Global EDI Consulting

Assess Your Organizational Climate for Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement
Assessment is an important step in just about any consulting assignment, because you can’t recommend solutions until the problem is fully understood. Sometimes, though, assessment is the assignment, like the work we did for the senior European management Board of a FTSE 100 fast moving consumer goods company. To get a comprehensive picture of the state of diversity and inclusion in the company’s European operations, we audited workforce demographics, policies, and practices; interviewed senior leaders; and held focus groups with employees across the continent. Then we led a task force of employees to create business-led solutions to the challenges identified in the review.

 

Pinpoint Barriers to Full Inclusion
To help the legal department of a large US-based multinational identify—and fix—its key diversity issues, ORC conducted an employee survey. We discovered that the main barriers to advancement for non-traditional employees in this organization were not bias or discrimination, but more subtle forms of exclusion embedded in the department’s culture. Information tended to move through the informal grapevine, so people who were not part of the network were shut out. Upward communication to senior management was difficult, and the culture discouraged raising conflicts openly, making it difficult to discuss the problems. Armed with this knowledge, the diversity council was able to plan actions to open up communications and address conflicts more freely.

 

Make the Business Case for Diversity and Inclusion in Your Industry and Organization
A large American consumer products company was acquired by an even larger European-based multinational that did not have a strong diversity tradition. The diversity leaders for the American subsidiary needed to be able to demonstrate the relevance of the work they’d been doing in the US to the global organization. ORC consultants guided them through a structured process to identify the business drivers for diversity and inclusion and determine D&I goals that would support the company’s business strategy and resonate with the new leadership.

 

Set Diversity Strategy and Goals That Tie to Business Objectives and Respond to Stakeholder Interests
One of our clients presented a really interesting strategy challenge. The mission of this organization, headquartered in London, involves working under intense public scrutiny with stakeholders from all over the world in a very sensitive political environment . We worked with 100+ internal/external stakeholders—individuals and groups—in developing a comprehensive D&I strategy that would engage a wide audience, build capacity in diversity and inclusion, and set a precedent for similar efforts in other countries.

 

Communicate with Stakeholders about Diversity and Inclusion Principles and Plans
After we helped this Japanese company reframe the mission, purpose, and values statement for its US subsidiary, we developed a branding and communications campaign to explain the new direction to employees and engage their enthusiasm. The campaign was tailored to the highly educated and tech-savvy audience. We used computer animations, cool little toys, a poetry contest, and eye popping graphics to grab their attention and town hall meetings to explain the substance. We developed and produced a biweekly e-newsletter to keep employees informed about the progress of the company’s transformation. And we provided managers with guidelines and tools to help them continue the communication process once we had left.

 

Design Tools and Processes that Will Turn the Diversity Strategy into a Living, Breathing Way of Working
Sometimes “diversity recruiting” operates almost as a separate function within the staffing group. Fortunately, this global finance organization was committed to making diversity a consideration in all of its recruiting activities. ORC’s job was to show them how to create an end to end recruiting process, embedded in a total talent management system, that would help recruiters find and hire highly qualified specialized talent that reflected the diversity of the organization’s markets and stakeholders.

 

Facilitate Formation Meetings and Strategy Session of Diversity Councils, Employee Networks, and Other Working Groups
To help one of the UK’s major broadcasting companies refocus its diversity strategy in light of fast-moving business strategy and changing markets, we designed and facilitated a workshop to guide the HR team through the process of analyzing current diversity efforts against strategic goals, developing new actions, and refining and re-prioritizing existing plans. Using ORC’s integrated strategic template, we helped the team—each member of which brought very different perspectives and priorities—produce a unified strategic plan along with recommendations for implementing it effectively.

 

Identify and Evaluate Best Practices
ORC is the leader in diversity and inclusion best practices. For nearly half a century we’ve been studying and advising major employers in the US, the UK, and around the world. So when one of our clients wants to know “How are the best companies doing X?,” we can not only tell them; we can help them evaluate whether the so-called “best practice” makes sense in their own special situation, and how it can be enhanced or adapted to achieve optimum results. From young biotechs to venerable manufacturers to industry groups such as the Securities and Financial Markets Association, ORC is the organization employers have come to time after time for cutting edge tools and processes.

 

Integrate Diversity and Inclusion into the Total Talent Management System
Every business process that touches on how employees are selected, developed, managed, and retained is an opportunity to ingrain diversity and inclusion into the DNA of the organization. Because ORC is a full-service human capital management consulting firm, our consultants know how to design and build equitable and consistent compensation plans; inclusive talent management processes; fair and effective performance evaluation and employee development systems—the whole suite of systems and processes that, when done right, create and sustain a culture in which every employee can contribute to his or her maximum potential.