Canvass Pan European Diversity Conference

1

• Canvass- Pan European Diversity Conference
• BAWA, Bristol
• 4 July 2008
• Diversity Management in Small Medium Sized
  Enterprises (SMEs)
• Presenters
• Fola Kudehinbu - Principal Consultant, Imagine
  Consulting, Bristol
• Solomon Fubara - Managing Director, CEED, Bristol

2
UK SMEs in Context

• Definition of SME
• businesses with less than 250 employees and
  annual turnover of less than 6.5m
• 58 of private sector workforce
• Contribute over 50 of UK GDP (700b) in 2007
• Make up 99 of all businesses
• In 2008, there were 2.7m businesses registered in
  Great Britain (12,000 are public companies)
• Federation of Small Businesses (210,000 members)
• 66 have annual turnover of 250k
• 40 have annual turnover of 100k

3
Meaning of Equal Opportunities

• Commitment
• Giving people the chance to achieve their full
  potential
• Dealing with people solely on the basis of merit
  and without prejudice
• Treating customers and stakeholders fairly and
  delivering a quality service which meets their
  needs
• Underlying Principles
• The moral case
• The legal case
• Anticipating, managing and benefiting from
  change

4
Meaning of Diversity

• The Diversity Challenge
• How do we harness peoples creative energy to
  achieve individual fulfillment whilst delivering
  sustainable prosperity for the organisation and
  society?
• Diversity simply means differences
• In human diversity, there are individual, social,
  professional and societal differences that are a
  natural part of society
• The essence of diversity is focusing on how to
  use the differences between people (not just the
  similarities) to drive excellence and creativity
  in performance

5
Drivers of Diversity

• Changing Demography
• Globalisation
• Civil and Human Rights (encompassing equal
  opportunity legislation)
• Inclusion
• Information Technology

6
Diversity Management

• Some Definitions
• Process of creating a climate or environment in
  which all employees can be valued and be at their
  most productive in order that they can deliver
  organisational goals and delight their
  stakeholders
• A comprehensive management process for creating
  an environment that enables all members of a
  workforce to be productive, without advantaging
  or disadvantaging anyone (Thomas, Harvard
  Business Review, 1990)
• Traditional Management Definition
• The effective and efficient utilisation of
  employees in pursuit of the organisation's goals
  and objectives

7
Diversity Management Principles

• Platinum Rule
• Treating others the way they want to be
  treated
• Empowerment
• The capacity to generate and exercise
  creative choices to help solve a problem
• Trust
• Accepting someone's position at face
  value changing where there is contrary evidence
• Process
• A series of activities that deliver a
  desired output
• Compassionate Communication
• Communicating with concern for the
  feelings and understanding of others and yourself
• Risk-taking
• Recognition that the unknown is an
  ever-present part of transition, change and
  progress

8
Diversity as a Business Issue

• Proposition
• Current Paradigm - diversity as an initiative
• Emerging Paradigm - leveraging diversity and
  moving towards inclusion
• Return on Investment
• Individual
• Organisation
• Society

9
Benefits of Diversity Management

• The 3 Rs
• Reputation
• Relationships
• Results/Performance

10
Implications for SMEs

• Meeting legal requirements
• Developing human capital and talent (innovation
  and creativity)
• Customer care and satisfaction

11
Role of diversity management in opening up new
opportunities for SMEs

• Able to focus more on the key purpose of
  diversity management
• Ability to respond to change quickly and
  efficiently
• Flexibility in the use of resources (people, IT,
  finance, procurement)
• Competitiveness
• Efficient employee management (retention,
  turnover, sickness absence, ET litigation)

12
Diversity Management Practice and Models

• Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS)
• a society of independent agents that can act in
  parallel, develop models as to how things work
  in their environment, and be able to refine those
  models through learning and adaptation (Pascale
  RT)
• The Human Diversity Model (HDM) is the practice
  that is designed to create the environment for
  CAS to exist. It is based on 3 workplace
  components
• Openness
• Inclusiveness
• Accountability
• Framework for Excellence in Equality Diversity
  (FEED) (Bronze, Silver, Gold standard)
• Equality Standard for Local Government (1-5
  levels of achievement)

13
Business Measurement Indicators

• Recruitment Selection is the organisation an
  employer/destination of choice?
• Employee Fulfilment how are employees
  developed and retained?
• Stakeholder Fulfilment what are the
  satisfaction levels of your staff, customers,
  shareholders, partners, funders etc?
• Organisations prosperity what are your 3Ps
  (People, Performance, Profit) or 3Rs (Reputation,
  Relationships, Results) achievements?

14
Summary

• Sustaining diversity initiatives require moving
  to inclusive organisational practices
• Benefiting from diversity management initiatives
  and practice require an examination of business
  and not only human resources practices
• Measuring diversity achievement is critical to
  successfully developing measurement indicators
  and achieving overall organisational goals

15
A Glimpse into the Future

• A defining feature during the next 30 years will
  be
• the constant tension between greater
  interdependence
• and intensifying competition
• Climate change
• Globalisation
• Global Inequality
• Managing the relationships between individuals,
  governments and businesses