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THE NEXT STEP
Forward-thinking companies go beyond quotas and diversity training. They make diversity part of their corporate culture and marketing strategy.
Not long ago, when companies talked about diversity initiatives, it often meant counting noses with different skin pigments and requiring employees to attend three-day diversity training classes.
But many companies have found those strategies to be inadequate, and top executives viewed the programs as socially responsible but not really related to making money. Consultants who specialize in helping companies connect a commitment to diversity in the work force to the bottom line say those skeptical executives had a point.
"If you have quotas and training, to me, that is not diversity," said Audrey Hines of the human resources consulting firm Dillard Hines & Associates. "That is equal employment opportunity and affirmative action. Most companies, when they had diversity training, that was a checklist activity, and it will not make a difference."
Consultants and company executives agree that there is a solid business case for diversity, both in the management ranks and in marketing strategy.
AUDREY HINES
Founder of Dillard Hines & Associates human resources consulting firm
For example, Coca-Cola Co. recently rolled out an energy drink called Full Throttle Blue Demon, which pays tribute to the Blue Demon, a legendary Mexican luchador (wrestler) and movie star. The product is part of the company's targeted marketing strategy, which is replacing its historic one-size-fits-all approach. To support the product launch, the company sent emissaries from its in-house Latino affinity group to join the sales force in pitches to merchants in Latino communities.
"The affinity group comes from all walks of our organization," said Steve Bucherati, the company's director of diversity and workforce fairness. "We had a very successful product launch."
Affinity groups are one way companies are moving forward with new approaches to diversity. At Coca-Cola, employees regularly meet in groups such as the Latin American Employee Forum, the Gay & Lesbian Employee Forum, the African-American Employee Forum and the Women's Employee Forum.
The forums, Bucherati said, work because senior managers not only support the idea but also participate.
And that support is key, Hines said.
"You must have anchors, and you need all management to buy into it, particularly senior management," Hines said. "Diversity shouldn't be an add-on; it needs to be a part of what you do. I liken it to how organizations look at safety or quality."
Turner Broadcasting has a direct incentive to include a wide range of perspectives in its work force, said Loretta Walker, the company's senior vice president of human resources.
"We are very fortunate to be a company that serves the entire world, from the [CNN] news perspective," Walker said. "We took a step back a while ago and said, 'What does diversity mean to us?' "
A new definition
The conclusion is the same one many companies are reaching as they replace old notions that diversity is about only race and gender inclusion.
"It's not just about what people look like, but it's about different backgrounds and asking, 'What do they bring to the table?' It's about diversity in thought and diversity in experience," Walker said.
The exercise resulted in the company's divisions taking a new look at diversity practices.
"The news division created a steering committee to ask, 'What do the faces on the air look like? What do the decision-makers around the table look like?' " she added.
STEVE BUCHERATI
Director of diversity and workforce fairness, Coca-Cola Co.
These are the kinds of questions Hines suggests that companies ask when she helps them try to take the step beyond quotas and diversity training.
"Who are your stakeholders -- your stockholders, your employees, your customers and your suppliers?" Hines said. "When you look at your stakeholders, you have diversity across all lines."
Focusing on race and gender is a practice ingrained for more than two decades, and it was a necessary step so people could be held accountable, Hines said. But the new philosophy of making diversity work expands the reach from what she calls "visual diversity" to "functional diversity."
"How do marketing and sales work together, or don't they?" she said. "What about senior management vs. entry-level employees? It could be political differences, or people in corporate vs. those who work in the field."
Coca-Cola's Bucherati said that answering such questions was key to the company's Diversity as a Business initiative.
"The key is going from the compliance concept to culture," Bucherati said. "We called it Diversity as a Business because we wanted to make a very explicit connection between diversity and our core business. So for a consumer business like Coke, that's about being able to speak to our customers. You've got to have a work force diverse enough to understand marketplace opportunities."
The bottom line
Turner Broadcasting's Walker said that when Phil Kent joined the company as CEO a few years ago, he charged his employees with linking diversity to the balance sheet.
"We had already been talking about diversity," Walker said. "But he asked how to make it part of our business, because we're not here because of benevolence."
So how do consultants such as Hines help companies make the leap from compliance to a view of diversity as a tool to make money?
"First, you have to assess where your organization is and what your mission is," Hines said. "A lot of companies have it in their existing values. For those organizations focused on growth or competitive advantage, they should be able to add diversity."
She found that, in large organizations, it helps to establish diversity councils in each division rather than develop a company-wide plan.
"It enables them to customize their approach rather than generalize," Hines said. "It works well, because it was something they have ownership of. And at the end of it, it still supports the organization's overall diversity effort."
