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The Changing Face of Diversity in the Workplace
by Dee Mann
Diversity. It’s a word that was coined in the 1980s. Both championed and misunderstood, it defines a concept that’s here to stay. According to Lydia Mallett, vice president of diversity for Tyco International, Inc, where she is leading a new diversity initiative, “Diversity work is probably the toughest change management work anybody is going to do.”
Learning to understand and successfully interact with co-workers of a different culture, race, religion, ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, interpersonal style and age requires that we address norms and stereotypes we’ve grown up with. It requires crossing boundaries, stretching paradigms and questioning political and societal views.
Yet despite the challenges, and according to several diversity professionals in our community, there has been definite and measurable progress.
The accomplishments range from broadening and deepening the meaning of the word “diversity” to creating purposeful and successful relationships among people of different backgrounds and employees and their organizations.
For the Twin Cities area, these relationships are increasingly crucial. The Twin Cities area continues to become more demographically diverse:
- African-Americans and African immigrants make up the largest population of color in the metro area, while Hispanics are the fastest-growing group.
- Immigrants and refugees now account for about one-quarter of the student body in the Minneapolis public schools and about one-third of the student body in the St. Paul public schools.
- The Twin Cities is home to the largest number of Hmong and Somali immigrants outside of their homelands.
- Minnesota has the highest female labor participation rate in the country, with 72.4 percent of women with children under age 6 in the labor force.
- The population of the Twin Cities region, as a whole, is aging. By 2030, older adults will account for 20 percent of the population, compared to 13 percent today.
Definitions
Wally Leary, a diversity consultant and trainer who runs his own business, Wally Leary Diversity and Inclusion, is steadfast in his belief that diversity is a part of everything we do. “It’s not its own subject,” he maintains, “it’s about understanding that everyone fits.”
“In many work situations,” Wally continues, “we’ve recognized the importance of bringing everyone to the table, of including everyone. As a result, we already have more effective marketing strategies and people staying at their workplaces longer and with greater engagement. There are more opportunities for people to be recognized for achievement. We tap a broader pool of qualified candidates and have developed a better ability to hire the right person for the job.”
With over seventeen years’ corporate and consulting experience in the diversity arena, Lydia believes that what began as a specific focus on human rights and affirmative action compliance has evolved into diversity initiatives that seek to create a better workplace and world for everyone. “We’re now providing for a more open environment in which people can negotiate different kinds of relationships with their companies.”
It’s still critically important, however, to continue measuring progress for people of color and for women, the forces that pioneered the first diversity efforts. Thanks to those early efforts, we now have a broader variety of leaders in our organizations, as people have had more opportunity to be successful over the last decade. “Ten to fifteen years ago,” Lydia recalls, “diversity directors were still trying to convince their companies that promoting diversity was the right thing to do, both on a personal and business level. Today, senior leadership articulates that argument themselves.”
A strong commitment from leadership is especially important to the success of any diversity initiative. “Establishing clear goals that are benchmarked regularly, holding leaders accountable for results, and conducting regular training are all central to achieving diversity goals,” Lydia asserts.
Greater Twin Cities United Way: A Unique Model
At United Way, promoting equal opportunity and inclusiveness while improving lives and strengthening communities is at the heart of the organization. Diversity is woven into the more than 200 nonprofit United Way-supported partner agencies in the nine-county area. Focus areas include children; families and communities; jobs and training; food and shelter; seniors and people with disabilities; and health.
United Way uses a multipronged approach to diversity. As part of its effort to build the capacity of its nonprofit partners, United Way’s Cultural Dynamic’s program offers new ways to think about and discuss diversity, both in the workplace and in the community. A wide range of seminars are available for community nonprofits as well as for individuals interested in expanding their communication skills, diversity IQ and cultural competence.
Internally, United Way continues to increase its number of multicultural staff members and offer training opportunities to increase employees’ understanding of diversity. In 2004, United Way significantly increased the number of diverse volunteers responsible for reviewing programs.
Despite reports that Minnesota does well overall, communities of color fare worse in areas such as health, education and housing. Recent United Way health funding targeted low-income American Indians at risk of having type II diabetes. Bright Smiles provides oral healthcare for Hmong and Latino children living in St. Paul. Another funding effort provided assistance in teaching literacy skills to low-income children in Minneapolis and St. Paul who are not in licensed childcare centers.
