Family Name:

Rodrigues Novaes

Given Name:

Juliana

Student ID: Course:

s40063992 Diploma Leadership and Management

Subject: Trainer’s name:

Manage Diversity 1

Declaration: I certify that this assignment is entirely my own work. I have provided full referencing
to the work of others. The material in this paper has not been submitted before.

Manage diversity 1 - Assessment 2

Written responses

QUESTION 1.

● Companies from different industries need to grow in a way that changes are easily
absorbed. So, it is normal for us to see more inclusion in these technological
companies. They have already realized that having a woman, having people with
different sexual orientation, color or race and people with disabilities, in fact, is very
important to reach an audience that is not so standard. Therefore, these
opportunities seem to be more available in these companies.

● Diversity in organizations has been a constant concern for the management of

companies committed to the development of their talents and markets. This is
because a team with different characteristics is capable of promoting innovation - and
this is an important competitive factor.

In addition, with the arrival of the new generation of professionals to the job market,
companies need to be prepared to receive these young people who are curious, restless and
eager to bring more pluralism to their daily work.

In this scenario, issues such as accessibility, empowerment and diversity in companies are
issues that are in vogue inside and outside companies.

In addition to factors such as globalization, the recent technological phenomena driven by

the internet, such as social networks, give more and more space for everyone to express
themselves. This represents an additional incentive to fight for representativeness, including
in companies.

When you understand all these aspects, you will see that diversity in organizations is a
global, borderless and multicultural need.

● We can understand diversity in companies as an environment that welcomes a

plurality of distinct behavioral, social and cultural profiles, which can involve race,
religion, physical capacity, age, gender, marital status, ideological concepts, among
others.
However, this plurality in organizations does not mean giving priority to the selection of some
groups of people, but taking into account the non-distinction of ideas and cultures,
respecting the decisions of each individual.

In addition, the hiring must present an advantage for both parties. This means that the
organization and the contractor need to establish a partnership of mutual collaboration, in
which they can realize that both are adding and receiving value.

● Establishing a diverse organizational environment is not randomly hiring any

professional to just establish compliance with the law (Anti Discrimination Acts).

This is because, issues such as color, race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, among
others, do not define competence. It is necessary to have a plan (policies) to include
diversity and act so that teams can deliver what is expected: innovation, productivity, quality
and success.

● When people are exposed to different situations and conditions, this creates an
environment conducive to opening up to the new. In other words, new habits are
acquired through exposure to new cultures, and from the confrontation of ideas, the
best projects and solutions emerge. This opens up new areas that are prone to
innovation throughout the company.
Employees with different profiles promote and unite the team in their professional routine,
generating more productivity and results. Do you know why it happens? Because in a
diverse environment, people tend to be more supportive and empathetic. The result is a
more stimulating organizational environment, in which respect and mutual contribution
prevail.
With the culture of diversity established, this gradually favors an environment geared
towards cooperation and respect. With this, an improvement in the coexistence between
people is perceived and the work routine becomes more peaceful, favoring a positive
organizational climate.
Turnover tends to decrease when the organizational climate is more harmonious. This is
because employees start to recognize a place of growth in the company, both personally
and professionally.
This is a great differential for companies, since a large number of dismissals generates high
costs with training new employees and costs with dismissals, not to mention the expenses
with new selection processes.
Creativity is favored in environments where diversity prevails, as well as innovation and also
the motivation of workers are raised. With this, we have more innovative solutions that can
be combined to raise the level of business competitiveness.

Many people have experienced cases referring to episodes involving discrimination, bullying
and rejection. So one of the ways to break down barriers and start the transition to a
healthier and more inclusive environment is to bring different people together and connect.
Promote meetings in which there may be the sharing of stories of people who are
protagonists of this diversity. However, in some companies, inclusion actions as a
roundtable to raise awareness are restricted as to the presence of these protagonist people.
Their presence in the company is seen as inhibiting the learning process. This is a giant
barrier, because the fear of making mistakes or giving a ball away keeps people away from
the learning process. And we can only process knowledge when we connect to different
ideas, realities or people.

