Associate Inclusion Can Make a Big Difference for Retailers
I suppose by now, since it is the 21st century, we've all been through at least one round of diversity training, and I imagine many of us have been through several rounds. In my experience, this training has revolved around gender, race, creed, ethnicity, etc. that are paired with sessions on how workers would feel if or when someone did this or that to them. In other words, it's all about what not to do.
Just as important, according to Rich Brandt of the RDR Group, who presented a session on this subject at the recent FMI (Food Marketing Institute) 2012 convention, is creating an environment of inclusion. According to Mr. Brandt, 80 percent of the population growth in the U.S. is now multicultural, over half of college graduates are women, and 70 percent of new hires are women and/or multicultural.
The message: workers need to adapt to change to survive. Rather than thinking about what not to do, we all need to connect and create positive bonds with people who are different than we are. Although the easy thing to do is associate with people who are like us, the benefits of connecting with those who are different are immense. For retailers, positive bonds among different types of employees make teamwork easier to achieve and help all employees connect emotionally to a variety of types of customers. When there is a disconnect between groups of employees, it leads to apathy, resentment, and ultimately turnover and higher costs.
With 95 percent of senior leadership in Fortune 500 companies being white males (according to Mr. Brandt), there is a sameness at the top of organizations that leads to "group think". He suggests "reverse mentoring" as a partial solution to this problem, where on a regular basis senior execs pick out a young employee to ask for feedback on their decisions. In a world where 80 percent of the population is non-white (and trending towards 90 percent), and 90 percent of the world's wealth is in the hands of the top 20 percent, Mr. Brandt says it is key to calibrate one's approach to take into account cultural and ethnic differences. And, for companies, it is important to train their associates not to show or even tolerate disrespect based on stereotypes, but to expect the best and act on it.
The bottom line is that we all know it's a different world than 10, 20, or 50 years ago, but we still tend to act inappropriately at times, even if it is in a subconscious way, or only behind closed doors. Broadening our horizons seems a far better thing to do.