Report "Study of the diversity management situation in companies" by SIF

STUDY OF THE DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT SITUATION IN COMPANIES

REPORT RIGA, 2015

Authors of texts Marija Golubeva, Sigita Zankovska-Odiņa, Imants Felsbergs Layout designer Jānis Uzraugs Editor Ligita Bērziņa

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful for the contribution to the development of this study to CEOs, representatives and employees of Latvian companies, who participated in the study Inesei Vīgantei, coordinator of research activities of the project “Different People,Various Experiences,One Latvia II” of the Society Integration Foundation Līgai Vecajai, manager of the project “Different People,Various Experiences,One Latvia II”of the Society Integration Foundation

This publication has been produced with the financial support of the PROGRESS Programme of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Society Integration Foundation, the Association of Persons LLC Corporate Consulting and Partnership Public Policy Centre PROVIDUS and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission.

TABLE OF CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS USED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 DESCRIPTION OF THE SITUATION AND METHODOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 1.

Feasibility

study

the

development

diversity

management

the

business environment in Europe and Latvia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 1.1. Stages of development of the concept of diversity management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 1.2. Impact of diversity management on business performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 1.3. EC’s initiative Diversity Charter and its impact on diversity management in companies . . . . . . . . . . . 16 1.4. Description of the situation with diversity management in Latvian companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 2.Situational study of diversity management practices in Latvian companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 2.1. Policies of companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2.2. Adaptation of the work environment to different employees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 2.3. Work with different customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 2.4. Benefits for companies and Latvian examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 3.Examples of foreign companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 3.1. Ericsson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 3.2. Hewlett-Packard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 3.3. Infineon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 3.4. ISS Eesti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 3.5. Prezi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 3.6. Tesco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 3.7. Orange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 3.8. Sodexo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 3.9. Fazer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 3.10. PricewaterhouseCoopers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 4 Conclusions and recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 4.2 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 4.2 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Annexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96 Annex 1 – List of sources of information used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Annex 2 – Full list of the companies included into the initial selection of the study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Annex 3 – List of the companies interviewed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Annex 4 – List of foreign experts interviewed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

ABBREVIATIONS USED CSB – Central Statistical Bureau CSR – corporate social responsibility EBTP – European Business Test Panel EC – European Commission ECL – Employers’ Confederation of Latvia EEA – European Economic Area EU – European Union FTUCL – Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia IDAL – Investment and Development Agency of Latvia IT – information technologies JSC – Joint Stock Company LCCI – Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry LGBT – Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals LLC – Limited Liability Company MoC – Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia MoE – Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia MoW – Ministry of Welfare of the Republic of Latvia NGO – non-governmental organisations SEA – state employment agency SIF – Society Integration Foundation SME – small and medium sized - enterprise US – United States of America

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY “The Study of the diversity management situation in companies” (hereinafter referred to as the study) was carried out by the Association of Persons SIA Corporate Consulting and Partnership Public Policy Centre PROVIDUS in the time period from 30 April 2015 to 30 October 2015. The purpose of the study was to obtain data about the level of understanding and conditions that affect the implementation of the diversity management approach in Latvian companies and to identify examples of good practices of foreign companies in its implementation. The data required for the study were obtained by both quantitative and qualitative data acquisition and analysis methods: mapping of studies on diversity management in EU countries, expert interviews with CEOs or executives of small, medium-sized and large Latvian companies, with persons responsible for diversity management in foreign companies, European diversity management experts, Latvian business and human resources management experts, as well as surveys of employees of small, mediumsized and large Latvian companies.

Subjects of the study: •• development of diversity management in the business environment in Europe and Latvia; •• study of the situation about existing diversity management practices in Latvian companies and conditions affecting its implementation;

•• study of initiatives/best practices in 10 companies in EU and EEA countries regarding the implementation of the diversity management approach;

“

WHAT IS DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT?

According to the definition of the International Society for Diversity Management, “Diversity management is an active and concious development of a future-oriented, value-driven strategic, communicative and managerial process of accepting and using certain differences and similarities as a potential in an organisation.1

”

Diversity management is a guided process that allows the company management to:

•• identify different experiences, knowledge, approaches of its employees and turn them into resources and opportunities for the company (staff diversity);

•• create such an internal environment in the company that accepts diversity and provides equal opportunities to all the employees regardless of their age, gender, disability, ethnic origin, religion, or sexual orientation (diversity of work environment);

•• focus on different customers, who represent different community groups and have diverse needs (customer diversity). Each company can create an individual diversity management approach, which is appropriate for it. Diversity management can be initiated and successfully implemented with really small resources, by identifying the situation in the company, setting very specific goals and moving forward to them in day-to-day activities.

1 Keil M., Amershi B., Holmes S., Jakoblonski H., Lüthi E., Matoba K., Plett A., Unruh K., “International Society for Diversity Management”, [online]. Riga, 2007. [viewed 1 May 2015]. Available from: http://www.lak.lv/uploads/filedir/Faili/Dazadibas_celvedis.pdf

//Main results and conclusions of the study The study included such activities as identification of experience of foreign countries in the diversity management area (including case studies on 10 EU companies that implement diversity management), surveys of Latvian companies and interviews with company management. In Latvia, the diversity management policy is defined and developed only in subsidiaries of international companies; moreover, it exists as a separate policy only in one company. The companies established in Latvia mainly implement individual diversity management measures, and they are usually not stipulated in companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s policy documents. Employees and executives of Latvian companies generally admit that diversity management has a positive influence on their company. Over 70% of employees believe that diversity of employees improves the work environment in the company, which can also potentially enhance the willingness of employees to work in this company. The companies included in the study have employees from various community groups, therefore staff diversity is a reality in the majority of companies. However, only a small number of companies (33% of large companies and 22% of small and medium-sized companies) organise staff trainings on diversity and equality matters and ensures development of cross-cultural communication skills of managers and employees. It means that many companies are still not aware that staff diversity is a resource, which needs to be managed in a competent way, so that the company and its employees can benefit from it. Almost a half of interviewed executives of Latvian companies (14 out of 33) stated that their company purposefully identifies its staff diversity. As evidenced by the results of the study, CEOs of companies have a misleading idea about the requirements of Latvian laws and regulations, i.e., which information and data they have the right to collect and store about their employees. As a result of that, being afraid to violate the law, companies most frequently do not collect any data on the diversity of their staff and their belonging to specific social groups. Management of Latvian companies is mostly ready to adapt the work environment to the needs of different employees as much as possible. However, if we compare the provided answers by the company size, it can be concluded that needs of employees are much more frequently respected in large companies (64%), while only 23% of interviewed employees from small and medium-sized companies confirmed this. In customer surveys, Latvian companies rarely measure the satisfaction of customers belonging to different social groups (by gender, age, mother tongue, etc.). The non-existence of such an approach limits the opportunities of companies to adapt specific services or products to the needs of different customers. International studies, which were analysed as a part of the feasibility study, as well as case studies of EU companies and interviews with CEOs of Latvian companies confirm that implementation of the diversity management approach has positive impact on the business performance both abroad and in Latvia, and it also influences the motivation and productivity of employees. About two thirds of the 33 interviewed CEOs of Latvian companies believe that staff diversity brings direct benefits for the business, also at least in one of these areas: attraction and retention of employees, attraction and satisfaction of customers, and efficiency and productivity of team work.

INTRODUCTION As a result of globalisation, increasing mobility and migration the society has become largely diverse, with different people live and interacting together. At the same time, demographic changes (”ageing” of the society) even on the medium-term can have a negative impact on chances of Latvian companies to find and attract workforce. Full participation of various ethnic, social and age groups in the labour market can help balance this trend and provide workforce to companies. Companies can turn this diversity into resources, which will improve their achievements and efficiency. The study by McKinsey, an international consulting company, (2015) states that implementation of the diversity management approach increases satisfaction of employees and reduces conflicts among various groups, thus improving cooperation and loyalty. In its turn, the study by Deloitte (2011) indicates that the most significant benefits of diversity management are the ability of the company to faster respond to problems and resolve them in a more creative and effective way, as well as the increase in motivation of employees. CEOs of Latvian companies are also aware that diversity management improves the satisfaction levels of its employees, it is easier to attract new customers, and diverse teams are more creative. These aspects have positive impact on the business performance, and, according to the McKinsey’s study, also on financial performance. The purpose of this study is to obtain data on conditions that influence the implementation of the diversity management approach in the private sector and to identify good practices of companies in its implementation. According to the requirements of the Society Integration Foundation (hereinafter referred to as the ordering customer), the study consists of four chapters, and the final report of the study reflects information on the following:

•• development of diversity management in the business environment in Europe and Latvia; •• study of diversity management practices and conditions for their implementation in companies in Latvia;

•• study of such initiatives/best practices in 10 companies in EU and EEA countries regarding the implementation of the diversity management approach in their operations, which are applicable to the business environment in Latvia;

