Description
The documentation about Diversity Management practices.
[Pick the date]
DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
A research project submitted as a part of the curriculum of the subject- Group and Organizational Dynamics
Acknowledgement letter Continue to next page
2
Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 4 What is Diversity? .......................................................................................................................... 4 Managing Diversity ........................................................................................................................ 4 Importance of Diversity Management ........................................................................................... 5 Review of Literature................................................................................................................................ 7 Methodology........................................................................................................................................... 9 Findings ................................................................................................................................................. 10 Loreal......................................................................................................................................... 121 SBI.............................................................................................................................................. 187 IBM ............................................................................................................................................ 221 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 27
3
Introduction
What is Diversity?
According to the university of Oregon “ The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. It is the exploration of these differences in a safe, positive, and nurturing environment. It is about understanding each other and moving beyond simple tolerance to embracing and celebrating the rich dimensions of diversity contained within each individual.” When we mention workplace diversity, the definition diversity becomes very wide. It includes everything from working style, personality, age, race, gender to religion, education, functional level etc.
The
traditional Equal Employment Opprtunity Commission (EEOC) definition of diversity
includes the grounds of sex, ethnicity and age. With time this definition has even more broadened to include physical disability, family backgrounds, specialisation, hierarchy etc. Pillsbury defines diversity as “ the ways in which all of us differ”.
Managing Diversity
Diversity management in the companies today have been recognized as one of the most important issues. On one hand we can say that companies can go down the drain if diversity is not managed effectively while on the other hand, we have seen emergence of companies that have leveraged diversity to their advantage and have made sure this adds to their bottom line. The old schools of thought have given basically 2 major ways of looking at diversity 4
Assimilation – It is based on the idea of promoting equal opportunity and says :we are all the same” Differentiation – It comes from the school that says “we celebrate differences” Time has emerged and from assimilation we have moved to differentiation. Diversity is valued and respected. As mentioned earlier it is even used for diverse thinking in the organization The idea is to give equal chance to one and all and help each person to command equal amount of respect. Dignity of a person should be upheld . This is what entire concept of diversity management is based on.. The values of equality, respect and opportunity for all represent the cornerstone of workplace diversity
Importance of Diversity Management
The importance of diversity management can be enumerated as under: 1) greater adaptability and flexibility in a rapidly changing marketplace; 2) attracting and retaining the best talent;
5
3) reducing costs associated with turnover, absenteeism and low productivity; 4) return on investment (ROI) from various initiatives, policies and practices; 5) gaining and keeping greater/new market share (locally and globally) with an expanded diverse customer base; and 6) increased sales and profits.
6
Review of Literature
The States of Oklahoma, Washington, Wisconsin and the City of St. Petersburg, Florida were selected as best practice organizations in the area of diversity. Best practice organizations value people and cultivate an environment where cultural awareness, sensitivity, fairness and integrity prosper. All employees believe that they can progress if they are qualified, motivated and work hard. The Benchmarking Committee found that these organizations shared some common practices that made them best practice organizations. These practices included: The development of a formal process that is contained in laws, rules or procedures. Both human and financial time and resources are devoted to the program. In best practice organizations, diversity is a process that is an integrated, ongoing and measurable strategy. Diversity efforts are primarily decentralized with a central governing body outlining the requirements of the plans with individual agencies and departments developing their own plans that are tailored to their specific needs. This reinforces a sense of ownership and ensures that managing diversity has both top level support and is a reality throughout the organization. In best practice organizations diversity training is provided to the workforce. The training is not limited to managers, but is extended throughout the workforce. Successful organizations incorporate diversity into mentoring efforts, leadership training and management-by-results programs. Best practice organizations utilize workforce data and demographics to compare statistics reported for the civilian labor force. Occupations with under-utilization are identified and goals are established to reduce the under-utilization. All of the best practice organizations use affirmative action models, but each adds creative innovations that get results and set their programs apart. Best practice agencies have found that requiring affirmative action efforts through law,executive order, or other mandates compels agencies to establish serious goals and to make earnest efforts toward meeting those goals.
7
Best practice organizations have established a review committee that is responsible for establishing policies, providing technical assistance, reviewing/approving plans, and monitoring progress toward the achievement of goals. Effective diversity programs also link recruitment, development and retention strategies to organizational performance. They integrate employee development processes and map career paths to see what critical skills are necessary to advance; then communicate these skills to employees and provide training. Accountability for the results of diversity programs is another attribute of best practice organizations. Accountability is determined through the use of metrics, surveys, focus groups, customer surveys, management and employee evaluations, and training and education evaluations. Diversity competencies may be incorporated into management systems. In this way organizations can determine how employees deal with people of different cultures and styles, support workplace diversity, include diverse people in work teams, and understand the impact of diversity on business relationships. While valuing and integrating diversity are lofty goals, to be effective, organizations must use more measurable criteria to evaluate success in managing diversity.
8
Methodology
Sample – the sample are the companies in different sectors with different kind of work
culture with one of them being one of the pioneers in leveraging diversity management for profit purposes.
Sample size – A sample of 3 companies was selected for this purpose Procedure
The following methodology was adopted by us to carry out the given research project.
1. A secondary research was done first to understand the work done till date and know the position of the companies in this regard.
2. Interview of the HRs of the company was done to understand the position of the companies in this regard. With the help of the interview schedule we tried to gain an insight into how the companies mange the issues of diversity.
9
Findings
10
11
Company Profile
The L'Oréal Group is the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company[citation needed] and is headquartered in the Paris suburb of Clichy, France. L'Oréal has developed activities in the field of cosmetics, concentrating on hair color, skin care, sun protection, make-up, perfumes and hair care. L'Oréal is active in the dermatological and pharmaceutical fields. L'Oréal is also the top nanotechnology patent-holder in the United States. L'Oréal is a listed company, but the founder's daughter Liliane Bettencourt, who is one of the richest people in the world, and the Swiss food company Nestlé each control over a quarter of the shares and voting rights. L?Oréal holds 10.41% of the shares of Sanofi-Aventis, the world's number 3 and Europe's number 1 pharmaceutical company. The Laboratoires Inneov is a joint venture in nutritional cosmetics between L?Oréal and Nestlé; they draw on L?Oréal's knowledge in the fields of nutrition and food safety. Galderma is another joint venture in dermatology between L'Oréal and Nestlé. In 2007, L?Oréal's Canadian division was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers, as published in Maclean's magazine, the only cosmetics manufacturing company to receive this honour.
