It’s often attributed to a one-sided focus—often personal attitudes and behaviours—while neglecting the development of processes and structures. Sometimes, diversity efforts target certain groups, such as women or employees of a particular ethnic background, rousing resistance amongst others who feel like they don’t belong because they don’t recognize the advantages for themselves. As these employees often comprise the majority and hold managerial positions, they feel excluded and may hamper the progress of your diversity efforts and affect the perception of your employer brand. Thus, do not focus exclusively on those that differ from the norm, but give everyone the opportunity to develop.

Republished: “Diversity”, by Annika Lagerholm, Universum Quarterly, 2006, Issue 1

Address diversity in your Employer Branding

Embrace diversity: It’s necessary to meet an increasingly diverse customer-base and be able to recruit and retain skilful employees. If you fail to introduce diversity into your workforce, it’ll cost you missed business goals and even potential lawsuits.

For many years, diversity was regarded an unimportant issue. Yet, due to demographic changes that have lead to shortages of skilled workers, employers need to recruit from a broad and complex talent pool. The success of diversity initiatives generally depends on three key factors:

3 success factors for diversity initiatives

1. Develop formal structures and processes in the organisation, such as recruitment, compensation, promotion and career development
2. Change personal attitudes and behaviour, such as corporate culture, leadership styles and attitudes amongst employees and managers
3. Include everyone in the organisation
 

 Re-published: “Diversity”, by Annika Lagerholm, Universum Quarterly, 2006, Issue 1