•• recommendations to Latvian companies regarding the implementation of the diversity management approach and its facilitators. The opening chapter of the study describes the methodology used, assumptions and restrictions, whereas further chapters include analysis of the data collected as part of the study and provides recommendations to Latvian companies regarding the implementation of the diversity management approach and its facilitators. Chapter 1 describes diversity management in the US, European and Latvian companies – development and added value of diversity management, as well as gives an overview of the results of application of the Diversity Charter supported by the EC in the EU countries that have created their own diversity charters. This chapter reflects conclusions of analyses of several diversity management studies, as well as contains statements from the interview with J. Monnot, an international diversity management expert. Chapter 2 analyses the data obtained through interviews of CEOs of companies and surveys of employees regarding diversity management practices in Latvian companies and the conditions affecting their implementation. The collected data were interpreted with regard to the age, gender and, where applicable, disability, sexual orientation, ethnic origin and religion of employees. This chapter also describes the analysis of opinions of CEOs and employees of companies regarding the implementation of the diversity management approach in companies. Chapter 3 analyses such initiatives/good practices in the implementation of the diversity management approach in Estonian, Hungarian, UK, Swedish, Austrian, German, Polish, Irish and Finnish companies, which are applicable to the business environment in Latvia. This chapter reviews main benefits for companies, when implementing the diversity management policy, explains the nature of these policies, 7

as well as describes the company’s most significant findings, conclusions and recommendations to other companies regarding the implementation of diversity management. Chapter 4 summarises the conclusions of the study and provides recommendations and proposals to Latvian companies and other stakeholders regarding the implementation of diversity management and its facilitators.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SITUATION AND METHODOLOGY DESCRIPTION OF THE CURRENT SITUATION Demographic changes (”ageing” of the society, emigration of the population) can have a negative impact on chances of Latvian companies to find and attract qualified workforce even in the medium-term. To ensure a more comprehensive and effective use of the economic potential of of the society, the engagement of all the social groups into the national economy should be encouraged and supported, and such situations where some groups lag behind in education and employment should be avoided2. The Central Statistics Bureau data for 2014 indicate that the ethnic composition in Latvia is largely diverse. The ethnic composition of permanent residents of the Republic of Latvia includes Latvians (61.4%), Russians (26%), Belorussians (3.4%), Ukrainians (2.3%), Poles (2.2%), and other nationalities.3 Only 62% of all permanent Latvian residents are of working age, and 49% out of the residents of working age are men and 51% are women.4 Not all the community groups are equally well involved in the labour market – people before the retirement age and young people are much more subject to the unemployment risk than other community groups. Today, people aged over 50 form 37.7% of the total number of the registered unemployed in the country, while young people aged from 15 to 29 form 19.9% of all the registered unemployed.5 The participation of different ethnic and social groups in the labour market not only provides new workforce, but also creates new challenges and requires such an environment, where differences are acknowledged and evaluated. Involvement of employees from different ethnic, social, age groups can help companies resolve their problems with human resources; however, to this end, companies require a special policy that takes into account the differences among people and ensures that the potential of the diverse workforce is acknowledged, appraised and used to increase competitiveness. Diversity management is a successful strategy that promotes the development of an organisation in conditions of constantly growing diversity. Diversity management helps to practically implement the principle of equal treatment towards different community groups, while also respecting their individual differences. Diversity in companies helps to promote mutual trust between different community groups and to overcome communication barriers. Diversity management is considered a benefit that improves the competitiveness, increases productivity, as well as creates added value for companies. Results of several international studies and experience with implementation of diversity management in other countries evidence that the diversity management approach can help to:

•• attract, employ and retain people from different groups and with different capacities and talents; •• create a work environment where every person feels respected and can maximally fulfil their potential; •• better understand customers of the company and create services, which meet the needs of different customers;

•• use various initiatives to reduce inequality.6 2 Society Integration Foundation, „Study on anti-discrimination policy monitoring system. Research results report” [online]. Riga, 2015 [viewed 6 May 2015]. Available from: http://www.sif.gov.lv/images/files/SIF/progress-dazadiba/Petijums_diskr_final.pdf, 3 Central Statistics Database, „ Resident Population by Ethnicity at the Beginning of the Year” [online]. Riga, 2015 [viewed 10 November 2015]. Available from: http://data. csb.gov.lv/pxweb/lv/Sociala/Sociala__ikgad__iedz__iedzskaits/IS0070.px/?rxid=cdcb978c-22b0-416a-aacc-aa650d3e2ce0 4 Central Statistics Database, „ Resident Population by Major Age Group by Sex at the Beginning of the Year”, [online]. Riga, 2015 [viewed 10 November 2015]. Available from: http://data.csb.gov.lv/pxweb/lv/Sociala/Sociala__ikgad__iedz__iedzskaits/IS0022.px/?rxid=cdcb978c-22b0-416a-aacc-aa650d3e2ce0 5 State employment agency, „ Overview of the unemployment situation in the country”, [online]. Riga, 2015 [viewed 10 November 2015]. Available from: http://www.nva. gov.lv/docs/28_55db1a725c3445.49266031.pdf 6 Zankovska-Odiņa S., “The training course “ Diversity Management . Unused opportunities “ methodological guidelines” [online]. Riga, 2013 [viewed 9 September 2015].

In order to support the implementation of diversity management in companies across Europe, the EC has created a Platform for diversity charters7 – national level declarations, which can be joined on a voluntary basis by companies that are committed to create such a work environment that is inclusive towards diversity and where equal opportunities are provided to everyone regardless of their age, gender, disability, ethnic origin, religion, or sexual orientation. Increasingly more companies see the added value the diversity management brings for company’s development. In order to become aware of the opinion and experiences of Latvian companies with regard to the diversity management approach and conditions that might help companies to introduce, develop and improve it, a study can been conducted to analyse data on companies that are already implementing diversity management in practice.

METHODOLOGY For the purposes of the feasibility study (Chapter 1) regarding the development of diversity management in the business environment in Europe, the United States and in Latvia, the most influential studies on the subject of “diversity management policy development in business environment” published over the past 10 years were analysed, and 15 most relevant of them were selected. In addition to the feasibility study, an in-depth interview with a European level diversity management expert,8 as well as interviews regarding diversity management initiatives in Latvia were organised with three Latvian business and human resources management experts.9 The in-depth interview with an international expert helped to specify the questions for the survey regarding the policy and practices of diversity management of European companies. The indepth interviews with Latvian experts helped to clarify how the first diversity management initiatives were introduced in Latvian companies several years ago, as well as led to a conclusion that Latvian companies comparatively rarely have a written diversity management policy in place. The data collected in Chapter 2 were obtained using the polling method and the in-depth interviews (direct interviews and in individual cases – phone interviews). In total, 535 employees from 32 companies were polled and CEOs of 33 companies were interviewed. There were several criteria for selection of companies for the study. Firstly, companies were selected according to MoE’s data about the breakdown of the structure of national economy in 2014, so that companies from different sectors are represented in the study. Secondly, companies were selected according to the regional breakdown, with regard to the data of the Central Statistical Bureau about the breakdown of companies by statistical regions in 2012, in order to ensure that 25% of companies included in the selection are located outside the territory of Riga, and that 50% of companies included in the selection are small and medium-sized companies. For the purposes of this study, the size of the company was determined by the number of its employees: a small company has less than 49 employees, a medium-sized company has 50 to 249 employees, a large company has 250 or more employees. For this study, it was necessary to identify and select such companies that have implemented the diversity management approach in at least one of these three aspects:

•• staff diversity, policy initiatives for attraction, development and retention of employees; •• diversity of the work environment, including a policy for work–life balance, management availability and communication practices;

•• diversity of customers, a policy for mapping their needs and specific characteristics, and communication with customers. Thus, in the selection process the preference was given to the companies included in the Company Reputation Available from: http://www.vas.gov.lv/lv/box/files/par_mums_projekti/dvkursametodiskasvadlinijas.pdf 7 Europen Commission „Diversity Charters across the EU” [online] 2015 [viewed 9 September 2015]. Available from:: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/ diversity/charters/index_en.htm 8 Jean Monnot, the Diversity Manager of Sodexo and the co-founder of the Diversity Charter of France. 9 Interview with Dace Helmane, the member of the board of the partnership Institute of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (InCSR), and Jānis Gredzens, the Executive Director of the Spring Valley Organisation Development Centre, Interview with Kaspars Zālītis

Top 2015, Employer Top 2014 or Sustainability Index 2015, as well as companies that had received funding from IDAL or are participants of business incubators. Since these companies were evaluated according to their level of corporate and social responsibility, there was a bigger possibility to identify any of the abovementioned diversity management aspects in these companies. In order not to exclude from the study those companies that are not included on the respective tops and have not received IDAL funding, as well as companies that are not participants of business incubators, some companies were also included into the study based on a random selection principle. The study of the general situation regarding existing diversity management practices in Latvian companies was carried out in two stages. Initially, a selection of 100 companies were included on the main list, and a selection of 100 companies – on a backup list (see Annex 2). Telephone polling was carried out with all the 200 companies included into the selection of the study in order to find companies that have implemented diversity management initiatives in at least one of previous mentioned three aspects of diversity management After the phone poll, the companies identified as having implemented any diversity management initiatives were invited to participate in the second stage of the study, which envisaged electronic polling of employees and in-depth interviews with CEOs or – in exceptional cases – in-depth interviews with managers of other corporate levels, for example, personnel managers, company’s marketing or communication managers, who were able to provide information about the diversity management initiatives implemented in the company. In total, 33 companies participated in the second stage of the study. In 25 companies in-depth interviews were conducted with CEOs, and in 8 companies in-depth interviews were conducted with managers of other levels, for example, personnel managers, marketing or communication managers. An important prerequisite for a comany’s participation in the study was its consent both to polling of its employees and to an interview with the company’s management, in order to evaluate the actual situation with the implementation of diversity management from the point of view of the management and employees. As part of this study, a CEO of only one company agreed to an interview, but disagreed to the polling of company’s employees. Interviews with CEOs or managers of other corporate levels were summarised in the form of a non-systematised transcript (protocol). When polling employees, the plan was to receive at least 30 questionnaires from large companies, at least 20 – from medium-sized companies, and at least 10 or the actual number of employees – from small companies. Employee polling was conducted through Google doc forms that allow respondents to complete a questionnaire using a link to the electronic questionnaire, as well as to complete the questionnaires completely anonymously. See Annex 3 for detailed information about the list of the companies included into the selection of the study, as well as the companies, in which CEOs or managers were interviewed and employees were polled. In order to promote the understanding of business benefits from the implementation of the diversity management approach, researchers investigated 10 EU companies described in Chapter 3 by means of business case study method. In these companies, researchers examined such aspects as the source of the diversity management initiative, outlined the implemented measures of the company’s policy, identified business benefits from the implementation of diversity management, explained the impact of diversity management on the opportunities to involve less represented groups in the labour market, as well as summarised company’s main findings, conclusions and recommendations to other companies regarding the implementation of diversity management. The 10 EU companies were selected based on three criteria. Firstly, companies were selected from 10 different EU and EEA countries. Secondly, the companies selected for case studies represented the following sectors: trade, manufacturing, telecommunications, medicine, information technologies, services. Thirdly, the selected initiatives/good practices had to be applicable to the business environment in Latvia. As part of the case studies of companies, descriptions and publications of diversity management policy documents were analysed; in individual cases, other studies were used, in which the approach of these 10

companies was analysed. Case studies also included phone interviews with diversity management experts or human resources managers, or other employees responsible for the implementation of diversity management in the company. In total, 10 case descriptions of companies were developed during the study. These companies represented such countries as Austria (information technologies), Estonia (services), the United Kingdom (services, trade), Ireland (services), Poland (telecommunications, business consultations), Finland (manufacturing), Sweden (manufacturing), and Germany (manufacturing). Based on the data obtained during the study, their analysis and conclusions, recommendations for Latvian companies and other stakeholders were developed regarding the implementation of the diversity management approach and its facilitators, and they are described in Chapter 4 of this document. The study used the methodology described in the previous section, which includes the following restrictions:

•• The data analysed in this study is based on the opinions of respondents and assuming that the provided data were true, therefore the accuracy of the data provided by interviewees was not verified.

