Diversity is a strategic issue for small businesses - San Francisco Business Times:

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That is because most fail to see diversit as abusiness strategy, rather than a sociaol issue, experts say. Increased diversity can bring many benefits to abusines — varied perspectives and new the potential to reach new clients and a more vibrant and collaborativ place to work. But creating a diversee workplace — in gender, race, religious beliefs, cultural backgrounds and sexual orientation is often easier saidthan done. Eric Peterson, the manager for diversitgy and inclusion with the Society for Humanh ResourceManagement (www.shrm.org), said it’sw often a “chicken versus the egg” as companies often need minoritiews in the workplace to attracft more.
“If I’m a typical minority job I know I’m going to be in high he said. “I will likelyy not choose the businesswhere there’w no one like me.” Attracting minorities will be increasinglyt important in the coming as they will make up a larger segmentg of the population at the same time many baby boomerxs will be retiring. Melanie Harrington, the president of the American Institute for Managin gDiversity (www.aimd.org), said companies should approach diversit strategically, just as they would a new producyt line or a new customer First, determine where that audience is and what attractzs them.
Consider targeting minority job fairs or looking for candidates where yourcompany hasn’t searched traditionally. Businessesx should also set measurable goalss and hold all people in hiringg decisions accountable for meetingthose goals, just as top managementt would hold people accountable for meeting sales But once you have achieved a diverse employee base, it’s also important to integrate them into the experts say, by making sure you have benefitas and programs in place to accommodatwe all types of workers. It’s not enougj to have a diverse experts say.
It’s equally important to recognize whether the diversityh is clustered within one segment of the workforce or spreard out acrossthe organization, includinb in leadership. “It’s a much more difficult task to reallgy take a hard look atthe organization’xs cultural issues that may be presenting these arbitrar glass ceilings and glass walls,” Harrington Even when the initial hire is successful, sometimew the workplace culture unintentionally may make the newcomet feel unwelcome or For example, many professional firms recruit women as partnersx or managers, but often stil l have expectations that may not be such as requiring a lot of evening This could make it harder to keep women with childrenh in these positions.
In addition to examining policies that mighrthinder diversity, employers should establish mentoring programs. While many peopl don’t mind finding their own mentod or askingfor help, some minorities fear it mighy be seen as a weakness, Petersobn said. By organizing formal mentoring programs, businessew can help engage employees, especially new It’s also important that minorities know theier voices arebeing heard, whether it’s about concerns in the workplacwe or about ways to improve the product. Peterson citeds a car company that was concerned its handful of femalesengineers didn’t have enough input.
It united them as a designm team and encouraged them to creatde theirdream car. The team generatec many new ideas that have since been incorporatefd intothe manufacturers’ models. Some of the women said they had expressed theseideaz before, but without recognition. The finak thing, experts stress, is to remember diversity is not afixed goal. “Diversity management really isa journey,” Harringtobn said. “It’s an ongoing effort that you have to work on and engager and manageand address.
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