Companies Must Set Diversity Goals

Workforce Management
Workforce Management Online, May 2008

While many people think diversity in the workplace is a numbers game—think headcounts and quotas—the truth is measuring diversity involves more than simple math. This series focuses on how one major Midwestern city, despite being beset with economic issues, is dealing with the issue of workforce diversity. Detroit’s experience can bee seen as an example for other metropolitan areas. By Laura Weiner

While many people think diversity in the workplace is a numbers game—think headcounts and quotas—the truth is measuring diversity involves more than simple math.
"It should all start with a plan," said Christopher Metzler, former director of Equal Employment Opportunity studies, diversity and inclusion at Cornell University and now the associate dean of human resources at Georgetown University. "What exactly do you want your diversity program to do?"
Some companies may want to increase their bottom line with new contract wins, while others want a staff that is more varied in their ideas.
Sometimes searching for the latter ultimately brings in the former.
"Back in 2005, with instruction from our board of directors, we started to investigate our diversity strategies," said Ed Dodge, vice president and director of human resources at Detroit-based SmithGroup, an architectural engineering firm.
"We knew there had to be some focus on the bottom line. As it turns out, we were recently selected for a project at Indiana University after they narrowed the pool down to our company and another firm, both of which had indicated above all the other firms that there was a diversity program in place. We were selected ... that is a very obvious case of how our program is affecting our bottom line."
Not all strategies have such a direct effect.
"Having a diverse staff is not necessarily going to increase your bottom line," said Metzler. "In order to do that, you may have to look externally, possibly at marketing strategies, like gearing products towards a more Latino customer base, for example."

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