SHRM-CP / SHRM-SCP Certification Exam: Workplace - Diversity and Inclusion

Functional Area 12—Diversity and Inclusion
Here is SHRM’s BoCK definition: “Diversity and Inclusion encompasses activities that create opportunities for the organization to leverage the unique backgrounds and characteristics of all employees to contribute to its success.”
Diversity and inclusion are linked together both by definition and by practice. Having a diverse workforce will not persist if that diverse group doesn’t feel included as individuals.

Key Concepts
- Approaches to developing an inclusive workplace (e.g., best practices for diversity training)
- Approaches to managing a multigenerational/aging workforce
- Demographic barriers to success (e.g., glass ceiling)
- Issues related to acceptance of diversity, including international differences (i.e., its acceptance in foreign nations or by employees from foreign nations)
- Workplace accommodations (e.g., disability, religious, transgender, veteran, active-duty military)

The following are proficiency indicators that SHRM has identified as key concepts:



Overview: Key Terms
The two key terms are diversity and inclusion. It is helpful to define them to understand how to incorporate them into an organizational culture and management.

Diversity
Diversity is a workforce characteristic. It indicates a mixture of social, cultural, and personal attributes that affect individual attitudes and behaviors. Diversity characteristics impact how others react to individuals “because they are different.”
Diversity of Thought   Experiences are tightly linked to cultural background. Food, housing, recreation, and life activities are tied to the culture in which one grows up and matures. Thought processes and references are determined by the experiences people have had and the interactions with others that were part of those experiences. If we were rewarded early on for our “fresh ideas,” it is easier for us to generate ideas later in life. If we were encouraged to contain our behavior within strict boundaries of social decorum and not deviate much from those expectations, then it will be more difficult for us to be inventive or creative later in life.
Organizational leaders need to understand each individual’s background to understand how to encourage them to fully participate in the organizational workings.

Inclusion
Inclusion is the characteristic of a workplace referring to behaviors within the organization that determine how individuals are valued, engaged, and respected. Inclusion is also linked to “fairness” and equal access to resources and opportunities. You can see the link between inclusion and equal employment opportunity (EEO). While EEO is a legal obligation, inclusion goes further by valuing the importance of being part of the group in every way.
Diversity Without Inclusion   Through a strong outreach program, it is possible that an organization can recruit a diverse group of employees. And it is possible that some of those employees may not be made to feel like a part of the company because they are not invited to contribute their ideas or suggestions. They may not be invited to participate in out-of-hours activities or assigned the really good jobs. Some folks may not be comfortable with co-workers because they look different or come from different cultures.
Any exclusion, whether subtle or overt, can lead to a feeling of being an outsider. So, diversity does not innately result in inclusion. Inclusion comes from conscious efforts. Inclusion depends on more than a lack of bias. It depends on commitment to assuring each person is welcomed as a participant in every facet of work life.

Diversity and Globalization
Not every culture in the world has the same view of diversity and inclusion as found in the United States. Some are theocracies, monocracies, or other monogenic countries. Whatever the circumstance, lack of variety in cultural experience makes it more difficult to accept, let alone encourage, recruiting a diverse group of job candidates. When it comes to selecting new hires, this cultural bias often plays a part in the hiring decision. That bias usually isn’t intentional. Yet it exists, and its results are seen in a high percentage of people in the organization that look alike. It may be based on religion or race or even gender. The differences in cultural experience are measured along a broad spectrum. From one country to another, the pointer along that spectrum line can shift dramatically.
Global Legal Distinctions   Legal requirements for equal employment opportunity and diversity vary widely from one country to another. In some cases, imposition of quotas for some groups exists. Here are a few random examples. Equal employment opportunity requires some serious study of local and federal requirements in each political jurisdiction where you will have employees located.
- Australia Australia requires employers with 100 or more workers to report their gender equity plans and submit reports on the participation of women in their workforce and their board of directors.
- Canada Seven provinces and the federal government have pay equity legislation that requires employers to provide equal pay for work of equal or comparable value.
- Germany There are absolute quotas for the employment of severely disabled people based on the size of the employer workforce. Employers with 60 or more employees must have 5 percent of their workforce composed of severely disabled employees. Smaller quotas apply to smaller organizations.
- Great Britain The practice of a fixed retirement requirement at age 65 has been rescinded by law.
- South Africa There is a legal prescription for annual turnover thresholds. Exceed those limits, and affirmative action requirements will apply for recruiting and hiring. Protected groups include black people, women, and people with disabilities.

