Natasha Marks: How diversity goes further than being a simple regulation

Starting with The Paris Agreement in 2016, striving against climate change, sustainability has become- and stayed a hot topic ever since. However, sustainability goes further than the environmental factors such as carbon emissions, fossil fuels, and forest depletion also including social, environmental, and economic aspects (also referred to as ESG). One of the most trending social sustainability aspects is diversity. Diversity regards who is represented in the workforce within a place of work or company. Some common Key Performance Indicators are about age, gender, sexual orientations, ethnicity etc. 

Consequences of not being diverse

To a positive is always a negative and therefore here are the consequences of not being diverse as a company workforce: 

1. Fewer partners for discrimination victims
2. Restricted viewpoints in the workplace – lack of diversity leads to a highly objective outlook on scenarios, situations, and ideas.
3. Possibly tone-deaf deliverables - More focussing on a marketing company, having diversity in a company can allow different points of view and therefore can allow objective viewpoints to a specific product etc. 
4. Limited role models - When there is little or no workplace diversity is that the underrepresented employees might find it challenging to connect with mentors for guidance, resulting in a feeling of loneliness and being less represented in the workforce. 
5. Communication problems - Companies with a lack of workplace diversity might find problems with communication that can further lead to unintended offense unclear practices, and mistrust within the organisation. 

Hopefully the points stated have stimulated you, as a valuable part of your organisation, to consider the value of having a diverse workforce and changed your mind if you were contemplating the value of diversity and only saw it as a burden. 

Reporting diversity in your organisation

To assist the reporting process, it is vital to understand you are not alone and that there are a few tools that can help. First is the ISO standard for diversity and inclusion, ISO 30415. This guideline was issued in May 2021 and the objective of which is to: provide an approach to the interpretation of the D&I theme through the integration of the principles of diversity and inclusion in organisations mainly in the following areas: Inclusive culture; Human resource lifecycle management; Design, development and delivery of products and services; Supply Chain Management and Stakeholder Management and Involvement. 

On the other hand, diversity can also be reported by use of Excel and PowerBI, or integrated into an existing- or new HR system.  In larger companies where the topic is more important, and there is more money circulated, a diversity and inclusion software may be utilised. There are a few methods that technology can support diversity:

1. Automated and unbiased recruitment processes
2. Virtual collaboration and communication tools
3. Accessibility and universal design
4. Employee engagement and feedback platforms
5. Analytics and reporting
6. Diversity and inclusion training and awareness programs

Considerations when reporting diversity

Diversity is a subject that contains a lot of fragile information, specifically data and information about people. In the EU, private data like this is protected by the GDPR regulations. This is a legislation that ensures that personal information is protected and gives few requirements and outlines are given that companies must follow to legally protect the data that they are storing. This includes making sure that the wrong people do not get their hands on the information. Therefore, a major regulation that should be takes is making sure that the right people have the right permissions to the right information in a company. Only those who must do something with the diversity information should be able to retrieve it and it should not be posted on a general database. Also, these people should sign a secrecy document so that if data does get leaked, the company is protected. 

Furthermore, it is important to consider how information is gathered in a privacy-friendly and ethical manner. To start with, there are a number of pillars for ethics in data collection:

• Consent - The person whose data is being collected, agrees to their data being known and stored. It is best to have this signed on too.
• Confidentiality - Ensuring that the data is kept secret and that not everyone can access the information or data.
• Communication - It is vital to have clear agreements with parties who are involved with the data. 

Moreover, another issue with data collection is that you put people in boxes: male vs female, young vs old, unskilled vs skilled etc. This is not how you want your workforce to feel. Zooming in on gender, this method is called the Dichotomous Sex Variable Approach; simply said, dividing between male and female. There are two issues with this: physical sex and gender identity. Some members of the workforce may not identify as a male or a female and therefore be non-binary meanwhile others physically are not either because they possess dual gender traits, this is called intersex. 

Diversity 

Meanwhile diversity is not the first idea that comes to mind while thinking of sustainability, it is a required to be reported in corporate sustainability reports. Alongside the importance of diversity itself, there is also an importance to report on diversity for both in- and external reasons. First, internally, reporting can provide insight to your employees about whether they or colleagues are being treated correctly. Eventually, the report does not have to make a company seem perfect, it should be focussed on telling the truth, even if this is daunting. Also, anyone who feels they are being discriminated against could be provided with evidence because of this report. Externally, the risks of not reporting on diversity are larger than expected and can even lead to lawsuits or later problems regarding claims of racism or discrimination. Therefore, to protect your company, it is vital to report this information. 

‘Workplace diversity is not a moral obligation anymore. Instead, it is the basis of a healthy organisational environment, paving the way for a more diverse workplace, happier staff, and improved productivity’. 

Importance of being diverse

Alongside the reasons of reporting importance, there are several reasons to also be diverse:

1. Increases employee engagement. 
2. Enhanced company culture. 
3. Reduced employee turnover. 
4. Encourages more selection and range of skills. 
5. More effortless recruitment. 

Besides this, having a diverse workforce can ensure a bigger talent pool, increased employee trust and engagement, new perspectives, innovation, better decision-making, improved performance and stronger business profiles and profits. In several cases, specifically in the healthcare department, a positive correlation between diverse workforces and employee productivity has been concluded. On the other hand, though – to be transparent - other studies have found that the correlation between diversity and productivity is not always positive. Articles state that a diverse workforce could allow colleagues to feel less connected to one another and their workplace, which results in less positive experiences and a higher employee turnover. 

By Natasha Marks