Diversity Management
L?Oreal, a company started in France and currently having presence all over the world, is a perfect model of diversity Management. L?Oreal success is because of its excellence in leveraging diversity to offer innovative products adapted to a wide range of global consumers. Since its inception, L?Oréal has made diversity one of its guiding principles. Whether in terms of the people it employs or the products it develops, L?Oréal has always viewed diversity as a key concern. L?Oreal believes that to address its consumers worldwide and meet their demands successfully they need as diverse a workforce as their customers are. Thus building upon this idea they have developed a culture in the organisation which values diversity more than anything else.
12
The diversity of human resources – cultural and national diversity, balance of male and female employees and mix of talents - is one of the keys to L?Oréal's success. At all level and in all arenas, teams made up of a wide variety of people lead to greater creativity and a better understanding of every type of consumer. The company therefore intends to continue hiring a diverse range of people and completely rejects any form of discrimination, be it on the grounds of sex, age, disability, ethnic or social origin, religious, national or cultural beliefs, etc. This conviction is central to L?Oreal's Ethical Charter. The company?s ambition is to reflect in its teams and at every level, the diversity of its clients and its employees, to promote the access of women to high-responsibility position and a better gender equity in jobs, to promote work for disabled people, to accumulate skills and capitalise on the experience of its employees, taking advantage of the cultural diversity of its teams and extending careers and making use of experience. L?Oreal?s company actions are based on certain underlying principles including,respect for its requirement for excellence in terms of its core competencies and individual performance, attract candidates from outside its usual talent banks and identifying diversified profiles which will bring new perspectives and focus on a managerial culture which fosters the inclusion of all employees and capitalise team diversity. L’Oréal has decided to focus its action on six priority points: • Nationality • Ethnic origin • Social origin • Gender • Disability • Age
L’Oreal’s Workforce:
At L?Oreal, at international level, 54% of managers are women. They account for 34% of the members of the management committees. 53% of managers promoted in 2006 were women.
13
In the Group, there are 112 different nationalities and 60% non-French people are members of the management committee. In the USA in 2005, minorities represented 19.8% of all managers and 33% of all employees. In South Africa, 51% of managers are “PDI” (Previously Disadvantaged Individuals). Gender Diversity: Professional equality between men and women is a principle to which L?Oréal has always been very much attached. Non-discrimination is one of the fundamental principles asserted in the company?s ethics charter. The comparison between the general conditions of employment and training of men and women in the company is presented once a year to the works council of each establishment within the scope of the commission on “Professional Training and Employment”. Professional equality is also dealt with in a report reviewed each year as part of the compulsory annual salary negotiation process. This report, drawn up in accordance with the requirements of Article L.432.3.1 of the French Labour Code, considers the respective position of men and women with regard to hiring, training, promotion, qualifications and classification, effective remuneration and working conditions for each professional category (executives, supervisors, administrative staff, manual workers and sales representatives). Ten study groups on Diversity have been created at L?Oréal and are made up of employee representatives, representatives of management and other employees in certain of the study groups. The purpose of these study groups is to exchange and share information on the measures implemented in order to combat all forms of discrimination and to promote
14
diversity and equal opportunities. The question of promoting professional equality is one of the questions handled by the study groups on Diversity. The company also has policies relating to maternity leave and adoption leave for women employees. Creating a Diversified Workforce The Group is active in the following areas to achieve the diversity: ? Recruitment and Inclusion : The diversification starts very much from the recruitment stage. Having presence worldwide and tie-up with several universities all over the globe they have access to a huge number of candidates with different backgrounds. All the above mentioned six priority points are taken in consideration while increasing workforce of the company. This helps in formation of diverse teams which results in anticipating and integrating the increasingly varied requirements of customers. Varied workforce encourages creativity and innovation. Moreover, L?Oreal believes that it creates an image of the company that is open to the world it serves and is open to the widest possible range of talents. But they also ensure that in maintaining diversity they do not compromise on requirements of individual skills and performance. ? Training on diversity: L?Oreal has created three separate departments to take care of the training on Diversity. The three departments are people and talent development, corporate culture understanding, supporting the implementation of jobs and organization change. These three departments ensure the implementation of training process smoothly. Special training programs are designed with an aim to involve, give responsibility to and help managers in implementing the company?s diversity policy. These departments also try to encourage self-competition which motivates teams to innovate and develop newer and better products. This kind of competitive spirit from within allows L'Oreal to beat competition from other players in the market. Also since 2006, 23 Diversity and Social Cohesion Observatories have been set up by L?Oreal. They are comprised of staff representatives, members of the personnel department and volunteer employees. Their objective is to promote respect for diversity and non-discrimination in the field, implement initiatives and follow-up on them. The group process involves meeting to share information regarding the 15
measures implemented to fight all forms of discrimination, to promote diversity and equality. ? Career Management: At L?Oreal every employee is treated as a member of the house. There are management development programs run by the company to develop managerial ability in its employees. Women employees are equally encouraged to take up managerial positions. In fact L?Oreal has a very balanced ratio of male and female employees. As the company is present in several locations geographical mobility becomes an opportunity for everyone. In addition to these, several other fringe benefits are offered by company to its employees that help the organisation to maintain a highly diversified workforce. Also L?Oreal has built a system to resolve conflicts among its employees wherein the divisional Human resource director resolves the conflicts among the employees. The representational structure is highly decentralized in order to keep in touch with issues faced at the local sites.
Critical Appreciation
1. Following these practices, L?Oreal has received several awards some of which are mentioned below: o The World Diversity Leadership Council's Diversity Innovation Award in 2006 o The Global Diversity Award from the Diversity Best Practices organization, 2004 2. This very fact brings out the best-in-clas spractices that loreal has put in place for diversity management 3. Loreal could have a policy more focussed on religion differences in India due to specific kind of diversity found here.
