledge, skills and abilities (i.e., visioning, cross-cultural competence) must leaders in your organization possess if they are to role model diversity, ensure that your organization’s clients or customers are treated with respect, and chart the correct path for your organization’s future?
Which learning methods would be the most appropriate to employ, given the competencies you wish to support?
How can your organization frame training & development related to diversity so that it is, if at all possible, an ongoing activity, not restricted to isolated experiences in a classroom?
Who must you engage to lead the diversity training & development initiatives within your organization?

Training & Development-Related Action Steps

If there is no one internal to your organization with the competencies to guide the diversity learning of others, consider partnering with a well-regarded consultant to help guide your training & development efforts.
Begin with the end in mind: Create solid, measurable learning objectives based on KSAs before making any decisions on methodology, timeframe or design. Ensure that all activities map directly back to the learning objectives that are specific to your organization, your workforce and your customer base.

Other Training & Development Considerations

There are many studies that definitively state that diversity training does not work. Don’t believe it. When properly focused on KSAs rather than attitudes and values, and when integrated into a larger Strategic Diversity Management Plan that also addresses important issues such as recruitment, marketing and rewards structures, diversity training is not only effective, but an essential component of organizational culture change.

If engaging a consultant to assist with your training & development efforts, frame the relationship as a strategic partnership rather than a single transaction. Consider working with your strategic partner early in the process to help frame learning objectives and implement a variety of learning solutions.

Choose your strategic partner carefully, and beware of making a decision based solely on price. Be prepared to research the experiences and reputations of your slate of candidates, and resist practitioners that offer off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all solutions to your organization’s needs.

Onboarding

Onboarding is a process designed to welcome and educate new employees to an organization. Oftentimes, this process lasts anywhere from one day to two weeks and is referred to as “New Hire Orientation.” Other organizations create onboarding programs that can last up to two years.

A documented process or schedule of activities may make a new employee to an organization or location feel welcome and comfortable sooner rather than later. This is important for retention purposes as much time and effort was likely invested in attracting the employee to the new job, so keeping the employee on-board equates to retaining a valuable asset. Making employees feel welcome is especially important for those new hires who are not traditional employees of an organization; for most U.S. organizations, these include women, people of color, gays and lesbians, people with disabilities, or those from different cultures.

While most companies offer a “New Hire Orientation” training course to explain various procedures, benefit plans, time reporting policies and other areas of interest to all employees, onboarding can and should be a much more comprehensive process, beginning before an employee’s first day on the job and continuing throughout that employee’s first year. Possible components of an onboarding process include (but are not limited to) aspects of the recruiting process, the offer letter, new hire packet, relocation services, new hire orientation sessions, “meet and greet” interviews with co-workers during the first month, other training opportunities that speak directly to organization culture and core values, peer sponsoring and mentoring, pre-scheduled meetings with managers and mentors to ensure that needed resources and information are available, and early performance reviews in preparation for the employee’s first annual performance assessment.

Onboarding Action Steps

Ensure that all individuals who may have first contact with a candidate are sufficiently coached as to how to articulate the organization’s mission, vision, values and philosophy with regard to diversity.
As part of your relocation assistance package, consider working with a relocation service that can also assist the employee’s spouse in his or her own job search, a housing search and other basic services for new residents.
Create a robust schedule for each employee’s first day on the job, including a meeting with his or her manager, HR, required paperwork (payroll, benefits, etc.), briefing on all aspects of the employee’s job description, a celebratory lunch with the new manager (which could also include key team members), an appointment with IT or other groups to receive necessary resources (laptop, safety equipment, etc.), and an end-of-day check-in to ensure that the new employee is starting the new job on a positive note.
If including a peer sponsor or “buddy” program as part of your onboarding initiative, create a checklist for that individual that might include who to introduce the new employee to and a “tour” that includes supply closets, rest rooms, places to eat, etc.
If your organization sponsors affinity groups based on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability or culture, encourage them to create peer sponsor programs for new members as well.

