Building Diversity

More minorities in the workplace add valuable new perspectives and ideas. Recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce takes a concerted effort.

With the “silver tsunami” retirement wave sweeping through, utilities and other public sector organizations face a golden opportunity to increase employee diversity. But whether they succeed in transforming their workforces depends largely on how they go about recruiting, managing and retaining minorities.

“This is an unprecedented opportunity,” says Jim Bonilla, an associate professor of conflict studies at the Hamline University School of Business in St. Paul, Minn. and co-director of the school’s Race, Gender and Beyond faculty development project. “There’s great potential there. But if they do things the same way they always have, organizations will end up with the same kind of workforce they’ve always had.”

Demographics changing

Diversity is important to public-sector organizations because in many cases their customer demographics are changing dramatically. Bonilla relates an instance where sewer inspectors in New Jersey found it difficult to troubleshoot in the field because they couldn’t communicate with a growing Hispanic population.

“So, if you’re trying to educate people about water conservation, and there are a lot of new people in a community, you can’t use the same communication methods,” he notes. “Or you might be aware that the audience has changed, but you may not know how to shift the message so that you’re reaching the people you want to reach.”

Internally, diversity is critical because it ensures the emergence of new and different ideas. That’s a dynamic that some organizations — especially those that are more bureaucratic and set in their ways — have been slow to embrace.

“Fortune 500 companies have been doing it for decades,” Bonilla says. “They see that the ability to solve problems innovatively is based on bringing different perspectives to the table. They’re not doing it because it’s socially just or an ideal. They see it as a business imperative. They understand they can’t compete in an increasingly global market without diverse teams. It’s the clash of ideas that creates innovation.

“How do you provide the best possible service for citizens who are significantly different than the population you served 20 years ago? Clearly, the new employees coming in will need a set of cultural competencies that the people they’re replacing didn’t require. And the people who stay will also need those competencies to effectively problem-solve and communicate across different cultures.”

Breaking down barriers

So how do organizations do more than just pay lip service to ethnic and gender diversity? First, it helps to understand the stages that organizations typically go through in becoming more diverse.

“In the first stage, there are very few women and people of color,” Bonilla says. “Then you reach a point where you might have, say, 20 percent people of color, but mostly in entry-level positions. Next, minorities have equity in positions throughout the organization. And last, organizations start to look beyond race and gender.”

To chart a course for more diversity, organizations must first assess where they are: determine what works well and what must change. That includes shedding old mindsets and debunking myths that set up barriers. For instance, some managers believe minorities aren’t interested in public-sector careers because private-sector jobs pay more — yet research shows students of all races have the same salary expectations.

“You have to recognize organizational patterns that exclude people of color and create a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Bonilla says. For instance, some managers only refuse to recruit minorities or do so half-heartedly because they believe a long-standing myth that minorities aren’t interested in their field. “Then, at the end of the job search, they say, ‘See? There’s nobody out there,’” Bonilla notes.

Same old, same old

Another pitfall involves using the same recruiting methods and resources. An example is the hiring manager who always sends out letters to the same professional colleagues or to their colleges when searching for recommendations. Instead, managers should search for professional networking groups that cater to minorities, and advertise in publications that minorities read.

“Traditional managers often are clueless about them and don’t reach out to these groups,” Bonilla says. “You’ve got to get them thinking out of their boxes.”

Managers should also make a point of meeting minorities at trade shows, seminars and conferences. By networking ahead of time, they won’t find themselves behind the eight ball when it’s time to fill a new position. And after establishing new relationships, managers can ask those people to suggest even more contacts.

“The most effective search committees start with people of color,” Bonilla says. “By establishing networks that cultivate even broader networks, you can bring in a larger pool of candidates.”

Mentoring is key

After bringing minorities on board, it’s critical to go the extra yard and provide mentors. Minorities often feel as though they’re living in a fishbowl and need someone they can rely on for support and guidance. “If you go to all the trouble of recruiting minorities, but don’t create a climate where they can succeed, with things like mentoring, you’re guaranteed to fail,” Bonilla warns.

Mentors must be sensitive to the needs of minorities. They need to walk a fine line between being critical yet constructive. One common concern is managers who avoid criticizing for fear of being called racist. It helps if a woman can mentor a woman or a Latino can mentor a Latino, but if this peer mentoring isn’t possible, managers should be trained how to mentor people of color, Bonilla says.

“Peer mentors are important because they can take feedback and communicate up,” Bonilla says. “They can tell management about certain issues that a minority employee may not feel comfortable doing.” In addition, organizations should go beyond traditional peer mentoring between a manager and an employee and create subculture support groups where minorities of similar backgrounds can meet, compare notes and exchange ideas.

Hold managers accountable

To demonstrate that management is serious about diversity, upper management and line managers should receive diversity training. “When people see top management going to training, it’s a very powerful symbol,” Bonilla says. “You can’t just push it down to the line managers.”

Top management also needs to give line managers incentives to embrace diversity by rewarding them financially and making diversity a part of their annual goals and performance reviews. For instance, managers and supervisors could be graded on how well they work with diverse groups or attract and retain minorities. This emphasis can extend to hiring managers who have experience working with diverse populations or are bilingual, Bonilla notes.

“When managers see things like financial incentives in place, they think, ‘Hmmm, they’re really serious about this,’” Bonilla says. “Over time, this shifts the overall culture of an organization. Then you’re no longer talking the talk when it comes to diversity — you’re walking the walk.”



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