The Benefits and Costs of Diversity
A few years ago, the European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Industrial Relations, and Social Affairs conducted a study using input from 200 companies in four European countries.40 It identified some specific benefits and costs associated with employment diversity policies and programs.
The benefits of active diversity policies were determined to include the following:
- Strengthened cultural values within the organization
- Enhanced corporate reputation
- Helped attract and retain highly talented people
- Improved motivation and efficiency of existing staff
- Improved innovation and creativity among employees
- Enhanced service levels and customer satisfaction
- Helped overcome labor shortages
- Reduced labor turnover
- Resulted in lower absenteeism rates

The costs of diversity programs were determined to include the following:
- Costs of legal compliance Recordkeeping systems, staff training, policy communication.
- Cash costs of diversity Staff education and training, facilities and diversity support staff, monitoring and reporting processes.
- Opportunity costs of diversity Loss of benefits because a scarce resource cannot be used in other productive activities (diversion of top management time, productivity shortfalls).
- Business risks of diversity Plans taking longer than planned to implement or fail completely. This is known as the execution risk. Sustainable diversity policies are an outcome of a successful change in corporate culture.

The Four Layers of Diversity
According to Color Magazine, the four layers of diversity can be compiled into the four layers model, which has radiating rings from a center where personality constitutes the core.
- Personality This includes an individual’s likes and dislikes, values, and beliefs. Personality is shaped early in life and is both influenced by, and influences, the other three layers throughout one’s lifetime and career choices.
- Internal dimensions These include aspects of diversity over which we have no control (though “physical ability” can change over time because of choices we make to be active or in cases of illness or accidents). This dimension is the layer in which many divisions between and among people exist and which forms the core of many diversity efforts. These dimensions include the first things we see in other people, such as race or gender, and on which we make many assumptions and base judgments.
- External dimensions These include aspects of our lives that we have some control over, which might change over time, and which usually form the basis for decisions on careers and work styles. This layer often determines, in part, with whom we develop friendships and what we do for work. This layer also tells us much about whom we like to be with and decisions we make in hiring, promotions, and so on, at work.
- Organizational dimensions This layer concerns the aspects of culture found in a work setting. While much attention of diversity efforts is focused on the internal dimensions, issues of preferential treatment and opportunities for development or promotion are impacted by the aspects of this layer.

The Color Magazine article tells us, “The usefulness of this model is that it includes the dimensions that shape and impact both the individual and the organization itself. While the ‘Internal Dimensions’ receive primary attention in successful diversity initiatives, the elements of the ‘External’ and ‘Organizational’ dimensions often determine the way people are treated, who ‘fits’ or not in a department, who gets the opportunity for development or promotions, and who gets recognized.”
 

Implications of an Inclusive Definition   In its simplest terms, a narrow definition will narrow impact to the organization. A broad definition will increase that organizational impact. There are many things that can be measured to determine whether the definition being used is broad enough for the organization. Some of them are job satisfaction, relations with supervisors and group members, intention to stay with the organization, commitment to the organization, job performance, organizational citizenship behaviors, well-being, creativity, and career opportunities for diverse individuals. For many of these metrics, benchmarks will need to be established so direct application to any given organization can be accurately developed.

Visible and Invisible Diversity Traits
SHRM breaks down diversity into two categories, namely, visible diversity traits and invisible diversity traits. Basically, everyone matters.
Visible diversity traits are the more typical and visible areas associated with diversity such as race, gender, physical abilities, age, body size/type, skin color, behaviors, and physical abilities.
Invisible diversity traits include areas less visible such as sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, education, sexual orientation, military experience, culture, habits, education, native born/non-native, values/believes, and parental status, among other things.

