Articles

Diversity – It’s About Contribution, Not Quotas

We hear a lot about diversity in organisations, with many who want to retain their image as socially responsible employers hiring Diversity Managers to ensure their credentials, yet does a focus on diversity bring it about?

Many diversity initiatives mean that the numbers of people in different sorts of jobs are calculated according to age, gender and ethnic origin with any areas which stand out as unbalanced being investigated.

Whilst it’s critical that organisations discriminate on ability rather than sex or race, many other aspects of the benefits of diversity in organisations are ignored, or even stamped out.  Having a truly diverse team with a variety of talents means having differences in background, in industry experience, in educational specialism, in life stage, in social activities and interests. 

There are no laws to ensure these elements of diversity, and so no legal compulsion to keep an appropriate balance, yet smart managers know that they can build a more effective business that can respond better to different market conditions, different customer types and different employee demands if they have true diversity within the team.

To find out more about developing real diversity in your organisation contact:

Claudine McClean
T: +44 (0) 1789 734333
E: claudinem@predaptive.com

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