Diversity-Related Communication

In the simplest terms, “communication” is the transfer of knowledge and ideas from one party to another. For the purposes of this tool, communication is defined as being organization-to-employee and employee-to-organization. When communication is healthy, the message received by the employee from the organization (and by the organization from the employee) is the correct, intended message. When communication is dysfunctional, the message received is often distorted, confused or inaccurate.

As it specifically relates to diversity & inclusion, healthy communication should include a strong commitment from the organization (and by extension, the organization’s leaders) to a diverse and inclusive workforce and to serving a diverse customer base, specific information that pertains to the roll-out of the organization’s Strategic Diversity Management Plan, and information from the employee base that honestly reflects the experiences of all staff within the organization.

Healthy communication from organization to employee is essential if both parties are to be productive and successful. Employees who do not receive adequate communications from their employers often feel a high level of distrust and disengagement; conversely, when individuals feel “in the loop” at their organization, they are more productive, more committed to the organization’s mission, and more invested in the organization’s success. When organizations do not contain mechanisms to receive communications from their employees, there exists an enormous missed opportunity to adapt to changing circumstances “on the ground.”

Communication methodologies are wide and varied, including (but not limited to) one-on-one conversations, memoranda, training & development programs, company newsletters, e-mail, websites, posters and external marketing.

Communication-Related Questions to Consider

What communication vehicles currently exist at your organization? How effective are they? How might they be used to support your Strategic Diversity Management Plan?
What communication gaps currently exist at your organization? What steps would be necessary to close these?
Does your organization currently experience a healthy level of employee-to-organization communication? If so, is this information currently filtered with a diversity & inclusion lens? If not, why not – and how can this be addressed?
What positively differentiates your organization from its competitors with regard to diversity & inclusion? How can these differentiators be included in your organizational communications?

Communication-Related Action Steps

Keep diversity & inclusion in mind when crafting any kind of corporate communication. Ensure that messages that do not support your organization’s diversity efforts are excised or edited before they are sent to all employees.
If allowed within the context of your organization’s communication policies, consider a form of branding when crafting your diversity communication plan. While diversity & inclusion efforts should never be reduced to a single catchphrase, a well-chosen and recognizable slogan or logo will reinforce and strengthen the message if used judiciously.
When building your organization’s diversity management plan, include a communications plan, which could include any or all of the following: a webpage devoted to your organization’s commitment to diversity, brochures, slide presentations that managers can use when briefing staff about diversity at your organization and visual media (posters, etc.) that includes your diversity mission statement.
Communicate with integrity. If a poster on the wall proclaims a commitment to diversity with little to no action to back it up, the message will not ring true, and could eventually do more harm than good. If necessary, an open and honest message that frames the organization’s diversity issues as challenges that can be met and overcome would be more appreciated by staff than a relentlessly cheery sentiment that “everything’s just fine.”Organization Diversity Planning Presentation Paper.

Marketing, Advertising and Branding

Marketing, advertising and branding are external communications that are used by organizations to reach potential customers, clients, donors, patients, voters or stakeholders. Typically, these efforts are undertaken to convince people to buy or invest in an organization’s products or services. In virtually all cases, however, marketing, advertising and branding are meant to enhance the good reputation of the organization.

Most of what external stakeholders know or perceive about your organization is a direct result of marketing, advertising and branding efforts. In order to penetrate a wide variety of customer communities, it is often necessary to target the marketing, advertising and branding in accordance with business goals; in these cases, it is necessary to obtain knowledge about these diverse communities when crafting the messages. Many organizations have also discovered that the diversity of their staff and the inclusiveness of their work environment can be used as differentiators in the marketplace and can become a competitive advantage.

Marketing, advertising and branding can take many forms, which include (but are not limited to) paid advertisements in print, television or radio; corporate sponsorship (i.e., charitable events, conferences, sporting events); participation of organizational leaders as keynote speakers, honorees or panelists; coverage in news media; published articles; and branded merchandise. In addition, virtually every contact that an organization’s employee has with a customer, client, or donor can be considered a marketing opportunity; in many organizations, this framework is actively communicated to customer-facing employees.

