What is the difference between diversity management and equal opportunity?

Despite the unifying implications of globalisation, diversity is becoming increasingly important, as workforces become more varied in a range of ways. These include gender, race, ethnicity, age, disability, national origin and other personal characteristics; along with different attitudes, needs, desires, values and work behaviours.

So, diversity management is seen as an important and powerful management tool and even HRM strategy. Earlier ‘equal opps’ ideas – where we viewed differences negatively and tried to eliminate them – have been subsumed by the way we are now managing diversity and recognising these differences as a positive.

Diversity management can also be seen as a dichotomy. First, the equal opportunities approach: with its legislative and compliance focus, concern to avoid disadvantage with equality of status, opportunities and rights are group-focused. It stresses the importance of managing and treating people equally, irrespective of differences. Second, the managing diversity approach: with its focus on an explicit holistic strategy of not only recognising, but valuing, differences to give people equal chances to contribute distinctively. This is individual-focused, and is driven by the organisational needs.

This approach shifts from the conventional legislative focus of equal opportunities to an explicit strategy of valuing differences. This distinction in diversity management can be questioned as they may not be separate but inter-dependent, with managing diversity to seek value in individual differences, and equal opportunities, to ensure that specific groups are not discriminated against.

Diversity management has also been criticised for assumptions that it brings benefits to organisations, and employees, in terms of productivity or creativity of work groups. Unfortunately research supporting these claims says that diversity is more beneficial for teams mainly conducted in classroom or laboratory environments, using students and groups with short life spans and artificially constructed interpersonal interactions.

Indeed, some studies in the real organisational contexts found an increased number of conflicts and stereotyping within groups as a result of workforce diversity. The assumption that diversity is beneficial for all organisations, in all circumstances, is also challenged. Homogeneity might be advantageous as communication is less difficult, costs minimised and diffusion of knowledge across members is maximised – albeit less likely to produce innovation compared to heterogeneous groups. Thus, homogeneity can be more conducive to routine economic activity, whereas diversity is more favourable to knowledge-based, innovative, activity.

In short, the business case claimed for managing diversity includes a better public image for organisations, a satisfying working environment, increased job satisfaction, and higher employee morale, an uplift in productivity and an improved competitive edge – especially in heterogeneous markets.

However, there is limited supportive evidence. There is something of a ‘Catch-22’ here. The benefits of managing diversity may be better realised within the context of cultural re-alignments to where diversity is valued. For this to happen, it'll be necessary to persuade senior management that this will impact positively on organisational effectiveness.

You’ve probably heard someone ask, “Why should I care about workplace diversity when the government has already taken care of it with the Equal Employment Opportunity Act?” or “Why do we need diversity when we have affirmative action?” Keep reading to learn the differences and best practices of recruiting and hiring a diverse team.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 provides freedom from employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information. Equal employment opportunity (EEO) also protects employees from retaliation after having voiced, filed, or taken part in a discrimination complaint or lawsuit. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is responsible for enforcing these laws.

Affirmative action (AA) has a broader reach in that it encompasses policies that support members of disadvantaged groups that have suffered historical discrimination through education, employment, or housing. Key to AA is that it is deemed a social and moral obligation to amend historical wrongs and improve opportunities for historically excluded or underrepresented groups in the United States. Many organizations have affirmative action plans (AAPs) that include numerical measures intended to increase the representation of ethnic minorities, women, people with disabilities, and veterans. Additionally, federal contractors above certain dollar limits are required to have AAPs. Without violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, other employers may also institute voluntary AAPs to remedy past discrimination, if certain conditions are met. These activities are governed by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Plans (OFCCP).

Diversity is the wide range of differences that exist among people. It is appreciating, honoring, acknowledging, and valuing the social, cultural, and personal differences reflected in each person. Diversity moves beyond correcting historical patterns and discriminatory practices to valuing employee difference in order to improve overall organizational performance. Where EEO and AA are legally driven mandates, diversity is voluntary, intentional, and preemptive change creating a culture of respect and dignity where difference is leveraged for increased performance and competitive edge. Diversity is broader than benefitting protected classes, which is a source of angst for some. Diversity is all the efforts to include everyone, including white men. While EEO and AA are focused mainly on demographics that include gender, race, ethnicity, and mental and physical ability, diversity encompasses a wide range of dimensions like cognitive style, personality type, functional background, unique experiences, personal identities, ideas, thoughts, and opinions. Diversity is part of an organization’s business strategy.

Diversity, EEO, and AA deal with issues related to discrimination, but in unique ways. The three are complementary in function and intent but vary in their goals and outcomes. To ensure your organization is operating out of best practices to attract, recruit, hire, and retain diverse employees:

1. Educate leaders as well as team members about EEO, AA, diversity, inclusion, bias, and unconscious bias and the impact to your organization.
2. Encourage diversity in recruiting, hiring, development advancement, and succession planning.
3. Educate all team members regularly about your organization’s EEO policies and the process for EEO and discrimination claims and/or issues within the organization.
4. Annually give opportunity for team members to voluntarily self-identify on EEO/AA forms, if they did not initially provide the information or wish to revise their status, letting them know there are no adverse consequences for choosing to or not to provide the information.
5. Incorporate a multipronged approach to recruiting diversity into your organization.
6. Review your selection criteria to state your specific needs for a job versus the “kitchen sink” approach of including every possible criterion in job postings.
7. Train interviewers on unconscious bias.
8. Institute a blind resume/qualification-screening process, eliminating keywords or information that could bias interviewers.
9. Utilize multiethnic, multigender, multigenerational, and multifunctional interview panels to help eliminate bias and provide broader perspectives about candidates.
10. Combine social media recruiting with traditional recruiting methods.
11. Implement returnships (for people returning to the workforce after a gap in employment), senior citizen internships, remote-work arrangements, and phased career exits alongside traditional internships, job sharing, and flexible schedules.
12. Offer flexible employee benefits that include reimbursement accounts employees can use to payoff student debt, out-of-pocket health, or dependent-care expenses, as well as flexible health insurance and retirement benefits options.

Understanding the differences and relationship between EEO, AA, and diversity helps your organization leverage similarities, maintain compliance, and lay a foundation for embracing the increasingly more diverse world of work.

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