Real Diversity
How can you build a truly diverse workforce?
There are some simple but complex steps you can do to ensure your organization embraces and retains the best people with the greatest diversity:
Understand your own culture. There is the culture that people think they have and the one that they really have and, quite often, there is a big gap between the two. You need to understand if the culture you have is rewarding and embracing diverse thinking or squelching it. It is important to know if people are being rewarded in the real sense for keeping their heads low and conforming.
Proper procedures for ‘on boarding’ new hires. The irony of my 30 days was the program I was writing for a client was on proper on-boarding. If they company followed their own advice, none of the problems would have arisen. Things to do include having a plan ready for the new hire that clearly communicates their role, resources, timetable and expectation. Have projects ready for inclusion and, if they offer a unique skill set that is not common in the organization, have a plan ready to communicate their skill and role to others.
Have a ‘firing’ process. With the consulting firm, I went through a four month process. They did every conceivable test on me, short of having me run through a maze and ring a bell to get some cheese. Yet it just took 1 person on the spurt of the moment in a 4 week timeframe to terminate my employment. Make the ‘firing’ process as onerous and well thought out as your hiring process.
For me, the story has a happy ending. I recently joined a consulting firm that is doing some of the most interesting and cutting-edge work I have ever done in my career. They are an organization that understands that innovation and risk taking are the core of any organization’s ability to grow and thrive. They embrace true diversity by creating an environment that not just encourages but embraces different thinking. It is a place where not everybody has to have the ‘X’ factor in order to be a part of the team.
There is and always will be a war for top talent and it is the duty of the culture to activate the skill set of its people so that the organization can grow. If you don’t incorporate the diversity that comes from having the best talent available, your competitors will and they will thrive while you work to survive.