Description
The article looks into the diversity management practices adopted at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Variety is the spice not only of life but of organizations too. In today’s world, almost in any organization that we can think about, we find a diversified work force. People belong to different cultures, races, religions, nationalities, genders etc. It is important that they coordinate well to get the most efficient results to the organization. An attempt has been made in this project to understand how the diverse workforce is managed in organizations. One organization that we choose was TCS, Mumbai and the other is SHOPPER’S STOP, Mumbai. Established in 1968, TCS has grown to its current position as the largest IT services firm in Asia based on its record of outstanding service, collaborative, innovation and diversity management. The foundation of Shopper's Stop was laid on October 27, 1991 by the K. Raheja Corp. group of companies. Being amongst India's biggest hospitality and real estate players, the Group crossed yet another milestone with its lifestyle venture - Shopper's Stop. After our survey we definitely found diversity in different aspects in both the organization but in varying degree and platform.
What is Diversity?
A universally accepted definition of Diversity is: “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.” If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look like this. There would be: ? 61 Asians ? 12 Europeans ? 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south ? 13 Africans ? 50 would be female ? 50 would be male ? 74 would be nonwhite ? 26 would be white ? 67 would be non-Christian ? 33 would be Christian ? 6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States ? 80 would live in substandard housing ? 14 would be unable to read ? 33 would die of famine ? 1 would be near death ? 1 would be near birth ? 7 would have a college education ? 8 would own a computer
Source: www.nesdis.noaa.gov
RESEARCH PAPERS REFERRED:1) Diversity Management and Affirmative Action: Past, Present and Future - R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. R. Thomas & Associates, Inc. 2) Diversity: Impacts On The Four Functions of Management OPPAPERS.COM 3) Best Practices in Diversity Managementhttp://unpan1.un.org/
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Managing Diversity in the Civil Service
United Nations Headquarters, New York, 3 - 4 May 2001
Importance of Diversity
Diversity was selected as a best practice area since changing demographics make it more important to select, retain and manage a diverse workforce. According to the IPMA/NASPE Benchmarking Committee, “diversity efforts in the workplace facilitate the exchange of new perspectives, improve problem solving by inviting different ideas, and create a respectful, accepting work environment, all of which make good business sense.” In the book Beyond Race and Gender, R. Roosevelt Thomas defined managing diversity as “a comprehensive managerial process for developing an environment that works for all employees.” The key for employers is to make diversity an asset within the organization. Diversity is different from affirmative action since affirmative action is the framework for a diversity management program. Diversity management has been described as looking at: 1) the mind set of an organization; 2) the climate of an organization; and 3) the different perspectives people bring to an organization due to race, workplace styles, disabilities, and other differences.
EMPLOYEE DIVERSITY:
Employee Diversity refers to human characteristics that make the employees mutually different. Sources of individual variations are complex. Diversity management is about full utilization of people with different backgrounds and experiences. Efficient diversity management strategy has a positive effect on cost reduction, nurturing the culture of creativity, problem solving, and organizational suppleness. However, it is not as an easy job as it appears to be!! Greenberg has grouped the factors which influence diversity into two categories: 1) Those over which people have more control
2) Those over which people have little or no control. In the first category, there are characteristics that people can take up, drop, or adjust through choice and conscious efforts. These include marital status, political beliefs, geographic location, work background, and education/profession. The second group includes biologically determined characteristics such as race, sex, age, and certain physical attributes, as well as the family and society, history, in which we live. These factors exercise an influential control on individual identity and affect the manner of person’s relation to other individuals and groups both in professional and personal matters. Tackling with diversity and effective Employee Diversity Management (EDM) techniques entail enabling people to perform up to their maximum potential, either in spite of their diversity or on its basis, resulting in their complementary attributes and interdependence. Diversity training also helps managers understand and value individual differences and develop strong diagnostic skills. Dissemination of factual information may change some beliefs, but more emotion-oriented persuasive techniques and long-term educational efforts may be needed to alter them. EDM focuses on changing an organization’s culture and infrastructure for people to provide the highest productivity possible according to Kreitner. Changing here means innovation, which is change bringing new benefit to its users. He clearly cautions:” Not all changes are innovations, but all innovations are changes”. Ann Morrison an ED expert conducted a study of 16 organizations that successfully managed diversity. Her results uncovered three key strategies for EDM success: • • • Education Enforcement Exposure
Keeping in view the above three strategies, the following famous techniques are adopted to implement diversity training in organizations: Awareness-Based Diversity Training Skill-Based Diversity Training
Awareness-Based Diversity Training It is specifically designed to raise people’s awareness of diversity issues in the workplace and to help them recognize the underlying assumptions they make about their colleagues. It is the one that takes a cognitive approach. Usually, it involves educating people about the business necessity of valuing diversity, and makes them aware of their own cultural assumptions and
biases. This may involve various experiential exercises as well as real-life case studies that help people to view others as being individuals, not stereotyped members of group. Skill-Based Diversity Training:
Building on the awareness approach is skill-based diversity training. This orientation is designed to develop people’s skills in managing diversity. As such, it goes beyond raising awareness. It develops the tool needed to interact effectively with others. Four main tools are involved in this process.
