The Fix

The Pro’s and Con’s of Diversity Targets: Michelle King and Kelly Thomson


Listen Later

Diversity is simply good for business. Companies with greater gender diversity in their leadership outperform their less diverse competitors, having higher returns on capital and credited with better employee engagement and retention. These companies have loyal customers, are more relevant to a broader customer base, are more innovative and are better at problem-solving. The same goes for companies that are more ethnically and racially diverse. 

Almost no companies are reflective of the diverse makeup of their country despite a spend of $7 billion a year on DEI efforts.  Part of the problem is that the fixation on diversity numbers dominates the dialogue around diversity and inclusion. While the numbers are incredibly important they provide a needed snapshot of how an organization’s employee base is made up and can measure things like attraction, retention and promotion.

A focus on diversity numbers alone can create dangerous tunnel vision. By only targeting diversity numbers, businesses can end up failing to deal with the underlying causes of how an organization’s diversity makeup came to be and what the culture of the organization is like.

In order to ensure you have the whole picture, we are going to discuss the pro’s and con’s of having diversity targets.  Specifically Kelly is going to share the argument for having diversity targets and Michelle will share why she doesn’t believe that they work and then we will look at how you can try and use them in the right way if you have to have them within your organization.

 

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The FixBy Welton Media Limited

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

30 ratings


More shows like The Fix

View all
Woman's Hour by BBC Radio 4

Woman's Hour

392 Listeners

Coaching for Leaders by Dave Stachowiak

Coaching for Leaders

1,462 Listeners

The Life Scientific by BBC Radio 4

The Life Scientific

248 Listeners

The Guilty Feminist by Deborah Frances-White

The Guilty Feminist

1,554 Listeners

Radical Candor: Communication at Work by Kim Scott, Jason Rosoff & Amy Sandler

Radical Candor: Communication at Work

708 Listeners

Squiggly Careers by The Squiggly Career

Squiggly Careers

63 Listeners

Women at Work by Harvard Business Review

Women at Work

1,402 Listeners

Worklife with Adam Grant by TED

Worklife with Adam Grant

9,188 Listeners

The Anxious Achiever by Morra Aarons-Mele

The Anxious Achiever

568 Listeners

Coaching Real Leaders by Harvard Business Review / Muriel Wilkins

Coaching Real Leaders

652 Listeners

Toxic Workplace by Carleigh J. M.

Toxic Workplace

127 Listeners

Working It by Financial Times

Working It

38 Listeners

The News Agents by Global

The News Agents

983 Listeners

Fixable by TED

Fixable

215 Listeners

HBR On Leadership by Harvard Business Review

HBR On Leadership

152 Listeners