A World of Good

One expert's take on global diversity

Global diversity, for years touted by visionaries as a top business imperative, is now slowly being rolled out by American companies. But, going global with one's diversity goals is far different than doing so nationally.

To find out how organizations should undertake such a complex endeavor, we spoke with Deb Dagit, executive director of Diversity & Work Environment for Merck & Co., Inc., who gave us her detailed take on how the process can take shape.

Q. Businesses have talked about diversity on a national level, but much less so in a global sense. So, first, I should ask you, what does it look like to incorporate diversity internationally?

A. I will tell you a little about the process that we went through. We designed our U.S. initiative in 2002 and then we undertook a global assessment survey. So, we now have an executive diversity council at Merck called the “Diversity Worldwide Business Strategy Team”.

First, we did some education of ourselves around the dimensions of global diversity and how that's different from the U.S., with outside consultants. Then, we put together a global survey of our employees outside the U.S. that was primarily open-ended questions. And we learned from our colleagues around the world what it was like to interface with U.S.-headquartered companies; how to talk about the dimensions of diversity; whether or not they thought diversity based on how we were defining it was important in their market, and what were some of the opportunities and challenges they saw.

From that global assessment, we developed a set of recommendations that were adopted into a three-year strategy that begins this year, 2005. It has both local and global pieces to it. The global pieces were no-brainers, such as making sure that integrated into our business competencies for executive-level positions is the mandate that candidates have demonstrated skills around global knowledge and an understanding of different cultures.

The next thing that we did was develop a tool that can be used at the country level for countries to conduct a self-assessment. This includes the dimensions of diversity, what the legal requirements are in their country, how they are in alignment with our human rights values and standards, and what their labor force needs are. In other words, where the available labor population is and what their standing is as an employer of choice.

That self-assessment is currently being completed, and will inform the 2006 objectives or annual accountability for each country around which demographics it makes sense for them to address and why. So that is where we are at in terms of our strategy.

Q. As organizations begin to move their diversity goals into the global arena, how do they avoid errors around culture and language?

A. First of all, I would suggest that you start with defining it in terms of what it is like to work outside of a U.S.-headquartered company. People are much more interested in talking about the degree to which they feel included if they're outside of the headquarters and in another country. That's a good way to initiate the dialogue.

The other thing is to not export U.S. use of affirmative action and to be careful of the language that you use. All of our hyphenated names don't make any sense outside the U.S.--like African-American, Hispanic-American. Those are irrelevant terms outside the United States.

Q. How do we amend our terms, our language, to think globally?

A. If you want to apply it globally in each country, you might talk about aboriginal people, or the indigenous population. You would talk about national origin, about class, and about access to academic institutions. You would talk about socioeconomic status.

Disability translates universally, but you need to be cautious about sexual orientation; in some countries that's a very taboo subject and needs to be approached with sensitivity and local guidance.

The dimensions of diversity that are relevant in those countries are quite similar in the U.S., but the language is different. So you need to avoid language that suggests you are talking about an American-based demographic issue.

Q. What is the best way to roll out global communications initiatives for diversity?

A. When we roll out training or communications globally, at the leadership level, English is kind of the language of business, and too often we think we're going to have to do everything in the local language. Depending on the nature of the message and who's receiving it, and how far down it's getting in the employee base, you may be able to rely on English. You need to ask vs. assume.

It really depends on your culture and what vehicles people are accustomed to--which ones you leverage for diversity-related communications. You want the message to be received as of equal importance or stature to other business communications. You need to use similar methodologies and vehicles. If you do a lot of webcasting, you can use that. If you make DVDs and ship them around the world and cascade them to senior management, you should do that. If you have a widely read global newsletter, you should use that.

You have to look at each company and say, “When we have something important to tell our employees--let's say we are acquiring another firm, and we wanted our employees to know--how would we tell them?” Whatever vehicles you are using for that, however many languages you would tend to translate that type of message into, if diversity is important, then that needs to be the mechanism that you use. But it should be integrated--not a separate message.

Q. If a company is opening an office or facility in another country, do you hire locally? Do you bring over executives from the United States?

A. I think the best approach is a mixed model. You want to get the benefit of developing global leaders from the U.S. and having them work in different markets. But, you also want to honor, respect and draw from the local knowledge of people who are in a given market. And so I think it's a both, not an either/or.

I think that, by and large, you want the leadership to be from that country. But, I think there is benefit in collaboration with key people from the U.S. who can bring specific knowledge, expertise, and a liaison with headquarters to understand the local issues. And that may be how you jumpstart things, how you manage a transformation.

Q. We guide ourselves with a best practices model for diversity here in the U.S. Are there universally acknowledged best practices for global?

A. No [[laughs]]. Any company that's global can tell you about a few things that they're proud of doing. But, I think that it's an emerging area and no company feels like they've got this all figured out. We've been talking about it for a long time, but we have been doing it only for a short time. There's a difference between intellectualizing it and executing it. And I think if you execute something, you learn a whole lot more than when you were just thinking about what it might be like.

Q. What's not even being discussed in terms of global?

A. There are issues that are sensitive here in the U.S. and have become part of our political landscape, and they are similarly charged outside the U.S. At some point, from an ethics standpoint, companies are going to have to decide how big of a stand they are going to take on having a work environment that is not homophobic, that is not sexist, that doesn't discriminate on the basis of skin color, and that is dealing with issues of religion.

So, the hot-button topics in the United States are very similar around the world, and we can't simply say, “That's their country and their culture--we have no right to intercede.” We have the same obligation to our employees regardless of their demographic background, regardless of where we do business to ensure fairness, dignity and respect. That's a conversation yet to be had.

Deborah Dagit joined Merck & Co., Inc. as executive director of the Diversity & Work Environment department in June 2001. She initiated and now leads the Diversity Worldwide Business Strategy Team, which develops breakthrough strategies for diversity that are implemented at the company. Before joining Merck, Deborah was a Director of Learning Communications and Diversity at Silicon Graphics, Inc.

Previously, she founded and managed Bridge-to-Jobs, a job placement organization through which she personally placed 400 people with disabilities into permanent employment. She also played a key role in the passage of the American with Disabilities Act through lobbying efforts in California and Washington, D.C.

Deborah earned a B.S. with honors from Oregon State University. She is the author of "The Promise of Diversity: Reflections on the Not-So-Level Playing Field" and "An Employer's Guide to Hiring and Accommodating People with Disabilities". Deborah is married and has three children.

To find out more about how our Diversity Services team can help you with your diversity initiatives, contact us at: 888.438.9911

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