Welcome to The Diversity and Inclusion Buzz (D&I Buzz)!

The purpose of this blog is to provide a summary of articles and ideas from various sources that present some of the "buzz" around key D&I topics. The goal is to share with you thought-provoking and useful information surrounding a specifically chosen topic.

What’s the buzz on how organizations are addressing the delay in Boomer retirements?

This DI Buzz post looks at how delayed Boomer retirements coupled with the hiring of young professionals expecting a fast-track to management and supervisory roles is impacting companies and the workforce and what is being done to address the challenge.

Not too long ago (2008) articles like this one in Business Week, that talked about fast track programs designed to identify and develop leaders for companies facing an exodus of boomer before the end of the decade (last year) were quite common. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_37/b4099044458684.htm

The challenge now is that despite those earlier claims that a large number of Baby Boomers were going to leave, companies are now facing the prospects of an increasingly “grayer” workforce and fast trackers waiting for the leadership posts to open up. A number of factors covered in this earlier DI Buzz posting have contributed to this cancellation of retirements. http://www.thedibuzz.com/?p=120

Essentially young, aspiring professionals have nowhere to go due to ths slow-down in retirements- http://tinyurl.com/24pma3b. Some authors are referring to this lack of Baby-boomer retirement as a workforce gridlock- http://tinyurl.com/2dmje5e

According to this article, 2010 started with 27.5 million workers over 55 and climbing- http://tinyurl.com/2f9p3h6 (Originally, workers over 55 were predicted to increase by 36.5% bet ’06 and ’16- http://tinyurl.com/28ndoyc). According to this article many AARP members plan to work past 65, which would indicate that this is not just a short term challenge. http://tinyurl.com/35thfz6

In addition to longer lives and better health than their parents, confidence in the financial markets seems to be a big driver in the Boomer retirement delay. Even as the economy returns, per this study older workers (who’ve seen the volatility of the market) are losing faith in their 401K’s financing a large percentage of their retirement- http://tinyurl.com/335brfl

So the question is . . . how to you keep an eager, aggressive and expectant bench of young professionals ready to take the reins of power engaged and satisfied? To address the resulting bottlenecks and other factors of work-life realities in the 21^st century, many are advocating replacing the traditional corporate ladder climbing metaphor with one of an endless corporate lattice of opportunities that enable the workforce to move in any of many directions in search of ever-enriching experience http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/11/how_the_corporate_ladder_becam.html . In addition to this, some authors advise young professionals to add other related, but not official lattice experiences, such as becoming Employee Resource Group leaders- http://tinyurl.com/2fj9zjp

What’s the buzz on how organizations are addressing the delay in Boomer retirements?

The Buzz on the value of employee resource groups to companies and employees

Here’s a collection of articles that convey the buzz on the current and future importance and value of employee resource groups to companies, employees and the people who lead them.

According to this article today more than ever organizations rely on people to produce results. – http://clomedia.com/articles/view/2672

This article provides a clear overview of the structure of a networked organization that is needed in order to fully leverage the interaction of people within an organization. http://www.skyrme.com/insights/1netorg.htm

One of the specific ways, sub-divided networked teams of people within a large company, such as in ERGs, help an organization to marshal and focus its social capital is by creating smaller groups that operate effective within the limits of the number of stable relationships any one person can maintain. According to some studies, people can only maintain about 150 stable relationships – http://tinyurl.com/yd6l2vv

As a result of this need and our human limitations, in many large and even some smaller organizations Employee Resource Groups have become a corporate necessity http://tinyurl.com/27x2hey

This article looks at how some Employee Networks have evolved and how they’ve added value to their organizations- http://tinyurl.com/2u3fwv3

This short video focuses on how ERGs can step up to a higher level of driving business value and needed organizational change- http://tinyurl.com/233x45p

The evolution of ERGs into a powerful talent pipeline is also increasingly recognized- http://diversity-executive.com/article.php?article=1040. It’s not surprising that young professionals are advised in this article to reach out for the opportunity to become leaders of these increasingly important groups as a quick road to becoming corporate contributor while accruing highly valuable personal career benefits. – http://tinyurl.com/2g3o5ow

What’s the buzz on the impact of increasing diversity on employee engagement practices?

