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Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace
To prove that they do not discriminate against people, more and more organizations hire a wide range of people regardless of their attributes. Diversity in the workplace means that an organization or business intentionally hires a workforce of people of different ages, races, gender, ethnicities, sexual preferences, and other characteristics. Some organizations and companies correctly implement diversity in their workforce, and some have attempted yet failed to implement variety. Some of these organizations that effectively implement diversity are General Motors, Salesforce, and Citi. In contrast, other organizations like Facebook and Google have tried yet failed to implement diversity adequately.
01
General Motors
General Motors is one of the leading companies that supports diversity through supporting groups that promote racial justice. General Motors believes that as a company, they need to do more than sell products. They need to actively support the ideas of justice, honesty, compassion, and inclusion. The organization has taken the initiative to publicly denounce police corruption and brutality, racism, prejudice, and tyranny by following steps. The first step is Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors, and nine other community and corporate leaders announcing unending support for equality for every American. The next step was having General Motors give 10 million dollars to organizations that advance racial justice and inclusion. General Motors donated the first million to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. GM gave the rest of the money to organizations organized by Employee Resource Groups. Also, General Motors has created an Inclusion Advisory Board, which brings in leaders to discuss the systemic problems that prevent diversity and to find funds and resources that GM will donate to fight social issues until they are resolved. Starting on June 19th, 2020, the company has celebrated Juneteenth by taking 8 minutes and 46 minutes of silence to commemorate and honor George Floyd’s memory, and any other African Americans killed due to discrimination and racism. The employees of General Motors are entirely on board with the company’s new policies; a current employee went on to say that “The leadership at General Motors both locally and company-wide are very progressive, supportive, and proactive. Benefits are great, and the company is true to their values in every way” (Fluker, Glassdoor, 2020). In total, General Motors' workforce uses its funds and resources to support racial justice organizations, creates groups to promote diversity, and celebrates lost African Americans' lives.
02
Salesforce
Salesforce believes that business is a reliable tool to use in the fight against discrimination and inequality. Like General Motors, Salesforce created their organization called the Racial Equality and Justice Task Force, whose mission statement is to help system changes in both the workplaces and communities. The task force has committed itself to doubling the number of Black employees in leadership positions and increasing the United States' Black workforce by 50%, all before the end of 2023. The task force has dedicated itself to spending $100 million on Black-owned businesses for the next three years in terms of purchasing. The task force will also give a 25% yearly growth in spending to minority-owned businesses. Also, they will advise at all levels of government on sufficient police reform through transparency about police, accountability of officers, training, and community-led policing. Salesforce helps promote racial equality by donating money and resources to African American Businesses and organizations dedicated to aiding them and other minority groups with their task force in place.
03
Citi
Citi shows its support for diversity by helping disenfranchised groups in any way possible. Unlike General Motors and Salesforce, who mainly focus on assisting African Americans, Citi fights for diversity by focusing on optimization, pay equality, Citi Affinity groups, LGBTQ+ equality and rights, and disability inclusion. To create a safe and diverse workforce for LGBTQ+ workers, Citi must combat the subtle biases and rules so that Citi can welcome everyone with open arms. Disability reform is another high priority for Citi, so their CEO “signed on to The Valuable 500, a global movement to put disability on the business leadership agenda” (Fluker, Glassdoor, 2020). This movement allows disabled workers paid leave and medical insurance. It allows them to maintain their job position as long as the disability does not hinder their work. To support LGBTQ+ and disability workers, Citi has implemented several services and programs to promote diversity; however, some organizations have attempted to be diverse but failed.
04
Facebook has attempted to gain diversity in its workforce by hiring and promoting more African Americans and Hispanics, but their efforts were insufficient. Even though Facebook's United States branch grew more than sixfold to 27,705, the number of Black people only increased to less than 1000. According to Facebook EEO-1 reports, the Black population of the company's workforce only increase from 1% to 3.7%. Apparently, despite their attempts at diversity, Facebook could not increase their Black population up to at least encompassing 10% of their workforce. The statistics are even worse for minority female workers; Facebook's 714 Hispanic females only make up 2.6% of the workforce, and Black women take up even less at 1.75%. Facebook’s most recent diversity report showed a slight increase in Black and Hispanic employees. As of 2020, Facebook now has 4% of the workforce as Black, and 6.3% is Hispanic. This means that the total number of Blacks and Hispanics working at Facebook barely makes up 10% of the workforce. Also, unlike the other organizations mentioned, Facebook does not have a group that strives for diversity, nor do they donate money to racial justice groups, almost as if they want to do the bare minimum to appear diverse. It may be shocking that one of the most popular social media sites does not promote much staff diversity. Still, the idea of giant corporations lacking diversity is not a new concept.
05
Google's seven consecutive diversity reports shows that the tech giant has not made significant progress in becoming more diverse. Like Facebook, Google had some trouble when it came to hiring new Black employees. According to Google's diversity data, the percentage of Black employees hired went from 4.8% to 5.5%, only a 0.7% increase between 2018 and 2019. The 0.7% is also Google's most significant increase in Black hires since its diversity data started publishing. Like before, female hires do not fare well. From 2016 to 2019, the percentage of female employees dropped from 33.2% to 32.5%. Even though the decrease was slight, a company striving for more diversity should not be satisfied when the female percentage goes down. In Latinx employees and women, their numbers in Google's leadership staff have only slightly increased by 0.6% and 0.4%, so female and Latinx employees continue to lack representation in a large and well known. Like Facebook, Google has shown no other Despite Google's attempts at diversity, the tech giant has failed to add much of a diverse workforce or show support for variety in general.
06
Diversity and Inclusion Creates Harmony
Every community should make some events mandatory for all those living in the community because the patrons will be forced to interact. If the event is compulsory, then no one can be excluded. These events could have games, meetings, or contests that would convince neighbors to trust each other. No one will think to fear the Muslim family who comes to the events and always looks happy to be around others. The neighborhood should share their cultures, so nothing anyone does to celebrate their heritage will not confuse anything dangerous. Humans are often afraid of the things they do not understand; unfortunately, one of those things is people. In the 90s, the gay community was attacked because of the Aids virus, and how nobody truly understood what the disease was or how it was transferred. Now that humanity understands what it means to be gay, more people are now openly accepting of gays. Also, humans immediately labeled many mentally ill people as crazy before scientists and doctors began to differentiate the different disorders and diseases. In this case, when society learns to stop making assumptions about others and accept the culture of others, the world will slowly become a better place to interact with.