Developing a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy
There is a key question to be answered at the beginning of any organizational policy discussion: What do you want to accomplish and how will you measure it? Strategy involves the plan for implementation. You must look at problems to be anticipated and identify alternatives for dealing with them. You must identify the value to be received from creating an executive steering committee that will monitor the program implementation. Once the alternatives have been assessed, strategy can be cited from the remaining options.

Why a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy?
Three reasons mark the need for a strategy to be used in creating and implementing a diversity and inclusion (D&I) program for any organization.
- Reason 1: Priority Without a strategy, the D&I efforts will always take a backseat to other more immediately urgent matters.
- Reason 2: Complexity D&I programs are not simple. The complexity requires organization-wide strategies if successful implementation is to be achieved.
- Reason 3: Resistance D&I programs require organizational change, regardless of the organization. There will be more change in some organizations than in others. Change is hard. Therefore, making the changes needed for successful D&I programs will take some significant effort.

The D&I Strategic Process
Once the decision has been made to develop and implement a diversity and inclusion program in your organization, you will need to identify the strategic steps you must take to achieve success.
Executive Commitment   Changing organizational behaviors and individual attitudes are results that don’t come easily. If they are to be achieved at all, the highest level of executive will be needed to lay out the program, its reasons, and its objectives. Without the constant challenge and reinforcement from the senior leader, there can be no hope for reaching the established goals. “What the boss says is what gets done.” If the boss isn’t fully behind the program, it will just waste organizational resources and not accomplish what is hoped.
 

Making the Business Case for D&I   

The Conference Board published some thoughts in 2008 that still hold true today.
- Business acumen and external market knowledge This becomes the foundation of understanding how a D&I program can support business needs. It includes the following characteristics:
- Executives understand and are current on global and local trends/changes and how they inform and influence D&I.
- Executives gather and use competitive intelligence.
- Executives understand diverse customer/client needs.
- Executives understand and are current with global sociopolitical environments.
- Executives understand context and lessons learned.
- Holistic business knowledge This requires understanding of the impact of the financial, economic, and market drivers on the bottom-line results. Additional requirements include the following:
- Executives understand core business strategies.
- Executives possess solid financial acumen.
- Executives use information from multiple disciplines and sources to offer integrated ideas and solutions on issues important to the organization.
- Diversity and Inclusion return on investment (ROI) This is where the financial impact of the D&I program becomes evident. Requirements include the following:
- Determine and communicate how D&I contributes to core business strategy and results.
- Create insights on how D&I contributes both to people and HR strategies as well as business results.
- Design and develop D&I metrics that exhibit the ROI impact.
 

Preliminary Assessment   A quick way to determine how you are doing with your D&I program is to conduct an employee survey. It may take some professional help to identify the specific information you want to gather and the form of the inquiries you craft for each. But, surveying the workforce will help you understand the “state of the enterprise” about diversity and inclusion.
 

Infrastructure Creation   If you are just beginning to address the issues of diversity and inclusion, it is important to recognize that there is going to be a need for some changes in the way you do things within the organization. Sometimes those changes can be uncomfortable for people, and that demands you be ready to give them the support they need to get past their discomfort to participate in the successful implementation of your program.
 

Diversity Councils   Diversity councils are groups of employees who discuss issues of diversity and inclusion. The duties of these councils can vary widely from being an advisory group to having some responsibility for implementing or overseeing program elements such as complaint handling or community involvement.
 

Employee Resource Groups   Employee resource groups can be called many things. Early on in diversity program efforts, they were called employee affinity groups. Whatever the name, these are groups of similar employees who can express opinions and requests for consideration that apply to their group.

These are some examples: Black Employees Group, Hispanic Employees, Asian Employees, Women Engineers, Employees Using English as a Second Language.

There are countless possibilities.
 

Strategic Alliances   D&I programs can make use of linkages to community groups that support efforts to expand or reinforce outreach efforts for particular groups of people. It may be that you need more women in professional jobs. Identifying and then building relationships with these community groups can take some time but will contribute authenticity to your D&I program. They can also be sources for your open job placement opportunities when those occur. Community organizations range from disabled groups to veteran groups and various racial and gender support groups. Some are social, but many are also focused on increasing employment opportunities for their qualified membership.
 

