Business

Diversity isn’t just a numbers game

Imagine it was a game of football and Lionel Messi was suddenly made to feel included . . . .
Imagine it was a game of football and Lionel Messi was suddenly made to feel included . . . . Imagine it was a game of football and Lionel Messi was suddenly made to feel included . . . .

THINK back to your childhood. Remember competitive games and activities that lasted from just after dinner until you were dragged inside in pitch darkness.

Chances are someone will have arrived with a younger sibling in tow, forced to take them along by their mother, just as they were running out the door. They arrive and the younger sibling is picked last, maybe made to be substitute, or told to stay in goals out of the way. So they are part of the game, sure, but more than likely they are not adding any value to proceedings.

Now think a little more on this in a business context. Technically the group became more diverse. They added someone to the collective with a different age profile. They now tick the right boxes. Celebrate, party’s over, I’m going home; right?

Wrong. Have they actually achieved anything purposeful, have they done anything constructive or contributed to the success of the team the little brother is (nominally) playing for, or have they just inflated a statistic.

And therein lies the issue with diversity in the workplace. It’s a great principle. It’s absolutely needed and any company worth their salt should be factoring this into their thinking.

However, there is a danger where companies simply succumb to the best practice preaching, instructing them to be ‘diverse’, without actually thinking beyond the numbers. They spend an inordinate amount of time creating the ‘mix’ so they can show the decision makers a variety of spreadsheets, graphs, reports and pie charts that demonstrate just how many different faiths they have under one roof, or what spread of gender identities work in the business, how many old, young and in-betweeners they have. Yet that’s where it usually stops. A paper exercise.

Peel back the wallpaper and you’ll soon start to see whether a company likes to just talk the talk or actually walk the walk. Because it’s not just about having the right numbers or percentages. All diversity really does is recognise that there are differences between people at work. It simply details what the ingredients are.

For diversity to actually mean something, for it to contribute to organisational success, for it to have an effect on the bottom line it must go hand in hand with inclusion.

The CIPD say “inclusion is where difference is seen as a benefit” and that’s the key point. Don’t have differences there just for the sake of it; make everyone feel included, a part of the game plan, able to make a difference. Create the conditions where that wonderful variety of folks you have feel welcome and valued. Where they can give of their best every day. Where they feel they can express opinions, provide ideas, challenge the existing orthodoxy, have a voice; in short, meaningfully contribute.

Also don’t forget that diversity expands beyond just those characteristics protected in law (race , religion, sex, political opinion etc) it also includes things like culture, experience, personality, sense of humour and approach to work. We need to realise that one-size does not fit all, everyone has different needs, drivers, attitudes, personalities, beliefs and ways of working.

So diversity will only really work, only truly add value where it goes hand in hand with inclusion. Have a little think about your own workplace. Do you have a great mix of people on paper, but maybe you don’t provide a platform for everyone to feel valued?

Circle back round to that competitive game as a child. Imagine it was a game of football and that younger sibling was called Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini. Just think what the outcome of that game would be like if he had been made to feel included and had an environment where he could contribute his best . . . .

:: Barry Shannon (bshannon@cayan.com) is HR director at Cayan in Belfast