Along with keeping up with the huge strides being made in technology, diversity is one of the largest issues facing employers and HR professionals today.

According to McKinsey & Company, in the US there is a linear relationship between racial and ethnic diversity and better financial performance—for every 10 percent increase in racial and ethnic diversity on the senior-executive team, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rise 0.8 percent.

Beyond the financial, Diversity Works New Zealand shares that by managing diversity well and strategically developing your inclusive culture, your organisation has what it needs to to plan better, grow your services correctly and anticipate barriers and operational difficulties before they arise. This has flow on benefits which can lead to happier people and stronger profits.

At the 2019 HR Innovation & Tech Fest Conference, hosted in Auckland, several panellists joined in a discussion on the topic of diversity and inclusion.

The panel, facilitated by NZME's Head of Culture and Performance Strategy and Experience Kylie Telford, delved into the challenges of diversity and inclusion from the perspectives of a cross-section of industry leaders.

Panellists included:

• Kirstin Te Wao – Diversity & Inclusion Lead, Vodafone New Zealand
• Nat Dudley – Head of Design – Figure.NZ
• Matt Jackson – Diversity Specialist, NZTA

 

Below are some of the key points raised and discussed by the panel.

Diversity and Inclusion Can Look Different in Every Organisation

While diversity and inclusion is a common goal for many organisations, it doesn't always look the same, particularly when you compare a small startup with a handful of employees to a major nationwide business.

Coming from both ‘small but mighty' and major organisations, our panellists explained what diversity and inclusion mean at their workplace.

At Figure.NZ, Nat Dudley and her team embed a diversity framework as part of the core values of the organisation. Beyond identifying diversity as important, Nat's team “went through and looked at every role in the organisation, identifying what it meant to support and create a diverse and inclusive workplace for every role.â€'

For example, the data officers at Figure.NZ are responsible for finding data sets and publishing them. “When we created the role, we included the responsibility of making sure that the language in those data sets is inclusive and that they're thinking about structural bias and who gets access to data and information as part of their job.â€'

Incorporating diversity in this way extends its value beyond hiring people from different backgrounds.

At a global scale, Vodafone Group's approach to diversity means becoming a better employer. The company has the goal to be the best employer for women by 2025. “We know that if we're the best employer for women, we're probably going to be the best employer for everyone. If you can start to address the smallest denomination of the minority and build around that, then that's a really inclusive approach to take,â€' Kirstin Te Wao explained.

Having Diversity & Inclusion on the Agenda is Easy, Implementing Change Isn't

Introducing a Diversity and Inclusion strategy can be a challenge, not so much in getting people to acknowledge its importance, but to actually take the steps to implement change.

As Nat explained to the panel, “Acting on building an inclusive workplace requires an attitude shift in terms of letting go of the preconceptions you have about what work means and what a professional workplace is.â€'

Despite acknowledging there is still “so much more to doâ€', Kirstin shared that Vodafone took the first steps by creating a sustainable framework for diversity first. This takes the subject beyond being a passion project for senior leaders who do not have the time to commit to it.

The way Vodafone embedded a sustainable framework for diversity and inclusion was by focusing on employee networks within its organisation over an extended period of time.

Kirstin's role in this included facilitating conversations. She would explain to people what an employee network was and the resources they had available to them. She would then marry staff up with an executive sponsor who would provide strategic advice and guidance, and would provide funding for different events and engagement activities.

By taking the approach to allow others to champion diversity, Kirstin helped create a grassroots and top-down initiative, bridging the gap between front line and senior leaders in the organisation. Diversity became people-driven, ‘democratised' experience, which allowed her to focus on policies and programs.

Having a company-wide focus on diversity also gave Kirstin the time she needed to address underlying cultures and behaviours, an aspect of diversity which “takes a lot of time, focus and energyâ€'.

Bias Exists Whether we Acknowledge it or Not

One point raised during the Diversity & Inclusion panel was that everyone has bias, even if they don't realise or wish to acknowledge the fact.

The same applies to values, which play a strong role in decision making across a business.

According to Diversity Specialist Matt Jackson, taking small steps to make changes when it comes to challenging and re-establishing values is important.

“One thing that we've looked at doing is sending CVs to our hiring managers without names on them, so they can't make an assumption about who the person is.â€' Matt explained, “But we have some very old school people who say, “I want to see the name on the CVâ€'.â€'

An approach like this opens a conversation. As Matt shared with the panel, “If we stated blankly that we're not going to give names, we'd probably have a bit of a war on our hands. But I think if you can make small changes like that and actually open the conversation, that's what to me diversity is.â€'

Take Small Steps to Get Executive Support

When it comes to spreading the message of diversity, Matt told the panel that his recommendation is “Actually making sure that your executive team are fully in. If you've got one who is not in, it makes it really hard for you to be able to inflict any change throughout the organisationâ€'.

He says you'll know you are successful in this regard when you have your executive team calling each other out and raising the issue of diversity themselves.

“That won't happen overnight. You've got to just keep having small bites of that and you'll eventually get there.â€'

As with any type of change, an amount of hand-holding is required to foster diversity from the top down. “My experience has been that sometimes you actually need to just tell people what they need to do because they aren't naturally going to get it. My encouragement is to be kind and do it from a place of curiosity and coach people,â€' Kirstin recommended.

Nat's final word on driving and influencing diversity was “Giving people the tools to do what you want them to do rather than just the theory behind it, especially when they're new at the journey.â€'

Final Words on Diversity and Inclusion

After a dynamic and inspiring discussion, each panellist was asked to contribute their final thoughts and advice around diversity and inclusion.

The tips shared included:

• “Move to thinking about diversity as an intangible asset that each employee brings with them to work. Also, view inclusion as a skillset because not everybody models it, not everybody knows how to do it, and often you have to teach people.â€' – Kirstin Te Wao
• “Make a start and don't be afraid to get it wrong because that's how you'll learn. Reach out to others across your network who can point you in the right direction.â€' – Matt Jackson
• “Take the time to stop and think, and don't have the immediate fear reaction which means you'll revert back to the known way of dealing with things. Consider if there's a different path and you can make a big difference in your career and your organisational culture.â€' – Nat Dudley

Join over 440 HR leaders, difference-makers and disruptors as they celebrate the talent, technology and ideas transforming the future of work at HR Innovation & Tech Fest, 27-28 July 2020, Cordis, Auckland