•• The reflected data about opinions of CEOs and employees of companies characterise the situation at the time of the performance of the study, therefore authors do not assume any liability for potential changes in the opinions.

•• When performing case studies of 10 EU companies, the responsiveness of foreign companies was low, therefore in some cases two companies were selected from the same country.

•• The scope of the study was determined by the study questions defined in the job assignment prepared by the ordering customer, and the research methodology agreed between the parties. The conclusions and recommendations mentioned in the study report have been developed based on the information obtained during the study.

1. FEASIBILITY STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT IN THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT IN EUROPE AND LATVIA This section of the study identifies development stages of the concept of diversity management worldwide, describes the development of this approach in the United States and in Europe, as well as identifies the most essential social and economic aspects that affect the implementation of the diversity management approach in European business. This section also summarises conclusions from foreign diversity management studies, which point out to the impact of diversity management on the development of companies. This section also reviews the impact of the voluntary initiative Diversity Charter supported by the EC on the facilitation of the diversity management approach in European companies.

1.1. STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPT OF DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT The outset of the notion of diversity management can be found in policies of US companies. In 1980s and 1990s, the US and Canadian companies gradually started to replace the affirmative action policy with the diversity management policy.10 Instead of using quotas or “positive discrimination” for promoting the welfare of less privileged community groups, a new model was proposed, which created a friendly environment and promotes the inclusion of different people, including representatives of discriminated groups. From the “narrow” diversity model where attention was focused on such human differences as gender, age, ethnic origin, or disability, the human resources policy of the US and European companies gradually introduced a wider definition of diversity, which also includes culture, religion, family structure (model of relations), sexual orientation and other characteristics, because these characteristics influence the way a person is, for instance, accepted in a more or less friendly work environment.11 Employee trainings have traditionally played an important part in the implementation of diversity management policies in companies. Along with changes to the concept of diversity management, also the focus of trainings was shifted: from informative trainings, which help representatives of minorities (for example, migrants) to become included into a company, to facilitate cultural awareness of both the minority and majority groups, and provide equal access to trainings to everybody (due to the development of anti-discrimination regulations in all Western countries) – to trainings, the purpose of which is to achieve changes on all levels of the company where diversity matters are integrated horizontally into all company’s operations.12 The social and economic aspects, which affect the increase in the interest in the possibilities to use the diversity management approach in European companies, are mainly related to the changes in the demographic situation (ageing of workforce)13 and migration, as well as the progress of implementation of the policy of equal opportunities and equality regulations in EU countries. In many EU countries regulations in the area of equality initially included only the concept of gender equality, which developed and extended, emphasising equality of all the people regardless of different differences. The EU is actively fostering equality and equal opportunities in its employment policy and at work. The diversity management approach is generally wider than the equal opportunities approach14 – it envisages not only prevention of discrimination, but also a proactive approach to the attraction of workforce, transformation of the work environment according to the needs of employees and work with different customers. According to the approach of the International Society for Diversity Management “diversity management is the active and concious development of a future oriented, value driven strategic, communicative and managerial process of accepting and using certain 10 Kandola, R. & J. Fullerton, “Managing the Mosaic: Diversity in Action.” 2nd Edition. London: CIPD Publishing House, 1998. 168 pp. ISBN 9780852927427. 11 Mor Barak M.E. “Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace.” 3rd Edition. London: SAGE Publications, Inc 2014. 403 pp. ISBN 9781452242231. 12 Sippola, A., red. “Essays on Human Resource Management Perspectives on Diversity Management”, [online]. Finland, 2007 [viewed 11 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.uva.fi/materiaali/pdf/isbn_978-952-476-193-2.pdf 13 European Comission “Population Ageing in Europe” [online] 2014 [viewed 11 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.net4society.eu/_media/Population_Ageing_in_ Europe.pdf 14 Sippola, A., red. “Essays on Human Resource Management Perspectives on Diversity Management”, [online]. Finland, 2007 [viewed 11 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.uva.fi/materiaali/pdf/isbn_978-952-476-193-2.pdf

differences and similarities as a potential in an organisation.15” The management of the company plays a significant role in its implementation, because it includes it into strategic documents. The implementation of diversity management should be a guided process supervised and evaluated by the company’s management and in which employees of the company consciously participate.

//Areas of diversity management Studies and practices of implementation of diversity management in other countries evidence that the diversity management approach is implemented in companies mainly in three areas:

•• staff diversity: to attract, employ and retain people from different community groups and with different abilities and talents;

•• work environment diversity: to create a work environment, where people feel respected and can maximally fulfil their professional potentials;

•• customer diversity: to accept and learn customers and to create services meeting various needs of different customers. Companies in other European countries introduce diversity management approaches in one of these areas. However, conclusions of several studies allow to state that diversity management is efficient only when it is integrated into company’s strategy and day-to-day practices. It means that the company takes into account the situation of different community groups both when attracting and selecting employees and when organising work processes and in the work with customers. Although goals of the three above mentioned areas/approaches differ (to attract a diverse workforce, to create a friendly environment promoting satisfaction and productivity for employees, and to attract diverse customers, as well as to promote customer satisfaction), their joint goal is one and the same – to succeed using advantages of diversity. For example, the study of the UK’s Association of Chartered Certified Accountants16 through the method of case studies discovers that UK and European companies actively introduce diversity management practices in all the three areas with the same purpose – to ensure successful functioning of the company taking into account diversity of the society.

1.2. IMPACT OF DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE Several studies of the impact of diversity management on business performance were carried out in the countries, where diversity management measures are already introduced and have been implemented for several years. Below there is a summary of conclusions of several studies that were carried out in Europe and globally regarding diversity management approaches and their impact on business and performance. The majority of studies included into this report use data about companies of several countries. All the studies included into this report include data about companies from EU countries and in individual cases – about companies operating in the United States. The three the most significant benefits for business performance are considered to be the impact of diversity management of motivation and productivity of employees and teams, the impact of the creation of new products/services and innovations, as well as the impact on attraction of customers.

15 Keil M., Amershi B., Holmes S., Jakoblonski H., Lüthi E., Matoba K., Plett A., Unruh K. “International Society for Diversity Management”, [online]. Riga, 2007 [viewed 1 May 2015]. Available from: http://www.lak.lv/uploads/filedir/Faili/Dazadibas_celvedis.pdf 16 The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), “The business case for diversity management”, [tiešsaiste]. UK, 2014 [viewed 7 May 2015]. Available from: http://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/acca/global/PDF-technical/human-capital/pol-tp-tbcfdm-diversity-management.pdf

1.2.1. IMPACT ON MOTIVATION AND PRODUCTIVITY OF EMPLOYEES AND TEAMS Deloitte’s, a consulting company, study (2011)17, which is based on a survey of 300 CEOs in the UK and the United States includes the study of the notion of diversity management, the analysis of aspects of implementation of diversity management and the development of practical ideas for employees. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the implementation of the diversity management approach in a company can be a complicated process, which requires from managers to ensure appropriate support mechanisms, for example, attraction and selection of effective personnel, effective training processes on diversity topics, as well as proper rewards. The most often mentioned benefits from the implementation of the diversity management approach are:

•• the ability of the company to faster respond to problems and resolve them using a more creative and effective approach;

•• the increase in motivation of employees devoting more energy to work. The study by McKinsey (2015)18 points out that the implementation of the diversity management approach increases satisfaction of employees with their work and reduces conflicts between groups improving cooperation and loyalty. For example, the employees belonging to minorities feel much more satisfied with their company, if their proportion in the company reaches at least 15%.19 The study of the UK Department for Business Innovation & Skills on the impact of diversity on business (2012),20 which covers areas like economics, law, sociology, business, came to the conclusion that the lack of diversity management in companies leads to frequent rotation of employees, talented employees’ leaving, as well as reduces work productivity of employees. Study of individual companies also confirms a positive impact of diversity management on team’s motivation. A study at Ericsson demonstrates that diversity management positively influences the performance of the team at all levels.21 The implementation of the diversity management approach also fosters the implementation of innovations and has a positive effect on cooperation of the company with its customers. The positive influence of diversity management on motivation of employees is also confirmed by the interview with Raj Brainch, the Head of the Diversity Management Department at Sodexo. Sodexo offers catering services, it employs 419,000 employees, and it was one of the first companies in Europe to introduce a diversity management policy. Based on annual surveys of employees of the company, the Head of the Sodexo’s Diversity Management Department emphasises that the diversity management policy at Sodexo has a positive influence on the wish and readiness of employees to get actively involved into company’s operations, because diversity management allows to fully use the potential of every employee.22