This post looks at the latest buzz on how diversity impacts the increasingly important topic of employee engagement.

An increasing number of organizations are moving beyond measuring just employee satisfaction and recognizing the importance of employee engagement http://www.business-strategy-innovation.com/2010/01/importance-of-employee-engagement.html

There is a clear business reason for this when we look at studies, such as the one conducted by Gallup and reported in this article that show how disengagement costs USA companies about $300 billion per year in lost productivity- http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-Employee-Disengagement-Costing-Your-Organization?&id=2024853

Another important realization focuses on how race and gender factor into employee engagement- http://tinyurl.com/39sfelh. Clearly men and women perceive workplace opportunities differently. For example, according to this article 61% of men think they have it tougher now than 50 years ago, where as 57% of women disagree- http://tinyurl.com/2dchvf7. Likewise, different races and Ethnic groups perceive their workplaces in a different way as well. viagra to this article Blacks, Asians and Latino’s perceive the level of racism in the workplace in a different manner than white colleagues http://tinyurl.com/29mvfgq . It’s therefore not surprising as presented in this article that globally what engages employees varies across these country cultures- http://tinyurl.com/29mx6xm

As presented in this article, a one size fits all approach to engagement won’t work today. You need a diversity of approaches- http://tinyurl.com/2bsh546. Furthermore, as the diversity of the workforce increases over the next 5, 10 15 years and beyond, having an engagement strategy that is effective in a diverse environment will become even more important. http://www.thedibuzz.com/?p=184

What’s the buzz on how much employees want flexible workplaces and how effective these are in supporting work life balance?

The general buzz is that both men and women want flexible workplaces. For example, this article explains how rigid work policies in environments that lack flexibility drive mothers out of the work place- http://tinyurl.com/27sojtf. This other article talks about fathers increasingly seeking more home life- http://tinyurl.com/38q68je. In fact flexible workplaces are considered a highly desired benefit by many across a board spectrum of demographics according to this article http://www.management-issues.com/2010/6/1/research/83000-7055.asp

This desire for a flexible workplace, according to other articles is continuing to spread to other parts of the world. Per this article, flexible workplace practices are gaining traction in Asia- http://tinyurl.com/36ozezz. This article talks specifically about older workers in Singapore who want a more flexible workplace- http://tinyurl.com/2coegkh

Many companies are also seeing opportunities to cut cost while providing the flexibility employees are seeking. For example, according to this article 41% of organizations plan to reduce their cost via flex-workplace measures- http://tinyurl.com/3yu6o36. In addition to this, some organizations recognize the loss in effectiveness of overworked employees and see flexible work places as a means to increase productivity. This article talks about how longer hours without work life balance tend to produce diminishing productivity returns- http://tinyurl.com/34tmd59

In spite of all this organizational and employee momentum in favor of flexible workplaces as a solution to work life balance, others don’t see it as the real solution to work life imbalance challenges. They assert that to some degree a choice, whether willing or coerced, is involved. The need to focus on work to the exclusion of other parts of life they claim is not due simply to a lack of flexibility in the workplace. For example, despite all the talk about valuing work life balance, they point out that only 46% of workers plan to take vacation- http://tinyurl.com/39xlutp. Furthermore, other articles like this one tell us 50% of those Americans that do take vacations continue to check and respond to email while out of the office http://ow.ly/2ytkU. In fact some people in flexible work arrangements claim to experience more stress, not less- http://tinyurl.com/2eefvb2

While some blame today’s pace and the technologies that enables 24/7 access for the round-the-clock focus on work despite flexible workplaces, others point out, as in this article, that these tools while enabling are not really the culprit that is to blame for the minute by minute focus on work- http://tinyurl.com/2bveqfz. In articles such as this one, authors claim that “work-mania/obsession” is the true number one enemy of people cultivating and pursuing interest outside of work http://tinyurl.com/2wt864l. To try and understand what drives this behavior that they label as an “ obsession,” scientist have looked at “workaholic-monkeys” who they believe offer insights to people who are driven to pursue a life of work-at-exclusion of all else- http://tinyurl.com/3ymgjfp