16
17
Company profile
State Bank of India (SBI) (LSE: SBID) is the largest bank in India. It is also, measured by the number of branch offices and employees, the second largest bank in the world. The bank was established in 1806 as Bank of Calcutta. It is the oldest commercial bank in the Indian Subcontinent. The Government of India nationalized SBI in 1955 with the Reserve Bank of India having a 60% stake. SBI provides a range of banking products through its vast network in India and overseas, including products aimed at NRIs. With an asset base of $126 billion and its reach, it is a regional banking behemoth. SBI has laid emphasis on reducing the huge manpower through Golden handshake schemes and computerizing its operations. After a 20 year hiatus the Bank will be recruiting 20000 clerks and 3500 officers.[citation needed] So far, more than 2.4 million have applied.
Employee Diversity
State Bank of India, the largest nationalised bank in the country lays a special importance on fostering diversity in its workforce. They aspire to achieve their goal of becoming best international bank by adopting strategy of financial as well as diversity management. The organization employs 1, 80,000 people, spread across around 60 nations. The company Board of directors sets a fine example of how SBI has implemented diversity management right from the top management itself. The company?s board comprises of 11 directors of which two are elected, three are government nominated, one is a workmen representative, one officer?s representative, one each representative of the Reserve Bank, Finance Ministry ,SC/ST and the minority group. The diversity is also evident in the backgrounds the directors come from with one being a Chartered Accountant, one agriculturist, a couple of industrialists and the rest from the financial sector. The Board also has 3 women thus taking care of gender diversity. The company believes that this diversity is one of the key differentiating factor responsible for its rise to the top.
18
Back home, being functional in all 28 states and all Union territories of the country, the bank undoubtedly has the most diverse workforce be it regionally, culturally or ethnically. The employee structure itself is very diverse and they represent almost all the strata?s of society thus resulting in SBI maintaining a fairly economically diverse workforce. This helps the organisation to get a macro level view of people of individual segment expects from the banks and how better the organisation can serve the nation. Management is committed to create an engaging and inclusive work environment, where people can make difference both as individuals and as part of a team. The company top brass has been instrumental in bringing forth the open mindset of the staff of the bank towards diversity and its inherent presence in the fundamental structure of the bank. As Deputy General Manager-Agriculture puts it “Diversity is fundamental part of our culture.”
To train its employees in technology, regional diversity and general training programs, State bank of India has its training centre at: 1. State Bank Staff College, Hyderabad. 2. State Bank Academy, Gurgaon. 3. State Bank Institute of Communication & Management, Hyderabad. 4. State Bank Institute of rural Development, Hyderabad.
The bank handles diversity at the workplace and also with the families of the employees. ? At the workplace, employees going for overseas assignments are imparted training not only on the language usage, culture and customs of the new country but also on the business etiquettes to be followed. ? Inline with the social obligation there are reservations in the recruitment process as well in the promotion policy of the organization. Special consideration is given towards employees with physical disabilities are given postings at suitable locations.
19
?
The Employees of the bank come from diverse regional, cultural and ethnical backgrounds and stay together in bank provided accommodation where the bank organizes various activities for the people to gel in. This results in enhanced communal harmony amongst its employees and spread the message of unity
?
The leave policy is so designed to accommodate the needs of the employees with special treatment given to women as 12 months maternity leave, thus making it one of the most favoured places to work.
? ? ? ?
The company accommodation is also aimed at enhancing bonhomie among the employees. Recently it has also started a policy of transferring bank officials to shuffle the workforce and bring about better diversity in its operation. The bank also organises various competition for the children and kitty parties for the wives of the employees so that they connect with each other in a better way. All these activities help the employees from various corners of the country to have an atmosphere which helps increase productivity in the bank.
Critical Appreciation
Based on the feedback from employees the bank needs to improve in the following areas of diversity management:1. The recruitments in the organization are at times biased from the regional and cultural diversity which is against the policy of the bank. 2. There is no tool to measure the diversity measurement index still now. The bank is trying to figure out a method to find a correlation between bringing in diversity and enhanced customer satisfaction. 3. Since there is very little scope of team work in the retail counter in a bank, the S.B.I. is trying to device a new mechanism of operation where work will be distributed in a team rather than assigning specific jobs to individuals. The bank is studying the operation model being followed in customer care centres of Airtel and Vodafone to figure out if a similar approach can be implemented in its premises also to speed up the transaction time.
20
4.
21
Company Profile
International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue" (for its official corporate color), is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.[3] IBM has been known through most of its recent history as the world's largest computer company; with over 388,000 employees worldwide, IBM is the largest information technology employer in the world. Despite falling behind Hewlett-Packard in total revenue since 2006, it remains the most profitable. IBM holds more patents than any other U.S. based technology company.[4] It has engineers and consultants in over 170 countries and IBM Research has eight laboratories worldwide.[5] IBM employees have earned three Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, five National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science.[6] As a chip maker, IBM has been among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders in past years, and in 2007 IBM ranked second in the list of largest software companies in the world.
The origin of Diversity Management at IBM
Diversity at the work place in the US originated from the concept of EEO in the 1940s. At IBM, Watson Jr. issued the first equal opportunity policy letter in 1953. Later, it came under government compliance under the Civil Rights Act of the US in 1964.With the onset of „globalization' in the 1980s, organizations initiated efforts to broaden their marketplace. In an attempt to sustain them amidst the continuously increasing competition, they started doing business across the world. This trend made it important for them to focus on diverse cultures across borders in order to offer products and services that suited the specific needs of different markets.
22
Employee Diversity
People with Disabilities IBM had a well-structured plan in place for recruiting and training people with disabilities. The recruitment specialists and hiring managers were specially trained for this purpose. In each business unit, IBM has „line champions' - the managers experienced in hiring and working with people with disabilities - to facilitate the recruitment process. The company also works with various educational institutions for campus recruitment of such candidates. Besides, IBM has a diversity website where prospective candidates with disabilities can submit their resumes directly.