Marketing, Advertising and Branding Questions to Consider

What does your organization currently execute with regard to marketing, advertising and branding? Do these efforts actively reflect the values of diversity and inclusion?
Do the messages contained in your marketing, advertising and branding efforts contain any subtle cultural biases? For instance, are the people (representing both employees and customers) in your advertising uniformly white, affluent, heterosexual, able-bodied or conventionally attractive? Does your marketing consistently assume an individualist or achievement-based cultural framework?
Does your organization currently participate in any form of niche marketing? If so, is it effective? Why or why not? If not, could your organization benefit from targeting specific communities?

Marketing, Advertising and Branding Action Step

Provide a “seat at the table” for someone focused on diversity during all marketing, advertising and branding discussions, whether or not the content of the messages is specifically focused on diversity & inclusion. This will ensure that no messages are communicated that overtly or subtly circumvent your organization’s diversity value.

Leveraging Employee Diversity

Any Strategic Diversity Management Plan has as an end state a workplace that is more diverse and more inclusive than the workplace that currently exists. This is a valuable goal, but diversity and inclusion do not exist for their own sake. Rather, a diverse workforce and an inclusive climate can, if managed well, help the organization to work better. Diverse and inclusive workplaces have the potential to be more innovative, have more access to talent, and be better able to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse customer base. Organizations that can leverage employee diversity are not only better places to work, but places that work better.

In a rapidly changing world, organizations that insist on doing the same things in the same ways will be outperformed by organizations that are able to keep up with these changes (including the demographics of the incoming workforce, new and emerging markets, and globalization). The ability to leverage employee diversity is a strategic lever that impacts an organization’s ability to thrive – and over the long-term, to survive.

Putting the diversity of your organization to work for you can take several forms. For instance, ensuring that sales and marketing teams are diverse will increase the likelihood that performance and products will meet the needs of a diverse customer base. Creating research teams with an eye on diversity of background and discipline can result in processes and solutions that are more innovative and cutting-edge. Increasing the diversity of your recruiting teams will enable your organization to attract the best and brightest applicants of all backgrounds and identities.

Leveraging Employee Diversity Questions to Consider

Even if your organization appears to be diverse in terms of total numbers, are there teams, disciplines or levels within your organization that consist of one homogeneous “type,” based on race, gender, age, nationality or discipline?
How diverse are the people in your recruiting function? Are you able to source qualified applicants from a wide variety of backgrounds?
Is innovation a necessary differentiator for your organization? If so, how diverse is your organization at the top and middle manager levels?

Leveraging Employee Diversity Action Step

If your recruiting team is small or otherwise not as diverse as you’d like it to be, consider using your organization’s employee affinity or networking groups to assist you in recruiting to specific markets.

Strategic Alliances and Partnerships

A strategic alliance is a relationship that is formalized between two or more parties to achieve a specific goal or meet your diversity initiatives strategy while remaining independent of each other.

The alliance can be either a cooperative agreement or collaboration or both. Each organization aims for synergy between the two. All organizations hope that the benefits are greater than those achievable through individual efforts.

The alliance uses the strengths and resources of the partners – technology, knowledge, resources (financial, in kind and “sweat equity”).

Strategic alliances are critical in growing an effective diversity initiative. Through formalized collaboratives and coalitions the organization can quickly develop depth and resources that would take a tremendous amount of funding and effort. Additionally through strategic alliances the organization gains best practices, programmatic insights, research, access to suppliers of diversity products and leverage.

Strategic alliances within the diversity field include: nationally recognized certification organizations, academic resources, governmental agencies, think tanks, media outlets focusing on diversity and professional associations such as SHRM.

Logistically, strategic alliances include a formal letter or agreement detailing the alliances. The agreement outlines what expectations are, what resources will be shared and how information will be exchanged between the organizations. Each alliance partner has a separate letter or agreement. Some agreements are very simple. Some are very formal and detailed. These occur when there are monetary exchanges and/or high-value technology or information is exchanged.