System Changes   D&I programs by their very nature require changes to the way employers operate. Systemic changes will there be needed by definition. That is why there is often discomfort associated with D&I programs. They take us out of our usual and customary routines and demand that we expand our experiences and embrace things that are different.
 

Recruitment, Sourcing, and Hiring   Identifying new sources for qualified job candidates can take some time. There are groups supporting every type of job candidate you can imagine. They are race-based, gender-based, veteran, and disability-support groups. Larger organizations can usually afford to have people on staff who are dedicated to identifying and developing relationship opportunities within the employer’s recruiting geography. Smaller organizations can outsource some of this effort to organizations like Local Job Network.com (www.localjobnetwork.com). For an annual fee, the vendor will find and provide the employer with access to D&I community groups that are relevant to the employer. They will also provide reporting on hiring from each of those sources, so through monitoring, the employer can identify the best sources of diverse candidates for its jobs.
 

Onboarding and Retention   Most would argue that hiring a diverse group of employees won’t do much good if they can’t be made to feel welcome in the organization. So, how they are treated when they first come to work (onboarding) and what is done to make sure they can be retained for longer periods of time will contribute to a larger financial payback and lower turnover rates for the employer. It will also contribute the benefits associated with a vibrant D&I program.
 

Promotion and Career Development   For those who are interested in and qualified for promotion, nothing will break their spirit faster than seeing others promoted while they “wait in the wings.” This used to be blatant discrimination based on religion, race, sex, or other category that is protected under today’s laws. On the other hand, using promotion for those who are qualified and interested in advancement can be a solid motivational tool and morale builder when employees see “nontraditional” advancement. It sends the message that “even I have a chance to advance in this company.”
 

Compensation and Benefits   There is a bigger downside to mismanaged compensation and benefits than there is an upside through increased morale. As a function of D&I programs, it is essential that compensation and benefit programs act to constructively balance both the appearance and reality of fairness in employee treatment. These programs can act as a lure in recruiting and an anchor for retention. Their development and ongoing management should embrace participation from all groups within the employee body. It is important that each segment of the workforce feels like part of the process of development for benefits and compensation. To the extent that any employee group is asked to participate, all employee groups should be represented in the participation.
 

Supply Chain Management and Relations   Vendor and supplier relations are important to D&I programs because spending dollars is an activity that raises sensitivity and a desire to be on the receiving end of the transaction. Outreach programs to encourage participation of minority- and female-owned businesses are part of the D&I process. It should also be possible for businesses owned by veteran or people with disabilities to participate in the contracting or bidding process. There are some governmental jurisdictions that require contractors to meet participation goals for vendors and suppliers to be sure that these various groups have a “piece of the pie.” Employers who demonstrate active solicitation from all portions of the vendor community will also have successful relationships with the vendors, assuring that they will be able to meet future requirements as well as current demands for contract participation.

“Beyond that, nurturing a diverse supplier base—including coaching minority-, veteran-, and women-led enterprises on ways to improve their offers—enhances the buying company’s image. It can also foster economic strength, as many of these companies tend to hire from within their communities.”
 

Marketing, Branding, and Customer Relations   Broad appeal is the goal of most marketing programs. Establishing a brand that is recognized and valued by multiple cultures is also desirable. Doing that with an eye on healthy customer relations may require addressing each group in special ways. If a portion of the customer base is Hispanic, having customer service representatives who are able to work on the customer hot line while speaking Spanish can help reinforce those customer relationships. The same is true of any other ethnic or cultural group. In some portions of the country, there are fairly large populations of Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean people. Serving these groups in their own language can build positive relations and increase brand loyalty. Providing literature in languages that are native to customers is another way to address their needs and increase diversity and inclusion of the various nationality groups.

Providing employment posters in languages that are native to employees is a requirement in many instances. That’s why in some places such as San Francisco, employment posters can be found in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Tagalog (Philippines).
 

raining   Training programs for both managers and nonmanagement employees can be a key component of the D&I program. It is more than sensitivity training. It involves the communication of key organizational values. Also, training can help raise the skill levels of supervisor and manager groups so they are able to more effectively deal with issues of D&I.