So the net of it is that while flexible options in the workplace are seen as a potentially valuable resources towards enabling people to attain some level of work life balance, others see as more important the decisions that people make to take or not take advantage of these opportunities as a matter of personal values, perspectives and choices- http://nyti.ms/bEvc3a. In some places like Amsterdam, it seems that Dutch women find it quite appealing to make the choice to avoid an over-obsession with work at the exclusion of all else compared their American counterparts- http://www.slate.com/id/2274736/ . This funny video sums up the view that work life balance is essentially a personal choice people make — or don’t make –regardless of the workplace flexibility tools, or lack of tools, made available to them by their employers- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXM7MpoVAD0

The current buzz on the value, state and opportunities for finding mentors

Mentoring is a highly valued practice that serves a number of important purposes. The articles below provide an overview of some of the new ways that mentoring is proving to be important, how the current dynamics of business have impacted finding and keeping mentors and how the new technologies are helping people to address these challenges.

Many US companies are indicating a growing commitment to mentoring as they look to develop a new generation of leaders- http://tinyurl.com/yaq3v22.

Not only is mentoring considered a valuable component of developing new leadership in general, but it is specifically important to the development of CEOs and other C level executives from formally under-represented groups As an example, here is an overview of the elements that produced a minority CEO- http://ow.ly/1fHmG

In addition to supporting the professional development of members of formally under-represented groups, mentoring also helps us to more quickly leveraging the talents of immigrants. See these two articles on how cultural mentors make transitions and acclimation to certain professions easier- http://tinyurl.com/29hbrdq and http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/56180

Mentoring has also been identified as the key to maximizing value from generations in the workplace- http://hbr.org/2010/05/mentoring-millennials/ar/1

Unfortunately, due to a number of factors, old approaches for finding mentors don’t work that well today. This article offers advice on what to do http://sloanreview.mit.edu/business-insight/articles/2009/3/5134/how-to-be-a-smart-protege

This article advises readers to do more than find mentors, but to actually assemble a personal board of directors- http://tinyurl.com/329maay

Many today encourage professionals not to wait to be assigned mentors, but to take an active role in finding their own mentors- http://tinyurl.com/ya3la23

This article advises professionals to reach out beyond the boundaries of their organizations when seeking mentors in super-busy environments- http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/01/20/1434497/there-are-ways-to-find-a-mentor.html

Despite the rapid pace in most organizations, technology is making it possible for people everywhere to connect with willing and valuable mentors. See this article on connecting with mentors via social network in the UK http://tinyurl.com/y9vd2gm as well as this article on using e-mentoring to literally have someone virtually by your side http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anya-kamenetz/e-mentoring-someone-virtu_b_740483.html

What does the Future Workforce look like in 5, 10 15 years and beyond?

The trends and buzz on the future of talent indicate that over the next 5, 10, 15 years and beyond, the USA will see a growing multi-generational workforce with more women, more formally under-represented groups as well as bi-ethnic and bi-racial participants that more openly express their individuality. It also appears that this new workforce will not have a categorical demographic majority (At least one that can be identified using current measurement approaches).

According to this collection of articles, many formally under-represented groups are a growing population of educated talent in the USA. For example, according to this article, the USA workforce will be 70% women and/or Black & Latino by 2016- http://tinyurl.com/252a2zu which is not surprising since 83% of USA population growth in past decade came from ethnic minorities- http://tinyurl.com/26npshw. In fact according to this article, 2010 is the year that the USA collective minorities become the majority-http://tinyurl.com/3738ce9.

This shift in race and ethnicity demographic is a trend that is expected to continue for a while since about 49% of USA’s youngest are either Hispanic, Asian, black or other non-white race- http://tinyurl.com/27ht8kb. (Per this article, formally under-represented groups comprise 40% of the 5 to 19-yr-old age group, 31% of the 45 to 49 yr-olds and 20% of those 65 and older- http://tinyurl.com/28p866n). By 2020 US projected demographics indicate that only 68% will be non-Hispanic whites – http://tinyurl.com/2698ty2. Hispanics alone which currently make up about 20% of the workforce are expected to grow to 50% by 2050- http://tinyurl.com/2u22uaz. This is also expected to be a more highly educated population of formally under-represented people, since the majority of post-recession college enrollment spike comes from formally under-represented groups- http://tinyurl.com/32tmzaw.

