emale and minority employees: Focusing on bringing in the best talent, not on meeting numerical goals Developing career plans for employees as part of performance reviews Establishing mentoring programs among employees of same and different races Promoting minorities to decision-making positions, not just staff jobs Holding managers accountable for meeting diversity goals And Diversifying their Board of DirectorsDespite such efforts by corporate America, the Glass Ceiling Commission reports that women and minorities hold just 5% of senior level jobs. Of the minorities who have obtained top jobs, they are in soft positions such as Human Resources with not much decision-making power (Business Week, Aug.14th 95). In other words, there is still quite a bit of work to be done.Diversity training has unquestionably taken off like a rocket. At corporations around the country, the concept, which previously encompassed a narrow range of sensitivity training programs, has broadened and expanded. Today, diversity is a serious corporate initiative that is seen as helping those at a disadvantage. Through their commitment and involvement of diversity issues, Xerox was awarded the prestigious Malcolm Baldridge quality award in 1989 for its three decade campaign to hire and promote women as well as minorities (Managing diversity: Lessons from the private sector, AOL Electric Library). The company has been a leader in the development of diversity initiatives which include programs designed to improve employee motivation, and teamwork through helping people to understand differences in gender and race as well as disabilities.Although some of these programs go back over thirty years to the height of the Civil Rights Movement, todays diversity initiatives refer to a much wider range of programs designed to create a well running, cooperative workforce. Many initiatives start with benchmarking and company-wide goal setting. This then results in various re...