Strategic Alliance and Partnership Questions to Consider

What resources do you need that are not available within the organization?
Who has access to these resources?
How many different organizations do the same thing? What are their unique selling points? What are their differences?
Can we afford the relationship? Do we want to?
What is our organization’s policy regarding strategic alliances?
Do I have the authority to sign agreements? If not, who must sign?

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a term that has been used since the 1970s to denote ethical and socially responsible business behavior. Today, the term is often directly aligned with its business case and referred to as “CSR-Business Sustainability.” This term was defined by the World Commission on Environment & Development as “Contributing to sustainable development by working to improve the quality of life for employees, their families, the local community and stakeholders up and down the supply chain.”

Corporate social responsibility and diversity & inclusion can be thought of as overlapping circles; the two functions share many of the same goals, and oftentimes one activity or effort will meet the needs of both functions. Like diversity & inclusion, CSR is driven by a values case and a business case. Many organizations, including early pioneers such as Ben & Jerry’s, have found that CSR allows business leaders and employees to feel good about where they work, but that there’s also financial gains to be realized. To explain the case for CSR, John Elkington coined the phrase “People, Planet, Profit.” According to Elkington, CSR reaps rewards for the people within and surrounding an organization, incorporates sustainable environmental practices that allow for long-term success, and contributes not only to its internal profit margin but allows for a sustainable economic environment in which to operate.

Using Elkington’s “People, Planet, Profit” concept, CSR is composed of fair and beneficial business practices towards labor and the community in which a corporation conducts its business (people), sustainable environmental practices (planet), and lasting economic impact by an organization on its economic environment, not just internal profit made by the company (profit). According to the tenets of CSR, a business should be primarily responsible to stakeholders rather than shareholders. A stakeholder is defined as anyone who is influenced, either directly or indirectly, by the actions of the organization. The objective of CSR is to promote stakeholder interests, instead of just maximizing shareholder or owner profit. Because our communities, from local and national to global, are naturally diverse, CSR and diversity & inclusion are often linked.

Corporate Social Responsibility Questions to Consider

What are your organization’s key business objectives? How might CSR efforts and activities benefit your organization’s business?
What communities are you specifically hoping to attract, source and recruit as a result of your Strategic Management Diversity Plan? How might CSR efforts help to promote your organization within these important target groups?
What CSR activities are currently underway in your organization? How might your diversity & inclusion efforts benefit from already existing CSR efforts?

Corporate Social Responsibility Action Steps

When looking to partner with external organizations as part of your diversity recruiting initiatives, also consider partnering with groups that are closely aligned with diverse communities, i.e., job training in urban communities, AIDS service organizations, etc.
Not all partnerships require an exchange of funds; consider putting your business to work for others. For instance, a consulting firm might offer pro bono consulting to a charitable group, or a manufacturing company might provide free supplies to local charities.
Find a way to get your employees involved. For instance, writing a check to support breast cancer research is helpful, but supporting your employees in a “Walk for the Cure” event in your local area allows all staff to feel involved in your CSR efforts, which will likely increase retention in the organization.

Customer or Member Experience

This part of your diversity management plan focuses on the experience your customers have when they enter your place of business or interact with your employees, product or service. Your “customer” may be a member of your association, the individual who calls your help desk or visits your website, a student in your university, a guest in your hotel or restaurant, or the consumer of your retail products or healthcare, professional or social services. Your customer may also be the representative of another business or department.Organization Diversity Planning Presentation Paper.

Given demographic trends, your customers may be similar to or different from you or the customers you have traditionally served. The goal of the diversity management plan is to ensure that customers perceive your place of business as inclusive of their needs and as the type of establishment with which they want to do business. This helps you build long-term customer relationships and loyalty and capture new and emerging markets, resulting in increased market share and profits.

In addition, many agencies and institutions in social services, healthcare and other public sectors are now required to demonstrate that they are effectively serving all segments of society in order to maintain their funding, accreditation or licensing.

Customer/member experience involves creating a culture of comfort and inclusion for all members/customers – regardless of gender, age, disability, religion, ethnicity, language or any of the other similarities and differences among customers. It is sometimes referred to as “culturally-competent service.” In the broadest sense, cultural competence means using knowledge of similarities and differences to make good business decisions. Applied to the customer experience, it means drawing upon your knowledge of diversity to create meaningful customer and member experiences.