Initial employee training during the onboarding process can help new workers understand “how we do things around here.” Communicating and instilling values of diversity and inclusion early on can help those lessons last for the duration of the employee’s tenure.
Measurement and Evaluation   Diversity programs can be measured by looking at demographics of employee composition. How diverse is the incumbent group? How diverse is the recruiting effort? Count the number of recruiting resources that represent various racial or ethnic groups.

Are there groups representing women, veterans, and people with disabilities? Recruiting and hiring are just exercises unless they result in employee retention. So, another measurement is turnover rate. What percentage of new hires are still on the payroll after a year?
Inclusion is a bit more difficult. It can be effectively measured, however, through the use of employee surveys. To what extent do employees feel their boss (supervisor) includes them in decisions about their job activities? Do employees feel they are part of the decision-making process when policy changes are being considered?
 

Why Diversity Initiatives Falter   Most people don’t have a clear understanding of diversity. When you ask people what diversity means, you will get as many definitions as the number of people you poll. People plainly don’t have a common understanding of it.
If you are going to emphasize diversity and inclusion in your organization, it is not enough to develop a statement to post on the wall next to your company values. How you define diversity and inclusion needs to be in clear enough terms that your workforce can both understand and reiterate the definition and “walk the talk” in all functions of work, demonstrated leadership, policies, systems, and programs.
often respond to compulsory training with anger and resistance. Do people who undergo training usually shed their biases? Researchers have been examining that question since before World War II. While people are easily taught to respond correctly to a questionnaire about bias, they soon forget the right answers. The positive effects of diversity training rarely last beyond a day or two, and a number of studies suggest that it can activate bias or spark a backlash.

Frank Dobbin and Alexandrea Kalev studied 829 midsize and large U.S. firms, and their findings concluded in their report “Why Diversity Programs Fail” that “companies do a better job of increasing diversity when they forgo the control tactics and frame their efforts more Zpositively.”

In their statistical research, this figure highlights three examples of the percent of change over 5 years in representation among managers from their findings.

Figure Diversity programs that get results: percent change over 5 years
 

Evolution and Integration   Deloitte University Press says, “Organizations can start by broadening their understanding of diversity to focus not only on the visible aspects of diversity, such as race, gender, age, and physical ability, but also diversity of thinking. This means deriving value from people’s different perspectives on problems and different ways to address solutions. It’s a complex world, it’s a global world, and maximal participation is required from every workplace participant from the bottom to the top. Thinking of diversity in this way helps organizations to see value and to be conscious of the risk associated with homogeneity, especially in senior decision makers. And this means that diversity is no longer a ‘program’ to be managed—it is a business imperative.”

Unless organizations consciously focus on evolution of their inclusion programs, there won’t be any integration. After all, integration means that diversity and inclusion become the way things are done. It’s no big deal. It’s rather the expectation for behavior.

HR’s Role in the D&I Process
It was in 2011 that SHRM defined the role of human resources in the diversity and inclusion process. At its annual diversity conference, Doug Harris, CEO of the Kaleidoscope Group, offered these thoughts: “The expectations of human resources in diversity and inclusion is higher than other organization stakeholders. Leaders, managers, and employees often seek out HR for support, coaching, and guidance on how to address challenges and ensure that differences are maximized in the organization. In addition, human resource professionals are often asked to play a key role in the design and implementation of impactful D&I solutions but are rarely given the opportunity to enhance their existing capability and build the D&I expertise necessary to support the overall effort.”

Aspects of Organizational Change
Any organizational change effort is dependent upon having clear objectives and implementation assignments. Human resources is often a key player in the change program. There is usually an educational component that HR can take on. And there is the cheerleading role that reinforces over and over the benefits to be achieved by employee support of the change implementation.