Although it is a great barrier, it is also very fragile, because to overcome it, it is enough to
nourish people with correct information and show the benefits of the process of
approximation and integration between differences. When we speak of a new culture of
diversity, inclusion and equity, we realize that it is a current transformation movement, a
lively and pulsating trend, happening now in front of us, in the company we work in and in
the society in which we live.

QUESTION 2.
● Implementing a diversity program in organizations requires planning, long-term vision
for the sustainability of the business and monitoring. The implementation and
maintenance of actions aimed at inclusion in companies will be successful only if the
leadership (including the CEO) is involved. This is because these must be the
ambassadors of diversity in the organization, and their posture and example will be
responsible for structuring the entire project.

● To implement diversity in organizations, it is necessary to analyze all the

professionals in the company and proceed with the verification of the stages of the
employee's permanence cycle in the institution. This includes verifying promotions,
remuneration, analysis of turnover rates, hierarchical levels and performance
evaluations.
All of these measures will contribute to the identification of sectors that need investments in
training or recruitment. In addition, good management is guided by numbers. Thus, having
metrics favors the success of your diversity and inclusion program.

Conquering diversity in organizations is only possible with hiring more diverse professional
profiles. To achieve this goal, establish partnerships with host institutions for related causes.
It is also important to advertise vacancies in diversity-oriented working groups. Another
strategy is to establish relationships with groups oriented towards plurality in educational
institutions, for example.

It is essential to bet on an open and frank communication, with the sharing of information
and goals on diversity with everyone who is part of the organization. That way, teams will
know where they are and where they need to go.

● Creating diversity programs in the company is essential to link actions to the

organization's strategy. All guidelines must be in line with the company's values and
with guidelines capable of being implemented. It can be achieved by doing good
planning and having the support of the entire Human Resources team to analyze the
current situation. From the analysis of this information, it is possible to define the
objectives for the programs and thus also create policies, procedures and
compliance within the organizations.

● Every project to be continuous needs follow-up and monitoring. Therefore, it is

necessary to appoint a professional for this task who, among other functions, can act
as a promoter of the subject. It is essential that this person is committed to the cause
and has the necessary responsibility to conduct actions and promote a diverse and
inclusive workforce. The profile of this professional should also cover the ease of
building relationships and creating and monitoring goals.

QUESTION 3.
● Knowing how to deal with differences and transmit this wisdom to the team is one of
the leaders' functions. Therefore, the process of creating a culture of diversity within
 companies must start with them, which will gradually spread it among their
subordinates. Leaders can work in partnership with committees to learn how to
encourage and promote tolerance and respect for diversity in the workplace. As well
as guiding them in the most diverse situations they may face on a daily basis.

To reflect on diversity, it is necessary to be open to new learning, abandon prejudices and

develop empathy and resilience. It is not an easy path, since society is full of ingrained
beliefs and behaviors. However, the results of this effort pay off and go well beyond the work
environment.

● One of the greatest challenges for leaders is to adapt the organizational culture,
which does not always have diversity as one of its main pillars. This change tends to
face resistance from many employees, especially in older, more traditional
companies.

● In addition to promoting diversity, the company must also be concerned with creating
an action plan to inhibit offenders. Often prejudice happens in a discreet way and
when noticed it does a lot of damage. To this end, internal policies, codes of conduct
or codes of ethics can be created.

In these documents, some points must be addressed, such as identifying where and how the
situations of discrimination are initiated and how all employees can adopt a more conscious
and respectful conduct together with others.

In relation to these aspects, it is interesting to show situations in which prejudice turns into
discrimination. As a joke of bad taste, bullying, exclusion from the group due to gender,
color, origin or any other form of unreasonable judgment.

● The company must also make it very clear that prejudice goes against the values
preached by the company and show what the consequences are in situations where
there is discrimination, such as suspension and even dismissal.

The best way to avoid discrimination attitudes and promote diversity in the workplace is
through dialogue and efficient communication. Finally, encourage employees not to be silent,
regardless of whether they are victims of prejudice or witnessing something.
You need to expose the problem to look for solutions, so giving feedback is important. In the
face of complaints, the case must be investigated, sanctions must be applied and actions
must be taken so that similar cases do not happen again.

