Different strokes

You don’t have to look hard to find generation gaps in today’s typical workplace. “I have heard older folks lamenting that they cannot understand why young people seem to be texting messages all the time, even when they are in the middle of a conversation.” Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, said during a recent Fair Employment conference, highlighting one of the most common examples. The age range of employees in any one workplace can now vary from the early twenties to the late sixties. But this should not be seen as a burden on employers. Rather, if managed well, Teo says such diversity can help to improve an organisation’s overall performance.

An organisation that does not discriminate against any particular age group or gender will naturally have access to a larger pool of potential hires from which it can recruit. Teo says this holds particularly true when it comes to hiring older workers in Singapore – where by 2020 at least a third of the workforce is expected to be aged 50 years or over.

He says a diverse workforce is also better able to weather the challenges of changing business cycles and external shocks. “A company with employees from different backgrounds can leverage on that diversity to better understand and reach out to different segments of customers,” Teo says.

Stephanie Gault, Executive Director, Asia Pacific, Talent and Organisation Performance, Accenture, agrees, adding that inclusive cultures also help to build positive and successful employment brands, helping to attract and retain talent from all walks of life.

Embracing diversity

Diversity of staff should bring about diversity of thought and opinion. In some organisations, employees with diverse views can be viewed as troublemakers – always threatening to challenge the workplace norms or slow down the process of reaching consensus on an issue.

But Gault says many organisations, including Accenture, are now finding great value in employees with varying viewpoints. She says they bring about a “richness” of ideas that lead to “better or more holistic” solutions. “The different perspectives that each individual brings is taken into account during the design phase,” she says with regard to any new process or strategy. “This prevents tunnel vision.”

Talent diversity is also a core feature of recruitment strategies at Standard Chartered Bank. Jaspal Singh, CEO of the bank’s Asia operations, says that this is a natural response for an organisation with operations in over 70 distinct markets. “We recognise that each individual’s strengths (and) profile are different, and each individual will deliver in a role in a different way,” he says. “We recognise and explore this difference with candidates as part of the recruitment process and as part of their onboarding.”

The bank also believes in addressing diversity at the local level. It has designated Diversity and Inclusion “Champions” in almost all of its markets. These representatives seek feedback locally, tailor programmes to address the specific country’s needs, and provide the organisation with local context and perspective.

Due to the international nature of its workforce, the bank has also taken a number of steps to improve its multilingual capabilities. All mandatory employee training programmes are now translated into the core languages of the bank, including Thai, Chinese, Indonesian and Korean. It has also set up local consumer bank academies in Korea, Thailand, China, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates.

Unconscious bias

While it appears that organisations are becoming more aware of the importance of diversity at the workplace, gender disparities continue to exist. In just March this year, a report by the World Economic Forum found that women at top companies globally are continue to lag behind their males counterparts in terms of salary and opportunities for advancement.

Leslie Traub, President and CEO of consulting firm Cook Ross, says there are some clear cultural issues that inhibit women’s advancement in many organisations. She points out that “social capital” – all the networking and informal discussions that happen between colleagues and teams – is often a critical prerequisite to career advancement. But these opportunities are often built in exclusive environments better suited for men. Traub cites the example of a female colleague who was unable to attend a discussion held after hours at a bar, as she had to coach her teenage son on his homework. “Even in the US where there has been years of awareness about exclusionary networking, it continues to occur, whether it is at the bar, the golf course, the soccer field or the hunting lodge,” she says.

Traub says that beneath this lack of access to networking lies an unconscious bias against women in business, with most people having a “male” image of leadership. Further, typical leadership competencies often reflect only that “masculine” style of management.

Traub says that supervisors who are not able to look past such biases might not be able to see the full potential of female employees. “If she leaves at 5pm but works online after her children go to bed and still delivers the same results as her male colleagues, she may still be considered to be ‘not committed’ or ‘lacking drive’.”

Gender disparities often take root right from the beginning. Studies have shown that women with the same education and experience begin their careers making less money than their male counterparts. Traub says that one of the reasons for this is that men are more inclined to negotiate their salaries while women are more likely to accept the first offer.

Reducing such disparities is a matter of training, Traub says. She says organisations can get great value from sending their first-line supervisors for workshops to help them overcome any unconscious biases and conduct more objective performance reviews.

Targeted hiring programmes can also help increase female participation in the workplace, as Standard Chartered has recently been finding out. A recent recruitment drive in India specifically targeted women who had been out of the workforce for three or more years – most often for personal or family reasons. The programme included a tailored induction, supportive training programmes and flexible working opportunities. Singh says those that were hired are showing significant levels of commitment. “This has been highly successful with a retention rate of over 90%.”