Best Practice: Embracing Diversity - Guidance for Managers

Institute Work

Institute diversity policy and plans

The Institute has been reviewing its diversity strategies, to develop a plan of activity for 2010 and beyond.

• Our starting point

Monitoring

for the past three years, the Institute has sought to capture data on a voluntary basis from new and existing members on ethnicity and disability

Publications

A professional practice leaflet, Embracing Diversity, was published in July 2007, and circulated to all members through Professional Manager. Articles and features have been regularly published in Professional Manager.

Working Groups

A group of Institute members, actively engaged in diversity issues, is kept informed of activities and consulted on issues as appropriate.

Information

The Institute provides a variety of resources on the issues of diversity and equality – through KnowledgeDirect and its library management system, and the organisational resource tool, ManagementDirect.

External activities

The Institute is also involved in external networks:

‘Equally Professional’ - a network of professional institutes bought together by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).  The CMI has chaired the Network during 2009/10.  The first annual report for EP was published in May 2010.

PARN (Professional Associations Research Network) - has undertaken various pieces of work on ‘diversity and the professions’. The latest research project - on ways in which professional bodies can embed awareness and support for diversity - was based on a research survey sent out to the members of the network; one of the outcomes is a model of diversity awareness and engagement for professional associations.  Professional bodies interact on diversity issues, through a PARN online Special Interest Group.

• What we intend to do

The Institute aims to achieve its objectives on diversity by undertaking the following actions:

 1. Analysis of the PARN, and other, project outcomes to identify issues of relevance to the Institute and develop these into an action plan

 2. Discussions with other Institutes, that are members of Equally Professional, to share ideas, in particular in terms of capturing member data on diversity

 3. Take steps to improve the collection and analysis of diversity data which the Institute holds on its members.  This will lead to more effective monitoring and reporting.  Establishment of benchmarks across the diversity strands will also be considered.

 4. Invite a small group of members (over and above the core Diversity Working Group) to form a ‘sounding board’ on diversity issues

 5. Develop web resources under the ‘professional practice’ banner 

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Case Studies 

The effectiveness of diversity policies can be found through these individual member case studies testimonies of working within the diversity arena.

• Ninian Le Blanc MBE PJK FCMI - Ex Diversity and Inclusion Director, Royal Mail

A Case Study of Diversity and Inclusion Principles

 Workplace bullying is intimidation whether on a regular and persistent basis or as a one-off – that undermines the competence, effectiveness, confidence and integrity of the person on the receiving end. Not only does bullying and harassment cause great suffering for its victims, it also incurs huge financial loss for any business. 

Bullying and harassment had been an underlying issue across Royal Mail for many years, culminating at the beginning of 2003 with the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) launching an investigation into its poor diversity record and legacy of high profile cases. At that time, 16 per cent of its people told the company they were being bullied and harassed. With Allan Leighton’s appointment as Royal Mail Group Chairman in 2002, followed by a series of new appointments to senior leadership roles, came a new way of working and new business priorities.

One of those priorities was to make Royal Mail a great place to work – and the adoption of a zero tolerance approach to bullying and harassment was vital to this. With support for this approach coming from the very top of the company, we introduced a revised procedure to eliminate bullying and harassment in July 2004.

The policy was developed following consultation and feedback from over 1,500 of our people, including union representatives, with the focus on swift and local resolution to complaints and ‘nipping things in the bud’ if appropriate. All our 193,000 people received a personal mailing to their homes to outline the new policy and explain what steps they could take if they were being bullied or harassed. Although no two cases are the same, our starting point was to consider whether a situation could be dealt with locally, or there is a need to escalate things further.

Where appropriate, we believed issues are often best dealt with on a local and informal level.  However, where a situation is more serious or complex, it is necessary to manage it formally. This ‘local ownership’ has been critical in challenging behaviour.

 To support the new procedure, a tailored management information system was created to record and track cases. We introduced 12 full-time independent investigators to investigate complex complaints of harassment, supported by five regional case managers. A 28-day target for dealing with complaints was introduced, and this starts from the receipt of a complaint.