1.2.2. IMPACT ON BUSINESS RESULTS: FINANCIAL INDICATORS, INNOVATIONS AND ATTRACTION OF CUSTOMERS The study of Forbes Insight (2011),23 which includes a survey, in which participated 321 highest-level manager 17 Deloitte, “Only skin deep? Re-examining the business case for diversity”, [online]. Australia, 2011 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: https://www.ced.org/pdf/ Deloitte_-_Only_Skin_Deep.pdf 18 McKinsey&Company, “Diversity matters”, [online]. London, 2015 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/why_ diversity_matters 19 McKinsey&Company, “Diversity matters”, [online]. London, 2015 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/why_ diversity_matters 20 Department for Business Innovation & Skills, “Bis occasional paper No. 4, The Business Case for Equality and Diversity” [online]. 2013 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/other/the-business-case-for-equality-and-diversit y 21 Karabacakoglu, F., Ozbilgin., O., “Global Diversity Management at Ericson: the business case”, [online]. Turkey: 2012 [viewed 3 August 2015]. Available from: http:// www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042812045028 22 Monnot, J.M., Interview 22.05.2015. 23 Forbes, “Global Diversity and Inclusion Fostering Innovation Throught a Diverse Workforce” [online]. USA [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://images.forbes. com/forbesinsights/StudyPDFs/Innovation_Through_Diversity.pdf

of companies from Europe, America, Asia, Pacific Ocean, Middle East and African regions, demonstrates the link between diversity management and innovations. The majority of Participants of the study believe that a diverse and inclusive personnel attraction policy is particularly important for the development of different prospects and ideas, which foster innovations (48% completely agree to this statement and 37% most likely agree).24 McKinsey, a consultation company, performed a study25 to learn about the link between diversity management in a company and its financial results. The study includes data about the total income of companies, their profit before tax and interest payments and return on capital from 2010 to 2014. The study proves that there is a correlation between diversity management in a company and its financial performance. They are higher than the average in the sector in companies, which implement diversity management: 25% of all the studied companies, which have the best indicators in the gender equality areas, have 15% higher average financial performance than those 25% of companies, in which indicators in the gender equality area are the lowest. In its turn, 25% of all the studied companies, in which ethnic diversity indicators are higher than in other companies, have 35% better financial performance than those 25% of companies, which have the lowest ethnic diversity indicators.26 Authors of the study explain that this is so, because the implementation of the diversity management approach not only increases satisfaction of employees and improves cooperation, but also attracts talented employees from earlier worse represented groups – women and other minority groups. The Deloitte study (2011), based on its survey of managers, emphasises that companies with higher proportions of women achieve better financial results, while companies with bigger diversity of races and genders are able to achieve the highest income results, higher numbers of customers and larger market shares.27 Similar conclusions are found in two studies about diversity management in Ireland.28 29 The study of the UK Department for Business Innovation & Skills also analyses the impact of diversity management on the reputation of companies and the formation of new business relations. Benefits of companies, when they implement diversity management:

•• lower costs of attraction of new employees (costs related to the employment and training of new employees);

•• favourable reputation thanks to the creation of an inclusive and open environment; •• better insight into other cultures and cross-cultural cooperation, which facilitates trade in other countries.30 Case studies of diversity management of individual UK companies evidence that staff diversity management may have a positive influence on the attraction of diverse customers: for example, the example of Cummins shows that a diverse workforce helps to attract a much more diverse range of international customers. As evidenced by the company’s information, diversity management ensures satisfaction of customers in different groups.31 Representatives of Lloyds, a company in the banking sector, also confirm that diversity management helps the company to improve its image in business, ensures presentation of existing customers and attraction of new customers.32 People with disability have a special place among target groups of the 24 Forbes, “Global Diversity and Inclusion Fostering Innovation Throught a Diverse Workforce” [online]. USA [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://images.forbes. com/forbesinsights/StudyPDFs/Innovation_Through_Diversity.pdf 25 McKinsey&Company, “Diversity matters”, [online]. London, 2015 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/why_ diversity_matters 26 McKinsey, “Why Diversity Matters” [online]. London, 2015 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/why_diversity_ matters 27 Deloitte, “Only skin deep? Re-examining the business case for diversity”, [online]. Australia, 2011 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Awailable from: https://www.ced.org/pdf/ Deloitte_-_Only_Skin_Deep.pdf 28 Monks, K. ”The Business Impact for Equality and Diversity. Dublin: The Equality Authority” [online]. Ireland, 2007 [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://www. ihrec.ie/download/pdf/the_business_impact_of_equality_and_diversity.pdf 29 O’Connell, P. and Russell, H. “Equality at Work? Workplace Equality Policies, Flexible Working Arrangements and the Quality of Work“ [online]. 2005 [viewed 10 June 2015]. Available from: https://www.esri.ie/news/equality-at-work-workplace-equality-policies-flexible-working-arrangements-and-the-quality-of-work/ 30 Department for Business Innovation & Skills, “Bis occasional paper No. 4, The Business Case for Equality and Diversity” [online]. 2013 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/other/the-business-case-for-equality-and-diversity 31 Business Case Studies, “Establishing a diversity initiative”, [online]. [viewed 10 June 2015]. Available from: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/ cummins/#axzz3sdo8Pd1B 32 Business Case Studies, “Positive about disability”, [online]. [viewed 15 June 2015]. Available from: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/lloyds-tsb/positive-aboutdisability/#axzz3sdo8Pd1B

company’s diversity management policy as employees or potential employees. As evidenced by the opinions of representatives of EU companies collected by EBPT in 2013, 83% of polled representatives of companies stated that diversity initiatives positively affect business.33 Generally, a conclusion can be made that the implementation of diversity management helps companies to be more competitive and the study evidences of different types of benefits.

1.3. EC’S INITIATIVE DIVERSITY CHARTER AND ITS IMPACT ON DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT IN COMPANIES To support the implementation of diversity management in companies across Europe, the EU has created a Platform for diversity charters34 – national level declarations, which companies join voluntarily undertaking to create a work environment including diversity, where all employees have equal opportunities regardless of their age, gender, disability, ethnic origin, religious beliefs or sexual orientation. Increasingly more companies see the added value the diversity management brings for company’s development. The first Diversity Charter in Europe was created in France in 2005, and since then the number of companies signing diversity charters in various EU Member States has been growing. Currently, there are diversity charters in place in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Spain, and Sweden. According to the “Overview of Diversity Management Implementation and Impact amongst Diversity Charter signatories in the European Union”, a EC’s report published in 201435, about 95% of companies, which signed Diversity Charters, believe that participation in this movement affected their diversity policies and practices, and two thirds of these companies integrated diversity into the culture of their companies. Moreover, 25% of polled companies believe that diversity management fostered their business performance, and 46% admitted that it helped them to attract and retain talented employees.36 Within the framework of the diversity charter movement companies share their experiences, and studies and case studies on diversity management approaches and customers and their influence on business are regular, which is good for the improvement of internal policies of companies. On this platform, Sodexo, Deutsche Bank, Scandic Hotels, McDonald’s and many others share their experiences in the area of diversity management.37 Jean Monnot, one of creators of the Diversity Charter of France, said in his interview that the movement of Diversity Charters has spread the notion of diversity and an inclusive work environment across European companies. At the same time, the fact that a company joins the Diversity Charter means that its management supports diversity. In its turn, management support is one of the necessary prerequisites for successful implementation of diversity management. Since the initiative of the Diversity Charter is not currently implemented in Latvia, the implementation of such a project might be potentially used as a resource to draw the attention to these matters in the future, to multiply understanding of this management approach and to provide the possibility to receive structured information about methods and practices to be implemented, based on experiences and considerations of other countries and using the already created EC’s platform.

33 European Union Platform of Diversity Charters “Assessing Diversity Impact in Business”, [online]. European Union, 2014 [viewed 6 May 2015]. Available from: http:// ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/files/assessing_diversity2014_en.pdf 34 Europen Commission „Diversity Charters across the EU” [online] 2015 [viewed 9 September 2015]. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/ diversity/charters/index_en.htm 35 European Commission, “Overview of Diversity Management Implementation and Impact amongst Diversity Charter signatories in the European Union” [online]. 2015 [viewed 1 September 2015]. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/diversity/charters/index_en.htm 36 European Commission, “Overview of Diversity Management Implementation and Impact amongst Diversity Charter signatories in the European Union” [online]. 2015 [viewed 1 September 2015]. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/diversity/charters/index_en.htm 37 European Commission (2012), “Managing Diversity at Work”. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2011, 17 pp. ISBN 9789279218415

1.4. DESCRIPTION OF THE SITUATION WITH DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT IN LATVIAN COMPANIES There are no regulations in Latvia for the implementation of the diversity management approach, it is a voluntary initiative and commitment of each company. The only national regulations is the section of the Labour Law stating that “everyone has equal rights to work, fair, safe and health-friendly work conditions, as well as fair payment for the work done” and these “rights should be ensured without any direct or indirect discrimination – irrespective of person’s race, skin colour, gender, age, disability, religious, political or other beliefs, national or social origin, financial or marital status, sexual orientation or other conditions.”38 Although the regulation of the Labour Law does not prohibit businessmen to introduce and implement diversity management measures, however, it does not envisage the implementation of any measures, for example, to ensure attraction of employees from vulnerable groups and their inclusion into the work environment, or regular monitoring of the composition of employees. The only exception is the requirements to adapt the work environment to the needs of people with disabilities, thus fostering possibilities of employment of representatives of this group. The Labour Law prohibits to ask during job interviews any questions that “do not concern the performance of the intended work or are not related to the fitness of the application for this job, or questions, which are directly or indirectly discriminating”, incl. about marital status, religious beliefs or ethnic origin. Therefore, interviewed experts, based on talks with businessmen, admit that, being afraid to violate the law, companies most frequently do not collect data about the diversity of staff in the company and their belonging to specific social groups. Also the study about gender equality in large Latvian companies (2014) certifies that 98% of polled companies “observe the principles defined in the Labour Law in their personnel policies”, and companies do not introduce such personnel selection rules and practices to promote the attraction of less represented genders in the companies.39 Latvia recognises the value of the diversity management approach at national level: It is recognised in the Sustainable Development Strategy of Latvia until 2030 that diversity management is “one of tools of community participation, management efficiency and massive creativity raising instruments that is successfully used globally. For management to be as close to the community as possible, it should also respect the diversity reigning in the community and should observe the principle of equal rights of different community groups also in the area of human resources management.”40 Although the strategy mentions diversity management only in the context of public administration, in such a diverse community as Latvia parallels can be draw with the need for diversity management also in the business environment. The Latvian National Development plan 2014 – 2020 envisages measures for promotion of socially responsible business, reinforcing social dialogue, awareness-raising campaigns and support for the training of businesses and employees, including on various types of employment, matters relating to age diversity and workplace suitability”. Measures fostering harmonisation of work and family life were set as one of priorities envisaging “possibilities of remote and part-time job for parents with children”41. In the last structural funds programming period ECL included into its trainings for businessmen the topic of diversity management.42 Individual measures in the area of diversity management are envisaged in the Guidelines on National Identity, Civil Society and Integration Policy (2012–2018), adopted in October 2011. The measures include a study about engagement of national minorities into the public sector, both seminars and “trainings for employers and personnel management specialists about diversity management principles, benefits and best practices”. In 2013, trainings about diversity management for high level officials and heads of state institutions were organised within the framework of the project “Different People. Different Experiences. One Latvia” which was organised by the Society Integration Foundation and co-funded through the European Commission’s PROGRESS programme. 38 Saeima of the Republic of Latvia: Labour Law, 6 July 2001 39 Society Integration Foundation, „ Study of the situation of women and men in large Latvian companies” [online]. Riga, 2015 [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.sif.gov.lv/images/files/SIF/progress-dazadiba/Petijums_diskr_final.pdf, 40 Cross-Sectoral Coordination Centre, “Latvia 2030”, [online]. Riga, 2010 [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.pkc.gov.lv/nap2020/latvija2030 41 Latvian Saeima (2012), National Development Plan 2014–2020, 38. 42 Employer’s Confederation of Latvia, “Lecture “The added value of diversity in business””, [online]. Riga, 2014. [viewed 28 Oktober 2015]. Pieejams: http://www.lddk.lv/ notikums/lekcija-dazadibas-pievienota-vertiba-biznesam/

