BUSINESS HELPDESK D HELP DESK


DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE –


W


THE BENEFITS AND THE CHALLENGES


Charlie McHugh, Head of Client Insight at Halborns Limited, the BMF’s exclusive law and HR partner, takes a closer look


T ake a glimpse at almost any


merchant’s website and you’ll notice things like ‘family values’, ‘integrity’, ‘trusted’, ‘reliable’ - all words you’d


associate with the fantastic industry we’re a part of. One word however, is often conspicuous in its absence – diversity. Not just the well-documented gender disparity (women make up just 15.65% of employees in our sector)1, but rather diversity across the full spectrum of characteristics (age, race, sexuality, disability etc.). Whilst diversity statistics on these issues are hard to come by, it is nevertheless very clear that middle-aged white men are still over- represented in our sector.


You may well ask, ‘why does this matter?’. The answer is that it matters because improving the diversity of your workforce will pay dividends for your business, whilst not doing so could expose you to some potentially sticky legal issues.


Diversity improves problem-solving – a group of people from a wide range of backgrounds solve problems faster than groups with the same or similar backgrounds.2 If your business culture promotes creativity, you’re more likely to come out the other side of challenges sooner, with a better solution to boot!


Diversity improves reputation – not just because diverse recruiting looks good…but because it better connects your business to the wider community in which you operate. A more diverse workforce can draw on wider experiences to better understand the needs of your customers and deliver a higher standard of service. You never know, it might also help you tap into a more diverse customer base as well…


20


Here’s the kicker…diversity improves your bottom line – you read that right! More diverse businesses are more profitable.3 They’re able to fish in wider pools to attract, hire and retain top talent (reducing costs from employee churn), utilise that talent to drive more innovative strategies and make better business decisions. In fact, they’ll make better decisions 87% of the time.4


How can things get a little tricky? In a word, banter. It’s something that will crop up in our advice to BMF members on an almost


“ can draw on wider A more diverse workforce


experiences to better understand the needs of your customers and deliver a higher standard of service.


daily basis. We’ve seen everything from the daft, the stupid and the downright racist. Outside of our own experience, comments like “baby farmer” directed at an employee returning from maternity leave, recently resulted in a successful sex discrimination claim.5 It’s worth also remembering that compensation for discrimination claims is unlimited, making potential awards hugely costly should an issue reach tribunal. 2018/19 saw awards of over £30,000 and


”


£20,000 for race and sex discrimination respectively.6


Diversity and inclusion play their part here. It’s only natural that male-dominated teams will be laden with male-dominated banter. But what someone might be able to say ‘as a laugh’ to their white, middle-aged, male colleague, could quite easily meet the relatively low bar for a harassment claim by creating an intimidating or offensive environment for someone who doesn’t fit that description.


We’ll all have our own examples of things we’ve seen in the workplace that were offensive or discriminatory, but which have been brushed aside with ‘it’s only banter’. By way of illustration, 59% of people have overheard the word ‘gay’ used as an insult at work.7 Around 3% of the UK population identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or other (LGBT+)8.


When you consider members of the BMF employ over 130,000 people, those statistics would suggest that at least 3,000 employees within the sector identify as LGBT+. If that was you and you heard words like ‘gay’ being thrown around as an insult or ‘banter’, would you feel part of a tolerant, inclusive and diverse team?


Whilst sexuality is just one example of the nine characteristics protected by the Equality Act, it does highlight the ease at which groups with similar backgrounds can show a lack of understanding of the sensitivities of minority groups. While some of this might be generational, an industry actively trying to engage more young people can’t fall back on this excuse and needs to be acutely aware of what the younger generation now deem appropriate. You might think ‘love’, ‘darling’ or ‘sweetheart’ is a term of endearment, but to a young, enthusiastic female new-starter


www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net February 2020


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48