Work/Life Balance As one of its major employee retention strategies, IBM offers a comprehensive work/life balance program based on the following seven principles: • Employees must take responsibility for their own work/life balance needs. • Work/life balance should have a positive impact on all employees involved. • Quality of output is more important than the amount of activity. • Teams should be flexible when balancing working and personal needs. • Employees must be treated as individuals. • Ongoing performance and contribution are a prerequisite. • Achieving work/life balance is hard work and ongoing...
Women in the Workforce IBM started recruiting women professionals well before the Equal Pay Act, 1963. A letter issued by Watson Sr. in 1935 stated, "Men and women will do the same kind of work for equal pay. They will have the same treatment, the same responsibilities, and the same opportunities for advancement." IBM's management made efforts to find out what the specific needs of its women employees and provided women-friendly facilities accordingly. This helped the women in increasing their productivity while maintaining a proper balance between work and family life. The women networking groups in IBM actively promotes female mentoring, assists women to achieve a better work/life balance, and also conducts programs to encourage girls to seek careers in the IT industry.
23
Aside from IBM?s diversity team within human resources, three other groups within IBM have formally identified roles in the implementation of the company?s overall diversity strategy. These are IBM?s ? ? ? Diversity Council Diversity contact officers and Diversity champions.
The Diversity Council IBM?s Diversity Council, ensures that IBM visibly encourages and values the contributions and differences of employees from various backgrounds. Its key objectives are to heighten employee awareness, increase management awareness, and encourage the effective use of IBM?s diverse workforce.
It does so through key initiatives such as ? ? developing attraction and recruiting strategies retention and awareness strategies (which includes the education of managers and employees). The executive cultural diversity sponsor works with a team of senior IBM managers who champion particular diversity programs within IBM. This is achieved through personal commitment, regular communication, by gaining support for the program from other IBM managers and influencing decision making that may impact on the program.
Under the guidance of the Diversity Council, a series of cultural diversity employee roundtables are held to gather more face-to-face feedback and ideas from staff. These meetings generate many practical ideas for increasing awareness of cultural diversity within IBM. Some, like the suggestion for a cross cultural communication course, were simple ideas that became pilots for fully fledged diversity training initiatives.
Diversity contact officers Diversity contact officers are regular permanent employees who volunteer to be conduits of information relating to diversity, are trained as work/life balance coaches, and help to integrate people with a disability into the IBM workforce. They include 24
men and women from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, people with disabilities and people who are gay or lesbian, transgender or bisexual, to reflect the diversity of our organisation.
Diversity champions Our internal diversity awards recognise and celebrate individuals whose actions encapsulate our diversity principles. They help to raise awareness of the diversity program and establish cultural diversity as the „norm? within the company.
The power of internal awards for diversity champions lies in bringing to life the actions of „real? employees. The diversity team works closely with internal communications and public relations to communicate success stories. Ensuring that stakeholders outside the company know about the diverse culture within IBM directly supports recruitment efforts and forming commercial relationships, reinforcing the business case.
Cultural awareness/acceptance in action Cultural diversity education and awareness initiatives at IBM can be grouped under two headings: individual professional development and general staff awareness. Professional development. IBM manager „QuickViews? are, as the name suggests, intranetbased resources designed to give managers essential and accessible information to conduct business successfully with clients or colleagues from another country. Topics include: culture and globalisation, culture and business and diversity and multicultural management. So if a manager is called upon to travel suddenly to a new culture, QuickViews offers handy hints on business meeting protocol. Another professional development initiative is IBM?s „Shades of Blue? – a more in-depth program for managers who are engaged in cross-cultural business interactions or have multicultural teams. Shades of Blue is a unique learning experience in developing crosscultural competence. The workshop-based tutorials train employees in: • Understanding the cultural bias of each team member and their impact on mutual perceptions. • Why certain behaviours and communication styles fail in some cultures. • Identifying approaches to address cultural gaps that could lead to misunderstandings. • Handling issues about team decision-making, giving or receiving feedback and conflict 25
resolution. The courses cater to individual managers or members of an established multicultural team and are designed to heighten awareness of each person?s own cultural biases and increase their sensitivity to other cultures. The shades experience can be a powerful team-building exercise for multicultural teams to transcend cultural differences and become a highperforming team.
General staff awareness and polices IBM?s cultural diversity strategy relies on raising the general level of awareness of different cultures within the organisation. General initiatives include: ? ? ? ? Celebration of Parsi New Year for employees. Publication of a diversity calendar, showing various dates of cultural significance that might be relevant to employees and business relationships. Introduction of a floating holiday program where employees can exchange a public holiday for a significant cultural holiday. Employee representation at an IBM global conference on multicultural people in technology.
Critical Appreciation
IBM treats diversity as a part of its business strategy. Having employees from different social and cultural strata helps the company understand and serve its customers better. It also helps the company expand its market by obtaining business from small and medium sized enterprises owned by the women and minorities. The executive diversity task forces helps to develop business relationships with the leading women and minority-owned businesses. It also helps IBM to offer products and services that suits the specific needs of different markets and hence stay ahead of its competitors. IBM is one of the exemplary companies when it comes to diversity management and it can only be said that it has truely leveraged innovation in diversity management.
26
Bibliography
1. [email protected]
2. Building a business case for diversity - Gail Robinson; Kathleen Dechant.The Academy of Management Executive; Aug 1997; 11, 3; ABI/INFORM Global
3. United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Managing Diversity in the Civil Service United Nations Headquarters, New York, 3 - 4 May 2001
4. Best Practices in Diversity Management- Neil E. Reichenberg, Executive Director, International Personnel Management Association
5. DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT Expert-Identified Leading Practices and Agency Examples Report to the Ranking Minority Member, Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate
6. www.ibm.com
7. www.citehr.com
8. www.wikipedia.com
27
The following Contacts were referred to for the purpose of the completion of the project
Loreal ? Ms Deepti Sinha Associate, HR SBI Bank ? Mr. Purohit Kumar Asst Manager
?
Mr. R.K Shrivastav Personnel Manager
IBM ? Ms.Neha Bhagchandani Systems Engineer ?
Ms Maisha Aima, HR Executive
28
doc_175362540.docx
The documentation about Diversity Management practices.
