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Human Resource
Officer
Human Resources

by | 19 Aug 2009

Officer
HR Advisor - ER

Its tempting for organisations in

Australia to assume that our
employee communities generally
reflect multicultural Australia.
Certainly my experiences at IBM
Australia during the past few years
have taught me the value of
reality-checking assumptions about
what it means to be a culturally
diverse organisation.

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The decision to develop a strategy for cultural

awareness and acceptance within IBM Australia was
driven by corporate values (one of which is respect for
the individual), legal requirements (Anti-Discrimination
Act and Racial Discrimination Act) and the business
case. IBMs thinking on cultural diversity did not develop

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More recently, in 2001, IBM Australias bi-annual

employee opinion survey included questions to enable
us to better understand how different ethnicities fared
within the corporate culture of the company. The study
findings presented some variation between ethnic
groups in individual levels of satisfaction with particular
variables. Cultural issues did make an impact on how
staff felt about IBM, especially where differences
impeded clear communication, for example, between a
line manager and staff member.

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Cultural diversity, IBM style

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IBMs employee opinion survey (EOS) provided the hard

data to substantiate the business case for cultural
diversity. Modern organisations face a skills quandary.
On one hand, their workforce is ageing and skilled
workers are in increasingly short supply, while the
demands of clients driven by globalisation and advanced
technology are becoming more complex. So any
organisation that fails to maximise opportunities for all
employees will fall into a talent gap and miss business
opportunities.
Part of the business case was about retention,
particularly retaining people with languages other than
English as their first language. Such employees are
crucial to IBMs ability to serve its international clients.
For example, an IBM Information Technology helpdesk,
based in Brisbane, mainly deals with Japanese clients.
Another case reflected the global business market in
which IBM operates. Employees must recognise and act
on global opportunities. They must be able to operate
effectively in a variety of cultural and business
environments, whether travelling overseas or operating
at home.
Establishing that cultural diversity makes good business
sense is essential in obtaining the support of business
managers. Ironically, it also reduces the need for a
large budget to put programs in place. The diversity
team found that once organisational managers
understood the rationale for the program and began

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viewing it as an investment in good commercial

practice, they were actually offering to contribute
resources in time and incidentals.
Making cultural diversity part of IBM Australias DNA
Our most effective diversity programs combine push
and pull strategies. Weve made good headway through
company-led, top down practices such as formalised
training or policies like floating cultural holidays
(exchanging an Australian public holiday for another
significant cultural holiday). However the truly great
progress has come about through the momentum
generated by individuals who are passionate about
diversity issues and truly want to make it happen.
Aside from IBMs diversity team within human
resources, three other groups within IBM have formally
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3/10/2015

Cultural diversity, IBM style

identified roles in the implementation of the companys

overall diversity strategy. These are IBMs Diversity
Council, diversity contact officers and diversity
champions.
The Diversity Council
IBMs Diversity Council, chaired by our CEO Philip
Bullock, ensures that IBM visibly encourages and values
the contributions and differences of employees from
various backgrounds. Its key objectives are to heighten
employee awareness, increase management awareness,
and encourage the effective use of IBMs diverse
workforce.
It does so through key initiatives such as developing
attraction and recruiting strategies along with retention
and awareness strategies (which includes the education
of managers and employees). Once the business case
for cultural diversity was established, it became a focus
for the council and IBMs HR director, Robert Orth, was
appointed as an executive cultural diversity sponsor. In
this capacity, Orth works with a team of senior IBM
managers who champion particular diversity programs
within IBM. This is achieved through personal
commitment, regular communication, by gaining support
for the program from other IBM managers and
influencing decision making that may impact on the
program.
Under the guidance of the Diversity Council, a series of
cultural diversity employee roundtables have been held
to gather more face-to-face feedback and ideas from
staff. These meetings have generated many practical
ideas for increasing awareness of cultural diversity
within IBM. Some, like the suggestion for a cross
cultural communication course, were simple ideas that
became pilots for fully fledged diversity training
initiatives. Others, such as a networking and cultural
evening with the Vietnamese community in Brisbane,
were one-off events.
Diversity contact officers
Diversity contact officers are regular permanent
employees who volunteer to be conduits of information
relating to diversity, are trained as work/life balance
coaches, and help to integrate people with a disability
into the IBM workforce. They include men and women
from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, people with
disabilities and people who are gay or lesbian,
transgender or bisexual, to reflect the diversity of our
organisation.
Diversity champions
Our internal diversity awards recognise and celebrate
individuals whose actions encapsulate our diversity
principles. They help to raise awareness of the diversity
program and establish cultural diversity as the norm
within the company.

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Cultural diversity, IBM style

The power of internal awards for diversity champions

lies in bringing to life the actions of real employees.
The diversity team works closely with internal
communications and public relations to communicate
success stories. Ensuring that stakeholders outside the
company know about the diverse culture within IBM
directly supports recruitment efforts and forming
commercial relationships, reinforcing the business case.
Cultural awareness/acceptance in action
Cultural diversity education and awareness initiatives at
IBM can be grouped under two headings: individual
professional development and general staff awareness.
Professional development
IBM manager QuickViews are, as the name suggests,
intranet-based resources designed to give managers
essential and accessible information to conduct
business successfully with clients or colleagues from
another country. Topics include: culture and
globalisation, culture and business and diversity and
multicultural management. So if a manager is called
upon to travel suddenly to a new culture, QuickViews
offers handy hints on business meeting protocol.
Another professional development initiative is IBMs
Shades of Blue a more in-depth program for
managers who are engaged in cross-cultural business
interactions or have multicultural teams. Shades of Blue
is a unique learning experience in developing crosscultural competence. The workshop-based tutorials train
employees in:
Understanding the cultural bias of each team member
and their impact on mutual perceptions.
Why certain behaviours and communication styles fail
in some cultures.
Identifying approaches to address cultural gaps that
could lead to misunderstandings.
Handling issues about team decision-making, giving or
receiving feedback and conflict resolution.
The courses cater to individual managers or members of
an established multicultural team and are designed to
heighten awareness of each persons own cultural
biases and increase their sensitivity to other cultures.
The shades experience can be a powerful team-building
exercise for multicultural teams to transcend cultural
differences and become a high-performing team.
General staff awareness and polices
IBMs cultural diversity strategy relies on raising the
general level of awareness of different cultures within
the organisation. General initiatives include:
Celebration of Chinese New Year for Sydney
employees.
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Cultural diversity, IBM style

Publication of a diversity calendar, showing various

dates of cultural significance that might be relevant to
employees and business relationships.
Introduction of a floating holiday program where
employees can exchange a public holiday for a
significant cultural holiday.
Employee representation at an IBM global conference
on multicultural people in technology.
Looking to the future
The most valuable learning for me has been to clearly
distinguish religion from cultural diversity. Simply,
cultural awareness and acceptance is the theme rather
than religious observation.
The proof of programs, such as those designed to
promote cultural diversity, lies in the results. Retention
rates, staff satisfaction, client feedback and new
contracts will all determine how successful the company
has been. Quantifiable results will soon be available
from another EOS study to review the effectiveness of
the program. In the meantime, the Diversity Council is
reviewing anecdotal feedback from the business units
who are making the most of cultural training.
Kylie Nicolson is diversity program manager,
Organisational Culture and
Change for IBM Australia & New Zealand.
Comments? Suggestions? Email:
craig.donaldson@thcpress.com.au

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