Cultural Diversity Management
Industry: Transport, Logistics, Warehousing and Distribution
Customer
North American transportation company
Needs
The company has employees from different cultures and religions. As a result, it needs to accommodate employees for different holidays or personal leave.
Mandate
Develop an approach to better deal with these accommodations.
Solutions and Methods Used
- Evaluate the needs of each group of employees for special holidays
- Develop an acceptable policy for the company
- Develop special holiday list so that those responsible for scheduling employees can adequately plan replacements
Results and Measures of Success
- A policy was proposed to allow as many employees as possible to take special holidays as a form of religious and cultural accommodation. The principle of first-come, first-served applies, but priority is given to employees who need such accommodation
- Operations were no longer caught short because of the need to accommodate employees
- Sick leave was dramatically reduced because employees realized that the employer would give them days off for their holidays
Industry: Services (Finance, Accounting, Insurance and Human Resources)
Customer
Canadian company
Needs
Solutions to meet its own and its customers’ labor shortages.
Mandate
Explore the possible business advantage of a diversity management consulting service for its own needs and those of its customers.
Solutions and Methods Used
- Hired a diversity management consultant
- Produced an internal diagnostic report of the company’s strengths and weaknesses in diversity management
- Put together diversity management policies and practices for recruiting, selecting, welcoming and integrating immigrants to its operations
- Developed a diversity management model
- Prioritized the sourcing of immigrant and visible minority candidates who have high performance potential
- Targeted community organizations that promote the integration of immigrants to the job market
- Established a partnership program with targeted organization
Results and Measures of Success
- Interview techniques training program created and adapted to address:
- cultural prejudices
- intercultural communication
- arguments against discrimination
- different business cultures: North American, Arab, etc.
- Managers trained on intercultural team building
- Company’s consultants trained and better equipped to handle recruiting and to increase their effectiveness in seeking immigrant and visible minority candidates
- Recognition program put in place for diversity management champions