These include: Cross-cultural understanding Intercultural communication Facilitation skills Flexibility and adaptability
Potential problems of Diversity Training
• The most important prerequisite is that training needs to be conducted in a “safe”, comfortable environment because there is probability that emotional tension gets elevated. Discussing prejudices is likely to make folks uncomfortable There is possibility of polarization when certain questions have yes or no answers. Hence a process of consideration of a broad range of options for any problem rising due to diversity should be followed. Training sessions might end up being platforms for people who want to voice their past problems as a lot of them want personal “scores to settle”. Personal attacks may occur. Strong opinions on diversity issues may box people into corners. Organizations should be prepared for mixed reactions from the audience groups. Addressing these feelings should be made a part of training sessions. It is tempting to blame the dominant group for diversity problems, but no one group has domination on prejudice and bias. The perceived dominant group should discuss their difficulties adjusting to a changing world. An important but often forgotten aspect is timing the training. The management may end up adding to stress by scheduling sessions during periods in which other sensitive events happen.
•
•
• •
•
•
Reasons for training may not be genuine. Diversity training works best when part of a strategic effort by management to change policies to make a more “inclusive” organization. Training conducted for namesake or because of bandwagon effect is likely to fail and maybe even boomerang.
Framework of training in diversity management
Awareness Based Training Awareness Based Training
Skill Based Training
Increase knowledge, awareness, and sensitivity Eliminate stereotypes Challenge existing assumptions
Develop new diversity skills
Strengthen current skills
Improvement in the quality of interaction with people from diverse groups
Moral, creative and productivity levels of employees improve
The organization’s competitive position is enhanced
To know about the diversity management in TCS and SHOPPER’S STOP we opted for questionnaire method based on the parameters of AGE, CULTURE/RELIGION, GENDER and few miscellaneous questions.
Tata Consultancy Services Interview: - 26.11.2008 Time: - 5:30 -6:15 pm
Team Members Involved: - Sahil Shah (Ex-employee TCS) Vrashank Yadav Saurabh Suman Mr. Parimal Singh Project Manager (ABN-AMBRO ACCOUNT) TCS Thane, Mumbai Contact - +91-9833445316, 022-267785185 (Direct Line)
Mr. Sandeep Kishore Portfolio Manager (ABN-AMBRO ACCOUNT) TCS Thane, Mumbai Contact :- +91-9920207193, 022-267785196
CULTURE/REGIONAL/EXPATRIATES Based Questions
1. How do you assimilate employees from different countries/states? Any specific policies? There are people from 64 nationalities within TCS. Each region follows an independent recruitment policy based on the requirements in that region. 2. How do you deal with cultural diversity in workplace, with respect to employees within India and outside India?
There is active rotation of employees from offshore to onsite and vice-versa. Employees know more about the workplace and are also able to adapt better in various locations.
3. How special treatment is given to employees coming from faraway places like US, farther states?
They are part of the same team, share the same workplace, the canteen etc. This is done to facilitate maximum interaction. We help them find accommodation if they are here for longer durations. 4. What is your experience regarding productivity of diverse cultural project groups? It varies from project to project. If team members are able to gel with each other, then productivity is normal and is not affected. 5. Is there a conscious effort to form culturally diverse groups? For different cultures in India? For employees from other countries? Yes, the employees are trained to work with different people from different backgrounds. The ILP itself is done in a batch size of 40 and care is taken to have members from different regions of India. Further, there might be people training from different countries along with Indian trainees. 6. Is there any culture familiarity programme for expatriates during initiation? Yes, within the ILP culture sensitization programs are done. Further, once into the project, each team member is given an idea into the way the clients are expected to behave and culture at that place. 7. How do you handle client side interactions in terms of time and cultural differences? Video conference and tele-conferences are done at mutually convenient times. Generally for US based clients it is done in evenings for their convenience. Similarly, for European clients it could be in the afternoon. Clients also are ready to adjust their time as per the situational demand.
8. Does cultural diversity play a role in decisions related to canteen facilities, holiday list, festive
celebrations? Each festival is celebrated with the food of that region in the canteen. Also, every festival is celebrated in office premises. Each region and country has discretion to set its holidays depending on the holidays of that region. 9. Do local people have any advantage over others like language? No, strictly the common medium of communication is English to avoid polarization in Organization. 10. How regional bias is avoided by managers during appraisal? Appraisal is a common process and is fixed on certain parameters. There is no scope of regional diversity creeping in the company. However, if any employee feels that such a thing has happened then he/she can complain and appropriate action is taken immediately.