Another key strand of the zero tolerance approach was to set up a free, independent and confidential helpline. This is operated round-the clock 24/7/365 by qualified impartial counsellors through Care First and is open to any employee who wants to talk about bullying and harassment. The service was initially promoted by the Chairman through a personal letter to employees’ homes. It included a credit card-sized information card listing a helpline number.

There is also information on Royal Mail’s intranet and website. The helpline number is also published every month in the internal newspaper that every employee receives. Since its launch in 2003, the helpline has received over 12000 calls and this continues at the same rate.

To create an inclusive culture throughout the company where everyone felt valued and respected, we undertook diversity training for over 195,000 employees (an undertaking that no other UK business could match or attempted) including all 17,000 managers. This took 18 months to deliver and was completed in June 2005. The training was supported by the production and distribution of 11,000 diversity and inclusion guides for managers which detailed how a proactive approach could be taken by managers and gave practical advice how to achieve an inclusive workforce.

Diversity champions were appointed at a strategic level to promote inclusion and access. This has been tremendously valuable in terms of focusing action. We also established over 120 Dignity and Respect at Work (DRAW) groups across the business. These groups met on a regular basis and provided a forum for employees to raise diversity issues and initiate plans. This enabled the local deployment of our centrally developed strategy and underlined the message that everyone in our organisation has a responsibility for stopping bullying and harassment.

Different types of people bring more varied ideas and views into any company – fully harnessing the talents of all was and is vital to ensuring a company is competitive in a market where customers are diverse and expect to be served by people with whom they can identify.

To celebrate diversity and its achievement within the company and to recognise the people who were helping to make the business a better place to work, we established the Chairman’s Diversity Awards in 2005. The awards recognised the efforts the employees were making to ensure that their colleagues were treated with dignity and respect. In addition to showcasing best practice, the awards highlight the practical day-to-day steps that can be taken towards greater diversity and inclusion.

Over the course of a year, we surveyed all our people to gather their views on working for Royal Mail. To drive further improvements, managers were given details of what their employees were saying and tasked to formulate action plans together with the support of their charges.

In March 2006, 64 per cent of employees thought Royal Mail was a great place to work, and this has shown an upward trend over the past few years. We believed that no one distinct intervention can change a workplace culture – rather by taking an integrated and strategic approach utilising a number of tools and methods, this will ultimately lead to the ‘tipping point’. The strategy we followed had a theme of ‘central development, local deployment’ – the fact that ownership had been developed at local level was vital to the progress that has been made.

Visible leadership was a critical factor in demonstrating to our people, particularly at management level, that we were serious about tackling negative behaviour. Royal Mail’s Board backed this up with tangible actions that included being the first to undertake diversity awareness training and personally communicating with our people on this subject. Senior managers also ensured that words were being translated into practical actions. Significant progress in tackling bullying and harassment has been made since we embarked on this major programme of cultural change. However, it has to be recognised that this is a gradual process and there is still a long way to go.

Cultural change is never easy as it is directed at individuals’ beliefs, behaviour and sometimes all they have known from childhood, however, there have been some encouraging signs that we were heading in the right direction. The EOC suspended its investigation into the company’s diversity record and there has been a decrease in the number of employees stating that they are being bullied and harassed.

As a result of the actions we took Royal Mail received a number of awards in recognition of the improvements that have been made to become more diverse and inclusive as an organisation.

We were determined and committed to creating an environment where bullying and harassment was not acceptable and where all employees supported the rights of their colleagues to be treated with dignity and respect.

The fruits of our labour have created a new environment where any individual can thrive according to their efforts and not according to their colour, race, religion or disability.  A culture where an individual is judged by their positive contributions to the company and where these efforts are rewarded.

I am proud to have been part of what has proven to be a rewarding and enjoyable journey

• Kane Clements MBA MCMI - Management Consultant, Klem Ltd

I have been working in or around the field of Equality and Diversity (E and D) in the public sector on and off for a decade and a half, in the last few years I became a full time practitioner. It was in this period that I was responsible for designing and implementing our response to the requirements of a National Improvement Strategy.

