Creating good diversity environment in workplace

Creating good diversity environment in workplace

Eridani W. Sudiono, Accenture, Jakarta

A diverse workplace, in the United States, for quite a long
time, has been translated as a working environment accommodating
more women and more other-than-white people. The fact is, people
realize that it is not only the case of gender and skin color.

There are more considerations, such as groups of married
people, singles, religions, social background, graduates of
different universities, different languages, previous work, etc.

Some big companies, such as Agilent, Dell, BellSouth, etc have
taken this subject seriously by forming a task force to address
this fact. They assigned dedicated personnel, at top-level
management, as directors and vice presidents of these offices.

Their job is to create a diverse environment that will ensure
employees make good contributions and perform at their best.

These companies face quite big challenges, especially after
the tragedy on Sept. 11, 2001. They have to maintain productivity
in their operations by accommodating their employees who are
Muslims, or who originate from Arabic/Islamic nations.

A lot of these people were faced with uncertainty and unsafe
feelings during that period. This is where the diversity of the
workplace played a vital role.

These days, the UK government has a new law to deal with
employees with families to have more of a balanced life. With the
"help" of government, these offices will have a standard
regulation for married employees. However, they will need to
address other possible issues such as discrimination feelings
among singles.

In Indonesia, when diversity is mentioned, people often, but
not always, think of the many ethnic groups composing the
country. The variables are still similar to those of companies in
the U.S. or Europe. However, depending on the geographical area,
different diversity variables have a different magnitude. Whether
or not the company is a part of a multinational corporation or a
local/national company also plays a crucial role, many factors
exist.

In Indonesia, groupings of people that creates diversity but
sometimes creates hostility (because of certain rivalries) can be
an outcome from differences in universities attended, previous
work, job levels, gender, etc.

Usually people who find it difficult to accept people outside
their narrow sphere will go to their supervisor or HR
organization to complain. But maybe, handling diversity is not
yet a priority. In addition, government regulations can also be
seen as more favorable to men than women, especially on tax
implications. On the other hand, women are entitled to a day off
during their monthly period.

The company culture, which are later developed as regulations,
might end up favoring management levels over non-management by
prohibiting non-management to access "classified" information.
But, on the other hand, non-management is entitled to overtime
pay, meals allowances, etc, while management is not.

How do we handle this? Let's put it as our homework. Some of
the things we need to include in our homework could include how
can we address people with good skills but having personal
preferences or different way of contributing? When these people
with good skills demand more responsibility, how will we handle
it?

If unconsciously our thinking leads to the statement that we
are still far from these concerns, think again. If we think that
it is easier to replace that person, rather than addressing the
concern, think again.

Remember, the bottom line is to encourage people to contribute
and perform well, without judging their way of thinking, work
style, way speaking, their background, etc.