In this tight labor market, companies realize that good employees are their greatest asset. And getting and keeping the best employees means that companies first must understand that today’s workforce is made up of individuals very different from the stereoptype of an early generation of workers stamped out with cookie-cutter sameness.
The result, at its best, is a multicultural workforce that not only includes minorities, but also older workers, people of different religions and people with disabilities.
About 75 percent of businesses, both big and small, have instituted some type of “cultural diversity” effort, estimated Bea Young, founder and a managing director of The Kaleidoscope Group, a Chicago consulting firm. Diversity programs can aim to accommodate just about any kind of human difference: disability, age, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion.
Some people even believe these programs can be more effective than the much-beleagured affirmative action. “Affirmative action (laws) came out of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and really started the whole process of inclusion and preventing discrimination,” said Rupert Evans, president and CEO of the Institute for Diversity in Health Management. “But diversity goes beyond that in that it really embraces and celebrates human differences.”
But changing times, not government orders, is most often responsible for diversity action. For instance, in the last five years the Muslim population of Nashville has jumped from practically zero to 20,000 as the area became the home of immigrants from Somalia and Kurdistan. Muslims now make up 10 percent of the peak-time workforce of a Whirlpool plant in the vicinity, and the company has had altered some production schedules to allow time for daily prayer. (Muslims pray five times a day, first washing their hands and feet.)
Accommodating Muslim workers’ religious needs has caused some friction with non-Muslim workers, according to a spokesman for the Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool Corp., but management has persisted in trying to adapt to their religious needs with a minimum of disruption to established practices.
There’s a practical side to diverse thinking. Companies are discovering that they are missing some talented potential employees because of conventional recruiting methods.
At Siemens Medical Systems Inc.’s Nuclear Medicine Group in Hoffman Estates, for instance, Allen Jakes, human resources director, said he has broadened recruiting by attending the NAACP Job Fair, advertising in Hispanic papers, visiting colleges with high minority enrollment and working with career-transition groups to attract older workers.
Siemens has also instituted focus group sessions with the aim of broadening the requirements to qualify for a management track. “In the past, we had generic programs, and now we are tailoring our leadership programs to include people of all colors, ethnicities and differences,” said Barbara Franciose, group vice president and general manager of the nuclear medicine group.
“For instance, all of our high-level candidates had to have served in one of our foreign locations. That can be difficult for a woman with a family. So we are broadening our definition. You can get foreign experience in other ways, such as shorter term travel.”
Tamicka James, an African-American woman who recently completed her master’s degree in health-services management from Northern Illinois University, attributes landing her new job as staff associate in planning and managed care at Mount Sinai Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago to an industry-wide effort to recruit more minorities.
Thanks to a 1992 study by a group of health-care management trade associations, which revealed a striking shortage of people of color within management ranks at hospitals, HMOs, and other health-care organizations, James and many other minority candidates are receiving more attention through the efforts of the Institute for Diversity in Health Management. The Chicago-based institute was formed after the 1992 study.
This past year, the Institute arranged for 85 internships for college seniors and graduate students at health-care organizations around the country, said Rupert Evans, the institute’s president and chief executive officer.
In addition, the institute maintains a Web site that profiles both mid- and senior-level minority candidates.
Before signing on with Mount Sinai, James was one of the 85 interns, working a 12-week stint at the American College of Health Care Executives in Chicago. The work was challenging and the contacts invaluable, she said. “I am still in touch with the two mentors I developed from the internship.”
Once a worker has signed on with a company, the next step is to ensure that he feels valued. “Inclusive” atmospheres foster career growth for all types of workers,” said Young, of the Kaleidoscope Group. Indeed, many job applicants are now asking employers what their diversity efforts are like before accepting an offer, she added.
At Harris Trust and Savings Bank, Chicago, a number of “diversity councils” have been formed during the past year. Both managers and employee delegates from each of Harris’ business divisions serve on a local council, with a corporate wide “council of councils” directing overall diversity efforts for the Canadian-owned banking company.
One of the focuses of the council system, said Jeanna Bridges, director of North American cash management sales, is to ensure that all employees have access to job opportunities anywhere in the bank.
And, indeed, many of the new workers in her division have come from other areas within Harris and may not have had such a vehicle for career mobility without the councils.
More than a decade ago, The Northern Trust Company, in Chicago, noticed a disturbing trend: “People of color who came into the organization had either left in a way we thought was premature, or were less successful than we would have anticipated, given their education and experience,” said Thomas Mitchell, corporate diversity officer.
Mitchell’s job has been to initiate training programs for Northern Trust managers, and building diversity goals for each of Northern’s business areas. The training has since spread to all workers.
Although diversity training focuses on such serious issues as how we may unconsciously stereotype others, employees are usually eager to participate, said Laura Tierney, Northern Trust security lending and global operations manager. “They make it fun. You sometimes play games.”
Northern Trust ends up winning, with better retention rates for all employees and more applicants knocking on their door, said Mitchell. “One of the best ways to get new employees is to have our own workers refer them to us. People aren’t going to refer anyone they know unless they like their work and believe they are being fairly treated.”
Partly because of new federal laws, those with disabilities are being better integrated into the workforce these days.
Tony Norris, a senior systems specialist, has been an employee of Sears for 32 years. When, 12 years ago, he became a quadriplegic, Sears provided training so that he could transfer from assignments in the shoe department, which required mobility.
“I have a voice-activated overlay so that I can work my computer by voice. Also, my desk has been raised up so that my wheelchair fits underneath it. These are only minimal changes. I am very proud and grateful to Sears to be working today.”
Recent federal legislation is also expected to help boost employment of the disabled. The Work Incentives Improvement Act now allows disabled people to continue to receive Medicaid and Medicare benefits, even if they work full time.
Previously, disabled workers could earn no more than $700 per month to continue receive important health benefits. The legislation also provides states money to develop support and training for the disabled.
