Businesses use diverse workforces in global
marketplace Businesses use diverse workforces in global
marketplace
By Angela Dodson, special for USATODAY.com
Today's workforce is more complex than decades past, incorporating far more women, as well as people from many backgrounds, religions and cultures. Businesses are increasingly cultivating employees' diverse knowledge and experience to reach new customers.
While such intangibles as social conscience, goodwill or public relations can prompt the desire for inclusive workplaces, realistically, corporate needs for profit and a stable labor supply are primary motivators today. Immigration, birth rates and social factors have brought radical shifts in the customer base of businesses across the nation and in the makeup of the labor force--in race, age, ethnicity, language and gender roles.
Most business leaders have been preparing for these new realities by diversifying and encouraging employees to capitalize on their differences. The push is largely voluntary, driven partly by corporate leaders' needs for workers as traditional hiring pools--including male, native-born, educated and English-speaking laborers--dwindle.
"Diversity management is about looking for talent in all those possible pools where you can find it," says Jeff Harlig, president of Words @ Work, a consulting service in Bloomington, Ind. Using employees from diverse backgrounds to maximum advantage also can attract customers whose habits and tastes may be foreign to previously successful marketers.
As examples, Harlig cites businesses taking advantage of Spanish-speaking workers' language skills, African-American marketers' knowledge of their communities, or women's understanding of what mothers need to create products that sell. Capitalizing on emerging markets Consumers are the driving force behind diversity initiatives today, says Lisa Skriloff, president of Multicultural Marketing Resources, a public relations and marketing company.
Census figures in major cities around the nation indicate the combined "minority population" makes this group the majority, she says. In 2000, the annual buying power or personal disposable income after taxes for African Americans was $589 billion; Asian Americans $255 billion; Hispanic Americans $491 billion and Native Americans $36 billion, according to Dr. Jeffrey Humphreys, director economic forecasting at the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia. And the Census Bureau predicts that these groups will account for nearly half of the United States population by 2050.
In 1970, according to federal statistics, Hispanic, non-Hispanic black, Asian and American Indian people together represented only 16% of the population. By 1998, these groups were 27% of the population. "It is not good business to ignore more than half the population with a strong buying power," Skriloff says. This is a "population that is responsive to messages that they feel are inclusive for them."
Companies understand profit, says Liz Winfeld, president of Common Ground, a consulting organization specializing in workers' sexual-orientation issues. "If any organization doesn't think that inclusivity is going to have a positive effect on the psyche and the bottom line, they are not going to put any time, money or effort into it," she says. "And I don't think that's a bad thing. Businesses are in the business to make money."
New discrimination risks Adapting to the changes has not been easy. Experts cite some predictable chafing in the workplace, and perhaps even greater opportunities for discriminatory or harassing behavior by those already so inclined. Aside from the profit motive, Harlig says, diversity management is "about making sure that people are being heard and that their needs are being met in the workplace, that people aren't being neglected or discriminated against." But discrimination complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) rose 12% over the last decade. While race and age-related discrimination cases declined slightly over the decade, filings rose for most other categories, including sex, religion and national origin.
"There is a segment of the workforce that is beginning to feel threatened by not just the fact that more minorities are coming into the workforce, but by companies saying, 'Yes, this is important to us,'" Harlig says. One apparent fear is that the "new" people will discriminate or cause bias against others in the workforce. But such reverse discrimination cases are rarely being reported to EEOC. These complaints are probably less than 5% of the total pending caseload, according to an EEOC spokesman.
In 2001, for instance, white Americans submitted less than 10% percent of the almost 30,000 "racial discrimination" charges on file at EEOC. Men filed 4,425 of the 25,140 sex discrimination cases. This comes nearly four decades after federal Affirmative Action requirements started opening doors for women and certain minority groups. Those Affirmative Action mandates, followed by federal and state Civil Rights laws, helped protect those on the job or seeking work. Protections were later expanded in some categories not previously addressed.
In 1992, for instance, EEOC began receiving claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). About 1,000 claims came in the first year, but EEOC received 16,470 ADA filings in 2001. Where Affirmative Action left off Affirmative Action traces its roots to executive orders issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 and 1967. That initiative created written procedures for federal contractors to rectify past discriminatory hiring activities and achieve equal distribution of jobs and salaries to women and minority groups.
But businesses that accepted the goal of equity still had trouble integrating workers under the Affirmative Action programs, which didn't include planning for incorporating women and minority groups into the climate and culture of the company. "No one ever had a plan for what are we going to do with these people when we get them in the workplace," Harlig says. "How are we going to use their talent? How are we going to train them and mentor them and help them get ahead?" Businesses continue struggling to address many complex multicultural issues, ranging from how different ethnic groups relate to time and dress to views on spirituality, Winfeld says.
"Affirmative Action was obviously a federally mandated plan to not necessarily meet quotas--although that's sort of the negative image that is always given--but to identify qualified minorities, female and handicapped candidates and bring them into the workforce," Harlig says. "There's a perception that less-qualified people were being hired over more qualified people."
But diversity programs aim to move beyond that misperception. "The more kinds of people and backgrounds in a workplace, the more creative solutions you get. Putting women, minorities, people of other nationalities into the mix can really help quite a bit," Harlig says.
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