Senior managers' take on diversity by Tameiko

Everyone says diversity is important. Do we really believe it is important or have we been told it is important so often that we automatically believe it is too. I am okay with blind faith but when you are dealing with people’s livelihood we better understand the importance of our message. For example, I am working on recruiting projects involving diversity for Bing, therefore I am having conversations with various people about their demographics. One manager was right in calling me out stating if recruiting provided a more diverse slate of candidates, we would likely hire more diverse people. I cannot argue with his statement! Another manager though said we hire diverse people and treat them well. While I bet his team treats “them” well, the demographics of the group showed he did not have a highly diverse team. What I think he was trying to say is that we do not discriminate. (…which is great!) The conversation we were having however was how to increase diversity in the slate of candidates. We continued on awkwardly for a bit and then wrapped up shortly thereafter.

 

We did not really address the issue. What that conversation told me was, he had not put much thought around it. Should he have? The group seems successful. Team members are content. So…is diversity really important? And if so, says who???