Examples of Good Practice wanted

I am keen to hear of three or four 'things' I would see if I worked in a company that was a good way along the Diversity and Inclusion process.

I would love some practical, everyday examples that people can relate to.

What would be happening differently in meetings? Discussions? Office chit chat?

Having read some articles and posts there is some great discussion but it is often quite academic/global.

Thanks in advance.

Managing diversity and prevent hate crimes and racism

The social fallout from the ongoing global economic crisis must not become an excuse to allow racism and prejudice to go unchecked.

Racism and discrimination have continued and in some places even increased, despite laws prohibiting them. It is a sad truth that violence, discrimination and hate crimes directed against ethnic minorities and migrants remain a daily reality throughout the UK. But people from diverse backgrounds, cultures and religions/beliefs bring a diversity to our societies that we know to be a driver not only for social change, but also for economic growth. This is an abundance of untapped potential that we would be ill-advised to ignore.”

The skills and talents of members of diverse groups in our societies – whether they are citizens of the countries in which they live or more recent migrants – need to be acknowledged, and furthermore to be better utilised.

A proactive approach that appreciates diversity while furthering inclusion would help to reduce racial discrimination and increase security, as well as helping to boost growth.

Periods of severe economic downturn can result in greater social exclusion, which often leads to a search for scapegoats – and it is then groups and individuals from diverse backgrounds are often the first to suffer.

In the countries most affected by the consequences of the economic crisis, there has been an increase in the appeal of extremist parties that are rooted in a profound hostility to ethnic, religious and cultural diversity.

We all need to think about how we manage diversity and challenge inequalities within our society.

Managing diverse teams

It is fun and exciting to work in a diverse working environment. There is so much to learn, understand and grasp. A whole new world of possibilities, different points of view, wisdom and experience is open to each one of us who are willing to receive it with an open mind.

Go into the work environment with a focus on behaving, interacting and working in a professional manner, while respecting people in the way they want to be respected.

People come into professional work environments with three to seven different language backgrounds, with English as the common language. Chances are that miscommunication, the inability to translate words correctly into English, and the wrong context of tone and language can cause unnecessary barriers and tensions.

In these situations where there are diverse issues, never take sides based on your own personal understanding. Always clarify what was meant, expected or discussed. In many cases, it is very easy to misunderstand, blow a simple matter out of proportion and make it an inequality issue.

What are the problems that you are likely to face in a diverse environment?

The challenges you are likely to face will be human interaction issues. Some of these include fear, personal feelings, beliefs and emotions related to past programming, anger and misconceptions based on our political and personal histories and experiences.

People are bound to be in conflict regardless of what their personal characteristic/ background is because each person has a different personality, experiences, expectations, leadership style, communication style and values:

1. People of different diverse cultures, religions/beliefs and backgrounds also greet each other at various times of the day. This allows them acknowledge each other’s presence and humanness. If you do not greet people in the way they wished to be greeted, then they feel hurt and withdrawn.

2. One of the common challenges facing employers is that people are not catered for at work functions in terms of what they can, can’t and sometimes eat according to their dietary, religious or personal beliefs. This makes them feel left out and not valued.

Remember that we are working with human beings with feelings. Learning how to adjust our behaviour to be more inclusive also improves professional interactions tremendously.

New and different ways to solve challenges in diverse working environments

 

1. Create an environment that allows you to listen thoughtfully and resolve potential issues amicably without it becoming a personal issue


2. Learn communication skills that will assist you to adjust your personality type, learning style, body language, eye-contact and tone of voice to suit the person you are interacting with to achieve better results.


3. Greet people in their own languages as appropriate. It’s fun and incredible how you warm their hearts and improve your working relationships.


4. When you have work functions, be aware of religious or traditional backgrounds and adjust the dates and catering accordingly. Otherwise, people feel isolated and rejected.


5. Don’t judge entire groups of people based on your limited knowledge of other peoples’ experiences. Research, question, experiment, visit and find out as much as you can about diversity and difference in groups and individuals so that you can connect at a deeper level.


6. Steer clear of stereotyping. Rather speak to a person directly and ask the relevant/appropriate question with the intention of really learning.


7. Interact on a social basis. This breaks a lot of fear, builds relationships, removes gossiping and allows you to connect with the person as a human being who is valued for their personal qualities, skills and intelligence.