QUALIFICATIONS Based Questions
1. Do you allot employees to different departments as per their backgrounds? Does it affect team
performance? Work defined for employees is different. Generally the work for engineers, MBAs, B.Sc. is different and all of them work together for a project. Engineers do the coding, MBAs do the requirement analysis, B.Sc. guys do the support and maintenance work. Post grads and PhD move to the R&D centers. 2. How is induction program framed keeping in mind the diversity in educational background? Are there different training programs at each level? Yes, training programs are different. ILP program for engineers is about 2 months in duration followed by project specific training at the deputed location.
GENDER BASED QUESTIONS
1. What is the sex ratio in the employee workforce? Is there a specific effort to hire more women employees? 29% of the employees are women. We try to accommodate women employees wherever possible. However, no posts are kept only for women. 2. Is gender of employee used as a criterion for project allotment? For eg: onsite or odd hour projects? No gender criteria is kept while giving project allotment. Only merit is taken into consideration. Especially for onsite, we ensure that merit is given priority above anything else. Sometimes for odd hour projects i.e. night shifts, we might try to have male employees doing the work to maintain safety of the female employees. However, if a female employee forms a critical part of team then there is no option. To and fro transport from office to home is provided in such cases. 3. Within project groups, is there any conscious effort to make the group more heterogeneous in terms of gender? Does it affect team performance? Most of the teams are heterogeneous in nature. Performance of the team is not affected and is generally complemented by team members. 4. Are there any specific policies for grievance redressal or issue handling with respect to the women workforce?
All grievances redressal issues are taken through the common system. It includes issues specific to women. 5. Is there an independent committee formed for this purpose? Is confidentiality of complainant ensured? Confidentiality of complainant is ensured under all circumstances. Independent committee may be formed on case to case basis. 6. How does the company mange night shifts especially in terms of the female employees? Pick up and drop facility is provided to all female employees. Also, we try to ensure that few women employees are part of night shift. 7. Is there any special policy for married women like day care, maternity leave, work from home etc.? If it is present a brief explanation about it. Maternity leave is given to female employees for 12 weeks provided they have worked in the organization for 80 days. Further, they are eligible for all benefits under the Maternity benefits Act, 1961.
AGE Based Questions
1. Is age of employee a factor considered during promotion of employees across any level? No, age is not a question. However, number of years of service within the organization and past experience is a criteria for promotion ( It has some defined weight age which we cant disclose) 2. Are there any special considerations/benefits for senior long serving employees? Various benefits like Housing loan, car loan, personal computer, two wheeler loan are given to employees. Gratuity is also given to the employees. 3. Are most of the employees at higher level are of higher age group? Yes, because past experience is generally a criteria for promotion. However, out performers are there in every organization and they move up the ladder very fast. 4. Seniority vs. Performance. How does the company balance these two while promoting people? It is a logical balance of both which encourages for long term relationship with the employees. 5. What is the average stay period of employees in the company? 52% of the employees have more than 3 years of work experience. 6. Any fringe benefits to employees staying for a greater tenure in the company? Benefits include Provident Fund, Superannuation Fund, and Gratuity.
SHOPPER’S STOP
Interview: - 29.11.2008 Team Members Involved: -
Time: - 7:00 -7:45 pm Abhishek Singh Sumit Singh Sunil
Pande
Mr. SNB Chief Manager & Head of Operations,
(Name not revealed as per agreement)
211 D, S.V. Road, Andheri (W),Mumbai - 400058 26240451. Contact: - +91-9920183002
AGE Based Questions
1. Is age of employee a factor considered during promotion of employees across any level? No, age is not a question. Irrespective of the age of the employee he/she has to go through a centralized assessment process conducted at the head office and it is the sole parameter to judge the performance. 2. Are there any special considerations/benefits for senior long serving employees? Various benefits like Housing loan, car loan, personal computer, two wheeler loans are given to employees. Gratuity is also given to the employees. However it differs as per company performance. 3. Are most of the employees at higher level are of higher age group? No, because in retail Industry this is very unlikely to happen. Many people don’t have the experience of this industry and hence the younger generation has the upper hand. 4. Seniority vs. Performance. How does the company balance these two while promoting people? Seniority is not all the parameter to be related to performance. It’s completely based on weekly results.
5. What is the average stay period of employees in the company? Unfortunately, the stay period of the employees is very less as compared to other industries. 6. Any fringe benefits to employees staying for a greater tenure in the company? Benefits include Provident Fund, Superannuation Fund, and Gratuity but no such distinct added benefit.