[Pick the date]
DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
A research project submitted as a part of the curriculum of the subject- Group and Organizational Dynamics
Acknowledgement letter Continue to next page
2
Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 4 What is Diversity? .......................................................................................................................... 4 Managing Diversity ........................................................................................................................ 4 Importance of Diversity Management ........................................................................................... 5 Review of Literature................................................................................................................................ 7 Methodology........................................................................................................................................... 9 Findings ................................................................................................................................................. 10 Loreal......................................................................................................................................... 121 SBI.............................................................................................................................................. 187 IBM ............................................................................................................................................ 221 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 27
3
Introduction
What is Diversity?
According to the university of Oregon “ The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. It is the exploration of these differences in a safe, positive, and nurturing environment. It is about understanding each other and moving beyond simple tolerance to embracing and celebrating the rich dimensions of diversity contained within each individual.” When we mention workplace diversity, the definition diversity becomes very wide. It includes everything from working style, personality, age, race, gender to religion, education, functional level etc.
The
traditional Equal Employment Opprtunity Commission (EEOC) definition of diversity
includes the grounds of sex, ethnicity and age. With time this definition has even more broadened to include physical disability, family backgrounds, specialisation, hierarchy etc. Pillsbury defines diversity as “ the ways in which all of us differ”.
Managing Diversity
Diversity management in the companies today have been recognized as one of the most important issues. On one hand we can say that companies can go down the drain if diversity is not managed effectively while on the other hand, we have seen emergence of companies that have leveraged diversity to their advantage and have made sure this adds to their bottom line. The old schools of thought have given basically 2 major ways of looking at diversity 4
Assimilation – It is based on the idea of promoting equal opportunity and says :we are all the same” Differentiation – It comes from the school that says “we celebrate differences” Time has emerged and from assimilation we have moved to differentiation. Diversity is valued and respected. As mentioned earlier it is even used for diverse thinking in the organization The idea is to give equal chance to one and all and help each person to command equal amount of respect. Dignity of a person should be upheld . This is what entire concept of diversity management is based on.. The values of equality, respect and opportunity for all represent the cornerstone of workplace diversity
Importance of Diversity Management
The importance of diversity management can be enumerated as under: 1) greater adaptability and flexibility in a rapidly changing marketplace; 2) attracting and retaining the best talent;
5
3) reducing costs associated with turnover, absenteeism and low productivity; 4) return on investment (ROI) from various initiatives, policies and practices; 5) gaining and keeping greater/new market share (locally and globally) with an expanded diverse customer base; and 6) increased sales and profits.
6
Review of Literature
The States of Oklahoma, Washington, Wisconsin and the City of St. Petersburg, Florida were selected as best practice organizations in the area of diversity. Best practice organizations value people and cultivate an environment where cultural awareness, sensitivity, fairness and integrity prosper. All employees believe that they can progress if they are qualified, motivated and work hard. The Benchmarking Committee found that these organizations shared some common practices that made them best practice organizations. These practices included: The development of a formal process that is contained in laws, rules or procedures. Both human and financial time and resources are devoted to the program. In best practice organizations, diversity is a process that is an integrated, ongoing and measurable strategy. Diversity efforts are primarily decentralized with a central governing body outlining the requirements of the plans with individual agencies and departments developing their own plans that are tailored to their specific needs. This reinforces a sense of ownership and ensures that managing diversity has both top level support and is a reality throughout the organization. In best practice organizations diversity training is provided to the workforce. The training is not limited to managers, but is extended throughout the workforce. Successful organizations incorporate diversity into mentoring efforts, leadership training and management-by-results programs. Best practice organizations utilize workforce data and demographics to compare statistics reported for the civilian labor force. Occupations with under-utilization are identified and goals are established to reduce the under-utilization. All of the best practice organizations use affirmative action models, but each adds creative innovations that get results and set their programs apart. Best practice agencies have found that requiring affirmative action efforts through law,executive order, or other mandates compels agencies to establish serious goals and to make earnest efforts toward meeting those goals.
7
Best practice organizations have established a review committee that is responsible for establishing policies, providing technical assistance, reviewing/approving plans, and monitoring progress toward the achievement of goals. Effective diversity programs also link recruitment, development and retention strategies to organizational performance. They integrate employee development processes and map career paths to see what critical skills are necessary to advance; then communicate these skills to employees and provide training. Accountability for the results of diversity programs is another attribute of best practice organizations. Accountability is determined through the use of metrics, surveys, focus groups, customer surveys, management and employee evaluations, and training and education evaluations. Diversity competencies may be incorporated into management systems. In this way organizations can determine how employees deal with people of different cultures and styles, support workplace diversity, include diverse people in work teams, and understand the impact of diversity on business relationships. While valuing and integrating diversity are lofty goals, to be effective, organizations must use more measurable criteria to evaluate success in managing diversity.
8
Methodology
Sample – the sample are the companies in different sectors with different kind of work
culture with one of them being one of the pioneers in leveraging diversity management for profit purposes.
Sample size – A sample of 3 companies was selected for this purpose Procedure
The following methodology was adopted by us to carry out the given research project.
1. A secondary research was done first to understand the work done till date and know the position of the companies in this regard.
2. Interview of the HRs of the company was done to understand the position of the companies in this regard. With the help of the interview schedule we tried to gain an insight into how the companies mange the issues of diversity.
9
Findings
10
11
Company Profile
The L'Oréal Group is the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company[citation needed] and is headquartered in the Paris suburb of Clichy, France. L'Oréal has developed activities in the field of cosmetics, concentrating on hair color, skin care, sun protection, make-up, perfumes and hair care. L'Oréal is active in the dermatological and pharmaceutical fields. L'Oréal is also the top nanotechnology patent-holder in the United States. L'Oréal is a listed company, but the founder's daughter Liliane Bettencourt, who is one of the richest people in the world, and the Swiss food company Nestlé each control over a quarter of the shares and voting rights. L?Oréal holds 10.41% of the shares of Sanofi-Aventis, the world's number 3 and Europe's number 1 pharmaceutical company. The Laboratoires Inneov is a joint venture in nutritional cosmetics between L?Oréal and Nestlé; they draw on L?Oréal's knowledge in the fields of nutrition and food safety. Galderma is another joint venture in dermatology between L'Oréal and Nestlé. In 2007, L?Oréal's Canadian division was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers, as published in Maclean's magazine, the only cosmetics manufacturing company to receive this honour.
