ISO 30415, Human resource management – Diversity and inclusion

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN EVERYTHING WE DO, EVERY DAY

ISO 30415, Human resource management – Diversity and inclusion

ISO 30415 provides the fundamentals for organizations wishing to create an inclusive workplace and capitalize on the opportunities this can offer.

Some facts and trends in public domain about D&I ?

We are increasingly becoming aware of the business case for D&I. As per McKinsey, the ethnically diverse organizations are 36% more likely to outperform companies that are less diverse, while, gender diverse companies are 25% more likely to outperform the less diverse companies. As per BCG diversity & innovation survey 2017, companies with more diverse leadership teams, report higher innovation revenue. According to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) 2017 Global Gender Gap report (pdf), which measures the participation gap, remuneration gap, and advancement gap, women lag men by 58 percent across the combined three categories and are even further behind in developing countries.

Why D&I is an important proxy for Organisational ESG performance?

ESG (Environmental, Social, & Governance) is becoming one of the areas that is in the focus for most organizations. Concerns are mounting about issues that were once thought ‘important’ but not ‘urgent’, as they are fast becoming burning issues. The countries across the globe are realizing the importance of working towards a sustainable future. The organizations are the ones, who can create a difference with the resources available to them, to create a larger impact. D&I cuts across the ESG by bringing to the fore importance of looking at the long-term vision and exploring how each stakeholder can influence the big picture. Can we take the ‘environment’ for granted and call recent natural disasters as freak incidents? Can we neglect the ‘social’ aspects and allow for incidents around harassment to go unreported? Can we let ‘governance’ slip and have fraud or financial lapses continue to happen? Or, do we wish to have teams that are diverse, that allow for all people to feel included and experience psychological safety – good enough for them to speak up?

New ISO 30415 and guidance on D&I

The new ISO 30415 provides the framework that every organization can adopt for ensuring Diversity & Inclusion in their processes. This standard throws light on the entire employee life cycle and how each part can be reviewed using the D&I lens. This covers the internal processes, as well the external partners, across the supply chain.

What new opportunities D&I initiatives can provide for the long term sustainability of organisation?

The last few months have questioned a lot of assumptions about the way we work and the way organizations operate. Moving away from the traditional working from office, to having 100% workforce working from home, all the time, has been a major shift. Though initially, some organizations struggled to ensure continuity for all employees, the adaption happened swiftly and steadily. Fast forward to 2021, the organizations see the benefits of having a remote work-force and so do the employees. There were certain sections of the employees who had to struggle earlier to create work-life balance, the year 2020 has brought about work-life integration. Flexibility of work from anywhere, at anytime, is opening up the opportunities for all. When the globe is becoming a level playing field, the diversity & inclusion has never been more important.

How DNV can help an organizations to benchmark D&I initiatives with training & assessment services?

DNV is a leader when it comes to training & assessment on various standards. With a focus on Supply Chain & Sustainability, DNV has a business vertical that is working with a special focus on new assessments. DNV helps its client across industries to better define their needs and come up with protocols and guidelines to manage their internal processes better. With an expertise in uncovering gaps and enabling organization to bridge the same, Diversity & Inclusion is an area that DNV is now focusing on. With a rich repository of data and best practices from the industry, we can help your organization learn & apply D&I practices being followed by the market leaders. D&I is an important part of our DNV 2025 Strategy internally. We would like to partner with our clients looking to set-up or scale-up their D&I initiatives. Our team of experts can train internal HR teams to focus on D&I aspects and partner with D&I teams to define the D&I strategy and help them achieve their D&I aspirations.