Diversity: all talk, no action?

When a leading race relations campaigner like Trevor Phillips admits that he cannot always see the business case for diversity, it is clear that the argument for creating more diverse workforces is still to be won.

Phillips was speaking at a two-day event, jointly organised by the Confederation of British Industry and the Department of Trade and Industry, where company executives and business experts tried to convince delegates that diversity will increase competitive edge.

CBI director-general Digby Jones said that diversity was "morally right and commercially sensible", adding that "business cannot be blind to the benefits of diversity". But there was a sense among delegates that the argument for diversity is too full of rhetoric, without hard evidence to back it up.

As one HR professional said, "It is all very well Digby Jones going on about diversity but the CBI executive committee has nine members, eight of whom are white middle-aged males and only one woman - in the HR role."

Even the most ardent diversity campaigners admit that there is a long way to go to convince the people who matter that it has a real effect on business.

Sam Clark, head of inclusion and diversity at consulting firm Accenture, said: "I'm often struck by how people [at other companies] are still at the point where they are having to convince senior executives that diversity is important."

A case in point is British Gas parent company Centrica. At the end of last year it came top in a government-backed league table of FTSE 250 companies with female board members: it had three women directors. But all of those women are non-executives, and Judy Greevy, head of diversity and corporate responsibility at Centrica, admitted that the firm was "the best of a bad bunch".

"We need to get female executives on the board," she said. "There is a long way to go, but diversity at the top influences the rest of the company."

At an event about women in the boardroom, hosted by recruitment firm Veredus, Greevy said HR professionals need to talk up the business benefits of diversity, which differ from one company to the next. "You have to focus on what is important for your company," she said.

It is also important to include hard measurements when analysing diversity, Greevy said. "We measure the success of diversity policy by looking at the demographics of our employee engagement surveys," she said. "This is powerful as we know what each group is thinking. It is numbers with a message."

At the Veredus event, Tina Hallett, partner at Pricewater-houseCoopers (PwC), who chairs PwC women, said too many companies pay lip-service to diversity. "A diversity policy is good for your brand and nice to put on your website, but the challenge is to turn those policies into action that creates the momentum to drive change," she said. This phrase is typical of the current diversity argument, but PwC itself does not have a particularly good record: only 8% of its partners are female.

Indeed, it is talk of policies and initiatives that hinders progress on diversity, according to Allan Leighton, chairman of the Royal Mail Group. "So much effort is put into the 'front-end' strategic side of diversity that where it matters - execution - is forgotten," he told delegates at the CBI-DTI event. "You can talk about it for hours, but it is pretty straightforward: it is about respect, inclusion, strong leadership and creating a culture where it is 'the way we do things around here'."

Leighton was dismissive of companies that highlight their annual employee surveys as part of their commitment to diversity. "You should do employee opinion surveys every month. Only doing it once a year is a joke," he said. "The most important thing in any company is whether people enjoy working there. It is as important to look at that, as profit and loss."

But despite his criticism of the general approach to diversity, Leighton insisted that a diverse workforce is vital to business success. "The companies that do diversity the best are the best performing companies: fact," he said.

Top tips

Allan Leighton's seven rules for diversity success:

- Drive it as a business case

- Lead from the top

- Keep it always on the agendaSet up real programmes, not "goody two-shoes" initiatives

- Recognise progres

- Stamp out regression

- Measure as you would a real key performance indicator

What do top executives think about diversity?

Allan Leighton, chairman, Royal Mail Group

"Diversity is becoming too confusing - like management books. How can you spend two days talking about something that is simple? We have got to stop having conferences, writing policies and holding training programmes: just get on with it."

Larry Hirst, general manager, IBM UK & Ireland

"Employers must provide an environment in which people can bring to work as much of themselves as they wish."

Lynne Burns, head of diversity, Royal Bank of Scotland Group

"Diversity is not about box-ticking, it has to evolve naturally. The key word is mainstreaming. We started with a diversity strategy with a small number of people, but success would be not to have a separate plan, but for it to be part of everyday thinking."

Sir Digby Jones, director general, CBI

"A company's performance is always linked to its ability to recruit the right people. People want to work for companies that demonstrate that diversity matters. There needs to be a sustained culture assault down the supply chain that business must encourage."

Ben Summerskill, chief executive, gay rights pressure group Stonewall

"I feel the 2003 [sexual orientation] regulations might go the same way as the Equal Pay Act. Changing the law is just the first step, we have to change the business world."