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Intelligence
Managing diversity
ASSOCIATIONS NOW, January 2006

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Achieving diversity in the workplace continues to be of paramount importance to organizations, according to a new study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Alexandria, Virginia. Gender, ethnicity, race, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and language are the key areas of diversity relevant to organizations. About three fourths of human resource professionals reported that their organizations employ various practices that promote inclusiveness, even though staffing for such efforts remains minimal. Only one in five organizations had staff dedicated exclusively to diversity initiatives.

Key benefits. Human resource professionals report that diversity practices help reduce costs associated with employee turnover, absenteeism, and low productivity; improve an organization's public image; and decrease complaints and litigation. But data-gathering efforts on the impact of diversity initiatives remains minimal, especially in the realm of return-on-investment analysis: Only 38 percent of organizations attempt to measure impact. The top-three measurements for determining diversity's impact are the number of diverse employees recruited, the number of diverse employees retained, and evidence of diversity at all levels of the workforce.

The board factor. Yet one more way to gauge commitment to diversity is an organization's board. "One of the most powerful means of showing an organization's commitment to diversity is a diverse board of directors," the SHRM study states. Slightly more than half of human resource professionals report that their organizations have diverse boards.

Future trends. Watch for diversity to morph into an issue of access, predicts SHRM, which foresees "access issues, such as access to healthcare insurance, retirement savings assistance, or education and training" growing in importance as diversity issues.

Workplace Diversity Practices Used by Organizations

Allow employees to take unpaid leave to observe a religious or cultural holiday not observed by the organization	85%
Employ recruiting strategies designed to help increase diversity within the organization	79%
Engage in community outreach related to diversity	74%
Ensure that diversity is a consideration in every business initiative and policy	73%
Provide career development opportunities designed to increase diversity in higher-level positions within the organization (e.g, mentoring, coaching)	63%
Collect measurements/metrics on diversity-related practices	56%
Employ retention strategies designed to help retain a diverse workforce	52%
Employ strategies to ensure diversity in the organization's suppliers, contractors, and so forth	51%
Demonstrate diversity awareness in the form of celebrating different cultural events (e.g., Black History Month)	47%
Allow employees to "swap" holidays to observe an unpaid religious or cultural holiday	43%
Support employee affinity groups (groups formed around an aspect of diversity)	29%
Provide career development opportunities specifically tailored for diverse employees	28%
Offer training in English as a second language	20%
Provide incentive pay for management linked to the achievement of organizational diversity goals	12%