Inclusion in organizations will only be successful if all the company's professionals are
aligned and engaged with the cause.

When the environment is hostile and does not welcome what is considered "different", the
chances of efforts being lost are greater, in addition to a strong frustration on the part of all
those who believed that they would be welcomed by the institution.

Therefore, it is essential to create policies that include training and development of

employees so that everyone is better prepared to receive new colleagues, who bring with
them some evident diversity.

● Part of the employees may believe that new practices are not necessary, which
requires a lot of patience and persuasive power on the part of managers. Therefore,
change is impossible without the engagement of leaders. They must be the example
to be followed by teams that seek a more inclusive, open and productive
environment. For that, every manager must have good communication power, try to
develop his subordinates and recognize the importance of diversity.

If the leader is wanted and charismatic, it will be much easier to influence everyone to seek
an ever greater appreciation of differences. This stance will also allow you to take advantage
of your talent's skills in the best possible way.

QUESTION 4.
● It is the role of HR to define which indicators are important for the company in
question and to define which actions must be put in place so that the indicators reach
satisfactory levels at the end of each quarter. However, it is important that the HR
area does not own this program, just act as an internal influencer. The practice of
Diversity & Inclusion should be everyone's responsibility, including high-level
leadership. Isolated actions do not result in a transformation towards the culture of
Diversity and Inclusion.
It sounds cliché, but the transformation has to start from the inside out, where leaders and
executives understand the importance that diversity has for their business before any action
with employees is carried out.

When HR does not stipulate which parameters and indicators of diversity to be measured, it
encounters a barrier of monitoring and proving that the actions have brought results. In
addition to being a negative point for the area as a whole, it also affects the company's
culture, as it generates distrust of employees and leadership, who do not clearly see the
changes in their daily work.

One of the initial mistakes of companies is to decide to monitor indicators that are already
there, ready, as is the case with the genre. However, even though diversity also includes a
gender indicator, it cannot be limited to that. Look inside your organization, observe business
objectives and extend these indicators, such as: diversity, race, ethnicity, nationality,
education, sexual orientation, proficiency in other languages, occupation of employment (full-
time, half-shift, hours) flexible).

A company that seeks to retain people through a flexible work policy, for example, should
use the job occupation metric as one of the indicators of diversity. Or a company looking for
political solutions to improve the lives of members of a diverse ethnic communication, must
use diversity metrics to hire members from diverse cultural backgrounds, and so on.

● The Privacy Act involves the protection of personal data, including digital means of
individuals, legal entities. The collection of data for the indicators will require further
data analysis and companies must consider all legal requirements in relation to the
storage of this information, which can often be private and confidential. Review data
policies and ensure the protection of data collected on a voluntary basis to avoid any
legal process in the future.

Diversity indicators should be used to: Diagnose areas of opportunity and risk; Monitor the
progress of D&I actions; Calculate the ROI.
Return on investment is closely linked to financial return, but this is not always the way to
measure efforts when it comes to diversity.

There is no way to measure progress if there was no base number for comparison.
Therefore, in all the metrics you choose for planning, there must be a base number or the
situation that the company is in before any initiative is put into practice.
A great methodology for setting goals is SMART, where you must follow the following rules
for a goal to be well defined. It needs to be:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time Based

It is essential that small teams are responsible for some goals, participating in meetings for
accountability and discussions that can result in rich ideas to implement the corporate
culture focused on diversity and inclusion.

It is useless to get here if the results are not measured, analyzed and new plans defined
action plans. Establish the frequency of monitoring results and, together with diversity
groups, define new action plans and responsibilities. Diversity reports must be published at
least annually.

The results achieved are the merits of all internally and must be transparent. This promotes
trust and encourages employees to actively participate in the next initiatives. Sharing results
externally can also be valuable for industry benchmarking, strengthening the employer's
brand and the reputation of an organization in the market.