United Way’s Community Investment Fund provides one-time grants of up to $5,000 to fund grass-roots projects. Recent projects include the Latino Economic Development Center and African American Relief and Development Initiatives.
Diverse Healthcare
Elsa Batica, manager of cross-cultural care and development and training at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics, and principal of Batica & Associates International, is passionate about education, civil rights and healthcare. She defines a culturally competent person as one “who has awareness of one’s own culture and history as well as the interdependence and complexity of the world.”
“You need to develop an ability to take multiple perspectives, with tolerance for both ambiguity and familiarity,” Elsa explains. “You need to look honestly into your own background and recognize the warts there—none of us is perfect. You can then appreciate other people.”
Children’s Hospitals and Clinics run a number of initiatives with an eye towards maintaining appropriate, sensitive and effective patient, employee and vendor relationships. The organization pays special regard to providing competent care, language access and organizational support. There are internal support and development systems for people of diverse cultures, including a support group that helps Hmong employees learn to navigate the particular nuances of worklife at Children’s.
All employees at Children’s are encouraged to volunteer for medical missions as a way of learning more about other cultures. An interpreter services department exists solely to ensure that medical care is specific to certain cultures, while a diversity action council supported by top leadership enjoys multidepartmental representation. Diversity is promoted around leadership, selection and retention, coaching and mentoring, reward and reinforcement, knowledge and evaluation, and communication.
Elsa’s personal strategy revolves around her enthusiasm for education. “I started looking at what people need to know so that they don’t have to hate,” she points out. A well-known quote gives clarity to her life’s work, “That which we don’t know, we fear. That which we fear, we hate.”
Lydia, Wally and Elsa all agree there’s been progress in diversity, and that progress has been painfully slow. Echoing their assessment, Lila Kelly of Lila Kelly Associates, a diversity and hiring strategies company, maintains, “We still have a long way to go. We’ve taken two steps forward and one backward, but it feels like we’re moving forward. Because of sheer demographics, we have to. Coming behind the retiring generation of baby boomers is a very diverse group.”
All four agree there is work to be done, especially for women and people of color, but as Lila affirms, “Awareness about diversity now is huge, compared to twelve years ago when I started. Whether or not attitudes have really changed, the demographics have. And never before in history have we had as much representation of people of color, women, people with disabilities, and people who are gay or lesbian—and out at work—in our organizations.”
The Challenges of Job Interviews
Lila conducts training on how the employment interview process impacts people of diverse backgrounds, and ultimately businesses. Because qualified minority job applicants can get screened out due to interviewers’ lack of understanding of diverse cultures, the quality of both individual and corporate lives is affected. Even if a job offer is made, oftentimes the candidate won’t accept. “It’s usually a series of things,” Lila clarifies, “not necessarily one thing. From the start, applicants may perceive that at least one individual in the organization is not comfortable with them. To the applicant, this one person can reflect the whole company. When other little or perhaps some blatant things happen, which are either verbalized or communicated via body language, then that first impression is confirmed.”
Lila’s research supports the notion that many cultures discourage promoting oneself as bragging. But the interview process expects candidates to confidently endorse themselves as the right one for the job, and to proudly and assertively checklist their achievements. Due to their own cultural paradigm that upholds personal humility, many minority applicants find it tremendously difficult to respond in synch with American employment culture. So the best qualified candidate may have the most unsuccessful interview.
Several United Way partner agencies provide job search training and support for individuals facing cultural, language and economic barriers to employment. Some of those same agencies also serve people with disabilities, persons leaving welfare dependency and older adults. Other partner agencies run employment programs as well as social and counseling services that target other cultural groups, including the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.
What’s Next
Our work is not yet done, but there is evidence of definite and measurable progress in the business and community sectors, including: commitment from senior corporate leadership, efforts to create opportunities and inclusiveness for minorities and all employee networks, volunteer programs, private businesses that consult on diversity issues, nonprofits that address the needs of our diverse community, the availability of services and products that appeal to people of diverse backgrounds, mentoring programs and community-wide conversations to raise cross-cultural communication skills.
All in all, though patience can wear thin while awaiting real and systemic change in diversity, it’s clear that there is optimism that what remains to be achieved is within reach.
United Way is committed to supporting programs that promote diversity, and to helping our region benefit from the richness of its community so that all may enjoy health, education, satisfying employment and quality of life.
Written by free-lance writer Dee Mann for Greater Twin Cities United Way.
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