While this is important, there’s little evidence of organisations mainstreaming diversity into operational practices such as marketing, product development and customer services – which is where significant gains could be made in improving business performance.
Few respondents regard improving the quality and performance of the workforce, improving creativity and innovation, improving products and services, and enhancing decision-making as being among the top five drivers (Table 4)
iiIiLeast important talent 13 17 19 8 7 sense 17 14 14 7 8 performance 6 10 15 10 7 8 11 8 7 iili5 8 15 8 7 ii10 9 13 5 7 iiviii6 8 14 8 7 markets 6 7 11 7 8 branding 5 7 13 7 5 decision-making 3 8 15 5 4 itii6 6 10 7 4 market 6 3 8 6 7 Table 4: Key drivers for diversity in terms of business benefits (respondents ranked their top five on a scale of 1–5, with 1 being the most important) Percentage of respondents Most mportant Very mportant mportant Less mportant Overall importance To recruit and retain best Because it makes business 0 To improve business 8 To address recruitment problems 12 Desre to mprove customer reatons To mprove products and servces To mprove creatty and nnovaton Desire to reach diverse 9 To improve corporate To enhance To respond to the competon n the market To respond to the global 0 Base: 285 respondents Diversity in business – a focus for progress 8
T
hese findings emphasise the limited understanding of the broader business case for managing diversity and the importance of communicating what this is about. This would encourage faster progress in mainstreaming diversity management into operational practices, as well as those related to people management and development activities, and would ensure that managing diversity adds greater value to business performance.
Organisations with legal case arguments demonstrate higher levels of sophistication in their diversity management approaches than those who don’t cite legislation as a driver (Table 5). This is also evident, but to a lesser extent, in the correlation between the business case arguments and the level of sophistication (Table 6).
D
iiiiile (ile) Legal case No 27 18 15 13 13 86 29 45 34 44 41 193 56 63 49 57 54 279 Diiiiile (ile) Business case No 33 30 18 20 11 112 23 34 32 39 43 171 56 64 50 59 54 283 Table 5: Legal case and diversity sophistication cross-tabulation versty sophstcaton scapercent20.00 40.00 60.00 80.00 100.00 Total Yes Total Base: 285 respondents Table 6: Business case and diversity sophistication cross-tabulation versty sophstcaton scapercent20.00 40.00 60.00 80.00 100.00 Total Yes Total Base: 285 respondents
Organisations that acknowledge both the importance of legislation and the business case show higher levels of sophistication in their approach to diversity management (Table 7). Organisations that take a polarised approach to driving diversity management initiatives forward don’t reach the high levels of sophistication that can be achieved.