Consider these customer experiences: In a retail location, will a young black man be given the same respect and service as an older, white man? Will a patient and doctor who speak different languages be able to achieve a positive outcome? Will your website be effective for a consumer who is blind? At your professional association chapter meeting, will the person who is vegetarian for religious, personal or health reasons be willing to eat the meal being served?

Customer or Experience-Related Questions to Consider

What are the demographics of your marketplace? Of your customer base? Do you understand the unique needs of each of these market groups?
Do a broad range of customers feel equally welcome and respected in your establishment?
To what degree do diverse customers and potential customers see themselves represented in your workforce and management staff?
How comfortable and skilled are employees in serving customers they perceive as different from themselves (i.e., language, culture, age, race and ethnicity, and disability)?
Are employees more suspicious or resentful of a category of customers (i.e., based on age, ethnicity, nationality, language, religious attire)? If so, how does this affect the customer’s experience?
What barriers exist that undermine your service delivery (i.e., stereotypes about customers, lack of tools or knowledge)?
Have you considered the diversity implications in your customer satisfaction measurement process?
How are customers’ diverse needs being met (i.e., product preferences, language, religious accommodations, access for individuals with disabilities)?

Customer Experience Action Steps

Understand Your Customer. Use market research, community partners and employee resource groups to learn about the needs of diverse customers.
Assess Your Current Level of Customer/Member Service and Inclusion. Conduct a diversity & inclusion audit of your current customer/member experience. Use the results to help create an action plan for future change.
Create a Basic Comfort Level. Demonstrate Respect: Use your knowledge of diverse markets to offer culturally relevant products and services. Ensure employees represent the diversity of the marketplace. Treat each customer and potential customer with respect.
Lower Language Barriers. Communicate in ways your customer can understand. Translate critical information, use bilingual staff, teach basic phrases to staff, make a multilingual dictionary or picture guide available, use visual displays and provide information in writing. When necessary, use professional interpreters or translators.
Support Your Staff. Provide staff with the education, training, resources and systemic processes they need to deliver an inclusive customer experience.

Customer Experience Examples

Two U.S. industries have evolved their efforts to better serve previously underserved populations. This has occurred as a result of intense competition, demographic shifts, and the increasing consumer and societal expectations of equitable service for all populations.

Financial Services/Banking. Banks have broadened their services, changed their practices, and invested in community education and development in order to develop long-term relationships with new customers. For example, newly arrived immigrants, even those with cash assets, often find themselves unable to qualify for a home mortgage. They may not have relied on credit cards or other forms of institutional debt in the past and as a result, their history of banking does not mirror the credit histories of U.S. consumers. Banks that identify alternative sources of credit data, such as utility-payment histories, are able to gain the business of these new customers. Banks have also gained new markets through in-language banking services such as bilingual tellers and ATMs.
Healthcare. In 2001, the U.S. department of Health and Human Services and its Office of Minority Health issued national Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards. These standards were developed to ensure that all people entering the health care system receive equitable and effective treatment, to help eliminate existing racial and ethnic health disparities, and to make these services more responsive to the individual needs of all patients/consumers. Fourteen specific standards are provided.

Supplier and Vendor Diversity

An integral part of any organization’s diversity program is to ensure that it promotes diversity outside of the company in addition to its internal efforts. One way organizations accomplish this goal is through supplier diversity programs that support minority- and women-owned businesses with which they do business.

Supplier diversity can include all underrepresented groups that can provide goods or services to the organization. They are commonly referred to as minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs). However, it can include all types of organizations that are owned or operated by underrepresented members of the population.