The trends also indicate that women will be joining the workforce with an increasing number bringing their own top educational credentials. According to this article, women are earning more PhDs than men http://bit.ly/9ZHVU3. Other articles, like this one, tell us that the number of women pursuing MBA’s is increasing- http://tinyurl.com/yyqb4wk. It’s no surprise that more women today are becoming top breadwinner in the home or in other cases at the minimum an equal co-breadwinner- http://tinyurl.com/ya6m8cm.

In the midst of all this, other indicators are that traditional racial and ethnic group labels categories will blur and lose meaning due to the increase in cross-ethnic and cross-racial marriages. According to Pew Research, interracial marriage was up from 6.7% in 1980 to 14.6% in 2008- http://tinyurl.com/26qx9vk. This article talks about how US Census is addressing this increasingly multi-racial/ethnic population- http://tinyurl.com/ykf38ht.

To this we add the generational diversity dimension. As people live longer, healthier lives in an environment of economic uncertainly, trend spotters see multiple generations in the workforce as a common long-term theme. For example according to this article, 18% of people over 65 choose to continue working- http://tinyurl.com/2aeyauu. Furthermore, 40% of people between ages 45 and 59 have expressed their plan to delay retirement- http://tinyurl.com/y8uhx6v. This Australian article poses the question “is there a 100 year old worker in our future?”- http://tinyurl.com/2e45fh7

Finally, there are other indicators that we will have a workforce comprised of people who openly express personal sexual differences. This article talks about a step in that direction with the official proclamation of June as LGBT Pride Month- http://tinyurl.com/38zopqg

A few of the questions to consider in terms of what this means in the future include: What will talent attraction strategies look like? How will this impact employee engagement efforts? How will this affect mentee-mentor relationships? Add your own below.

The diversity training value debate

The value and future of diversity training is constantly being debated by practitioner supporters and academic detractors. Many recent articles, however, point out that the problem may arise from academics that are looking for evidence that diversity training is resolving the entire challenge of having and leveraging a diverse workforce, while practitioners are not measuring the specific things that diversity training is designed to do. Overall, these articles provide ideas on how to measure the success of diversity training and other steps in addition-to as compliments to this training needed to bring about the total solution sought by the academics and create a continuously learning environment. The last article on this lists looks at social media is a possible new training frontier.

According to many academics, diversity training programs do not work because they do not change attitudes or behaviors in the workplace- http://tinyurl.com/yenyhvc

In addition to not seeing a change in terms of company demographics and or promotions as a result of diversity training, detractors also point out to evidence that indicates that this training does not remove basic human biases- http://tinyurl.com/yagzteb and http://tinyurl.com/yk4jda4

On the hand, others point out that diversity training cannot be fairly measured by looking for an outcome such as increased hiring and promotion of women and formally under-represented groups or a reduction in biases where it is only one of many contributing factors. Diversity training, this position holds, should always be measured using metrics that test for its success and improvement against what it, as training, is specifically designed to do: effectively transfer knowledge and the ability to employ skills and demonstrate key behaviors (This does not include motivating or incenting people to use these new skills, which is a totally different challenge and not one that is addressable by training)- http://diversity-executive.com/article.php?article=964

In this popular TED Talk, Vilayanur Ramachandran supports this by telling us what brain damage can reveal about the connection between cerebral tissue and the mind, using three startling delusions as examples. It brings home why education or intellectual training alone does not bring about behavior change. http://www.ted.com/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_on_your_mind.html

Finally with over 400 plus organizations today using social media communities, the business community is beginning to wonder if their electronic platforms will become the new diversity training frontier- http://tinyurl.com/2alrxu4

How creating and leveraging diversity and inclusion powers innovation

The following is a collection of articles that show the importance of innovation in today’s competitive business environment and the role that creating and having well leveraged diverse and inclusive team plays in winning in this competition.

According to this and many other articles like it in our highly competitive global economy only innovative organizations will survive and thrive- http://tinyurl.com/26hdykr

Contrary to the popular notion of the super-gifted genius who experiences a lone aha moment that results in a big break through, this TED talk video tells us that great innovation comes about as a result of a diversity of ideas joined in a “liquid-network. In other words, it’s a diverse group result.”- http://tinyurl.com/25edr9o.