GENDER BASED QUESTIONS
1. What is the sex ratio in the employee workforce? Is there a specific effort to hire more women employees? Ideally the ratio is 3:7 but in some of the stores it is 1:4 because of the difference in working hours and product portfolio. Sometimes there is an effort for products like cosmetics and lingerie where we cant exercise any other option. 2. Is gender of employee used as a criterion for project allotment? If it’s a neutral product we choose to hire men for the feasibility of working hours as we strictly don’t allow women to work after 8:30 pm in any of our stores. (Company Policy) 3. Are there any specific policies for grievance redressal or issue handling with respect to the women workforce? All grievances redressal issues are taken through the common system. It includes issues specific to women. The grievances are addressed to me and there are no other formalities in between. 5. Is there an independent committee formed for this purpose? Is confidentiality of complainant ensured? Confidentiality of complainant is ensured under all circumstances. Independent committee may be formed on case to case basis but as such we don’t have an independent committee 6. How does the company manage night shifts especially in terms of the female employees? We strictly don’t have night shifts for women. If at all a need arises a company cab is provided to them along with at least 2 member escorting for safety reasons. (Company Policy)
CULTURE/REGIONAL/EXPATRIATES Based Questions
1. What is your experience regarding productivity of diverse cultural project groups?
It varies from project to project (Depending upon the product portfolio and location). If team members are able to gel with each other, then productivity is normal and is not affected. 2. Is there a conscious effort to form culturally diverse groups? For different cultures in India? For employees from other countries? Yes, the employees are trained to work with different people from different backgrounds. The induction training itself is done in a batch size of 40-100 and care is taken to have members from different regions of India. Further, there might be people training from different countries along with Indian trainees. Strictly we don’t allow floor employees from same region to work together as it decreases the sales of the company. English is the only mode suggested to communicate.
3. Is there any culture familiarity programme for expatriates during initiation? Yes, within the culture entertainment programs are done. Further, once into the project, each team member is given an idea into the way the customers are expected to behave at that place. 4. How do you handle customer side interactions in terms of time and cultural differences? It’s a pretty much required criteria in our business to have this acumen. It doesn’t develop overnight but yes a conscious effort towards this and the rigorous induction program helps to cope up with this problem in long run. 5. Does cultural diversity play a role in decisions related to canteen facilities, holiday list, festive celebrations? Each festival is celebrated with the food of that region in the canteen. Also, every festival is celebrated in mall premises. 6. Do local people have any advantage over others like language? No, strictly the common medium of communication is English to avoid polarization in Organization. 7. How regional bias is avoided by managers during appraisal? Appraisal is a common process and is fixed on certain parameters. There is no scope of regional diversity creeping in the company. However, if any employee feels that such a thing has happened then he/she can complain and appropriate action is taken immediately. The appraisal takes place at Head Quarters only in a form of 2-3 rounds of tests and grilling.
QUALIFICATIONS Based Questions
1. Do you allot employees to different departments as per their backgrounds? Does it affect team
performance?
Work defined for employees is different. Generally the work for engineers, MBAs, is managerial and all the employees including floor employees work together for a project. Managerial level employee monitors the sales and promotion strategy whereas the floor level employees target the daily sales and inventory handling. 2. How is induction program framed keeping in mind the diversity in educational background? Are there different training programs at each level? Yes, training programs are different. Even the duration of the training depends upon the level and competency of the employee. Invariably 1 week is the minimum time frame and we emphasize more on the psychological and attitude aspect of the employee because this is what matters the most in our outlets across Mumbai.
Employee based Questions:
1. How does the company handle diversity, in terms of extent and implementation of policies? The company handles the diversity based on language, competencies and previous work experience. This helps all the employees to contribute maximum to the outlet. The induction training program exposes an employee to different parameters and challenges required in this Industry. 2. Work atmosphere at workplace? Ideally the work culture is very hectic for which the attrition rate in this industry is very high. 3. Attempts made to understand different cultural backgrounds of employees? Eg: Food festivals of different Indian cuisines at local canteens, celebrating festivals of different religions etc. Yes we have canteen for the staff where we celebrate different festivals and birthdays even sometimes using ethnic flavors to make it more animated. 4. What further suggestions you want to give to improve diversity management? Some employees believe that women still get an added advantage because of more demand of their workforce in this industry.
5. Do you feel your manager is partial during appraisal of his team members? Favour his region member, age, gender bias? Employees strongly believe that this can never happen at Shopper’s Stop because the final appraisal is not based on the past floor/product performance but the centralized appraisal test which will never give a chance for partiality or unfair advantage to anyone.
CONCLUSION
Whatever be the type of organization, it is increasingly evident that we cannot escape “Employee Diversity”. As we found from the studies, companies have been creative and proactive to encourage Diversity Management practices across the organizations. Some have gone a step ahead and talked about “Inclusion Statement” in addition to vision and mission statements. Diversity is not something which is any more a “USP” within an organization but rather it’s a dire need to promote healthy and sustainable growth within the organization. Our Findings (Difference between TCS and Shopper’s Stop):- Even though both are service based industry, the level of diversity and its kind differs radically among both. TCS has a lot of scope of diversity especially in terms of customers (foreign clients) whereas Shopper’s Stop deals with local customers of different strata and they try to cope up with the diversity of customers and their culture, habits and buying capacity. In terms of employees, the efforts to retain the employees is much more because of the factor of intellectual capital whereas in Shopper’s Stop employee retention policies don’t seem to be attractive. Hence a suitable and proper investment in Diversity and showing fullest commitment will result in “Unity in Diversity!!!”.
