Business Case - Global

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Global

Multinational companies recognised the business case for diversity decades ago. Building a global business needs expanding markets and innovative and committed staff. Companies such as IBM have built their world-wide reputation as “employers of choice” on their active pursuit of talent from the widest possible talent pool, and their willingness to address support needs of staff by, for example, adapting the workplace to suit people with disabilities.

Others have recognised the need to offer flexible working options to attract and retain workers who may need time out or flexible hours for family care responsibilities.

"Living Diversity", Deutche Telekom recently underwent major restructuring and expansion. It has an ageing workforce, [average age 42] especially in Germany. It embarked on a programme to retain its older workers and to attract and train younger workers. It appointed and "age manager" to develop its diversity strategy which included a programme of mentoring of new employees by older employees, health awareness programmes and free courses on the uses of the internet for over 50s.

BT implements a diversity strategy, "Effortless Inclusion", an holistic approach to diversity from employment policies to customer care. It uses demographic analysis to understand its workforce and customer base, leading to innovative services such as spoken text messages for the visually impaired. BT also uses volunteer coaches on diversity within the company to delivery diversity packages to peer groups. Employee networks are supported, feeding back information to designers, marketing etc.

BT sees this as integral to winning business. "At BT we will only be able to deliver innovation, ensure excellent service and provide the range of products that will drive our business forward if we have a workforce that is every bit as diverse as the customers we serve" [Ben Verwaayen, Chief Executive quoted in The Business Case for Diversity Good Practice in the Workplace “].

See the case studies for some examples