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.