There are several factors motivating companies to establish supplier diversity programs:

Their organizations have a diverse customer base. By showing support for the demographic groups of its customers, an organization hopes to strengthen its appeal to them. Studies show female consumers are more likely to buy from a company using a woman-owned supplier. Diverse suppliers can act as powerful advocates for the company sourcing from them, especially since some diverse suppliers are politically active in their communities.
Their organizations serve customers that support supplier diversity. Companies that are committed to supplier diversity don’t just select diverse suppliers. They require their suppliers to support supplier diversity.
The government might require it. Federal contractors are expected to subcontract a portion of their award to diverse suppliers.
Their organizations want to demonstrate social responsibility. Many organizations voluntarily use a diverse supplier base because the leadership feels that it is the right thing to do for society and the community.
Diverse suppliers bring added skill sets that prove to be tactically advantageous in a global marketplace.

Supplier and Vendor Diversity Action Steps

Define the Scope. Like any business objective, the mission statement of the supplier diversity initiative must define what it is, why it is important and how it will impact the organization. The business case for supplier diversity needs to be clear. To make a true commitment to supplier diversity, the organization should consider all suppliers of goods and services that the organization purchases. This includes everything from raw materials and IT suppliers to legal services and janitorial supplies.To help define the scope, the organization should decide the following as it begins its development of a supplier diversity initiative: What percent of total purchases does the organization want to make from underrepresented suppliers? How many new minority-/women-/disabled-owned suppliers does the organization want to partner with each year?
Link Program to Organizational Goals. The purpose of a supplier diversity program should be communicated to management, purchasing, other appropriate personnel and existing suppliers so all key stakeholders understand how the program is expected to contribute to the company’s success.Specific, measurable goals need to be established, and the responsible internal personnel and suppliers held accountable for achieving them
Select Qualified Suppliers. Once the organization understands the role of supplier diversity and is committed to making it successful, the organization must find and start contracting with M/WBE suppliers. To do this, each organization must develop specific criteria for determining what constitutes a diverse supplier. The procurement department must proactively seek out companies that meet their criteria and start doing business with them. It is also important to help current suppliers understand and comply with the new supplier diversity program.
Manage the Program. This involves the coordination of multiple parties in the organization including procurement, contracts, program managers and senior leadership. Relationships have to be continuously formed with new suppliers and reinforced with existing suppliers. Organizations can support and foster supplier diversity efforts by:
–Attending business opportunity fairs in local communities.
–Participating in minority and women-focused business professional organizations.
–Creating a business directory to connect M/WBEs with individual customer users.
–Outlining roles of supplier diversity program management
Support and Mentor Suppliers. By nurturing the success of suppliers, an organization can ensure the continual supply of goods and services as well as the trust and confidence of vendors, customers, employees and shareholders. The following are some development programs that an organization might consider:
–Offer business consulting services.
–Provide favorable financial terms.
–Recognize and reward participating M/WBE suppliers.
–Hosting trade fairs for M/WBEs and procurement.
–Conduct site visits for M/WBEs, including detailed interviews covering operations and management.
–Conduct seminars for M/WBEs to learn how to do business with your company.
–Provide technical and managerial assistance to M/WBEs.
–Emphasize importance of second tier M/WBEs.

Organizations are constantly looking for ways to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. Supplier diversity can lead to reducing costs, promoting innovation and connecting with a broader customer base. The steps outlined above are the foundations for a successful supplier diversity program that will help companies remain competitive and enhance their efforts to diversify the workplace.

Measurement and Accountability

When businesses move in any new direction, they expect to know if their efforts have achieved the desired results, and if not, who will be responsible for a correcting the methodology so that those desired results can be achieved. There is no reason to believe that CEOs and other business leaders should treat a diversity plan any differently. Measurement is simply an activity that determines whether or not your efforts have been successful. Accountability is the act of putting the responsibility for the Diversity Plan’s success in the hands of a single person or small group.

An attempt to shift the culture of an organization is a Herculean task. Typically, the results that one expects from a diversity & inclusion change initiative are visible increases of diverse employees at all levels within an organization.