//Studies about the implementation of diversity management in Latvia There were only a few studies in Latvia, which analysed practices of implementation of the diversity management approach and individual measures in private companies (in terms of gender equality) and also in public administration (at the level of state institutions and individual municipalities). Interviewed experts admit43 that the matter of staff diversity policies in Latvian companies was not studied before and the amount of publicly available information up to now was small, because information about initiatives and practices of companies is limited. Interviewed experts indicate the companies avoid talking about it (because they believe that identification of the ethnic composition or health condition/disability of their employees will be a violation of the Labour Law) and they often do not link the diversity management principles, which they implement, with specific benefits for company’s business and reputation. In the study “Diversity management in the public sector: experience of developed countries and evaluation of the situation in Latvia” (2011) it was stated that a diversity management policy at national level or at the level of public administration sectors and institutions had not been developed yet. It means that state and municipal institutions have no guidelines about how to better work with different groups of customers, as well as their personnel and management policies are focused on the engagement of representatives from different community groups into the work in public administration. Therefore, companies cannot be guided by the experience of the Latvian public sector, when they create their own diversity management approaches. In the study of Deniss Hanovs “Strategies of small municipalities of Latvian regions in diversity management” (2012), which analysed the area of ethnic diversity of the approach of five municipalities was analysed, incl. by ensuring participation in decision-making processes of municipalities and in communication with different community groups, it was concluded that: “The policy of municipalities in the area of diversity depends on the abilities, skills and interest of target groups to use the “offer” of municipalities. An adequate form of the offer in this area ensures its efficient use.” Based in the results of the study, recommendations for municipal institutions, representations of interests of minorities and municipal mass media were developed. However, the study does not give any insight into the role of companies in the promotion of the engagement of representatives from different groups into the labour market. The only previous study that analysed individual diversity management aspects in the Latvian business environment was the study “Study of the situation of men and women in large Latvian companies”, which was published in 2014. Although the goal of the company was to clarify, which factors inhibit and promote the increase in participation of women in decision-making institutions of large companies, the initiatives for the achievement of gender balance that were analysed within its scope also emphasise the importance of diversity management measures in company’s development and sustainability of business. Based on the analysis of practices of Latvian companies, authors of the study conclude that “gender equality and diversity management matters in personnel policies of local companies are still not generally accepted practices and such ideas and practices are faster integrated into those companies, strategies and personnel policies of parent companies of which emphasise gender equality as a public value of their company.” It is also concluded that “the majority of companies have not analysed or thought about the implementation of the diversity management principle (including in terms of gender) in their company’s operations, and have not evaluated its impact on operations of the company in general.” Therefore, authors of the study point out to the need to implement “education measures about gender equality and diversity management for management and personnel specialists of companies”. Similarly to other countries, Latvian companies are also evaluated through surveys or self-evaluations in different categories. Since 2005, Latvian companies are evaluated in the Company Reputation Top, the goal of which is to promote the creation of a responsible business environment for the community in Latvia and to introduce new measuring tapes into the evaluation of operations of companies. To promote the possibilities of combination of work and family life, since 2007 the MoW has been granting the status of a Family-Friendly 43 Interview with Dace Helmane, the member of the board of the partnership Institute of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (InCSR), and Jānis Gredzens, the Executive Director of the Spring Valley Organisation Development Centre, Interview with Kaspars Zālītis

Company to positively evaluated companies. Senior-friendly companies are also named. Since 2010, Latvia has been implementing the Sustainability Index initiative, which provides the possibility to Latvian companies to evaluate sustainability of their operations and the level of corporate responsibility. The Sustainability Index takes into account such aspects of company’s operations as work environment, strategic approach to business, payment of taxes, profit, observation of principles of consumer interests and fair competition, responsible attitude to the environment and other. In 2014, an award in the category Most Gender Equal Company 2013 was granted as a part of the Sustainability Index. In its turn, in 2015, for the first time there was an evaluation of companies using Diversity Questionnaires within the scope of the Sustainability Index, to state which companies fostered the implementation of the diversity management approach and the principle of gender equality in their companies. Three best companies received awards in nominations Company Most Open to Diversity 2015, Diversity Champion 2015 and Most Gender Equal Company 2015. Also for several years the survey TOP employer is being carried out, which helps to find out which companies and institutions are the most popular and the most desirable, and where people want to work the most. Although these evaluations do not help with an in-depth evaluation of diversity management practices implemented by companies, they can help to identify individual examples of good practices and implemented diversity management approaches. As indicated by interviewed experts, over the years companies become increasingly interested to obtain these statuses/awards, mainly because they want to retain existing employees in conditions of constantly shrinking workforce.

//Implementation of diversity management measures in Latvian companies Interviewed experts indicate that diversity management as an approach is not purposefully developed or clearly defined in Latvian companies. However, individual diversity management measures are implemented within the framework personnel policies, mainly, to retain existing employees and to extend the range of potential employees. Experts believe that diversity management measures were not usually implemented in Latvia for the purposes of attraction a wider range of customers. However, in some cases diversity management measures, for example, by attracting employees of any of ethnic groups, which were not represented before, were implemented in response to the increasing diversity of customers (for example, in the real estate sector increasingly diverse customers dictate the need for diverse employees) or in response to the lack of employees (for example, engaging women into the sector of guarding or engaging disabled people or seniors into the service sector). Also diversity management measures of Rimi Latvia, a trade company, with regard to the engagement of people with disabilities, started in response to the lack of employees, as well as in 2009 it started to purposefully deal with corporate responsibility matters: “We define that we employ different employees. It is important for us, because our customers are also very diverse”. Being aware that the attraction of employees from vulnerable groups also motivates other employees to be loyal and satisfied with their job, the company continues to implement the commenced practices and it is considered to be one of the examples of Latvian best practices, as it purposefully attracts and employs people with disabilities, young people without job experience and others.44 Although the development and implementation of a diversity management policy in individual international companies is ordered and facilitated by their parent companies (for example, in the banking sector), the policies developed are usually not adapted to Latvian conditions or are implemented in Latvia on a reduced scale: values and purposes of operations of the companies in the area of diversity are not explained to employees, there are no trainings for employees. Swedbank can be mentioned as a positive example, in which since 2009 a Diversity and Social Integration Policy has been in place (covering all the prohibited discrimination principles), all the employees were involved into the definition of inclusive values of the company for a year and a half, while in 2014 a work was started on the development of a complex diversity policy and initiatives, integrating them into the culture of the company. Cēsu Alus (POLKA, a value creation and embodiment project)45 and 44 CSR The sustainable market, “Best practice catalogue” [online]. Riga, 2014. [viewed 7 June 2015].Available from: http://ilgtspeja2.turn.lv/wp-content/ uploads/2015/03/csridejutirguskatalogs-140604100826-phpapp01.pdf. and Go Beyond social project „ Promotion of employment for people with disabilities” [online]. Riga, 2014 [viewed 7 June 2015]. Available from: http://gobeyond.lv/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/RIMI_Vadl%C4%ABnijas-cilveku-ar-invalidit%C4%81tinodarbin%C4%81%C5%A1anai.pdf 45 Cesu alus, „POLKA The introduction of value & enlivening“, [online]. Riga: 2014 [viewed 7 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.slideshare.net/Ilgtspeja/cesu-alus-

Aldaris involved all the employees of their companies into the creation of company values, thus ensuring that employees know these value and work according to them. Although this is only one of elements of diversity management, it is vital in ensuring that different employees can express their opinions and participate in the creation and embodiment of common values of the company. Experts indicate that in individual cases representatives from vulnerable groups (mainly disabled people) are recruited within the framework of different projects (often, to fulfil the criteria and receive European funding) and these practices are not always continued after the end of the project, “most frequently because the potential of these people is not uncovered, it is unclear how these people become part of the common policy of the company, and it is not explained to the team, why these people are recruited”.46 Experts believe that among positive examples Vairāk Saules, a public catering company, and Krāsu serviss can be mentioned, because they offer jobs to the best students of Asociācija Dzīvesprieks Partnership (provides support to young people from social risk groups) after they complete their studies. Experts admit that the implementation of diversity management measures in companies depends on the understanding of the company’s manager, “why such initiatives are important from the point of view of business or what our problem is and how we can use diversity management approaches to resolve it”.47 Public administration institutions might play a significant role in the development of diversity management approaches in the private sector, creating an example for business environment. It is emphasised that it is essential that diversity management measures in a company are implemented as a strategic approach rather than in the form of campaigns only. It can be concluded that diversity management in the Latvian business environment was not studied before as a common matter. In general, it is a comparatively new and still unknown concept. Individual positive elements and initiatives are implemented, but this matter is not viewed in the context of the develo pment of the company. We will carry out an in-depth examination of diversity management practices in Latvian companies in the next section.

