Dealing with the diversity question

Ah diversity! Ask 10 managers to define diversity and you'll get a dozen different responses (two of them will give more than one answer and if you don't believe me go out in the corridor now and start asking the question). Employee diversity is a hot potato, a flavour of the year, a coming trend. Managers I talk to say that without developing the skills to hire and nurture a diverse workforce they will not have enough talent to survive. This, by all accounts, is true.

However, most companies seem unclear what ˜diversity' means. To my mind it means opening up your organisation to new streams of talent. Hiring from different skill sets and different geographies. It can also mean an avowed intent to, for example, increase the percentage of women in supervisory and managerial roles within a business.

This then means that you have to be able quickly and easily to integrate these people into your business. If you are already having a hard time with engaging your present employee line-up that's going to be an uphill task. But most senior HR professionals will tell you that we do need to spread the search for new recruits to an ever-greater degree. In recent months, I have heard of two companies, one a leading banking firm, the other a professional services business, that have appointed senior-level executives to the exclusive role of looking for both mature and emerging talent, anywhere in the world. This is going to be one of the great recruitment battles of the next 10 years .

In recruiting from a diverse set of skills and geographies we are going to have to be much more open to different lifestyles than we are today. Maybe, many of us will struggle with this, but if we hold the central thought that the people we recruit are bringing their lifestyle to work, then we can be successful. Especially so, if we realise that their lifestyle will most probably change quickly as they embrace new experiences and a new cultural setting.