Diversity Management
L?Oreal, a company started in France and currently having presence all over the world, is a perfect model of diversity Management. L?Oreal success is because of its excellence in leveraging diversity to offer innovative products adapted to a wide range of global consumers. Since its inception, L?Oréal has made diversity one of its guiding principles. Whether in terms of the people it employs or the products it develops, L?Oréal has always viewed diversity as a key concern. L?Oreal believes that to address its consumers worldwide and meet their demands successfully they need as diverse a workforce as their customers are. Thus building upon this idea they have developed a culture in the organisation which values diversity more than anything else.
12
The diversity of human resources – cultural and national diversity, balance of male and female employees and mix of talents - is one of the keys to L?Oréal's success. At all level and in all arenas, teams made up of a wide variety of people lead to greater creativity and a better understanding of every type of consumer. The company therefore intends to continue hiring a diverse range of people and completely rejects any form of discrimination, be it on the grounds of sex, age, disability, ethnic or social origin, religious, national or cultural beliefs, etc. This conviction is central to L?Oreal's Ethical Charter. The company?s ambition is to reflect in its teams and at every level, the diversity of its clients and its employees, to promote the access of women to high-responsibility position and a better gender equity in jobs, to promote work for disabled people, to accumulate skills and capitalise on the experience of its employees, taking advantage of the cultural diversity of its teams and extending careers and making use of experience. L?Oreal?s company actions are based on certain underlying principles including,respect for its requirement for excellence in terms of its core competencies and individual performance, attract candidates from outside its usual talent banks and identifying diversified profiles which will bring new perspectives and focus on a managerial culture which fosters the inclusion of all employees and capitalise team diversity. L’Oréal has decided to focus its action on six priority points: • Nationality • Ethnic origin • Social origin • Gender • Disability • Age
L’Oreal’s Workforce:
At L?Oreal, at international level, 54% of managers are women. They account for 34% of the members of the management committees. 53% of managers promoted in 2006 were women.
13
In the Group, there are 112 different nationalities and 60% non-French people are members of the management committee. In the USA in 2005, minorities represented 19.8% of all managers and 33% of all employees. In South Africa, 51% of managers are “PDI” (Previously Disadvantaged Individuals). Gender Diversity: Professional equality between men and women is a principle to which L?Oréal has always been very much attached. Non-discrimination is one of the fundamental principles asserted in the company?s ethics charter. The comparison between the general conditions of employment and training of men and women in the company is presented once a year to the works council of each establishment within the scope of the commission on “Professional Training and Employment”. Professional equality is also dealt with in a report reviewed each year as part of the compulsory annual salary negotiation process. This report, drawn up in accordance with the requirements of Article L.432.3.1 of the French Labour Code, considers the respective position of men and women with regard to hiring, training, promotion, qualifications and classification, effective remuneration and working conditions for each professional category (executives, supervisors, administrative staff, manual workers and sales representatives). Ten study groups on Diversity have been created at L?Oréal and are made up of employee representatives, representatives of management and other employees in certain of the study groups. The purpose of these study groups is to exchange and share information on the measures implemented in order to combat all forms of discrimination and to promote
14
diversity and equal opportunities. The question of promoting professional equality is one of the questions handled by the study groups on Diversity. The company also has policies relating to maternity leave and adoption leave for women employees. Creating a Diversified Workforce The Group is active in the following areas to achieve the diversity: ? Recruitment and Inclusion : The diversification starts very much from the recruitment stage. Having presence worldwide and tie-up with several universities all over the globe they have access to a huge number of candidates with different backgrounds. All the above mentioned six priority points are taken in consideration while increasing workforce of the company. This helps in formation of diverse teams which results in anticipating and integrating the increasingly varied requirements of customers. Varied workforce encourages creativity and innovation. Moreover, L?Oreal believes that it creates an image of the company that is open to the world it serves and is open to the widest possible range of talents. But they also ensure that in maintaining diversity they do not compromise on requirements of individual skills and performance. ? Training on diversity: L?Oreal has created three separate departments to take care of the training on Diversity. The three departments are people and talent development, corporate culture understanding, supporting the implementation of jobs and organization change. These three departments ensure the implementation of training process smoothly. Special training programs are designed with an aim to involve, give responsibility to and help managers in implementing the company?s diversity policy. These departments also try to encourage self-competition which motivates teams to innovate and develop newer and better products. This kind of competitive spirit from within allows L'Oreal to beat competition from other players in the market. Also since 2006, 23 Diversity and Social Cohesion Observatories have been set up by L?Oreal. They are comprised of staff representatives, members of the personnel department and volunteer employees. Their objective is to promote respect for diversity and non-discrimination in the field, implement initiatives and follow-up on them. The group process involves meeting to share information regarding the 15
measures implemented to fight all forms of discrimination, to promote diversity and equality. ? Career Management: At L?Oreal every employee is treated as a member of the house. There are management development programs run by the company to develop managerial ability in its employees. Women employees are equally encouraged to take up managerial positions. In fact L?Oreal has a very balanced ratio of male and female employees. As the company is present in several locations geographical mobility becomes an opportunity for everyone. In addition to these, several other fringe benefits are offered by company to its employees that help the organisation to maintain a highly diversified workforce. Also L?Oreal has built a system to resolve conflicts among its employees wherein the divisional Human resource director resolves the conflicts among the employees. The representational structure is highly decentralized in order to keep in touch with issues faced at the local sites.
Critical Appreciation
1. Following these practices, L?Oreal has received several awards some of which are mentioned below: o The World Diversity Leadership Council's Diversity Innovation Award in 2006 o The Global Diversity Award from the Diversity Best Practices organization, 2004 2. This very fact brings out the best-in-clas spractices that loreal has put in place for diversity management 3. Loreal could have a policy more focussed on religion differences in India due to specific kind of diversity found here.