● When planning to implement a culture of diversity and healthy inclusion, it is essential

to monitor some indicators:

1. Recruitment
Index that compares the number of candidates for open positions that are included within the
monitored group with their representation in the job market. The recruitment and selection
process has the power to promote diversity within companies.

Strong point: this indicator can identify barriers of entry for different groups during
recruitment, making the company analyze who it is hiring and who it is refusing and identify if
it is related to diversity and inclusion.
Weak point: It does not provide the reasons for some monitored groups not applying or not
being selected for hiring.

How to improve: carrying out the review of the vacancy announcement, promoting research
that analyzes the quality of the employing brand and using software that uses data
intelligence and algorithms to combine candidates and open vacancies, taking into account
all the selection criteria.

2. Employee engagement and satisfaction

Engagement and satisfaction surveys provide diagnostic tools and create a climate of
inclusion as part of the company's core values and strengthen relations with employees.

Strong point: it helps to identify if the groups of diverse people are showing higher or lower
levels of satisfaction and engagement to the group not monitored by the actions of diversity
and inclusion. The ideal is that the levels are always similar, otherwise, it indicates that the
mentality and practices are biased and more favorable and one of the groups.

Weak point: existing surveys may not include specific questions related to the theme of
diversity and inclusion. In addition, they may not reveal the true dimensions of diversity,
which makes comparing levels illusory. Another common situation is the failure of many
employees to participate in these surveys, which also affects the results.

How to improve: the company can request voluntary disclosure of the research participants'
identity (race, culture, sexual orientation, gender, age, relative status, are some examples.
Analyze existing research in the area and add some that specifically address diversity and If
the scenario allows, you can even create an exclusive survey on the topic.

3. Focus groups
Focus groups are formed with the aim of facilitating the collection of information on problems
and challenges faced by talents within organizations.

Strong point: the focus groups complement the analysis of the workforce, providing
additional information that cannot be acquired only from the analysis of engagement and
satisfaction. Diversity and inclusion is indicated as one of the dimensions of information
collection for the internal focus group.
Weakness: participating in the group is extra work and employees without privileges or
rewards may not feel motivated to be part of the group. Other issues such as confidentiality
can also impact the demand to participate in a focus group.

How to improve: To encourage participation, invitations should highlight that the focus group
discussion is confidential and that the results will be reported with all identifying information
hidden.

4. Retention
This indicator compares the retention of employees from monitored, unmonitored or
dominant groups.

Strong point: analyzing the numbers of the retention indicator, it is possible to identify the
groups that may be less satisfied and committed to the organization, which means they are
more likely to end their activities in the company.

Weak point: it is possible to identify in which group the employees who left the company
were, however it is not possible to know the real reasons that made them leave.

How to improve: you can include the exit interview and look for the whys and analyze if there
is any relationship with actions and practices related to diversity and inclusion. Not only
improvements on this subject can be done, but in several others, since in exit interviews the
employees tend to be quite sincere and point out weaknesses and strengths of the
company.

5. Payment and benefits

The financial and non-financial rewards acquired by employees of monitored groups with
those of unmonitored groups can say a lot about the diversity and inclusion bias within the
company.

Strong point: reveals trends in remuneration and reward within the organization.

Weak point: equal pay hides unequal opportunities.

Indicators alone do not solve the problem

The issue of diversity should be at the top of the list of tasks for all business leaders, as
there is already data that it brings more profitability and innovation within organizations.
However, we must be aware that numbers, indicators and metrics alone do not promote
change. Only when company leaders become inclusive will the company be ready to
become more innovative, collaborative and responsive to changes (internal and external)
and customer needs, as no diversity and inclusion program will survive without the support
of leaders. and without connecting with the corporate culture.

Therefore, when planning actions and implementations aimed at diversity and inclusion
within your organization, be aware that it is a long-term process and that these are small
structural changes of the day to day that will gradually bring satisfactory numbers for some
indicators.

Diversity and inclusion comes with the power to shape the future and transform the way we
drive technological innovation, social impact and economic growth. Competitiveness is
guided by a culture of purpose, built by true talents who seek the best every day and not
exclusively the metrics that show the level of D&I. The indicators are important, but the
hands-on for structural changes are even more so.