In a sector where E and D has been the subject of attention for some years the process was regrettably problematic and exposed the shortcomings of relying on regulation to achieve change. Whilst a proportion of the organisation was committed to the issues, there remained a large rump that saw E and D as a bolt on and at best a tick box exercise. A typical response to the idea of integrating E and D into daily working practice would be; ‘We don’t have time for that, we’ve got a job to do.’ There were a whole range of defensive routines employed by resisters (at all levels). This meant that getting support for the significant funding required to progress was a hard fought though ultimately successful battle.

Much of the resistance was and continues to be the legacy of previous poor quality interventions and initiatives that had got peoples backs up, made them feel that they were being blamed and their values attacked. The business case for improving performance in particular the quality of service through the integration of E and D had never been properly made or assimilated. Neither was there an understanding amongst much of the management in this hierarchical command and control organisation of the benefits of incorporating E and D into daily practice.

The requirements for successful cultural change in organisations are well documented, the science of organisational development is clear. Implementing E and D requires careful and sensitive management as people can easily feel that their core values are being attacked.

Genuine support and leadership from the top needs to be linked to an understanding of the business case for E and D throughout an organisation. Some people will be perfectly comfortable with some issues and not with others. Blame should be avoided at all costs.

E and D isn’t something that one can ‘do to people.’ I have found the most effective means of making progress is to enable people to meet representatives from relevant groups in a safe environment. There it is possible for people to recognise how much have in common and explore uniqueness with respect.

Change requires patience. Project implementation can be kept to a schedule, enabling people to consider their values takes time, respect and true confidence in the capacity of people to build respect and empathy.

• Nehemiah Moyo MCMI -
  

Implementing a Diversity management programme: a Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council Experience

Introduction

The increasing sense of corporate social responsibility and the need to be compliant with the various pieces of equality legislation have been among the main drivers for Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council’s engagement with equality and diversity management programme.  As a Council, we want to treat people as individuals and also want to close the gap on inequality within the Borough.  We acknowledge the benefits and contribution that managing equality and diversity makes to the achievement of our business objectives.  We manage equality and diversity in employment, service planning and delivery.

For us, managing diversity is a journey, not simply a project, hence we are still learning and developing in this area.  In engaging in the diversity programme, we identified and acknowledged the various kinds of diversity that were important to Solihull .  We were mainly guided by the various equality legislation requirements in this area, hence we focused on: age, gender, race, disability, faith/religion and sexual orientation.  However, through delivering services to the communities within the Borough, we have realised that other forms of diversity are equally important and need to be addressed if our business objectives are to be achieved, for example differences in educational attainments of young people and differences arising from geographical locations.  As a local authority, we have worked (and continue to do so) with different stakeholders to understand our business case for promoting equality and diversity and developing a diversity strategy and action plan.

Who was involved in the Development of the Diversity Strategy and Action Plan?

In order to support the promotion of equality and diversity within the organisation, we had to develop formal structures to help in the planning, delivery and evaluation of the diversity programme.   

In addition to the three dedicated human resources to facilitate and influence equality and diversity within the organisation, Diversity Champions were identified within each of the five Council Directorates.  These are senior managers, including Directors, from each of the Directorates.  Their responsibility is to lead on equality and diversity, ensuring that these are actively embedded in planning, service delivery and employment within their Directorates.  The Directorate Champions are part of the Corporate Diversity Group whose responsibility is to strategically steer the equality and diversity agenda within the organisation.  Within the membership of the Corporate Diversity Group, there is also the Assistant Chief Executive of the organisation, the elected member (who chairs this group), the Corporate Diversity Consultant and myself (representing an additional member from the Children and Young People’s Directorate.  The Corporate Diversity Group meets once a month. The Corporate Diversity Group is accountable to the Corporate Management Team, which is made up of the most senior people in the organisation, including the chief Executive of the organisation.  The role of this team with respect to equality and diversity is to ensure that the Corporate Equality and Diversity strategy and action plan are implemented, monitored and evaluated.  This keeps the equality and diversity high on the organisational agenda.  The Corporate Management Team is in turn accountable to the Cabinet (formed of elected members).  The Cabinet has acknowledged that equality and diversity need to be high on the Council’s priorities.