doc_891939474.doc
The article looks into the diversity management practices adopted at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Variety is the spice not only of life but of organizations too. In today’s world, almost in any organization that we can think about, we find a diversified work force. People belong to different cultures, races, religions, nationalities, genders etc. It is important that they coordinate well to get the most efficient results to the organization. An attempt has been made in this project to understand how the diverse workforce is managed in organizations. One organization that we choose was TCS, Mumbai and the other is SHOPPER’S STOP, Mumbai. Established in 1968, TCS has grown to its current position as the largest IT services firm in Asia based on its record of outstanding service, collaborative, innovation and diversity management. The foundation of Shopper's Stop was laid on October 27, 1991 by the K. Raheja Corp. group of companies. Being amongst India's biggest hospitality and real estate players, the Group crossed yet another milestone with its lifestyle venture - Shopper's Stop. After our survey we definitely found diversity in different aspects in both the organization but in varying degree and platform.
What is Diversity?
A universally accepted definition of Diversity is: “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.” If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look like this. There would be: ? 61 Asians ? 12 Europeans ? 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south ? 13 Africans ? 50 would be female ? 50 would be male ? 74 would be nonwhite ? 26 would be white ? 67 would be non-Christian ? 33 would be Christian ? 6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States ? 80 would live in substandard housing ? 14 would be unable to read ? 33 would die of famine ? 1 would be near death ? 1 would be near birth ? 7 would have a college education ? 8 would own a computer
Source: www.nesdis.noaa.gov
RESEARCH PAPERS REFERRED:1) Diversity Management and Affirmative Action: Past, Present and Future - R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. R. Thomas & Associates, Inc. 2) Diversity: Impacts On The Four Functions of Management OPPAPERS.COM 3) Best Practices in Diversity Managementhttp://unpan1.un.org/
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Managing Diversity in the Civil Service
United Nations Headquarters, New York, 3 - 4 May 2001
Importance of Diversity
Diversity was selected as a best practice area since changing demographics make it more important to select, retain and manage a diverse workforce. According to the IPMA/NASPE Benchmarking Committee, “diversity efforts in the workplace facilitate the exchange of new perspectives, improve problem solving by inviting different ideas, and create a respectful, accepting work environment, all of which make good business sense.” In the book Beyond Race and Gender, R. Roosevelt Thomas defined managing diversity as “a comprehensive managerial process for developing an environment that works for all employees.” The key for employers is to make diversity an asset within the organization. Diversity is different from affirmative action since affirmative action is the framework for a diversity management program. Diversity management has been described as looking at: 1) the mind set of an organization; 2) the climate of an organization; and 3) the different perspectives people bring to an organization due to race, workplace styles, disabilities, and other differences.
EMPLOYEE DIVERSITY:
Employee Diversity refers to human characteristics that make the employees mutually different. Sources of individual variations are complex. Diversity management is about full utilization of people with different backgrounds and experiences. Efficient diversity management strategy has a positive effect on cost reduction, nurturing the culture of creativity, problem solving, and organizational suppleness. However, it is not as an easy job as it appears to be!! Greenberg has grouped the factors which influence diversity into two categories: 1) Those over which people have more control
2) Those over which people have little or no control. In the first category, there are characteristics that people can take up, drop, or adjust through choice and conscious efforts. These include marital status, political beliefs, geographic location, work background, and education/profession. The second group includes biologically determined characteristics such as race, sex, age, and certain physical attributes, as well as the family and society, history, in which we live. These factors exercise an influential control on individual identity and affect the manner of person’s relation to other individuals and groups both in professional and personal matters. Tackling with diversity and effective Employee Diversity Management (EDM) techniques entail enabling people to perform up to their maximum potential, either in spite of their diversity or on its basis, resulting in their complementary attributes and interdependence. Diversity training also helps managers understand and value individual differences and develop strong diagnostic skills. Dissemination of factual information may change some beliefs, but more emotion-oriented persuasive techniques and long-term educational efforts may be needed to alter them. EDM focuses on changing an organization’s culture and infrastructure for people to provide the highest productivity possible according to Kreitner. Changing here means innovation, which is change bringing new benefit to its users. He clearly cautions:” Not all changes are innovations, but all innovations are changes”. Ann Morrison an ED expert conducted a study of 16 organizations that successfully managed diversity. Her results uncovered three key strategies for EDM success: • • • Education Enforcement Exposure
Keeping in view the above three strategies, the following famous techniques are adopted to implement diversity training in organizations: Awareness-Based Diversity Training Skill-Based Diversity Training
Awareness-Based Diversity Training It is specifically designed to raise people’s awareness of diversity issues in the workplace and to help them recognize the underlying assumptions they make about their colleagues. It is the one that takes a cognitive approach. Usually, it involves educating people about the business necessity of valuing diversity, and makes them aware of their own cultural assumptions and
biases. This may involve various experiential exercises as well as real-life case studies that help people to view others as being individuals, not stereotyped members of group. Skill-Based Diversity Training:
Building on the awareness approach is skill-based diversity training. This orientation is designed to develop people’s skills in managing diversity. As such, it goes beyond raising awareness. It develops the tool needed to interact effectively with others. Four main tools are involved in this process.