2.SITUATIONAL STUDY OF DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN LATVIAN COMPANIES This section reviews diversity management policies and practices in those Latvian companies, which participated in the survey. The goal of interviews of executives and surveys of employees was to learn the opinion of employees and executives of these companies about diversity management practices – to what extent companies take into account the diversity aspect in they daily operations and to what extent policies in the area of diversity are implemented in practice (for these purposes, opinions of executives were compared to the data of the employee survey). Companies’ policies and practices in the area of diversity management are studied in three aspects:

•• diversity of employees; •• openness and adaptation to diversity of the work environment; •• customer diversity. The task of the study was to learn the opinion of CEO’s of companies about the need of diversity management and factors motivating its implementation. The study also summarised opinions about benefits of implementation of diversity management and examples of good practices to stimulate other Latvian companies to implement diversity management in their policies and practices. polka 46 Interview with Dace Helmane, the member of the board of the partnership Institute of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (InCSR), and Jānis Gredzens, the Executive Director of the Spring Valley Organisation Development Centre 47 Interview with Dace Helmane, the member of the board of the partnership Institute of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (InCSR), and Jānis Gredzens, the Executive Director of the Spring Valley Organisation Development Centre

//Profile of companies and their employees To study the implementation of the diversity management approach in Latvian companies, 33 companies in different sectors were studied (CEOs were interviewed in all 33 companies, employees were polled in 32 companies). The data obtained as a result of polling of employees were calculated taking into account the number of polled companies (32 companies), while the data obtained as a result of interviews were calculated using the number of companies, in which CEOs were interviewed (33 companies). The majority of companies (56%) included into the survey are providers of commercial services (financial, audit, consultations, IT, etc.), while 22% are trade, accommodation and catering companies, 16% are manufacturing companies and 6% are construction companies. 28% of all the companies included into the survey are large companies, 25% are medium-sized companies and 47% are small companies. Almost all companies, which agreed to participate in the survey, are located in Riga, and only one of the companies included into the survey is located outside Riga â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in Iecava. Although it was initially planned to address companies from different Latvian regions, responsiveness outside Riga was not so high, which is probably related to the fact that representatives of those companies are not informed about diversity management and its implementation approaches. As evidenced by the information provided in the questionnaire, employees of companies are representatives of different community groups â&#x20AC;&#x201C; people of different age, gender, ethnic origin, as well as people with different health conditions and sexual orientation. The diversity of polled employees in this study is especially important, because representatives of different community groups can provide different assessments of the practices of attraction of existing employees and arrangement of the work in the company and the attitude to diversity of their colleagues and the management. Among the polled respondents there are 58% of women and 42% of men, which evidences that men and women are represented comparatively equally in the polled companies. 77% of polled employees are in the age group from 26 to 55, the proportion of young people aged from 18 to 25 is 21% and 2% of the polled employees are older than 55. Positions of all levels are represented in the survey of employees within the framework of this study (see Graph 1). 40

35 30 25

16,3 11,0

11,9

15 10

20,0

16,9

13,5

1,5

0,4

2,4

3,4

Middle level manager

Other

0 Professional

Worker

- Man

Personnel specialist

1,3

0,2

0,7

1,5

CEO

Head of human resources

- Woman

Graph 1: What position do you occupy in the company? (%) Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

64% of respondents are workers/professionals and 24% are middle level managers of their companies. The proportion of managers among women and men is approximately the same: 66.6% of women are workers/ professionals and 23.4% of women are managers, while 68.9% of men are workers/professionals and 26.6% of men are managers. 21

The absolute majority of polled employees (86%) indicated that their nationality is Latvian. The proportion of other ethnic groups is only 14% of respondents, of which the second largest groups is formed by Russians (11%), then Belorussians (1%), Poles (0.8%), Ukrainians (0.8%), Moldavians (0.2%), Lithuanians (0.2%) (see Graph 2). It is positively evaluated that both workers/professionals and managers are among representatives of minorities (Russians, Belorussians, Poles). Thus, for example, among the polled representative of the Russian nationality 39% are workers, 30% are professionals and 24% are middle level managers. 40% of representatives of the Belorussian origin indicated that they are workers in their company, 40% are professionals and 20% are middle level managers. 50% of polled representatives of the Polish origin indicated that they are middle level managers, 20% indicated that they are workers. The country of origin of almost all the respondents (97.8%) is Latvia. 96% of respondents indicated that they are heterosexuals, 4% are homosexuals and 2% are bisexuals. It is positively evaluated that the employees, who belong to LGBT, did not deny it. The proportion of people with disability among the respondents was very low – only 1.7%. Seven companies had disabled among respondents. It is an evidence of already existing diversity of employees, which means that companies should think about an inclusive policy and practices towards different groups of employees.

2.1. POLICIES OF COMPANIES Clearly defined principles or values and goals the company wishes to achieve in certain areas, and the observation of these principles evidence of a consequent diversity approach or policies in the company. A written document, for example, a company’s strategy, a diversity management strategy, a code of ethics or any other company’s personnel policy document evidences of a principle or a strategy in the area of diversity, if diversity is recognised as a value and integrates diversity goals. Also the equal opportunities implementation policy (which means prevention of any types of discrimination) can include diversity-related aspects, for example, the provision of availability of work premises to people with movement disorders. The purpose of this section is to study internal initiatives of companies (written policies or also day-to-day practices), which directly or indirectly focus on diversity management.

//Diversity management policy – mainly a horizontal component of other policies As evidenced by the results of interviews of CEOs, Latvian companies mainly do not have written diversity management strategies as a separate company’s policy: out of 32 companies interviewed during the study, a diversity management policy has been developed only in one company – Swedbank, where it was overtaken from its parent company in Sweden and adapted to the Latvian situation. The Head of Human Resources of Swedbank indicated that the decision to introduce a diversity management approach in the company was related to customer diversity and the need to use all business opportunities to attract customers from different community groups, thus promoting competitiveness of the bank: “Diversity management promotes our competitiveness. We certainly have introduced diversity management also to be able to service different customers. We want to be a bank for many, and to be a bank for many were must embrace all the segments of the community.” Although there is no written diversity management policy in other polled companies, several companies are implementing different diversity management initiatives, which are related to the attraction of staff from different community groups, the observation of the principle of equal attitude towards all the employees and customers, as well as the creation of an inclusive work environment in the company. Some of polled companies included these approaches into their strategies and/or codes of ethics.

//Part of companies have a code of ethics, but it rarely includes equal attitude matters A code of ethics is an important confirmation of values of any company. A code of ethics can serve also as a short summary of company’s policy principles, which characterise criteria, based on which the management and employees should measure the compliance of their actions to the values of their company. As evidenced by the data obtained during this study, 18 out of 33 interviewed CEOs of companies indicated that their companies had a code of ethics. A code of ethics is usually developed in large (7) and medium-sized companies (6), and only 5 of small companies have a code of ethics. As indicated by CEOs of two small companies, basic ethical principles and equal attitude matters are included into the internal rules or values of their companies, while one of the companies is working on the development of a code of ethics right now. However, representatives of six small companies pointed out that it is not necessary to develop a special code of ethics in small companies, because matters of basic ethical principles of their companies are discussed and potential violations of ethics are resolved through talks. One of CEOs of small companies indicated: “No code of ethics is developed in our company. It is hard for us to imagine a small company, which would have a code of ethics. We have not needed any code of ethics up to now, because we talk with each other about these matters.” When analysing survey results of employees, it can be concluded that in 16 companies – 5 large, 6 medium-sized and 5 small – over 50% of polled employees indicated that they have a code of ethics. Code of Ethics in companies 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

78 67

67 36

LargeM

ediumS

- Opinion of employees

36 mall

- Opinion of CEOs

Graph 2: Companies, which have developed a code of ethics. Replies of employees reflect only those companies, in which at least 50% of employees indicated that their companies have a code of ethics (%) Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees.

However, compared to the information about codes of ethics provided by CEOs and employees, it should be concluded that in six cases the provided information does not match. In four companies (2 large and 2 mediumsized), where CEOs indicated that they have a code of ethics developed, the majority of employees are not informed about its development. The awareness of employees about the code of ethics in these companies varies from 12.5% to 40%. Therefore, there is a considerable probability that employees of the company are not informed, what they should do, if they face discrimination of employees or customers, unethical behaviour, for which nobody undertakes responsibility. This also means that the equal attitude policy developed by the company remains “on paper”, and the employees for whom it is intended, are not informed about it. Furthermore, in two large companies, contrary to statements of CEOs, the majority of polled employees (75% and 60% respectively) were convinced that their companies have a code of ethics. It means that employees are well informed about ethical principles and practices of their companies despite the fact that they are not stipulated in writing in any document. Results of surveys of employees (in companies, where more than 50% of employees responded that their companies have a code of ethics) evidence that codes of ethics of companies most frequently include matters related to the prevention of conflicts of interest (60%), cooperation with customers (57%) and safe work environment, prohibiting any verbal/physical harassment (56%). When comparing the answers given

by employees of large and small /medium-sized companies, it can be concluded that the principle of equal attitude regardless of gender, marital status, education level, etc. is included into codes of ethics of small and medium-sized companies more often. 72% of employees of small and medium-sized companies and only 45% of employees of large companies indicated that such a principle is included into the code of ethics of their companies. Codes of ethics of large companies somewhat more often focus on matters related to safe work environment and cooperation with customers. Components of the Code of Ethics 80 % 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Large

50 SME

- Safe work environment - Healthy work environment Graph 3: Matters included into the Code of Ethics (%) Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

Regardless of whether the company has or has no code of ethics, the majority of polled employees (76.8%) indicated that they are informed about how to act and whom to contact in case of conflicts (between employees, between employees and managers). It means that the code of ethics by itself does not guarantee that the values listed in it are used in practice or that non-observation of them is assessed or prevented. In the companies, where more than 50% of employees responded that their companies have a code of ethics, 61% of employees admitted that unethical behaviour of employees (according to the definition of their code of ethics) is assessed and there is responsibility for that. Only 5% admitted that it is not assessed. In its turn, 34% of employees admitted that they are unable to answer to this questions, which is probably an evidence that these employees are not informed about the principles defined in their code of ethics or do not know whether the company observes the principles of operations envisaged in the code of ethics in its operations. When comparing answers of employees in companies of different sizes, it can be concluded that there are no significant differences between them. % 70 60 50 40 30 20 10

62 35

Large

SME

- Yes-

I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know

- No

Graph 4: Is unethical behaviour of employees (according to the definition of the code of ethics) assessed and is there responsibility for that in your company? (%) Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

The observation of values and principles that are included into the code of ethics or other policy documents depends on the situation in the company, including methods, using which these principles are implemented. Only 8 out of 33 interviewed company managers indicated that they have trainings for their employees about diversity and equal attitude matters (incl. the principles included into the code of ethics of the company). It is through these trainings that employees can delve into the nature of equal attitude, non-discrimination and diversity and understand what is the relationship between these principles and day-to-day activities of their company, because, if employees just read policy documents, such an understanding may not come. In small and medium-sized companies such trainings take place only in 22% of cases. Large companies have such trainings for employees little bit more often (33%). For example, a member of the board of CEMEX indicated in his interview that in their company “Code of Ethics trainings include all the aspects – diversity of colleagues, discrimination, leadership, equal attitude matters, intercultural competence”. The company organises such trainings in small groups (15 persons in each) and each group receives them in a language they better understand, so that every employee can perceive this information in full scope.

