To be a modern manager is to be a diversity manager, says Dyveke Hamza, former director of the law firm Haavind. A modern manager today leads employees of different genders, ages, religions, cultures and languages. "Someone who achieves this is what characterizes a skilled and contemporary leader," says Hamza. She is concerned that as a relatively young and diverse society, Norway still has a long way to go. "In Norway, the focus is always on the problems rather than the opportunities that diversity creates. Hamza wants to do something about that.
Like children play best?
Dyveke Hamza has extensive experience and a solid background from management positions at various levels in the public and private sectors, and is considered one of the few experts in Norway with specialist expertise in multicultural working life, international recruitment and global talent trends.
Multicultural diversity has been my specialist area within HR. I'm very keen to see the opportunity that diversity provides. Good diversity management starts with how you attract diversity, recruit and select for positions, and how you work with career and talent development in the organization.
This is often where you encounter subjective unintentional discrimination, where people from "vulnerable groups" feel that they do not have the same opportunities as candidates from the majority society. It is still the case that we often recruit people who are similar to ourselves, and this is something we humans are "pre-programmed" to do. The fact that we like people who look like us, or who we can recognize ourselves in, is often an unconscious preference that employer representatives have when it comes to recruitment and selection. People often recruit from their own networks, and very often managers are in networks with people who are similar to themselves. However, believing that like children play best rarely leads to innovation and creativity. Companies miss out on a lot of value creation without diversity. It's important for companies to learn how to use and leverage diversity," says Hamza.
Diversity on the bottom line
Companies that are good at diversity are usually able to combine this with a strategy, policy and procedures where they include diversity as an overall goal for the business. Companies that are good at managing diversity increase their value creation. Hamza is concerned that good diversity management should be visible on the bottom line, plain and simple.
Managers must not use diversity as a strategy to show that an organization is taking social responsibility. Diversity is not just about making the workplace fair and inclusive, it's about seeing the possibilities of diversity and linking it to innovation and the core business of a company. You need to be clear about what you want to achieve. Those who succeed in realizing the value of diversity will see it on the bottom line," Hamza continues.
How do you develop good diversity leaders?
For many managers, managing diversity can be demanding and unfamiliar. It is therefore important that managers understand how to use diversity, recruit, develop and safeguard diversity, and what the goal of having diversity is.
If the company's managers don't understand why diversity is important, they won't understand why they should work on it. If you want to succeed in realizing the benefits of diversity work in companies, you need to have managers on board. It is therefore important that diversity management and how to achieve this is part of management development, for example. Research shows that special measures often do not work. It is therefore important that diversity work is not sidelined, because then it suddenly becomes an HR task and not an integral part of the development of the organization. All companies have different challenges related to diversity, and you must therefore identify what characterizes the diversity work in your own organization, as well as what goals you want to achieve by investing in diversity. This should be reflected in leadership development and management training. For example, if there are several cultures in a workplace, it is important that the manager trains in cross-cultural communication. If there are many older people, you need to find out what motivates this group to present," Hamza continues.
Raising awareness internally
What does diversity mean to us is a question companies should ask themselves in order to avoid tiering and create a sense of security. It's important to be aware that social situations can either reinforce cohesion or alienate employees.
For example, not everyone recognizes "walking Birken" or weekend hikes in the mountains. There must be room for other topics of conversation at lunch or around the coffee machine, for example, and it is crucial that all employees feel included in the workplace community. Management has a responsibility here in terms of how to organize social gatherings, for example. To make the most of diversity, it is important to create a safe atmosphere, ensure that everyone is heard and raise awareness of the benefits of diversity among the company's employees. Today's workplaces reflect the fact that we live in an increasingly diverse society, so it's important that companies keep up. The current status in Norway is that there are too few female and multicultural senior executives in Norwegian business and industry cannot afford that. We need to do something about that," Hamza concludes.
