How would you define diversity and inclusion?

As a result of international migration, changing family structures, and greater numbers of older people and disabled people than ever before, both the pools from which we recruit employees, and the clients we serve, are becoming more diverse. And as the saying goes “demography is destiny”.

Our increasing diversity is an objective fact. It is estimated that by 2010, only a fifth of the workforce will be what is currently considered the ‘default’ employee - white, able bodied, male and under 45. The majority have become as much a minority as the rest of us.

Our increasing diversity is also subjective, it as much about who we think we are as about who we are. Increasingly, people want to be recognised for their differences; they don’t want to be trapped in others’ ideas of who they should be and how they should behave. So women in the workplace don’t want to have to behave like men in order to get ahead; mothers don’t want to have to sacrifice crucial hours at home with their children in order to do justice to their employment experience and training; Muslims don’t want to have to indulge in beers down the pub to work their way up the career ladder; gay men don’t want to have to stay in the closet in order to get a job.

Historically, when there have been moves to make the workplace a fairer place, and to narrow employment gaps, the strategy has been to make it easier for individuals to operate like the ‘default’ employee. If we want to define inclusion, perhaps we should think of it as the culture and practice of truly enabling people to be different, rather than penalising them for this.

Do you think that businesses are just ticking the boxes of compliance rather than realising the enormous benefits of true inclusion?

I think that has been true in the past. Businesses knew that they needed to think about equality and diversity, but perhaps didn’t fully understand why or how. That is part of the reason why they have spent a great deal of money on diversity managers over the past decade, but in practice have wanted someone who will ‘rubber-stamp’ their existing practices, rather than suggest radical changes to how they do things.

That approach is changing. Businesses increasingly realise that responding to diversity of talent within their actual and potential workforces, as well as, crucially, the diversity of demand within the marketplaces in which they operate, will affect their bottom line. Failure to capture the significance of this emerges as a major obstacle to growth and competitiveness over the medium to long term.

One development that emphasises the importance of equality and diversity work, and the changing culture that will not allow discrimination to be brushed under the carpet, is the size of some of the recent legal discrimination cases, with settlements up into the millions, quite aside from legal fees. Increasingly, we need to ask ourselves who advised internally, who listened, and how can we stop this happening?

What has been the biggest change that you have seen in attitudes to diversity over the past few years?

Generally, we are getting more comfortable with diversity. We are talking about it more, businesses are starting to understand that this will affect their profit and productivity, and diversity is – at least in terms of the debate – becoming a mainstream issue.

But there is still a long, long way to go. We need to translate noble thoughts into good practice. For example, employers increasingly understand that flexible working is a good thing, but how many of them actually make it a possibility for their employees? The rule that part time equals low paid and low skill must be overcome – real flexibility in work is essential for the sustainability of our economy.

The penalty faced by partnered mothers of young children relative to partnered men still stood at 40 per cent in 2002. But there are some signs of improvement – for example the proportion of mothers changing their employer following maternity leave has halved from 41 per cent in 2002 to 20 per cent in 2005. Businesses widely accept that this has been a positive step towards helping them to retain talented women employees.

And flexibility is not only about time, nor is it only about working mothers – it is about deploying the skills and capacities that staff do have rather than listing the things that they may find more difficult.

We cannot afford for increasingly large segments of our population to be working below their potential. The future success of our economy depends critically on high levels of employee skills to respond to a more service-led economy and high added-value industries; the pool of available talent must not be limited by expanding gaps between the haves and haves-not.

And we cannot assume that there will be organic, continuous progress towards greater equality and deeper recognition of our diversity. Employers need to act, policy makers need to act, in order to effect much-needed change.

One thing that I would like to persuade businesses to do would be to publish more and clearer data about their performance as employers and service providers – how well they represent the diversity in the areas they serve, and how well they serve that diversity. That, combined with clear accountability and ownership of the equality agenda at the highest level, would ensure that businesses’ competitive instincts kick in.

Biography

Margaret Prosser has been the Deputy Chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) since December 2006.

She has 20 years’ experience as a Senior Trade Union Official with the Transport and General Workers Union. Between 1984 & 2002 she was National Women's Secretary and National Organiser and was then elected by the membership to the post of Deputy General Secretary. For eleven years Margaret was a member of the TUC General Council and was TUC President in 1995/6. She was an Equal Opportunities Commissioner from 1985-1992 and from 1992-2002 she chaired the World Women's Committee of the International Chemical and Energy Workers Union.

In 2002 Margaret retired from the Transport and General Workers Union and in December of that year was appointed Chair of the Women's National Commission. She has since been reappointed until 2008. Margaret has been a non executive director of Royal Mail since 2004.

Margaret Prosser became a Baroness and took up her seat in the House of Lords on July 11, 2004. She was asked by the Prime Minister to Chair a Women and Work Commission to look at the causes of the gender pay and opportunities gap and to find practical ideas to close it. The Commission reported in February 2006.

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