 In every Directorate, there is a Directorate Diversity Group, which ensures that equality and diversity remain on the agenda of each of their business units and appropriate actions are implemented and monitored.  Membership of the Directorate Diversity Group consists of heads of services and other senior managers within each Directorate.  Each of the Directorate Diversity Groups is accountable to its Directorate Management Teams.

The Corporate Equalities Consultant led the development of the organisational equality and diversity strategy, which included employment and service delivery issues.  In developing the equality and diversity strategy, organisational objectives were identified based on, among other things, organisational priorities and outcomes.   All the formal structures described above were consulted when the strategy was developed.  A number of consultation events were also held for staff, members of the community, the community and voluntary sector, and other key stakeholders, as part of the developmental process of the strategy.  The draft strategy was also circulated electronically and in hard copy to relevant stakeholders for comment.  Opportunities were made available to have the strategy in different formats for those that required it as such.

Action plans for all Directorates flowed from the organisational strategy.  In the Education and Children’s services I, as a dedicated person in this area for the Directorate, led in the development of the Action Plan.  Our Directorate priorities were identified and agreed at senior management, through the Diversity Group.  The annual outcomes review for the Directorate, the results of the Diversity Business Standards audit, the results of equality impact assessments of our key policies and functions, the ethnic minority children and young people’s services review were among the initiatives which helped to identify major gaps in the equalities and diversity agenda that we needed to address.  The priorities were also in line with the Children and young People’s Plan and linked well with other strategic plans and initiatives within the Council.  During the development of the Directorate Action Plan, there were wide consultations with staff teams and managers.  This was to ensure a “buy in” and that there was a common understanding and commitment to the Action plan by as many service areas within the Directorate as possible. The Action Plan was signed off by the Directorate Equality and diversity Group, who are responsible for its performance management. 

What were the obstacles/barriers and how were they overcome?

The development of the Action plan was not without problems.  There was in some cases, a negative attitude to the change programme caused by lack of (or limited) understanding of what equality and diversity entailed; misunderstandings of its implications, and also due to the fear of the unknown.  This negativity manifested itself in some cases in lack of (or limited) engagement in equality and diversity initiatives.  Overcoming the barriers has been an ongoing process.  Communication about the key issues of equality and diversity has been ongoing at all levels.  Performance management of equality and diversity has been identified as an improvement in this area. 

The Directorate has engaged in a training needs analysis in an effort to understand the training needs of the staff.  As a result of this, specific training programmes have been developed and implemented for certain groups of workers, for example school governors, school staff and foster carers.  As part of their induction programme, all new employees of the organisation are required to attend a half day induction session on general awareness of equality and diversity. In addition to this, the education and children’s Services Directorate worked with partners in developing a multi-agency equality and diversity awareness programme for all new staff working with children and young people in the Borough, regardless of whether they were Council employees or not.  So far there has been two such sessions and they have been highly successful.  The partnership approach has also helped in putting across the business, moral and legal case for the organisation to be engaging in equality and diversity.  The organisation’s acting chief executive and the other Directors have also conducted managers’ briefing sessions, where they explained how promoting equality and diversity linked in with our business objectives as a Council and that it was everyone’s responsibility to embed equality and diversity in their daily work.  The Council is about to re-brand equality and diversity as a concept so that we secure more engagement with staff in this area.

What were the successes and benefits?