8. Above all, respect the person in front of you and treat them as a person, not a colour, nationality, age or religion.

The Importance of Equality and Diversity Training

Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) training is an important commodity of the business world. No matter what kind of business you are in, this is an agenda for change and improvement. Businesses need to see the agenda as an improvement agenda as opposed to Political Correctness gone mad. Businesses should be running with the idea of PC – but when we say PC, we mean Professional Competence and confidence and practicing commonsense.

Too often, managers and staff avoid exploring this agenda and when there is an issue of inequality or discrimination they shy away from it by being reactive and looking all the time for quick fixes. We all know that quick fixes and knee jerk reactions rarely work on complex equality and diversity problems.

There is a need for organisations to review their structures, policies and procedure to ensure that they impact on all areas of the business and that staff have not only awareness, but an understanding about equality, diversity and inclusion.

If we are going to change the culture of an organisation, it is crucial that every effort is made to raise staff awareness, knowledge and understanding about what an equality organisation looks like and how staff are expected to behave in terms of professionalism. The agenda is not about being politically correct, but about demonstrating professional competence, confidence and common sense - PC with a difference.

Cultural change involves a sustained effort and a prolonged commitment by all concerned. While delivering EDI training to organisations, I have often heard from a minority of staff vitriolic comments, offensive language and some totally inappropriate views where staff don’t see the issues from other people’s point of view.

What is revealing about this is that most of the time staff précis their comments with, “ I am not racist, homophobic, sexist, but....”. Comments are often harsh and shocking and I believe revealing about issues the organsiations are not addressing.

This tells me that in some organisations, when it comes to issues of race or any of the protected characteristics, the first time there is an open debate about equality and diversity is in the training session. It is sad that staff feel unable to explore issues of EDI as part of their day to day practice. This is surely an agenda for staff meetings and team discussions. If EDI is not on the agenda, how do we progress the issues? If staff feel unable to discuss issues of race, sexuality, age etc., the issues are driven underground and you will find staff attending training rolling their eyes, tutting and firmly folding their arms when these issues are raised rather than openly discussing and exploring the issues from different viewpoints.

How can the culture of an organisation be changed if there is not the opportunity for people to share their experiences of inequality, or if the organisation fails to offer real and worthwhile opportunities to challenge myths, stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination and misconceptions?

Training should provide opportunities for staff and senior managers to debate issues and policies/procedures; these polices together offering opportunities for solutions as well as identifying problems

Businesses need to explore with staff their views, needs and issues. They need to consider the future, what will the work force look like in five years time, who will our customers be, etc.

This is an important question because in 2010, only 20 per cent of the UK's full-time workforce comprised white, non-disabled men under 45. Over the coming years, the workforce is set to become even more diverse, reflecting trends towards an ageing population, greater ethnic diversity and more women taking up positions in paid work.

How will you manage?

Building equality into the curriculum

A curriculum which addresses issues of citizenship, equality, and diversity and includes all learners as equal participants is a vital part of improving the quality of teaching and learning in education.

When considering diversity and inclusion in education it is often tempting to consider the areas that are covered by legislation, such as: 'race'; disability; sexual orientation; religion or belief; age and gender identity. However, learners have multiple identities and all learners have aspects of their personal lives that will impact upon the classroom context (such as having to act as a carer for a relative or partner, or having to work extra hours to earn additional money).

An inclusive curriculum not only addresses groups of learners who are covered by legislation, but also allows flexibility to accommodate issues that can potentially be faced by a much larger group of learners. One of the main ways that citizenship, equality, and diversity can be embedded in the curriculum is through incorporating these issues into the content of the course.

This is easier for some subjects than others, but there is scope in all subjects to make the curriculum content more reflective of diversity and more thoughtful about issues of citizenship. However, it is important to avoid being tokenistic.Equality,Diversity and Inclusion should be embedded into the mainstream curriculum, rather than being singled-out as separate from the main curriculum.

Diversity Calendar

A diversity calendar can be incredibly useful to an organisation as it provides information about the annual cultural celebrations of people from different ethnic and cultural groups.
It enables those who oversee workplace training sessions to keep track of events and festivities of diverse groups and plan a schedule accordingly.

Another benefit is to show respect to people from different cultures by raising awareness about days which are important to them.

You can find a diversity calendar on the Review website

Diversity issues in the learning environment

Diversity issues in the learning environment may arise because of differences between learners.

Learners may belong to diverse genders, races, ages, sexual orientations, disabilities, religions and political beliefs.

However, the success of any organisation depends on how these diverse learners work together to achieve a common goal so leaders should foster a respectful and understanding culture in the learning community.

There can be many issues in the learning environment which can be best dealt with through training and seminars