16
17
Company profile
State Bank of India (SBI) (LSE: SBID) is the largest bank in India. It is also, measured by the number of branch offices and employees, the second largest bank in the world. The bank was established in 1806 as Bank of Calcutta. It is the oldest commercial bank in the Indian Subcontinent. The Government of India nationalized SBI in 1955 with the Reserve Bank of India having a 60% stake. SBI provides a range of banking products through its vast network in India and overseas, including products aimed at NRIs. With an asset base of $126 billion and its reach, it is a regional banking behemoth. SBI has laid emphasis on reducing the huge manpower through Golden handshake schemes and computerizing its operations. After a 20 year hiatus the Bank will be recruiting 20000 clerks and 3500 officers.[citation needed] So far, more than 2.4 million have applied.
Employee Diversity
State Bank of India, the largest nationalised bank in the country lays a special importance on fostering diversity in its workforce. They aspire to achieve their goal of becoming best international bank by adopting strategy of financial as well as diversity management. The organization employs 1, 80,000 people, spread across around 60 nations. The company Board of directors sets a fine example of how SBI has implemented diversity management right from the top management itself. The company?s board comprises of 11 directors of which two are elected, three are government nominated, one is a workmen representative, one officer?s representative, one each representative of the Reserve Bank, Finance Ministry ,SC/ST and the minority group. The diversity is also evident in the backgrounds the directors come from with one being a Chartered Accountant, one agriculturist, a couple of industrialists and the rest from the financial sector. The Board also has 3 women thus taking care of gender diversity. The company believes that this diversity is one of the key differentiating factor responsible for its rise to the top.
18
Back home, being functional in all 28 states and all Union territories of the country, the bank undoubtedly has the most diverse workforce be it regionally, culturally or ethnically. The employee structure itself is very diverse and they represent almost all the strata?s of society thus resulting in SBI maintaining a fairly economically diverse workforce. This helps the organisation to get a macro level view of people of individual segment expects from the banks and how better the organisation can serve the nation. Management is committed to create an engaging and inclusive work environment, where people can make difference both as individuals and as part of a team. The company top brass has been instrumental in bringing forth the open mindset of the staff of the bank towards diversity and its inherent presence in the fundamental structure of the bank. As Deputy General Manager-Agriculture puts it “Diversity is fundamental part of our culture.”
To train its employees in technology, regional diversity and general training programs, State bank of India has its training centre at: 1. State Bank Staff College, Hyderabad. 2. State Bank Academy, Gurgaon. 3. State Bank Institute of Communication & Management, Hyderabad. 4. State Bank Institute of rural Development, Hyderabad.
The bank handles diversity at the workplace and also with the families of the employees. ? At the workplace, employees going for overseas assignments are imparted training not only on the language usage, culture and customs of the new country but also on the business etiquettes to be followed. ? Inline with the social obligation there are reservations in the recruitment process as well in the promotion policy of the organization. Special consideration is given towards employees with physical disabilities are given postings at suitable locations.
19
?
The Employees of the bank come from diverse regional, cultural and ethnical backgrounds and stay together in bank provided accommodation where the bank organizes various activities for the people to gel in. This results in enhanced communal harmony amongst its employees and spread the message of unity
?
The leave policy is so designed to accommodate the needs of the employees with special treatment given to women as 12 months maternity leave, thus making it one of the most favoured places to work.
? ? ? ?
The company accommodation is also aimed at enhancing bonhomie among the employees. Recently it has also started a policy of transferring bank officials to shuffle the workforce and bring about better diversity in its operation. The bank also organises various competition for the children and kitty parties for the wives of the employees so that they connect with each other in a better way. All these activities help the employees from various corners of the country to have an atmosphere which helps increase productivity in the bank.
Critical Appreciation
Based on the feedback from employees the bank needs to improve in the following areas of diversity management:1. The recruitments in the organization are at times biased from the regional and cultural diversity which is against the policy of the bank. 2. There is no tool to measure the diversity measurement index still now. The bank is trying to figure out a method to find a correlation between bringing in diversity and enhanced customer satisfaction. 3. Since there is very little scope of team work in the retail counter in a bank, the S.B.I. is trying to device a new mechanism of operation where work will be distributed in a team rather than assigning specific jobs to individuals. The bank is studying the operation model being followed in customer care centres of Airtel and Vodafone to figure out if a similar approach can be implemented in its premises also to speed up the transaction time.
20
4.
21
Company Profile
International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue" (for its official corporate color), is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.[3] IBM has been known through most of its recent history as the world's largest computer company; with over 388,000 employees worldwide, IBM is the largest information technology employer in the world. Despite falling behind Hewlett-Packard in total revenue since 2006, it remains the most profitable. IBM holds more patents than any other U.S. based technology company.[4] It has engineers and consultants in over 170 countries and IBM Research has eight laboratories worldwide.[5] IBM employees have earned three Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, five National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science.[6] As a chip maker, IBM has been among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders in past years, and in 2007 IBM ranked second in the list of largest software companies in the world.
The origin of Diversity Management at IBM
Diversity at the work place in the US originated from the concept of EEO in the 1940s. At IBM, Watson Jr. issued the first equal opportunity policy letter in 1953. Later, it came under government compliance under the Civil Rights Act of the US in 1964.With the onset of „globalization' in the 1980s, organizations initiated efforts to broaden their marketplace. In an attempt to sustain them amidst the continuously increasing competition, they started doing business across the world. This trend made it important for them to focus on diverse cultures across borders in order to offer products and services that suited the specific needs of different markets.
22
Employee Diversity
People with Disabilities IBM had a well-structured plan in place for recruiting and training people with disabilities. The recruitment specialists and hiring managers were specially trained for this purpose. In each business unit, IBM has „line champions' - the managers experienced in hiring and working with people with disabilities - to facilitate the recruitment process. The company also works with various educational institutions for campus recruitment of such candidates. Besides, IBM has a diversity website where prospective candidates with disabilities can submit their resumes directly.