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

33 22

Large

SME

Graph 5: Proportion of companies, in which there are employee trainings about diversity and equal attitude matters. (%) Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

The understanding about the importance of trainings in interviews of CEOs of companies was different. The majority of CEOs of companies admitted that up to now employee trainings were mostly related to the improvement of skills and competences necessary for the performance of their job duties. Not all the CEOs admit the importance of diversity management trainings in day-to-day work. Thus, one of representatives of companies stated: “Employees appreciate much more, when their knowledge intended for the performance of their direct job duties is supplemented, because they can use it every day, this can ease the performance of their work. Trainings about equal attitude matters and other topics are not always something, what employees will be able to use in their daily work.” This is an evidence that management of these companies still cannot see the link between diversity management and day-to-day work in the company, which can affect the well-being and motivation of employees and customers. However, in individual cases trainings about diversity and equal attitude matters are provided only at management level, incl. middle level managers: “so that these employees are able to better communicate with different employees”. One of interviewed CEOs of companies indicated: “... we still believe that our employees do not need such trainings”. In three of the interviewed companies, which employ people with disabilities, talks with employees about equal attitude matters are performed for the purposes of preventing potential conflicts: “Since the company employs people with disabilities, we talk how others should work with these people to avoid any conflict situations at work.” Employee survey data evidence that only in 3 companies out of 32 more than half of employees answered that the company organised trainings about diversity and equal attitude matters. All the three are subsidiaries of international companies in Latvia, therefore, such trainings are part of the policy of their international parent companies. Generally, employee survey data evidence that 72% of employees were not provided any possibility to participate in trainings about diversity and equal attitude matters (40,9%) or they had

no information about them (30,8%). Also in those companies, whose CEOs stated that such trainings are organised, the majority of employees are not informed about them or say that such trainings are not organised. It means that Latvian companies do not link trainings about equality and diversity matters with skills and knowledge, which their employees might use for the performance of their direct job duties or in their work with customers. Although interviewed representatives of companies and employees admit that the matter of equal attitude is included into their company’s ethical principles and customer service policies, employees themselves are responsible for the improvement of these skills and knowledge.

//Staff diversity as a component of company’s policies and daily routine One of the way how a company can start working with diversity matters is to perform a diversity audit in the company. Within the scope of it, the attitude of company’s management and employees to diversity, culture, work environment and daily routine in the company, including the attitude to staff diversity and cooperation with customers, are identified. Diversity audits, to learn about the age, gender balance, ethnic composition, health condition (disability) marital status, in individual cases also employment history and other factors of employees, were previously performed in 14 out of 32 polled companies, incl. in 5 large companies, 4 mediumsized companies and 5 small companies. Diversity audit 60 % 50 40 30 20 10 0

Large

Medium

Small

Graph 6: Companies, in which a staff diversity audit was performed. (%) Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

Audits are most frequently performed using personal files and staff registration systems rather than anonymous surveys of employees. Only one of interviewed companies stated that it performed a staff research annually, which included information about age, gender and employment history of employees: “We organise an annual staff research, in which we summarise information about age, gender, employment history of our employees. In this research we also ask our employees, whether they feel discriminated in the workplace. As an example, I can mention that it is asked whether company’s employees feel discriminated because of their religious beliefs, sexual orientation.” Several CEOs of small companies indicated that it is not necessary to perform special staff audits, because “diversity of employees is evident” and “data about it can be collected at any time”. In its turn, CEOs of individual companies mentioned state regulations as a barrier limiting possibilities of companies to perform a diversity audit, especially with regard to religious beliefs of employees. One of CEOs of small companies stated that they collect information only about age and gender of their employees, because “we cannot perform studies about aspects like religion, nationality, race, disability due to restrictions of the law”. However, it should be noted that provisions of the Labour Law do not restrict the possibilities of businessmen to introduce and implement diversity management measures, incl. to perform staff diversity audits, if they observe personal data protection provisions. For example, companies can create a voluntary anonymous survey for the purposes of identifying staff diversity in the company. Section 32 of the Labour Law prohibits to indicate in job announcements desirable age and gender of candidates, unless it is an objective and justified prerequisite for the performance of this job, and Section 33 prohibits to ask at job interviews about marital status, religious beliefs or ethnic origin of potential employees, however, this 26

law does not prohibit companies to indicate in their job announcements that people with disability or preretirement age people are specifically invited to apply for this job. In this case, the company does not create any advantages for any community group, but encourages people, who had limited opportunities to get a job before, to apply for the specific job. As evidenced by practices of UK and Irish businesses, when accepting applications for a job, potential candidates are asked to complete an anonymous survey about their age, ethnic origin or skin colour, disability, to summarise these data at a later stage to conclude whether the company does not tend to exclude candidates from certain groups in the employee recruitment process. Interviews with CEOs of companies demonstrate several trends regarding the purposes of identification of staff diversity in specific companies:

•• The wish to identify the existing employee profile: “From time to time we face situations, when we want to look around and learn who our employees are by nationality, age, gender, education level, disability condition, whether we have employees with disabled children.” (Aldaris)

•• The need to make sure that there are no differences in wages depending of the gender of

employees: “The audit is performed, so that the company management can make sure that there are no differences in wages between men and women, and to make wages depend only on professional abilities of employees.” (Tieto)

•• The wish to adapt the staff profile to the customer profile: “I believe that it is important to have similar employee and customer profiles to be able to better understand needs of each other. We are currently implementing the measure to attract foreign students, to make our employee profile match our foreign customer’s profile” (Linum Color)

•• The wish to create a diverse and balanced team, because such a team improves productivity and quality of work: “Diverse workforce expands the field of view, can find innovative solutions”. (A-Birojs)

•• In individual cases these are policies of international parent companies, which are related to the policy of equality and prevention of discrimination in the countries, where the company was established and is operating, from where it is taken over also into subsidiaries of international companies in Latvia: “Our parent company performs a staff diversity audit. It collects information about the employee profile in terms of different aspects, for example, gender, age, nationality. It also follows up the appointment of employees to executive positions. The company should provide a justification, why a specific man or a specific woman was promoted. The company follows up that gender equality is observed. When recruiting a new candidate, a report should be provided, why this particular person rather than some other candidate is employed.” (EY) These data evidence that there are companies, which perform diversity audits (they include international and Latvia-based companies), and companies, which do not do this. Without diversity audits companies lose the possibility to study the profile of their employees, to see which groups are represented in the company and whether the team of the company is diverse. Studies evidence (Section 1.2 of the report) that diverse teams frequently find better problem solutions and work more creatively. Regular identification of the situation also provides the possibility to assess whether the employee motivation measures offered in the company are equally interesting for all the employees and whether all groups of employees are properly evaluated.

//Attraction of diverse employees The implementation of diversity management in a company provides it the possibility to find the best employees from different groups that were not represented or were weakly represented in the company 27

before. However, it is possible only, when employees are selected taking into account only professional skills, experience or knowledge of the candidate, rather than relying on personal acquaintance, recommendations of other employees or any requirements that are not related to the position. Such an approach limits the choice of potential employees, because it ensures that new employees are recruited only from a comparatively narrow and socially homogeneous social range of personal acquaintances, friends, employees or customers. To achieve changes in the personnel profile, organisations may implement different initiatives, thus, within the scope of their opportunities, stimulating people to apply for a job and ensuring that the best employee is recruited. The employee survey carried out as a part of this study demonstrated that only 42% of employees found their job in the company by reading job announcements, others were addressed personally (28%) or they were informed about a free vacancy by an employee of that company (28%). Although almost all the participants of the employee survey (95%) admitted that there is staff diversity in their work team, and 70% of employees believe that diversity in their company improves work atmosphere and the quality of performance of work, survey results evidence that targeted attraction of employees from different community groups has not become a generally accepted practice in Latvian companies. Only 37% of polled employees believe that their company is purposefully thinking about it, while 36% are not sure whether their company performs such measures. 27% of employees indicate that the company does not purposefully attract employees from different community groups.

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

36 27

Yes

I don’t know

Graph 7: Does the company purposefully think about attraction of employees from different community groups? (%) Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

Comparing data broken down by company size – large and small/medium sized companies, it can be concluded that large companies think about purposeful attraction of employees from different community groups more frequently.