Engaging in equality and diversity has had a number of benefits for the Directorate and the organisation as a whole.  There has been an increased sense of corporate social responsibility of the Council towards its residents.  There has been increased engagement with a wider customer base, enabling the Council to understand needs of different customers and be better equipped to meet these.  This has also helped in the development (or commissioning) of services and marketing strategies.  Because the Directorate is better at understanding the needs of unaccompanied asylum seeking children and young people, for example, opportunities for this disadvantaged group of children and young people have been created.  Education and Children’s Services has increased the participation and active involvement of young people in the planning and delivery of services in the borough, with consequent benefits to the young people themselves, for example enhancement of their confidence and leadership skills.  The profile of equality and diversity has increased within the Council and the progress made in promoting and embedding equality and diversity has been recognised and acknowledged by many external stakeholders including government inspectors.   This has helped to enhance the organisation’s reputation and image as evidenced by the increasing staff diversity.  The training has also yielded results as more staff are engaging with equalities and diversity than before.  The equality impact assessment results have been built into business improvement processes of different services areas or business units.

What does the future hold?

For the future, more needs to be done to embed equality and diversity into business planning.  As a Council, we will need to review our diversity management strategy to ensure that it is delivering what we intended it to.  Equality and diversity are the contemporary management phenomena that cannot be ignored by an organisation like ours that needs to be socially responsible and make a difference to all sections of the community. Equality and diversity strategic objectives and targets will need to be clearer and owned across the entire organisation as equality and diversity is everyone’s responsibility.  The increasing diversity and complexity of our communities, coupled with the changing equality legislation all have an effect of making this subject more important.  Smarter ways of embedding equality and diversity within business planning, employment and service delivery will need to be had.  More resources will also have to be assembled and used effectively to achieve equality and diversity objectives and business objectives.  We will continue learning and importing good practice on equality and diversity from similar organisations.  We will also continue benchmarking our work on equality and diversity.

What are the key areas to bear in mind?

From the experience of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, the following key areas need to be borne in mind when implementing an equality and diversity programme:

• Identify and acknowledge the kinds of diversity that are important.
• Work with different stakeholders to understand your own “business case”
• Develop formal structures to support embedding equality and diversity.
• Ensure that senior management, including the Cabinet/Board, is committed to championing the equality and diversity agenda.
• Develop a diversity strategy/policy and action plan.
• Communicate clearly what the strategy/policy is to staff, customers, clients, contractors etc.
• Make sure that people understand what diversity means to them and their work.
• Monitor and review the impact of the diversity management strategy.
• Develop policies and practices that reflect and implement commitment to managing equality and diversity.
• Build the support and trust from people inside and outside the organisation.
• Learn from others and benchmark work in equality and diversity.

Conclusion

From a personal perspective, being involved in the implementation and performance management of equality and diversity has been a learning experience.  I have improved and broadened my knowledge and understanding of the equality relevant legislation and how this whole agenda fits in with many strategic business objectives.  As I am involved in an area that has a wide range of impacts in various business areas, I have increased my networks, not just to my advantage but also to that of the organisation. Through the increased partnership working and expanded networks, the organisation has been able to access information and resources it would normally not have accessed had it not been working in such a manner. Both the organisation and I understand the importance of consulting in ordered to gain commitment throughout the organisation and stakeholder groups.

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 Further Information

This resource section gives access to a variety of diversity material. Please click on the heading to access the reports or articles.

• Institute Research

A CMI report examining recruitment trends among female, ethnic minority and disabled managers with the aim of informing ways of attracting more diverse talent in the workplace.

• PARN report

http://www.parnglobal.com/equality-diversity-inclusion.htm

Research report on how the professions can embed awareness and support for diversity.

The report contains information on:

• a map of current practice in relation to staff, membership and governance,
• an exploration of the ways in which professional bodies can embed awareness for diversity in their organization,
• guidance on using training to support positive attitudes and practices towards diversity and equality, and
• case studies from 10 professional bodies that have taken steps to encourage a positive approach to diversity and equality.

• CBI and TUC report

A joint report on diversity in the workplace entitled Talent not Tokenism.The report found that companies who look beyond the ‘usual suspects’ for staff and employ people on the basis of their abilities and potential, regardless of their sex, race, age, disability, sexual orientation or religion can benefit in many ways including: higher morale and productivity; improved retention rates and lower recruitment costs