These include: Cross-cultural understanding Intercultural communication Facilitation skills Flexibility and adaptability
Potential problems of Diversity Training
• The most important prerequisite is that training needs to be conducted in a “safe”, comfortable environment because there is probability that emotional tension gets elevated. Discussing prejudices is likely to make folks uncomfortable There is possibility of polarization when certain questions have yes or no answers. Hence a process of consideration of a broad range of options for any problem rising due to diversity should be followed. Training sessions might end up being platforms for people who want to voice their past problems as a lot of them want personal “scores to settle”. Personal attacks may occur. Strong opinions on diversity issues may box people into corners. Organizations should be prepared for mixed reactions from the audience groups. Addressing these feelings should be made a part of training sessions. It is tempting to blame the dominant group for diversity problems, but no one group has domination on prejudice and bias. The perceived dominant group should discuss their difficulties adjusting to a changing world. An important but often forgotten aspect is timing the training. The management may end up adding to stress by scheduling sessions during periods in which other sensitive events happen.
•
•
• •
•
•
Reasons for training may not be genuine. Diversity training works best when part of a strategic effort by management to change policies to make a more “inclusive” organization. Training conducted for namesake or because of bandwagon effect is likely to fail and maybe even boomerang.
Framework of training in diversity management
Awareness Based Training Awareness Based Training
Skill Based Training
Increase knowledge, awareness, and sensitivity Eliminate stereotypes Challenge existing assumptions
Develop new diversity skills
Strengthen current skills
Improvement in the quality of interaction with people from diverse groups
Moral, creative and productivity levels of employees improve
The organization’s competitive position is enhanced
To know about the diversity management in TCS and SHOPPER’S STOP we opted for questionnaire method based on the parameters of AGE, CULTURE/RELIGION, GENDER and few miscellaneous questions.
Tata Consultancy Services Interview: - 26.11.2008 Time: - 5:30 -6:15 pm
Team Members Involved: - Sahil Shah (Ex-employee TCS) Vrashank Yadav Saurabh Suman Mr. Parimal Singh Project Manager (ABN-AMBRO ACCOUNT) TCS Thane, Mumbai Contact - +91-9833445316, 022-267785185 (Direct Line)
Mr. Sandeep Kishore Portfolio Manager (ABN-AMBRO ACCOUNT) TCS Thane, Mumbai Contact :- +91-9920207193, 022-267785196
CULTURE/REGIONAL/EXPATRIATES Based Questions
1. How do you assimilate employees from different countries/states? Any specific policies? There are people from 64 nationalities within TCS. Each region follows an independent recruitment policy based on the requirements in that region. 2. How do you deal with cultural diversity in workplace, with respect to employees within India and outside India?
There is active rotation of employees from offshore to onsite and vice-versa. Employees know more about the workplace and are also able to adapt better in various locations.
3. How special treatment is given to employees coming from faraway places like US, farther states?
They are part of the same team, share the same workplace, the canteen etc. This is done to facilitate maximum interaction. We help them find accommodation if they are here for longer durations. 4. What is your experience regarding productivity of diverse cultural project groups? It varies from project to project. If team members are able to gel with each other, then productivity is normal and is not affected. 5. Is there a conscious effort to form culturally diverse groups? For different cultures in India? For employees from other countries? Yes, the employees are trained to work with different people from different backgrounds. The ILP itself is done in a batch size of 40 and care is taken to have members from different regions of India. Further, there might be people training from different countries along with Indian trainees. 6. Is there any culture familiarity programme for expatriates during initiation? Yes, within the ILP culture sensitization programs are done. Further, once into the project, each team member is given an idea into the way the clients are expected to behave and culture at that place. 7. How do you handle client side interactions in terms of time and cultural differences? Video conference and tele-conferences are done at mutually convenient times. Generally for US based clients it is done in evenings for their convenience. Similarly, for European clients it could be in the afternoon. Clients also are ready to adjust their time as per the situational demand.
8. Does cultural diversity play a role in decisions related to canteen facilities, holiday list, festive
celebrations? Each festival is celebrated with the food of that region in the canteen. Also, every festival is celebrated in office premises. Each region and country has discretion to set its holidays depending on the holidays of that region. 9. Do local people have any advantage over others like language? No, strictly the common medium of communication is English to avoid polarization in Organization. 10. How regional bias is avoided by managers during appraisal? Appraisal is a common process and is fixed on certain parameters. There is no scope of regional diversity creeping in the company. However, if any employee feels that such a thing has happened then he/she can complain and appropriate action is taken immediately.
