DR. TYRONE A. HOLMES
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Getting Results from Your Diversity Program: The 4 Tips

10/31/2013

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Over the past two weeks, I have proffered 4 tips you can use to create diversity programs that have a positive impact on individual and organizational performance. To summarize and for easy reference, I have listed these tips below with a hyperlink to each blog post:
  • Define the benefits you hope to achieve.
  • Identify your goals and describe how they connect to your organizational objectives.
  • Determine how you will achieve your goals.
  • Determine how you will achieve evaluate success.
I will provide more tips for building a successful diversity program in the future!

Next Post: November 4, 2013 – Top Diversity Measures and Metrics
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Getting Results from Your Diversity Program: Tip #4 – Evaluate Success

10/28/2013

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Determine how you will evaluate success. You must clarify how your diversity initiative will be evaluated. This is particularly important these days since the value of some diversity activities has been called into question (with good reason in some cases). The good news is that once you have effectively addressed the first three steps, the final step is relatively easy. That's because well constructed SMART goals have a built-in evaluation component. It's easy to tell if the goal has been achieved. For example, if your goal is to increase the diversity of employee candidate pools by 10%, at the designated point in time you simply measure to see if candidate pool diversity has increased by 10%. If not, you know you will have to modify your diversity program.

Next Post: October 31, 2013 – Getting Results from Your Diversity Program: The 4 Tips
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Getting Results from Your Diversity Program: Tip #3 – Achieve Your Goals

10/24/2013

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Determine how you will achieve your goals. Another step you will need to take to ensure the success of your diversity program is to specify how your SMART goals will be achieved. This includes the key actions needed for successful completion, the identification of the key players needed for carrying out these actions, and a completion date for each activity. These action plans do not need to be overly detailed or particularly long. In fact, they work best when they are brief and include just the information needed to clarify the requisite activities. Keep in mind that it is during this stage that your primary interventions and activities are implemented. Such activities can include training and development programs, mentoring and coaching programs, targeted recruitment activities, marketing of products and services to diverse clients, community outreach, development of diversity-friendly policies and procedures, creation of job aids, and celebration of cultural events. The key is to make sure you identify activities that will allow you to accomplish your SMART goals.

Next Post: October 28, 2013 – Getting Results from Your Diversity Program: Tip #4
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Getting Results from Your Diversity Program: Tip #2 – Identify Your Goals

10/21/2013

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Identify your goals and describe how they connect to your organizational objectives. A goal is a statement of a desired end state. It specifies where you want to be at a given point in the diversity initiative, and provides you with a means to evaluate progress. Effective diversity goals should be written using the SMART goal method:
  • Specific - The goal is concise and stated in performance terms. 
  • Measurable - It is easy to determine if the goal has been met. 
  • Achievable - The goal is realistic and attainable.
  • Relevant - The goal is tied to organizational performance needs and objectives (i.e., your strategic plan).
  • Time-Bound - The goal has an identifiable time-frame for completion.
Use the following model to write a diversity SMART goal: "By the end of ______, we will ______, as demonstrated by ______". This ensures the goal is time-bound, measurable, concise and stated in performance terms. For example, “by the end of the first quarter of 2014, we will identify specific measures and metrics that will be used to assess managerial diversity performance, as demonstrated by the inclusion of those metrics in the company's formal performance appraisal system.”

Next Post: October 24, 2013 – Getting Results from Your Diversity Program: Tip #3
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Getting Results from Your Diversity Program: Tip #1 – Define the Benefits

10/17/2013

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Define the benefits you hope to achieve. Put another way, what do you have to gain by implementing your diversity program? It doesn’t make sense to proceed with any type of initiative if you have not clearly defined the benefits you hope to gain and the value it will provide for your organization. Unfortunately, this is exactly what many organizations do. They engage in a variety of activities without a clear sense of what they hope to achieve or how these activities will impact their bottom-line.

Generally speaking, the benefits accrued from diversity programs can be divided into three categories, which include improved individual and organizational performance (e.g., improved quality of the workforce, increased ability to attract and retain the best human resources, increased organizational competitiveness, improved public image), enhanced customer service (e.g., greater ability to connect with and satisfy an increasingly diverse customer base), and improved organizational bottom-line (e.g., increased organizational value/profitability, increased revenues, reduced costs associated with turnover, absenteeism and low productivity, and reduced complaints and litigation). Whatever you hope to achieve, be clear about it from the start.

