“Diverse teams work better. That’s a proven fact.” (Burton, 2017) I never put much thought into workplace diversity having a direct correlation with results, but that quote from the Observer references McKinsey & Company’s research into that very topic and it’s hard to argue with the results. After analyzing data sets from over 350 global companies, McKinsey found that, “Companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.” (Hunt, Layton & Prince, 2015). The numbers don’t lie, and that message goes hand-in-hand with a constantly changing, diverse world. It is also a potential harbinger that I will be looking for a new job in the “sooner, rather than later” category.
For the past 3 years, I have worked in the Operations office of a manufacturing plant in SE Wisconsin, in the light industrial rail industry. When I was hired on, I didn’t pay too much attention to the makeup of the company, as I was coming from a 14-hour a day stressfest that I was desperate to put in my rear-view as soon as humanly possible. Starbucks would have been a viable option if I had to hold out a few more days…but as fate would have it, I found this place and finally had a tiny bit of work-life balance restored.
The year I was hired, we were in the middle of a staffing frenzy. The new Vice President signed off on some 75 new positions based on what was then a consistently uphill sloping 5 year sales forecast. Management’s message was essentially, “You’re lucky to get in now, because we’re taking off straight to the moon!” Cut to exactly one year later, that VP was out (along with two of those who succeeded him), and virtually all of those new positions created vanished into thin air. The 5-year forecast now showed an equally sharp decline, and management’s message turned into, “You’re lucky to still be a part of this thing, now please find $500k in cost savings, throw it in a proposal and have it on my desk by Friday…”
Two years later, things don’t look much better and reading articles like the ones referenced above over the past few weeks have caused me to be a little more observant. At our year-end review last week, the whole company gathered on the shop floor, 250ish employees grouped by department, to hear the President and CEO go over the financials and answer a few questions. There wasn’t much new information shown and it appeared as though they were just going to continuing the same tactics of old; that the market will eventually find its way back to us. Looking around to see if anyone was in visual agreement with that sentiment, I realized just how monochromatic this company is. I likened it to the first stage of Marie Kondo’s “KonMari” tidying method, where you pile up all of your clothes on your bed to get a true sense of what you have, so you can then make better decisions about what you actually need/want to keep. (Kowalski, 2018) So there it was, my company’s entire workforce piled up in the middle of the shop…250 seats set up on the floor….and only 6 of them were people of color. I was astonished.
So I did a little more digging on our intranet and took a deep dive into our Org Chart. The Board of Directors – 6 people, all Caucasian males over the age of 60. Purchasing Dept. – 13 people, all Caucasian with a median age of around 45. Engineering – 100% Caucasian and over the age of 40. And how about our Assemblers? 52 Union members, 51 Caucasian males with a median age of 50. Suddenly, the uninspiring “State of the Union” address made a lot more sense. The decision-makers all come from the same era and for the most part, have been with company for well over a decade. I decided to chat up a few co-workers after the meeting just to get their thoughts, and the response was an overwhelming, “Meh, it is what it is.” I wrote about this in the Differences Essay, but here it was playing out in real life. An aging workforce with very few differences between, and even less differences within, all showing complacency, distrust of management, and an overall lack of motivation.
I took a peek at past “new hire” welcome e-mails, and almost every time we hired a younger person, they were out the door for greener pastures in less than a year. I asked one of the engineers about this, and he said, “Yeah, most of the time they just don’t ‘fit’ what we do here…” Which, seems like a backwards way of looking at it. When our younger employees don’t “fit” what we do, so they get offered better compensation at a competitor who is successfully eating away at our business more and more each day, perhaps it is our way of thinking that no longer “fits” the industry? Diverse minds drive the innovation needed to succeed. And being in an older industry, like the railroad industry, that need for innovative young minds to propel a company into the 21st Century is paramount. But now that I have a greater understanding of why our GP continues to dwindle each year, and with calls for change falling on deaf ears, perhaps it may be time to polish off the old resume before it’s too late…
Works Cited
Burton, S., & Burton, S. (2017, January 03). Companies Lacking Diversity Fail Their Shareholders-and Employees. Retrieved February 2, 2019, from https://observer.com/2017/01/diversity-workplace-economic-returns-hiring/
Hunt, V., Layton, D., & Prince, S. (2015, January). Why diversity matters. Retrieved February 2, 2019, from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/why-diversity-matters
Kowalski, K. (2018, July 16). KonMari Method: 5-Step Decluttering Cheat Sheet | Sloww. Retrieved February 2, 2019, from https://www.sloww.co/konmari-method/
mjs749 says
Diverse minds drive the innovation needed to succeed. Your statement rings true to many generations. It makes it interesting on how one generation to another changes the culture of the next. Working in many of the same situations you have been in, it creates a split between people. Early in my career, I have questioned the same people over the same topics. You bring points up that many companies do not plan for the changing environment in diversity. You mentioned that as you looked around you seen similar people throughout the company. And it might be time to update your resume. I ask a question, how could you inject your ideas into stagnate companies or society to improve/change the direction? It’s not much different than the North/South argument when working cultures meet. Someone from the North tends to be a fast talker and it’s only about work. Southern people are about a more personal culture and building bonds. Well, failing brings ideas to safe jobs so does the culture and diversity change grow companies to be a better version of themselves.
jvk5901 says
Hi there! Nice job on the post your wrote. I can’t believe how totally disproportionate things are as far as diversity. Culture and diversity is an important topic that you can’t escape no matter what. Whether it is in the NFL or the company located in Pittsburgh, PA, it is too important of a topic to just dismiss. I believe that by bring in people of all ethnic backgrounds and making the workplace more diverse, you are only going to see positive things happen. Different ideas can be discussed and ways of solving a problem can be talked about from another perspective or way of doing things. You can certainly tell that the company you are working for has clearly missed the boat on the importance of diversity within the workplace and it shows. In today’s day and age, diversity is important and I think will dictate the success of the company!
rjb6123 says
I agree that for diversity to work, even the top management of a company must be heterogeneous with respect to the demography that exists in a company. For diversity to work at the top management level then there must be teamwork, this will provide a link between diversity and performance, an open discussion about management differences will ensure a smooth decision-making process. By embracing open debate there will be ease in the communication of differing views, preferences, and approaches. Amazon is a good example fo this. As many companies seek to expand into new territories, it has led to the need to deal with the challenge of cross-cultural diversity.
I have seen this in my own place of work. Just in the last decade organizations in business have embarked on globalization, this means that they often have to engage in multi-cultural communications. This is brought about by diversity. If a business is to be successful then the managers must have the ability to effectively communicate with people of different backgrounds. The efficiency in which a business embraces diversification will not only ease the management of business but also will enable companies that want to expand internationally to succeed in multinational operations and global joint ventures.