QUALIFICATIONS Based Questions
1. Do you allot employees to different departments as per their backgrounds? Does it affect team
performance? Work defined for employees is different. Generally the work for engineers, MBAs, B.Sc. is different and all of them work together for a project. Engineers do the coding, MBAs do the requirement analysis, B.Sc. guys do the support and maintenance work. Post grads and PhD move to the R&D centers. 2. How is induction program framed keeping in mind the diversity in educational background? Are there different training programs at each level? Yes, training programs are different. ILP program for engineers is about 2 months in duration followed by project specific training at the deputed location.
GENDER BASED QUESTIONS
1. What is the sex ratio in the employee workforce? Is there a specific effort to hire more women employees? 29% of the employees are women. We try to accommodate women employees wherever possible. However, no posts are kept only for women. 2. Is gender of employee used as a criterion for project allotment? For eg: onsite or odd hour projects? No gender criteria is kept while giving project allotment. Only merit is taken into consideration. Especially for onsite, we ensure that merit is given priority above anything else. Sometimes for odd hour projects i.e. night shifts, we might try to have male employees doing the work to maintain safety of the female employees. However, if a female employee forms a critical part of team then there is no option. To and fro transport from office to home is provided in such cases. 3. Within project groups, is there any conscious effort to make the group more heterogeneous in terms of gender? Does it affect team performance? Most of the teams are heterogeneous in nature. Performance of the team is not affected and is generally complemented by team members. 4. Are there any specific policies for grievance redressal or issue handling with respect to the women workforce?
All grievances redressal issues are taken through the common system. It includes issues specific to women. 5. Is there an independent committee formed for this purpose? Is confidentiality of complainant ensured? Confidentiality of complainant is ensured under all circumstances. Independent committee may be formed on case to case basis. 6. How does the company mange night shifts especially in terms of the female employees? Pick up and drop facility is provided to all female employees. Also, we try to ensure that few women employees are part of night shift. 7. Is there any special policy for married women like day care, maternity leave, work from home etc.? If it is present a brief explanation about it. Maternity leave is given to female employees for 12 weeks provided they have worked in the organization for 80 days. Further, they are eligible for all benefits under the Maternity benefits Act, 1961.
AGE Based Questions
1. Is age of employee a factor considered during promotion of employees across any level? No, age is not a question. However, number of years of service within the organization and past experience is a criteria for promotion ( It has some defined weight age which we cant disclose) 2. Are there any special considerations/benefits for senior long serving employees? Various benefits like Housing loan, car loan, personal computer, two wheeler loan are given to employees. Gratuity is also given to the employees. 3. Are most of the employees at higher level are of higher age group? Yes, because past experience is generally a criteria for promotion. However, out performers are there in every organization and they move up the ladder very fast. 4. Seniority vs. Performance. How does the company balance these two while promoting people? It is a logical balance of both which encourages for long term relationship with the employees. 5. What is the average stay period of employees in the company? 52% of the employees have more than 3 years of work experience. 6. Any fringe benefits to employees staying for a greater tenure in the company? Benefits include Provident Fund, Superannuation Fund, and Gratuity.
SHOPPER’S STOP
Interview: - 29.11.2008 Team Members Involved: -
Time: - 7:00 -7:45 pm Abhishek Singh Sumit Singh Sunil
Pande
Mr. SNB Chief Manager & Head of Operations,
(Name not revealed as per agreement)
211 D, S.V. Road, Andheri (W),Mumbai - 400058 26240451. Contact: - +91-9920183002
AGE Based Questions
1. Is age of employee a factor considered during promotion of employees across any level? No, age is not a question. Irrespective of the age of the employee he/she has to go through a centralized assessment process conducted at the head office and it is the sole parameter to judge the performance. 2. Are there any special considerations/benefits for senior long serving employees? Various benefits like Housing loan, car loan, personal computer, two wheeler loans are given to employees. Gratuity is also given to the employees. However it differs as per company performance. 3. Are most of the employees at higher level are of higher age group? No, because in retail Industry this is very unlikely to happen. Many people don’t have the experience of this industry and hence the younger generation has the upper hand. 4. Seniority vs. Performance. How does the company balance these two while promoting people? Seniority is not all the parameter to be related to performance. It’s completely based on weekly results.
5. What is the average stay period of employees in the company? Unfortunately, the stay period of the employees is very less as compared to other industries. 6. Any fringe benefits to employees staying for a greater tenure in the company? Benefits include Provident Fund, Superannuation Fund, and Gratuity but no such distinct added benefit.
