Benchmarking diversity and inclusion is an essential tool that business can use to ensure that they are focused on diversity. Benchmarking is a continuous process of comparing and contrasting policy, strategy and processes that a business has in place in relation to diversity.
Learning about how businesses within a particular industry achieve excellence in diversity and become highly efficient world class organisations, will help you develop useful ideas for your business.
Benchmarking diversity will help you to acquire knowledge of best practice within your industry and others, which your business can then aim to exceed.
There are various types of benchmarking which will help your business take a hard look at your performance in diversity and how you measure up. We examine some below:
Strategic
Process
Functional
Operational
Best in class
Performance
Across society, there are many different approaches to building diversity awareness and inclusion.
Building understanding of different groups of people, their values, cultural norms and behaviour and language, is an inroad to building awareness around the diversity which surrounds and includes us all.
Nowadays, awareness of diversity and inclusion is far more mainstream within the business community than it once was, but there is still a way to go to.
In the UK, there is still inequality on at levels within organisations. From lack of racial and ethnic representation at higher levels within business, low levels of women in the
Boardroom and gender pay inequality, there is still a long way to go for business to be more inclusive.
By benchmarking your performance in diversity and inclusion, you can increase representation at all levels, and develop a more inclusive perspective for your organisation. It also help to create workplace opportunities for for diversity and inclusion.
Types of Diversity Benchmarking
There are several types of benchmarking that can be used to measure organisational outcomes in the area of diversity and inclusion.
Strategic Diversity Benchmarking
This looks at how other companies compete. What do other companies do in relation to diversity and how does it make them competitive?
Diversity Process Benchmarking
By looking at the best practices of other companies, and comparing them to your own, you can gain valuable information about how your business processes can be enhanced for the benefit of your business.
Functional Diversity Benchmarking
By looking at a specific function within your business, for example HR or Learning and development, you can improve your overall business performance in relation to diversity.
Operational Diversity Benchmarking
By investigating how your business operates overall, and analysing what other companies are doing, you can build enhanced diversity into all areas of your operations, from staff management and recruitment to processes and productivity.
Best in Class Diversity Benchmarking
By studying the leading competitors in your industry and the diversity practices that they are talking about, it is possible for you to emulate best practice by designing strategies that fit your particular business.
Performance Diversity Benchmarking
This analyses the ways in which diversity and inclusion is integrated into the service offerings of competitors and how it helps their performance.
This will enable you to assess your competitive position and structure any re-designs, as necessary.
Benchmarking diversity will allow you to position your business and increase productivity and profit.
The improvement of Diversity and Inclusion within your business is a continuous process. As such, benchmarking should never be viewed as a one time activity. Diversity is all around us and it continually changes.... just as business does.
By identifying the problem areas within your business, through the benchmarking process, you will be much better placed to embed diversity into the core of your functions, processes and procedures.
Devising systems which will keep you informed of what is developing in the area of diversity and inclusion, will enable you to enhance your practice.
For example, talking with your employees, suppliers, and customers and developing staff diversity groups and focus groups, will enable you to capture information that will prove relevant to building diversity.
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Kenroi Consulting is a bespoke diversity consultancy providing tailor made solutions for businesses across the UK.
T: 0203 633 1185 E: info@kenroi.com