Diversity
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Law
and Policy into Practice
Most
organisations have policies and strategies in place for EO/Diversity –
supported by Executive Steering Groups, organisational development frameworks,
procedures, monitoring schemes, focus group discussions, action plans. However
good, these do not produce the actual cultural
and behavioural changes by managers and staff
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to comply with the Race Relations Act and other
anti-discrimination laws
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to attract, recruit and appraise talented staff for a
diverse workforce
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to manage diversity well: resolving any staff/team tensions,
and drawing on differences positively as enrichment, rather than as a problem
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to ensure monitored equality in delivery of public services (eg as required for
performance audits and to fulfil the Race Relations (Amendment) Act)
Just
having diversity in the workforce is
not enough. To reduce risk of complaints of discrimination, and to benefit from
diversity in teamwork, managers/team leaders need the knowledge and skills to be
able to manage diversity competently.
In most Employment Tribunal discrimination hearings, it soon becomes obvious
that situations have escalated into expensive, time-consuming legal procedures because
managers were underequipped to identify diversity issues and resolve them
informally at an early stage.
Some
organisations fear diversity as a ‘sensitive’ training issue. It’s true that some
managers and staff bring mixed and defensive feelings to the training room. To
resolve such private agendas needs careful, participative workshops that do not
confront people, but help people
to confront the professional issues. Training that does not tell people what
to think, but engages them constructively in issues worth thinking about.
In
a survey of 400 managers and clinical team leaders in the NHS, all claimed they
were committed in principle to the aims of their Diversity policies. But at the
same time, 394 (96%) said they were worried about adequately complying with anti-discrimination
law, and about how to lead front-line teams to meet their statutory duty of
ensuring equality of services access, especially for minority ethnic groups.
Asked
if they had concerns about managing diversity, they said their biggest problem was
uncertainty, and in consequence
lack of confidence, in two main
areas.
Many
said they harboured fears about (a) their ‘vicarious liability’; (b) whether
someone aggrieved could ‘play a sex/race card’; (c) how unlawful discrimination
can result from actions or inactions that are wholly unintentional. They wanted
understanding of discrimination laws in practical
terms: not just what an anti-discrimination law says, but what it means in terms of what facts of their own work practice in their own situation could
found a case.
Most
admitted they were unsure how to translate policies from abstract words on
paper into day-to-day effective mainstream practice. What to do differently, to implement well-intended
diversity policies? How to conduct recruitment, appraisal, grievances,
harassment, team-working, monitoring, etc. in terms of diversity? What steps of
leadership best inspire teams to ‘own’ Diversity policies, and achieve equality
of access in delivery of patient/client services?
A
100% message, loud and clear, came through this survey of middle managers,: “HR
and senior management tell us the law. They make policies, procedures and strategies.
But we are busy managers - we have to make things happen on the spot. Don’t
just tell us we mustn’t discriminate, either consciously or unwittingly: show
us how to avoid it, and how
to value diversity in our teams. Give us the practical skills,
the tools for the job.”
Many
Boards, SMTs, Equalities Steering Groups and HR/training managers do not themselves
know what are the practical tools for the job needed by their managers and
front line staff; nor how to develop them. Thinking of diversity only in
strategic, policy and procedural terms, they set up training which raises only ‘awareness’
of legal liabilities rather than provides practice in the managerial skills
needed to effect real change in response to diversity across the mainstream. This
was strongly confirmed in further research conducted with HR Directors of 8
large public service organisations. Though each had organised a range of
diversity initiatives, they acknowledged feeling uncertain on these practical
questions:
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How to draw on diversity as a positive
resource/advantage?
We
have policies and strategic planning in place, but how do we inspire our managers not merely to cope or deal with
diversity in their teams, but actually to value diversity as an advantage? What
are the new competencies they need, not just for attracting employees, but for
drawing on diversity positively – to resolve team tensions, to achieve more
creative problem-solving, to gain fresh innovative ideas for out-reach?
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How to prevent harassment arising
and how to respond effectively to complaints?
What knowledge and skills do managers and
advisers need to be able to identify and handle potential harassment complaints
before they escalate into formal procedures or risk of Tribunal cases? And more
important, how to help managers develop effective strategies to prevent harassment arising in the
first place?
How to avoid discrimination cases
developing?
How to ensure middle managers and team leaders have enough practical
understanding of the law and Codes, to avoid potentially damaging Tribunal cases?
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How to plan for new
anti-discrimination law?
How can we prepare our managers proactively for the Single
Equality Bill expected in 2009? How do we ensure compliance with the recent
laws on age, sexual orientation, re-definition of harassment, religious observance?
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How to improve recruitment and
promotion patterns in practice?
Why does diversity monitoring show such slow change in staff
profile, turnover rates, grievances, patterns of promotion, etc.? How can our
training courses for recruiting and appraising incorporate awareness and skills
for avoiding bias in the way procedures are conducted with people of diverse
backgrounds?
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How to meet our duties under the
Race Relations (Amendment) Act?
How to ensure managers make adequate risk/impact assessments?
How equip them to achieve demonstrable equality of treatment and outcomes in
public service delivery?
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How to make policies achieve
sustained, effective change?
What
are the conditions for successful
long-term change, to be factored into our strategic planning? How to reformulate
policies from ‘HR-speak’ into practical examples, and therefore more effective
terms? How to revise our monitoring methods, to win confidence and achieve 100%
response rates?
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In tackling such questions, we use documentary DVD/video evidence,
illustrating diversity practice in real workplace interviews and team meetings
- not simplistic, or worse, stereotyped, scenarios with actors. These bring to
training the power and credibility of real NHS work situations. They are used
interactively for analysis and as triggers for structured discussion and
developing individual and team guidelines.
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Our materials for practical understanding of
anti-discrimination law were made for training the Tribunals themselves, using
only real NHS cases.
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We draw on up-to-date research, often yet-to-be-published.
We supply full information of the research base, books and articles our training
is built upon.
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We provide full data, independent evidence of the
effectiveness of our training.
We don’t just hope for the best that our
workshops are effective; nor do we evaluate with tick-box questions of the
merely ‘feel-good’ variety. We conduct qualitative
research, partly evaluative of what managers themselves say the practical
benefits have been; partly documenting their intended next steps of action
planning; partly diagnostic of their own ‘felt-needs’; partly consultative (ie,
their constructive suggestions for senior management decision-making about how to take diversity
forward across their organisation).
A
full data report of responses, with confidential executive summary, goes to
senior management. The acid test of effectiveness and best value is to conduct
a ‘reality check’ with HR Directors 3 months later, documenting what their managers/staff
have actually done, and what sustained ‘culture change’ has been achieved.
For
any organisation involved in public service - whether directly, or in PFIs –
such reports supply vital monitoring evidence for a Racial Equality Scheme
under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act. The Codes of Practice require
consultations with staff, as well as with client community groups as part of
planning to promote equality. Our diagnostic and consultative surveys supply
that. Any survey findings are released only by consent of the client
organisations. However, most NHS Trusts permit us to pass on their reports on
the impact of our training to other NHS colleagues.