Half of our nation’s bosses have their heads in the sand when it comes to understanding the business benefits of
diversity and inclusion.
That’s according to a survey of over 1,000 people by recruiting experts Hays as part of its 2018-19 Hays Diversity & Inclusion Report.
Just 50 per cent of respondents said their organisation’s leaders understand the link between diversity and inclusion
and commercial business drivers such as talent attraction. Another 50 per cent understand the relationship to customer
insight, 49 per cent to creativity and innovation, a further 49 per cent to profitability and 48 per cent to employee
engagement and staff retention.
For particular underrepresented groups, these figures fall further. The survey found that just 37 per cent of people
living with a disclosed disability believe their leaders fully understand the relationship between diversity and
inclusion and attracting new employees while 32 per cent believe leaders understand the link to creativity and
innovation.
When it comes to profitability, just 29 per cent of people who identify as LGBTIQ+ said their employer understands the
connection to diversity and inclusion.
In other illuminating findings, 50 per cent said their organisation’s leaders have a bias towards people who look, think
or act like them. According to survey respondents, only 1 per cent have a Māori line manager.
Meanwhile, 46 per cent of respondents trust their leaders to deliver change on the diversity and inclusion agenda, 45
per cent consider that their leaders champion diversity and inclusion and 37 per cent said their organisation implements
diversity and inclusion targets or KPIs.
Recommendations
According to Hays, there are several ways to move the dial forward on diversity and inclusion and address the challenges
and opportunities these present. These include:
•Use data to make the case: Collect diversity and inclusion data and use it to demonstrate the link to business performance. Design and use
performance metrics and analytics to measure and quantify the performance of diverse teams. Focusing on performance in
this way will, in turn, lead to diversity improvements.
•Be self-aware: Inclusive leaders should aim to ‘lead from the front’ as conscious and self-aware champions of change. They should learn
to recognise their own unconscious biases, so they are able to mitigate any unintentional consequences these may have on
the demographics and culture of the organisation they lead. Only then can they be seen as authentic champions of change
in diversity and inclusion. Undergoing unconscious bias training can help leaders in this endeavour.
•Understand employee sentiment towards their leadership style: Building an inclusive workplace relies upon all employees having confidence that their opinions are heard, valued and
respected equally. Inclusive leaders can inform themselves and encourage this by regularly seeking opinions about both
the leadership style of those in positions of authority, and how their diversity and inclusion strategies and actions
are being received by employees across all demographic groups. This can be done through regular face-to-face ‘town hall’
meetings and anonymous employee feedback ‘pulse surveys’. In addition to supporting their self-awareness, regular
‘health checks’ of employee opinions may help leaders investigate the reasons behind both positive and negative
sentiment, and take active and transparent steps to increase trust, confidence and a sense of belonging amongst their
workforce.
•Publicly support diversity and inclusion initiatives: Inclusive leaders should aim to clearly, regularly and effectively communicate that diversity and inclusion is on their
agenda. Communicating diversity and inclusion policies, promoting any initiatives being undertaken, and sharing the
social, personal and commercial successes which result from these will help increase employee confidence that leaders
understand the importance of diversity and inclusion to individuals and the business as a whole.
•Identify training needs: Diversity data is mostly sought during or following the recruitment of new employees, but it should also be collected
throughout the employee lifecycle. Not only will this help inform an organisation’s diversity and inclusion commitments
and progress, but it will identify any areas that can be addressed through leadership training, such as a lack of
diversity in a particular team, unfair people practices or career development decisions.
Request your free copy of the FY 2018-19 Hays Diversity & Inclusion Report at hays.net.nz/diversity-inclusion
Hays, the world’s leading recruiting experts in qualified, professional and skilled people.