Next Post: October 21, 2013 – Getting Results from Your Diversity Program: Tip #2
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Creating a Climate for Diversity: The 10 Tips

10/14/2013

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Over the past month, I proffered 10 tips you can use to create inclusive organizational environments. To summarize and for easy reference, I have listed these tips below with a hyperlink to each post:
  1. Create opportunities for culturally different individuals to interact with each other on a continuous basis.
  2. Help employees develop the skills they need to effectively communicate, resolve conflict and solve problems in culturally diverse environments.
  3. Develop, implement and enforce anti-harassment and discrimination policies.
  4. Actively work to recruit a high quality, culturally diverse workforce.
  5. Ensure that organizational policies and practices support a diverse workforce.
  6. Formally assess the diversity climate and make changes as needed.
  7. Make sure the work environment supports the physically challenged.
  8. Facilitate a brown bag educational series.
  9. Provide a mentor for every new employee.
  10. Start an organizational diversity program.
I will provide more tips for creating inclusive organizations in the future!

Next Post: October 17, 2013 – Getting Results from Your Diversity Program: Tip #1
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Creating a Climate for Diversity: Tip #10 – Start a Diversity Program

10/10/2013

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Start an organizational diversity program. According to a 2010 study by the Society for Human Resource Management (Workplace Diversity Practices: How Has Diversity and Inclusion Changed Over Time), more than two-thirds of surveyed organizations engaged in some type of diversity practice. The most common activities include diversity recruitment efforts, diversity training, community outreach related to diversity, alignment of business goals with diversity issues, creating career development opportunities for a diverse array of employees, and collecting measurements/metrics on diversity-related activities. Most importantly, organizations that engage in activities such as these report a variety of significant outcomes including:
  • Improved public image of the organization.
  • Reduced costs associated with turnover, absenteeism and low productivity.
  • Improved financial bottom line (e.g., increased profits).
  • Increased organizational competitiveness.
  • Decreased complaints and litigation.
  • Increased retention of a diverse workforce.

Next Post: October 13, 2013 – Creating a Climate for Diversity: The 10 Tips

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Creating a Climate for Diversity: Tip #9 – Mentoring Works

10/7/2013

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Provide a mentor for every new employee. Mentoring is a series of conversations between a mentor and a protege that is designed to enhance the protege’s overall development. When done effectively, mentoring offers several benefits for new employees including an increased likelihood of personal and professional success, greater awareness of organizational politics and culture, improved job satisfaction, and an increased commitment to the organization. Here are a few tips to ensure your mentoring program is successful:
  1. Make sure there is top management support and commitment in terms of financial and time resources.
  2. Make sure there are well respected organizational leaders who are willing and able to serve as mentors on both a formal and informal basis.
  3. Create a specific strategy for selecting and pairing mentors and proteges. 
  4. Provide formal training that will help mentors and proteges develop the skills they need to make the process successful.

Next Post: October 10, 2013 – Creating a Climate for Diversity: Tip #10

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Creating a Climate for Diversity: Tip #8 – Brown Bag It!

10/3/2013

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Facilitate a brown bag educational series. This lunchtime activity is a good way to facilitate social interaction across cultural differences, and to provide employees with a helpful learning experience. The participants bring their lunch and take part in an educational seminar of interest to the group. You can enhance the success of the series by identifying topics of interest in advance, and then identifying effective speakers to facilitate each topic. Here are some examples:
  • Community, equity and diversity
  • Marriage equality and the LGBT community
  • Reducing stereotypes in the workplace
  • The impact of hidden bias on organizational communication
  • Understanding our differences
  • Fighting ISMS: Moving from words to action
  • The history of a particular cultural group in your area (e.g., Native Americans, Latinos)
  • Gender equity in the workplace
  • Why inclusion is good for business
  • Improving workplace accessibility
  • Managing communication style differences in the workplace
The key is to identify topics that will interest your employees and have a positive impact within the organization.

Next Post: October 7, 2013 – Creating a Climate for Diversity: Tip #9


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    Dr. Tyrone A. Holmes is an author, speaker, coach and consultant. He helps his clients develop the skills needed to communicate, resolve conflict, solve problems and improve performance in diverse organizational settings.

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