However, it is important to remember that a) not all diversity is visible, and, more important, b) increased numbers are a lagging indicator of success. An organization can be doing everything right in terms of building an inclusive culture that will allow people of all backgrounds equal access to opportunities, advancement and success – and the representation of women and people of color, particularly at senior levels of the organization, might not significantly change until years later. This doesn’t mean that the organization is not succeeding. But without knowing what to measure and how to measure it, those working toward and/or funding your diversity initiatives might grow impatient or hopeless if measures of success are not tracked and communicated as the initiative is implemented. It’s also possible that your efforts, well-planned and expertly executed, are not resulting in the outcomes that you and your leaders desire. If this is the case, it’s important to know this sooner than later, so that your plan can be modified as needed. In this situation, it’s also important to allow responsibility for the effort to rest with a single person or small group, who are incentivized toward success and against failure, to ensure the eventual achievements you seek.

For many who are working with diversity & inclusion for the first time, the only measurements that occur to them are hard numbers: How many women and people of color work for our organization, and how many have senior leadership positions? These numbers are important, but it is worth measuring that they only partially measure diversity (as not all diversity is visible and reportable) and do not measure inclusion at all. For a more complete picture, many other items can be measured. For instance, a Strategic Diversity Management Plan can measure who is being sourced, recruited, hired and advanced within the organization. The plan can also measure who is leaving after one or two years within the organization, and how do the turnover rates of women and people of color compare with the turnover of the organization’s general population. The plan should also examine employee engagement surveys, to track whether or not employees feel as though they work in diverse and inclusive environments, whether or not they believe they can advance or succeed in alignment with their personal ambitions, and whether or not their contributions are heard and valued within the organization. Your Strategic Management Diversity Plan should state all of these measurement activities and targets for success at the outset of your plan, so that those who are working for and funding your efforts will know what to expect in terms of project updates. If expectations are managed correctly, leaders and workers will feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment with regard to diversity & inclusion, even if the population’s visible diversity does not immediately experience significant change.

Your plan should also explain who is responsible for tracking these measurements and making course corrections if the organization appears to be headed in the wrong direction. Business leaders expect such clauses in any other major initiative they approve, and inclusion in your Strategic Diversity Management Plan will greatly improve its chances of gaining leadership commitment.

Measurement and Accountability Questions to Consider

What sorts of measurements are currently being taken? Do you have historical data (with regards to representation, recruitment, turnover and employee engagement) that you can factor into your plan?
What new sourcing initiatives have been implemented since the launch of your Strategic Diversity Management Plan? How many candidates have been identified from these new sources? How many hires?
Has retention increased, stayed the same or decreased since the launch of your plan?
Who leaves the organization after a short period of time (1-2 years)? How do the turnover rates of women and people of color compare to those of the general population? What do the exit interviews tell you about the culture of the organization?Organization Diversity Planning Presentation Paper.
Does your organization support any affinity groups based on race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, disability, or culture? If so, would it be possible for you to track attitudes about inclusion from these specific groups that can be tracked over time?
How many people in your organization have undergone skill-based diversity training? How have these numbers changed since the launch of your Strategic Diversity Management Plan? How did participants evaluate the training? Six to 12 months later, do participants still see value in the training courses?
Have any major policy changes been instituted since the launch of your plan (i.e., telecommuting options, domestic partner benefits, disability accommodations)? How many staff members have taken advantage of these new policies and programs? Have the programs had a significant impact on employee satisfaction and job performance?
What strategic alliances or partnerships have been instituted as a result of your Strategic Diversity Management Plan? What specific outcomes have been realized as a result of these relationships?
What are your customers/members saying about your organization since the launch of your plan? How does their feedback compare with your organization pre-launch?
How has your Strategic Diversity Management Plan directly impacted the key business objectives of your organization?

Measurement and Accountability-Related Action Steps

With input from your CEO, your C-suite leaders, and professional diversity practitioners, create a comprehensive list of what you can/should measure in your specific organization, how to track and/or create metrics, and how these numbers will be communicated.
Create target goals that are ambitious, yet still within the realm of reality. If reporting under goals will be seriously detrimental to the future of your plan, create “goal corridors,” which are ranges of numbers from the least ambitious to most ambitious. Goal corridors will allow you to consistently report success, but with a degree of integrity by capturing the differences between barely successful, moderately successful, and very successful.Organization Diversity Planning Presentation Paper.