Diversity and inclusion. At all levels in Australia we talk about these two things, and we all like to think we are doing a great job.
Are we?
To quote Andres Tapia (Korn Ferry’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Strategist) –
“Diversity is a mix. Inclusion is making the mix work”.
Diversity includes many more things that we would normally consider:
- Ethnicity
- Language
- Gender
- Age and generation
- Socioeconomic status
- Religion
Inclusion, means having the resources, opportunities and capabilities to learn and work (Source: Australian Social Inclusion Board).
In other words, all the diverse people we hire need to be able to effectively work together if the benefits of this concept are to be realised.
Measuring diversity is itself an interesting challenge, but the generally accepted parameter is the simplest one – the percentage of the population that was either born overseas or has at least one parent born overseas.
Officially Australia is the most ethnically diverse country in the world – 26% of us were born overseas and 49% have at least one parent born overseas. So it should be relatively easy for any given organisation to be ethnically diverse. In the US 14% were born overseas, in Canada, 22%, New Zealand is 23% and the UK is 13%.
Add to that statistic the fact that Australia has 100 religions and 300 ethnic groups, and we have a real cultural melting pot. Our challenge as a business is to take full advantage of this wonderful opportunity.
So what are the advantages of diversity?
For decades experts have been studying the benefits of diversity in the workplace. And they are significant – lower rates of employee turnover, higher levels of job satisfaction, more diverse thinking, greater innovation and creativity and more. As a business that was born from innovation, a need for continual development and improvement has always been a key driver for Texcel. You simply won’t get the same level of innovation from a group of people who all grew up in the same area and studied the same things and have been to the same conferences and who come from the same types of backgrounds. If you’ve come from the same experiences, you’ll probably have similar views on life and while that might make for a “comfortable” existence, you won’t ever question yourself or the status quo unless challenged by something or someone with a different point of view.
Texcel believes that there’s no doubt that having a diverse team brings richness to our business. Different ideas and experiences shape who you are as a person and it’s important to embrace a willingness to learn from others. You want your people to bring some of their quirks so that they feel comfortable enough to work beyond their comfort zone and to be comfortable taking risks and being creative.
“My identity is not my obstacle. My identity is my superpower!” America Ferrera
So how do you encourage your team to bring their “whole self” to work so that you can benefit from the diversity?
Support your team
If your team doesn’t feel supported, then you may find that people quickly mould to the existing culture and only show you their carefully curated corporate image. It’s important to foster a culture of learning rather than blame. Your team needs to know that they won’t be raked through the coals for making a mistake and they understand that the company leaders will work out how the business can learn from this for the future.
Encourage feedback
Perhaps you could consider allocating specific time during team meetings for feedback. This might be passed on from customer comments or internal feedback on systems or processes. Make sure that you encourage feedback at all levels of the business too – we can all learn from each other.
Be flexible
To me, the most important aspect of supporting diversity in your team is to be flexible enough that everyone feels comfortable. For us at Texcel, it might be in allowing a parent to collect their child from school and then work from home. It might be having team lunches every so often that embrace another culture or cuisine. It might even be gently distributing tasks to other team members as an older teammate moves towards retirement.
Here at Texcel I believe we do walk the talk: half of our team was born overseas with the resulting religious mix. The team is made up of people ranging in age from 20-something to 70-something. Some have children and some do not. Some ride motorbikes and some prefer cars. Some are men and some are women and many other less obvious differences. And despite some of these differences we all love to work together and we’re pretty proud of the culture of inclusivity and creativity that we have worked hard to create.