Individual Attitudes and Behaviors
There are three major components of personal attitudes and behaviors required of human resource management groups trying to implement a successful D&I program.
Global Mind-Set   The Conference Board is an organization known around the world as a source of insights on the issues facing employer organizations. It publishes Council Perspectives to share its research and opinions with its members and the public. In that publication, the Conference Board has concluded the following: “There is no single globally accepted definition of ‘diversity.’ … For a diversity and inclusion strategy to be truly global, D&I professionals need to understand the culture, politics, economics, and relevant legislation within the regions in which their businesses operate, all of which underscores the critical importance of being culturally competent.”
Emotional Intelligence   Emotional intelligence is the ability to monitor people’s emotions, to find distinctions between them, and to use that information to guide behavior. Organizations that have high emotional intelligence are able to achieve greater effectiveness in their work.48
Intercultural Wisdom   This is the absence of knowledge. Intercultural wisdom is knowing what we do not know about the values, behavior, and communication styles of people from other cultures.49 The only way to gain wisdom of this nature is to get input from others.

Managerial Skills and Practices
Management skills are still important in today’s workplace. Individual competence in areas of decision-making, leadership, communication (both oral and written), inner work standards, personal ethics, behavior flexibility, creativity, self-objectivity, tolerance for uncertainty, and resistance to stress are some of the key skills still required of today’s managers.
 

The 4 Ts: Travel, Teams, Training, Transfers  

In the late 1990s, a team of people studied leadership and concluded that it can be said to consist of the four Ts. Gregson, Morrison, and Black identified each of the categories as critical for international management success today.50 These four leadership components were elaborated on by Gamaliel Perruci in a paper presented to the International Leadership Association conference held in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1999.
- Travel Travel allows future leaders to see where their followers come from culturally, economically, and politically.
- Teams Teams reflect the need to allow inclusive participation and consensus building.
- Training Training involves four things: language, development, internships, and development of facilitation skills.
- Transfers Transfers provide the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time overseas to immerse oneself in a foreign culture.
 

Organizational Values and Policies   Organizational values are those things that are important to the organization at its core. They represent the “why we do what we do.” Policies should be designed to support the things the organization values. Policies are the guidance for handling issues that arise on a regular or routine basis. For example, most organizations have a policy on safety that includes a statement about why safety is important and also addresses how employees should handle the reporting of safety hazards when they are recognized in the workplace.
 

Critical Policy Challenge   It is not uncommon to make policy changes. In fact, it is a best practice to review all organizational policies at least once per year. When a policy needs to be changed, it should be rewritten and then distributed to all employees with enough advance notice that the effective date will be far enough in the future to allow proper employee preparation if necessary. An example is changing the policy on expense reimbursement. Employees need enough advance notice so they are able to adapt to the new policy and not be caught off guard with a sudden change of expectations.
 

Challenge of Details   Details matter, perhaps more in the realm of values and policies than in other aspects of organizational management. The way we do things is important. People have a right to expect that the way we do things will continue from today into the future. When those policies must change or we have a central shift in values, employees need to be given enough detail about the changes so they can adapt and implement the changes appropriately. Details matter, too, in the explanation we offer to workers about the rationale for making the changes they are facing.
 

Challenge of Dimension-Specific Issues   One way to deal with an issue is to break it into individual components. Diversity can be thought of in terms of individual dimensions or components as well as any other workplace issue. SHRM has created a single list of dimensions it offers as components of diversity. We suggest that you might be better off considering two categories of dimensions: primary and secondary.
Primary diversity dimensions are those we commonly think of when the term diversity comes up. They are characteristics found in legal protections at federal, state, and local levels. They include sex/gender (including sexual orientation, sexual preference, LGBT issues), race/ethnicity, culture/nationality, religion, age, disability status, and veteran status.

Secondary diversity dimensions are those that have impact in workplace interactions and achievements but are not as predominant as the primary dimensions. They include marital status, socioeconomic status, personality, educational achievements, and work experience.
These categories are not an exhaustive list. You can add others as you want or find a need in your workplace.

The next question you must ask is, “How can I effectively deal with each of these dimensions?” There are really two avenues of approach to diversity in the workplace. One is the individual approach including personal learning and empathy for others. The second is the organizational approach, which includes assessing the diversity status, training to fill gaps in knowledge and skill discovered in the assessment, and providing mentoring/coaching for individuals and teams that will encourage the necessary changes.