Work/Life Balance As one of its major employee retention strategies, IBM offers a comprehensive work/life balance program based on the following seven principles: • Employees must take responsibility for their own work/life balance needs. • Work/life balance should have a positive impact on all employees involved. • Quality of output is more important than the amount of activity. • Teams should be flexible when balancing working and personal needs. • Employees must be treated as individuals. • Ongoing performance and contribution are a prerequisite. • Achieving work/life balance is hard work and ongoing...
Women in the Workforce IBM started recruiting women professionals well before the Equal Pay Act, 1963. A letter issued by Watson Sr. in 1935 stated, "Men and women will do the same kind of work for equal pay. They will have the same treatment, the same responsibilities, and the same opportunities for advancement." IBM's management made efforts to find out what the specific needs of its women employees and provided women-friendly facilities accordingly. This helped the women in increasing their productivity while maintaining a proper balance between work and family life. The women networking groups in IBM actively promotes female mentoring, assists women to achieve a better work/life balance, and also conducts programs to encourage girls to seek careers in the IT industry.
23
Aside from IBM?s diversity team within human resources, three other groups within IBM have formally identified roles in the implementation of the company?s overall diversity strategy. These are IBM?s ? ? ? Diversity Council Diversity contact officers and Diversity champions.
The Diversity Council IBM?s Diversity Council, ensures that IBM visibly encourages and values the contributions and differences of employees from various backgrounds. Its key objectives are to heighten employee awareness, increase management awareness, and encourage the effective use of IBM?s diverse workforce.
It does so through key initiatives such as ? ? developing attraction and recruiting strategies retention and awareness strategies (which includes the education of managers and employees). The executive cultural diversity sponsor works with a team of senior IBM managers who champion particular diversity programs within IBM. This is achieved through personal commitment, regular communication, by gaining support for the program from other IBM managers and influencing decision making that may impact on the program.
Under the guidance of the Diversity Council, a series of cultural diversity employee roundtables are held to gather more face-to-face feedback and ideas from staff. These meetings generate many practical ideas for increasing awareness of cultural diversity within IBM. Some, like the suggestion for a cross cultural communication course, were simple ideas that became pilots for fully fledged diversity training initiatives.
Diversity contact officers Diversity contact officers are regular permanent employees who volunteer to be conduits of information relating to diversity, are trained as work/life balance coaches, and help to integrate people with a disability into the IBM workforce. They include 24
men and women from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, people with disabilities and people who are gay or lesbian, transgender or bisexual, to reflect the diversity of our organisation.
Diversity champions Our internal diversity awards recognise and celebrate individuals whose actions encapsulate our diversity principles. They help to raise awareness of the diversity program and establish cultural diversity as the „norm? within the company.
The power of internal awards for diversity champions lies in bringing to life the actions of „real? employees. The diversity team works closely with internal communications and public relations to communicate success stories. Ensuring that stakeholders outside the company know about the diverse culture within IBM directly supports recruitment efforts and forming commercial relationships, reinforcing the business case.
Cultural awareness/acceptance in action Cultural diversity education and awareness initiatives at IBM can be grouped under two headings: individual professional development and general staff awareness. Professional development. IBM manager „QuickViews? are, as the name suggests, intranetbased resources designed to give managers essential and accessible information to conduct business successfully with clients or colleagues from another country. Topics include: culture and globalisation, culture and business and diversity and multicultural management. So if a manager is called upon to travel suddenly to a new culture, QuickViews offers handy hints on business meeting protocol. Another professional development initiative is IBM?s „Shades of Blue? – a more in-depth program for managers who are engaged in cross-cultural business interactions or have multicultural teams. Shades of Blue is a unique learning experience in developing crosscultural competence. The workshop-based tutorials train employees in: • Understanding the cultural bias of each team member and their impact on mutual perceptions. • Why certain behaviours and communication styles fail in some cultures. • Identifying approaches to address cultural gaps that could lead to misunderstandings. • Handling issues about team decision-making, giving or receiving feedback and conflict 25
resolution. The courses cater to individual managers or members of an established multicultural team and are designed to heighten awareness of each person?s own cultural biases and increase their sensitivity to other cultures. The shades experience can be a powerful team-building exercise for multicultural teams to transcend cultural differences and become a highperforming team.
General staff awareness and polices IBM?s cultural diversity strategy relies on raising the general level of awareness of different cultures within the organisation. General initiatives include: ? ? ? ? Celebration of Parsi New Year for employees. Publication of a diversity calendar, showing various dates of cultural significance that might be relevant to employees and business relationships. Introduction of a floating holiday program where employees can exchange a public holiday for a significant cultural holiday. Employee representation at an IBM global conference on multicultural people in technology.
Critical Appreciation
IBM treats diversity as a part of its business strategy. Having employees from different social and cultural strata helps the company understand and serve its customers better. It also helps the company expand its market by obtaining business from small and medium sized enterprises owned by the women and minorities. The executive diversity task forces helps to develop business relationships with the leading women and minority-owned businesses. It also helps IBM to offer products and services that suits the specific needs of different markets and hence stay ahead of its competitors. IBM is one of the exemplary companies when it comes to diversity management and it can only be said that it has truely leveraged innovation in diversity management.
26
Bibliography
1. [email protected]
2. Building a business case for diversity - Gail Robinson; Kathleen Dechant.The Academy of Management Executive; Aug 1997; 11, 3; ABI/INFORM Global
3. United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Managing Diversity in the Civil Service United Nations Headquarters, New York, 3 - 4 May 2001
4. Best Practices in Diversity Management- Neil E. Reichenberg, Executive Director, International Personnel Management Association
5. DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT Expert-Identified Leading Practices and Agency Examples Report to the Ranking Minority Member, Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate
6. www.ibm.com
7. www.citehr.com
8. www.wikipedia.com
27
The following Contacts were referred to for the purpose of the completion of the project
Loreal ? Ms Deepti Sinha Associate, HR SBI Bank ? Mr. Purohit Kumar Asst Manager
?
Mr. R.K Shrivastav Personnel Manager
IBM ? Ms.Neha Bhagchandani Systems Engineer ?
Ms Maisha Aima, HR Executive
28
doc_175362540.docx