Many other recent works concur on the value of diversity in teams. Creativity according to this article is the result of combining strong doses of divergent thinking and convergent thinking – http://bit.ly/an2WvJ. This clip of a Charlie Rose program agrees with the need for divergent and convergent thinking in order to produce creative results- http://tinyurl.com/34bdwfk

This article points to the obvious connection between diversity, which brings many divergent ways of looking at things to the table, and its roles as a catalyst for innovation- http://tinyurl.com/5vkxmt. In addition to this, diversity brings to the table people with a variety of problem-solving models that support the re-framing of approaches to solutions- http://tinyurl.com/337oq2j

Several articles and podcast talk about how bringing together diversity perspectives powers innovation. For example, this Center for American Progress article http://tinyurl.com/28fnwo and this NPR interview on how diversity impacts creativity and innovation in a positive way- http://tinyurl.com/ykb4c4

Most recent studies co-authored by MIT researchers document the existence of collective intelligence among groups of people and point out that the key to effectively mining these creative and innovative benefits are groups who cooperate well across various abilities and show an intelligence that extends beyond the cognitive abilities of the groups’ individual members. Another important item mention in this article is that the tendency to cooperate effectively is linked to the number of women in a group. In other words they indicate that inclusion and leveraging differences and similarities is the key to success and that females play a vital role in facilitating this process http://bit.ly/9Fi84N

The State of Women in the Workplace

This collection of articles provides a sense of where women are today in the workplace and in their pursuit of career opportunity.

This article submits that we are in an era of gender re-balancing towards a 50/50 workforce with a huge number of women recently entering the workforce- http://tinyurl.com/23xm2vm

Per this, however, the progress of women into the senior level ranks is still slow with only 15% of C-level executives in USA firms are women- http://tinyurl.com/38hnzfa

The slowness of female progress in moving up through management ranks and salary is presented in this article, which points out how female managers in 2000 comprised 39% of the managerial pool and on average earned 79% of what male managers earned. In 2007 they were 40% of the pool earning 81% of what the men earned- http://tinyurl.com/29zd5wz

The chances of the pipeline of top female talents making it to the c-suite seem low when we read this article that tells us that White females have 11% less chance of promotion to middle-manager roles versus White men. Minority women have a 29% less chance than White men- http://tinyurl.com/2fjvcon

The pipeline of women qualified for advance positions is higher than we might think according these articles. According to a recent NPR report almost 60% of college graduates are women -http://tiny.cc/64sr8 . A recent Forbes article tell us that the number of women pursuing MBAs is increasing- http://tinyurl.com/yyqb4wk and this piece tells us that women are earning more PhDs than men- http://bit.ly/9ZHVU3

Never the less, per this report women make up only 27% of STEM workforce and percent drops as we ascend the hierarchical ladder- http://tinyurl.com/2ffauyo

Furthermore, per this article the personal demands are greater for females to success. In the article is explains how 33% female scientist are unmarried and 43% do not have children; Men, on the other have are only 9% unmarried and only 33% without kids- http://tinyurl.com/2bbkf6x

There are countries that are making better use of female talent. Per this, part of the reason for the growth in China and India is the number of women entering the professional workforce- http://tinyurl.com/38y8yx9

Welcome to The Diversity and Inclusion Buzz (D&I Buzz)!

The purpose of this blog is to provide a summary of articles and ideas from various sources that present some of the "buzz" around key D&I topics. The goal is to share with you thought-provoking and useful information surrounding a specifically chosen topic.

What’s the buzz on how organizations are addressing the delay in Boomer retirements?

What’s the buzz on how organizations are addressing the delay in Boomer retirements?

What’s the buzz on the impact of increasing diversity on employee engagement practices?

What’s the buzz on how much employees want flexible workplaces and how effective these are in supporting work life balance?

The current buzz on the value, state and opportunities for finding mentors

What does the Future Workforce look like in 5, 10 15 years and beyond?

The diversity training value debate

How creating and leveraging diversity and inclusion powers innovation

The State of Women in the Workplace

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