We separated the BRIC countries (and added Brazil and Russia to our
study of Asian and European countries) because of their fast-grow-ing economies and rapid rise in
gross domestic product. However,
our study did not find substantial differences between the BRIC
countries and the Asian/European
countries in terms of their diversity/inclusion efforts.
It’s important to note, however, that the tenure of diversity/inclusion programs in the BRIC countries
is noticeably shorter than in Europe
and the United States. Anecdotal
evidence tells us the BRIC countries
are moving more rapidly to advance
these efforts than many of the other
countries are. We expect to see them
show significant progress in the
areas they’ve identified over the next
two years.
The chart to the right shows
the tenure of diversity/inclusion programs in these countries and includes comparisons to
the DiversityInc Top 50 and all of
the 535 participants in the 2011
DiversityInc Top 50 survey.
DURATION OF DIVERSITY PROGRAMS
More than
10 years
1–3 years
4–5 years
6–10 years
23% 27% 15% 10% 15%
12%
Less than
1 year
12% 21% 28% 14%
Europe
19%
26%
21%
19%
3%
26%
74%
10%
15%
26%
35%
14%
Asia
BRIC
Highlighted circles are most prevalent in region
DiversityInc
Top 50
(U.S.)
535
DiversityInc
Top 50
Participants
issues culturally (but the companies surveyed tried to have cultural-competence training on orientation to prevent discrimination) except for Malaysia, in
which “homosexuality” is against the law and cannot be mentioned.
People With Disabilities
There is a groundswell in several countries (China, India, France, Italy, Belgium, Brazil and Germany) to hire people with disabilities, and some countries are mandating hiring percentages and requiring companies to
pay a fee if the percentages are not met. As a result, we see a huge effort to connect with universities and programs to hire people with disabilities globally.
LGBT Issues
For the most part, the European countries are years ahead of the Asian countries
on LGBT issues. Most have legalized
same-sex unions and a few are legalizing same-sex marriage. The Asian
countries generally ignore LGBT
Supplier Diversity
The concept of supplier diversity is not widespread globally, even by gender. There are European countries, especially the United Kingdom, where gender-based supplier diversity is catching on. In a
few cases in Europe, LGBT supplier diversity has started, and in the United
Kingdom, we see supplier-diversity efforts aimed at racial minorities. Efforts
by WEConnect International will change the trajectory on women’s supplier
diversity globally over the next few years, but it is a huge educational challenge at this point.
What’s Next?
Our next step, starting in early 2012, will be to reach out to companies headquartered in these countries and conduct in-depth interviews of how they structure their best practices and how they are impacting their workforces and business challenges. We will also talk with people at their global corporate headquarters to
ascertain their perceptions of how the local country business units are adhering to corporate diversity policies and
goals.
We expect to see increased prevalence of gender, age and disability efforts in the next two years globally, as well
as more concentrated efforts to educate workers/managers on the importance of diversity and inclusion to business
goals and cultural competence. I