GENDER BASED QUESTIONS
1. What is the sex ratio in the employee workforce? Is there a specific effort to hire more women employees? Ideally the ratio is 3:7 but in some of the stores it is 1:4 because of the difference in working hours and product portfolio. Sometimes there is an effort for products like cosmetics and lingerie where we cant exercise any other option. 2. Is gender of employee used as a criterion for project allotment? If it’s a neutral product we choose to hire men for the feasibility of working hours as we strictly don’t allow women to work after 8:30 pm in any of our stores. (Company Policy) 3. Are there any specific policies for grievance redressal or issue handling with respect to the women workforce? All grievances redressal issues are taken through the common system. It includes issues specific to women. The grievances are addressed to me and there are no other formalities in between. 5. Is there an independent committee formed for this purpose? Is confidentiality of complainant ensured? Confidentiality of complainant is ensured under all circumstances. Independent committee may be formed on case to case basis but as such we don’t have an independent committee 6. How does the company manage night shifts especially in terms of the female employees? We strictly don’t have night shifts for women. If at all a need arises a company cab is provided to them along with at least 2 member escorting for safety reasons. (Company Policy)
CULTURE/REGIONAL/EXPATRIATES Based Questions
1. What is your experience regarding productivity of diverse cultural project groups?
It varies from project to project (Depending upon the product portfolio and location). If team members are able to gel with each other, then productivity is normal and is not affected. 2. Is there a conscious effort to form culturally diverse groups? For different cultures in India? For employees from other countries? Yes, the employees are trained to work with different people from different backgrounds. The induction training itself is done in a batch size of 40-100 and care is taken to have members from different regions of India. Further, there might be people training from different countries along with Indian trainees. Strictly we don’t allow floor employees from same region to work together as it decreases the sales of the company. English is the only mode suggested to communicate.
3. Is there any culture familiarity programme for expatriates during initiation? Yes, within the culture entertainment programs are done. Further, once into the project, each team member is given an idea into the way the customers are expected to behave at that place. 4. How do you handle customer side interactions in terms of time and cultural differences? It’s a pretty much required criteria in our business to have this acumen. It doesn’t develop overnight but yes a conscious effort towards this and the rigorous induction program helps to cope up with this problem in long run. 5. Does cultural diversity play a role in decisions related to canteen facilities, holiday list, festive celebrations? Each festival is celebrated with the food of that region in the canteen. Also, every festival is celebrated in mall premises. 6. Do local people have any advantage over others like language? No, strictly the common medium of communication is English to avoid polarization in Organization. 7. How regional bias is avoided by managers during appraisal? Appraisal is a common process and is fixed on certain parameters. There is no scope of regional diversity creeping in the company. However, if any employee feels that such a thing has happened then he/she can complain and appropriate action is taken immediately. The appraisal takes place at Head Quarters only in a form of 2-3 rounds of tests and grilling.
QUALIFICATIONS Based Questions
1. Do you allot employees to different departments as per their backgrounds? Does it affect team
performance?
Work defined for employees is different. Generally the work for engineers, MBAs, is managerial and all the employees including floor employees work together for a project. Managerial level employee monitors the sales and promotion strategy whereas the floor level employees target the daily sales and inventory handling. 2. How is induction program framed keeping in mind the diversity in educational background? Are there different training programs at each level? Yes, training programs are different. Even the duration of the training depends upon the level and competency of the employee. Invariably 1 week is the minimum time frame and we emphasize more on the psychological and attitude aspect of the employee because this is what matters the most in our outlets across Mumbai.
Employee based Questions:
1. How does the company handle diversity, in terms of extent and implementation of policies? The company handles the diversity based on language, competencies and previous work experience. This helps all the employees to contribute maximum to the outlet. The induction training program exposes an employee to different parameters and challenges required in this Industry. 2. Work atmosphere at workplace? Ideally the work culture is very hectic for which the attrition rate in this industry is very high. 3. Attempts made to understand different cultural backgrounds of employees? Eg: Food festivals of different Indian cuisines at local canteens, celebrating festivals of different religions etc. Yes we have canteen for the staff where we celebrate different festivals and birthdays even sometimes using ethnic flavors to make it more animated. 4. What further suggestions you want to give to improve diversity management? Some employees believe that women still get an added advantage because of more demand of their workforce in this industry.
5. Do you feel your manager is partial during appraisal of his team members? Favour his region member, age, gender bias? Employees strongly believe that this can never happen at Shopper’s Stop because the final appraisal is not based on the past floor/product performance but the centralized appraisal test which will never give a chance for partiality or unfair advantage to anyone.
CONCLUSION
Whatever be the type of organization, it is increasingly evident that we cannot escape “Employee Diversity”. As we found from the studies, companies have been creative and proactive to encourage Diversity Management practices across the organizations. Some have gone a step ahead and talked about “Inclusion Statement” in addition to vision and mission statements. Diversity is not something which is any more a “USP” within an organization but rather it’s a dire need to promote healthy and sustainable growth within the organization. Our Findings (Difference between TCS and Shopper’s Stop):- Even though both are service based industry, the level of diversity and its kind differs radically among both. TCS has a lot of scope of diversity especially in terms of customers (foreign clients) whereas Shopper’s Stop deals with local customers of different strata and they try to cope up with the diversity of customers and their culture, habits and buying capacity. In terms of employees, the efforts to retain the employees is much more because of the factor of intellectual capital whereas in Shopper’s Stop employee retention policies don’t seem to be attractive. Hence a suitable and proper investment in Diversity and showing fullest commitment will result in “Unity in Diversity!!!”.
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