The benefits of a diverse workforce

• A diverse workforce brings a variety of talents in to the workplace which can enhance the ability of a business to innovate to acquire a competitive edge.
• A diverse workforce promotes a positive image across the local community, helping to strengthen the employer brand.
• A diverse workforce is more able to attract a wide customer base, recognizing potential new markets and tailoring the service to meet individual needs.

Migrant workers
Immigration is a real political hot potato, yet the debate is often ill-informed. The TUC recently found that migrant workers pay more in taxes than the value of the public services received.

Migrant workers allow the resident population to consumer different and cheaper goods and services such as Lebanese cuisine and affordable childcare. Complementary skills can make businesses more productive: Filipino nurses allow British doctors to provide more patients with better care. Adding diversity and dynamism, stimulating innovation, enterprise and productivity, on the whole, migrant workers help grow the economy and raise the living standards for everyone.

Every business depends on the low-skilled, often migrant workers such as temporary labourers and taxi drivers. Many low-skilled services cannot be mechanized or imported, and demand for them is rising as we get older and richer. The Institute for Employment Research forecasts that by the Olympics in 2012, a quarter of the workforce will be in low-skilled jobs and the fastest-growing sector is set to be the care of the elderly.

Many British-born workers without formal qualifications do not want to do low-skilled jobs, yet people are needed to clean toilets, collect rubbish and meet the demand for casual labour.  If immigrants do not take up these jobs, Britons will want to be paid more to do them, pushing up prices and inflation, straining public and private finances and lowering overall living standards.

Increasing diversity
The simple solutions are often the most effective. In the last year we have advised three clients to add a Polish section to the ‘vacancies’ section of their website. Other ideas include:

• Write a diversity policy. Incredibly most organizations in the UK do not have one. Yours should like to the achievement of quality standards such as those achieved by the ‘Best Companies to Work For.’
• Offer flexibility. Diversity is promoted by enabling people to shift their hours to fit with diverse needs such as religious commitments, sporting interests, child and elder care.
• Top level support. Buy-in is needed from the very top of the organization. Without the whole-hearted commitment from the chief executive and board members, effective change will not occur. Guidelines should be issued to line managers as they are the true agents of change.
• Design transparent and consistent appraisal and performance management processes. Part-timers, those caring for elderly relatives, parents with young children and older workers not seeking additional responsibilities can have different aspirations. It is important to have clear career paths including promotion and training opportunities for all employees.
• Undertake an equality audit. There needs to be careful communication about what is being asked, why and how it will be used for employees to feel confident in giving information.
• Take care with job advertisements. When drafting and placing advertisements avoid inadvertent discrimination and stereotyping through language and images. Indicate if any genuine occupational requirements apply.
• Assign responsibility to a suitable individual. Provide training for a key member of staff to drive forward diversity issues and allocate appropriate resources.
• Remain at the cutting edge of technology. Organizations must be prepared to devote more resources to IT training, especially up-skilling older workers.
• Introduce succession planning programs that improve gender diversity at senior levels. More women at a senior level will set role models that will encourage ambitious females to apply, attend the interview, accept the job offer, stay within the business, return after childbirth and talk positively about the organization—all of which are vital to becoming an employer of choice.
• Focus on fairness and inclusion. Ensure that merit, competence and potential are the basis for all decisions about recruitment and development.
• Highlight the impact on sales. Many local authorities and an increasing number of private sector businesses stipulate that suppliers need to meet minimum criteria with respect to diversity.
• Design a zero-tolerance bullying and harassment policy. A focus on respect and dignity is needed with example of desirable behaviours. It needs to be communicated that every employee has a personal responsibility and disciplinary action needs to be seen to be taken against transgressors.
• Link diversity with corporate social responsibility. CSR is often seen as a way of aiding retention and attraction, but it also includes employing people with strong links to local community such as part-time youth workers or magistrates.
• Shout about your diverse workforce. Once you achieve a diverse workforce, let everyone know. The mix needs to be linked to the employer brand and ambassadors need to reach out to schools and colleges, and appear on the website.