Improving
Profitability and Managing Reputation
Through
Diversity,
Inclusion, and Intercultural Competence
We frequently hear questions similar to these:
- What are the advantages
of diversity and inclusion in the workplace or multiculturalism?
- Why
have diversity and inclusion become a business imperative?
- Is diversity
a core business strategy?
- How do I manage a multicultural
workforce?
- Can inclusion reduce team conflict?
- Are diversity
and inclusion really any different than Affirmative
Action?
The
answers to these questions are clear.
Business is about setting objectives
and achieving results
to meet the needs of customers, employees, and shareholders. This
also applies to the public sector, associations, and not-for-profits
with different measures of success. Virtually all organizations
achieve results through their employees.
In this era of global business and connectivity, achieving
sustained success requires the highest possible quality
and most effective workforce
and workplace. Anything less
leaves superior business
results to chance and, in today's business environment,
is an unnecessary risk with a high cost.
A high quality productive and innovative workforce and
workplace won't happen with yesterday's management
practices. Your
employees must both be able to and want to
contribute to their
maximum potential. Attracting and retaining employees who:
- Are able to contribute requires
a workplace that enables their creativity,
innovation, and productivity.
- Want to contribute requires
that your organization access the full range of talent
in the marketplace.
Current trends clearly predict ever-increasing
workforce and customer diversity. This holds true for all
customers, be they consumers or other businesses.
Key to sustained business
success, therefore, is building all employees’ and especially key
executives’ and
leaders’ effectiveness communicating and working with, and understanding
the needs of, employees and customers from different cultural
backgrounds. Restated, business success is about moving
beyond inclusion and building intercultural competence.
Why then do
so many diversity strategies falter? To succeed, they must:
- Be aligned with key business strategies and plans.
- Measure progress in ways that the CEO agrees are important
to the business.
- Have the full active support and engagement of the CEO
and senior executive team.
- Take account of the organization’s readiness
and capacity for cultural change.
The best organizations have a business growth
strategy that builds organizational culture, productivity,
creativity, and innovation. They
recognize the importance of diversity and inclusion in
the workplace to retention of employees and to long-term
business success.
Whether
your organization's market is local, national, or global,
whether your industry is "old economy" or "new
economy", whether you're a manufacturer or a service
provider - MDB Group can help you achieve and sustain
improved business results through workforce practices
that generate high performance.
Business-Aligned diversity
and inclusion planning is about applying a workforce and
workplace "lens" to your key business objectives, to create
the workforce and workplace that will grow your organization
and help ensure your sustained business success.
The figure below illustrates the complete Business-Aligned® D&I
strategic planning cycle, which we apply in all our work.
To be effective, all D&I work must begin from key business
objectives and an assessment to determine the required business-related
outcomes. This is as important for designing a complete D&I
strategy as for determining the intended learning outcomes
of diversity training. Assessments may involve simple conversation
or more-extensive data collection. |
