Improve Diversity in the Workplace

Creating a diverse workplace - by employing people from a wide range of backgrounds, ages and life experiences - can make your company more competitive and help solve recruitment problems, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s 2004 recruitment and retention survey.

Here UK Net Guide suggests practical ways to create diversity in the workplace.

Get the boss involved
The best leaders set an example for their staff to follow. Diversity programmes implemented at the top of a company mean that initiatives can be more easily put in place lower down, according to Diversity Leaders UK, a charity that promotes inclusiveness in the workplace.

Beware of age discrimination
From October 2006, new government legislation will mean it will be unlawful to discriminate on the basis of age in employment. Make sure your business is prepared by ensuring that age bias has not crept in to your recruitment and promotion policies. For example, phrases in job adverts such as “become part of a young, dynamic team”, or “young person needed” may find you falling foul of the law.

Find out more information from the Employers Forum on Age.

Get gay friendly
Examples of how organisations are improving their diversity are multiplying. At this summer’s Manchester's Gay Pride festival, for instance, soldiers took part in a recruitment drive among the city’s sizeable gay community.

Large British companies are also actively promoting themselves to potential gay employees. Accountancy giant KPMG, for example, has joined the pressure group Stonewall’s gay diversity campaign, as part of a commitment to diversity and inclusion. The business has committed itself to ensuring that benefits available to the spouses and dependents of KPMG employees also apply to gay partners.

Advertise your company more widely
You could be missing out on a talented staff by using only standard recruitment procedures. Advertise in a range of places such as ethnic minority newspapers such as The Voice or Asian Times.

Sponsor events that appeal to different groups. For more information contact the Race for Opportunity, a programme run by Business in the Community.

Appoint a ‘diversity champion’
This is someone in your firm who takes on the task of understanding about best practice in your industry and reports to senior member of your company on it. Many diversity organisations run membership schemes for companies, and are good places to find help and support.

Don’t ignore the disabled
You could also be falling foul of the law unless you take action to make your premises accessible to employees.

There is a requirement under the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 to make all reasonable adjustments to buildings to make them accessible by the disabled. How ‘reasonable’ is interpreted depends on the size of your business, the existing state of the building and the resources available. Supermarkets, banks and public service providers have a greater obligation to provide fully accessible services for the disabled than small voluntary groups, for example.

According to the Disability Rights Commission, there are around ten million disabled people in Britain with a total spending power of about £50 billion a year. Make sure you don’t miss out on the opportunities presented here by having buildings that disabled customers can’t use.

Your company website may also need attention. According to the World Wide Web Consortium, “at least 10% of the population in most countries has disabilities”. This can range from reduced sight and hearing, to profound physical and mental impairment.

Make sure your website is accessible to people with disabilities. This means that it is designed in such a manner that it can be easily read by the visually impaired and can be navigated by those who cannot do so by conventional means (with a mouse, for instance).

Visit the World Wide Web Consortium’s site for guidelines.

Remember: as the average age of the population is increasing - and ageing often means a reduction in vision, hearing, dexterity and memory - the needs of the disabled will become more acute, both as employees and as consumers of your goods and products.