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Day: 3 August 2014

Failing to live up to diversity, inclusion goals

BY Dan Cook
April 15, 2014

Despite efforts over the years to take diversity and inclusion in the workplace seriously, evidence continues to surface that suggests neither are organizational priorities.

The Society for Human Resource Management recently reported that, when asked if diversity was a goal included in their vision statement, just over a quarter of respondents answered “yes.” Now comes a study in which the research firm Bersin by Deloitte performed in-depth interviews with 50 D&I professionals and followed that up with a survey that gleaned feedback from 245 large companies.

The study identified a gap you could drive a Mack truck through. (Read more…)

Cancer fight puts focus on lack of minorities on stem-cell donor lists

A Quebec woman’s desperate online plea for a compatible stem-cell donor in her bid to fight cancer a second time is shedding light on the lack of minorities on official lists in Canada and abroad.

Mai Duong finds herself battling leukemia again and doctors say they would like to proceed with a transplant of bone marrow or cord blood stem cells within a month. (Read more…)

Being the token female or minority boss is better for YOUR career than encouraging greater diversity, claims new study

  • Researchers found that female or minority managers who tried to promote diversity were treated with suspicion by their bosses and peer
  • White male leaders who sought to promote diversity didn’t have the same stigma attached to them
  • Female and minority bosses actually benefited from being viewed as token minority representatives at a senior level
  • The authors wonder whether it might be better for diversity offices to be run by white males
  • ‘Almost all diversity offices are run by non-whites and women, but that further ghettoizes diversity itself and makes it so it’s not taken seriously’

By David McCormack

Women and ethnic minorities who reach executive level positions in corporate America have more to lose from encouraging and promoting diversity in the workplace than their white male counterparts, claims a new study.

Researchers from The University of Colorado found that female and minorities managers who tried to encourage greater diversity were treated with suspicion by their peers and bosses who thought they were indulging in selfish favoritism rather than promoting deserving candidates.

White male leaders who sought to promote diversity didn’t have the same stigma attached to them. (Read more…)

Back Gender diversity and the leaking pipeline

by Simon Lee 

In a number of Asian countries, women make up nearly half the formal workforce, according to national labour surveys. Yet on average, less than a quarter make it into senior positions and in some countries the figure is as low as one in ten, according to the Gender Diversity Benchmark for Asia 2014 launched by Community Business last week. Companies can do much more to avoid a ‘leaking pipeline’ of female talent in their organisations.

The research draws on employee data from 32 multinationals across six key markets: China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. The participating companies – including sponsors Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Brown-Forman and Google, and a range of other major brands including Coca-Cola, Novartis and Thomson Reuters – together employ over 240,000 people across the six markets. Each provided data for at least four of those markets. (Read more…)