40 30 20 10

0 Large

- Yes-

SME

I don’t know

- No

Graph 8: Does the company purposefully think about attraction of employees from different community groups? (%) Comparing companies broken down by size – large and small/medium-sized companies. Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

Interviewed representatives of companies indicate that most frequently “there is no purposeful search of different employees” and “the attraction of diverse personnel is an unconscious process, which takes place naturally”, observing provisions of the Labour Law, which defines the prohibition of different attitude (Section 29). It is emphasised that the decision about recruitment is taken by evaluating the candidate’s adequacy for the specific job and taking into account professional competence of the person. A CEO of a small company indicated that “the attraction of diverse workforce would be more appropriate for large companies, because a small company cannot help others, if it cannot cope with itself”, by this meaning the small number of employees and the limited resources, which are at the disposal of managements of small companies. Despite the fact that personnel policies of polled companies rarely include purposeful measures to attract employees from different community groups, in individual cases companies implement specific measure to attract diverse personnel. Interviews with CEOs of companies show several reasons for such actions:

•• The wish to adapt their employee profile to the profile and needs of customers, for example, in terms of language use: “Over the past year the company has extended its sales department by recruiting Russian-speaking employees. Since the specifics of the company is related to sales, customer service, it was necessary to accommodate needs of customers.” (A-Birojs).

•• Companies purposefully address students, offering them placement and special tuition programmes, thus fostering interest of students to the specific area of activity and to the specific company: “This year we have initiated a tuition programme, the purpose of which is to raise interest in people of the local municipality to study and stay in Latvia to work in our company and think about sustainability. Placement is provided, schools and universities are invited to open house days.” (CEMEX)

•• In some cases companies purposefully attracted employees with disability, emphasising that these employees are highly qualified and very loyal to the company: “We had thought about people with disability and decided to provide them job opportunities, because the fact that a person is disabled, does not mean that this person has no professional skills. We have employed deaf-mute people and our cooperation is very, very good. These employees are very diligent, very swift-handed people. Our communication is a bit of a problem, because additional tools should be created for deaf-mute to communicate with customers... Deafmute employees are very loyal to the company.” (Impel Serviks)

•• Companies operating in the area of information technologies and construction, which most frequently employ men, are more frequently looking for ways to attract women to their companies: “Our company implements measures to increase the proportion of women in technical positions... Currently, two programmes are in place to attract women. One of them is intended for women of working age, and it is named Opening windows... The second programme has been created for girls of secondary school age... The name of this programme is Gigigirlz”. (Microsoft) These and other examples evidence that companies, which have decided to purposefully attract employees from different community groups, believe that this approach is a good practice, which helps to attract valuable employees. Generally, it can be concluded that only in individual cases these are purposeful activities of the company with a wish to diversify their team, to achieve better results, but mainly companies do not use this opportunity to get a wider range of potential employees.

//Cooperation of companies with NGOs Practices of foreign companies evidence that cooperation with NGOs representing different community groups is one of resources for the attraction of new employees from groups that were worse represented before in

the labour market. These organisations can provide practical and education support to those companies and their employees, which already employ, for example, people with disabilities or representatives of different ethnic groups. Although interviews with representatives of companies evidence that the majority of Latvian companies cooperate with higher education establishments and vocational schools, for example, within the framework of career days or by providing placement, thus addressing and attracting potential employees, cooperation with NGO is not developed. Only three of interviewed companies cooperated with NGOs: one company in order to implement employee training projects, while two other companies – in order to recruit people with disabilities. One of companies would like to develop such cooperation in the future: “In the future, CEMEX wants to cooperate with organisations, which would allow the company to evaluate, which prerequisites should exist to allow the company to recruit without any restrictions more people with special needs, also people with movement disorders (because for now people with movement disorders are not employed). It is planned that as a result of such cooperation people with special needs will learn that they can apply for a job in CEMEX as well.”

Conclusions about creation of policies of companies in relation to diversity management According to the survey data, a diversity management policy is developed only in Latvian subsidiaries of international companies. On the contrary, Latvia-based companies do not create separate diversity management policies with certain goals, but mainly implement different diversity management measures/ initiatives. Basic ethical principles and equal attitude matters are more frequently stipulated in written codes of ethics of large and medium-sized companies. In its turn, part of small companies believe that they do not need to develop a written code of ethics and all the matters related to basic principles of communication and potential conflicts between employees can be successfully resolved through mutual negotiations. Data of the study evidence that only small part of companies (33% of large companies and 22% of small and medium-sized companies) train their employees on diversity and equality matters, and develop intercultural skills of managers and employees, because these matters are not related to skills and knowledge, which their employees might use in the performance of their direct duties or in work with customers. For the implementation of effective diversity management, companies must identify their employees by age, gender, national origin and other aspects – for example, to understand whether there is a balance of genders in the company or to make sure that no community group is excluded at the stage of selection of employees, whose abilities and skills might be valuable – for example, young people or pre-retirement age people. As evidenced by the results of the research, executives of companies have a misleading idea about the requirements of Latvian laws and regulations, i.e., which information and data about their employees they have the right to request and store. Being afraid to violate the law, companies most frequently do not collect data about the diversity of staff in the company and their belonging to specific social groups. Therefore, only 14 out of 33 companies interviewed within the framework of the study performed diversity audits before, identifying the age of employees, gender balance, ethnic composition, health condition (disability) marital status, in individual cases also employment history and other aspects. The majority of polled companies in Latvia did not set the goal of attracting diverse employees in the process of attraction and selection of employees in Latvia. For example, when selecting personnel, they do not consider the fact that some work can be performed by people with disabilities, as well as external communication of the company frequently does not encourage people from certain groups to apply for announced jobs. However, some companies, mainly international ones, have good practices and purposeful attraction of employees from less represented groups is in place – for example, attraction of women to work in the IT sector through specially organised measures and involvement of employees from 30

minorities into the companies, which previously employed Latvians only. The majority of polled companies currently do not cooperate with non-governmental organisations representing different community groups, which can help to attract employees from groups, which were less represented in the labour market before, for example, the disabled. NGOs can be a resource not only for attraction of employees, but also when representatives of this target group work in the company, because NGOs can advise about needs of the target group, as well as how to create an inclusive work environment for the specific group.

2.2. ADAPTATION OF THE WORK ENVIRONMENT TO DIFFERENT EMPLOYEES An inclusive work environment and its fitness for the needs of different community groups is an essential element in the attraction of representatives of different community groups. Therefore, the purpose of this section is to describe the arrangement and adaptation of the work environment to the needs of employees in polled Latvian companies. The Labour Law of Latvian sets out the requirement to adapt the work environment to people with disabilities (Section 7), as well as to envisage individual measures for pregnant women or women in the post-delivery period (for example, the right to have health checks during their working time, the prohibition to make work at night). Individual regulations of the law also set out the obligation of the employer to grant a study leave to employees who study (Section 157). However, no other measures (flexible working time or flexible career days) are not defined in any laws and regulations and depend on internal policies and management support of each company, despite the fact that they can improve the well-being and motivation of employees, which also reflects in work productivity. Below is the analysis of different environment adaptation measures.

//Needs of employees are much more frequently respected in large companies Interviews with CEOs of companies certify that the majority of companies implement measures focused on the creation of a friendly and inclusive work environment, incl. respect of individual needs of employees. Results of the employee survey evidence that 72.5% employees admit that needs of employees are usually or always taken into account. However, if we compare answers provided in companies of different sizes, it can be concluded that needs of employees are much more frequently respected in large companies (64%), while only 23% of polled employees confirmed this in small and medium-sized companies. Employees of small and medium-sized companies much more frequently than employees of large companies indicated that needs of employees are sometimes taken into account (51%) or also it was hard for them to answer this question (23%). 80 %

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

64 14

18 Large

- Hard to tell

51 4

SME

- Yes, usually/yes always

- No

Graph 9: Does the organisation process of your company take into account individual needs of employees? (%) Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

The employees, who admitted that their needs were taken into account up to now indicated that they were mainly related to granting of additional days-off, as well as planning of working time or a leave. Thus, for instance, employees indicated that the employer provided them a day-off on Orthodox Christmas or other religious holidays. Moreover, one employer “approved a 2.5 month long leave for its employee to go on a pilgrimage”. Individual workplaces were equipped according to the needs of employees or specific equipment was provided: “My workplace is ergonomically equipped according to my requests”. Measures for balancing of work and private/family life 70 55

Flexible career opport.

Possibility to perform part of work remotly

46 41

Support with money

Reduced load

7 6 6

None of these measures Camps for children Children’s room in the company

Graph 10: Which work and private/family life balancing measures can you use as an employee of your company? (%) Note: respondents could select several options Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

Measures used by employees for balancing of their work and private/family life 68

Possibility to perform part of work remotly

62 45

Camps for children

36 29

Support with money

Children’s room in the company

Reduced load

Flexible career opport.

Graph 11: Have you used any of the above mentioned measures? (%) Note: respondents could select several options Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

The data reviewed in this sub-section evidence that the readiness of companies to take individual needs of their employees into account depends on the specifics of each company, as well as on the number of employees in the company. The readiness of large companies to take needs of their employees into account more frequently is probably related to the fact that large companies have more opportunities to replace employees, harmonise time schedules, etc. However, also part of small companies mentioned good examples of adaptation of the work environment to the needs of employees. This is an evidence that the readiness to take individual needs of employees into account depends on the position of the management.

//Most frequently employees are provided the possibility to have a flexible working time Both interviews with CEOs of companies and employee survey results demonstrate that the possibility to work a flexible working time is provided comparatively more often that other individual work environment adaptation possibilities. One of businessmen indicated: “Employees have many factors, which allow to combine family and work life. Employees, who take their children to school, can come to work from seven o’clock. The company offers a flexible time schedule, as well as the possibility to work remotely.” (Microsoft Latvija) According to employee survey results, 70% of polled employees admitted that their companies provide the possibility to have a flexible working time. This possibility is more frequently provided to employees of small and medium-sized companies (81%). Survey data evidence that up to now 62% of employees used the possibilities of flexible working time. Practices of companies evidence that the companies, in which work according to schedules, employees have the possibility to make up their own schedules, thus combining work with studies or family life: “The company responds to wishes of employees with families, because employees can make up their own time schedules at their discretion.” (Coffee Inn) CEOs of companies admit that unless the specifics of certain employee’s job obliges him or her to be at workplace, employees are also provided the possibility to work remotely. It should be noted that only administrative personnel is mainly provided the possibility to work remotely, because they can perform their job duties from home, using their personal laptop or the laptop provided at work. In its turn, for employees, who work with production equipment or at construction sites, where employees must be physically present, remote work is not possible. 54% of polled employees admitted that their companies provide the possibility to work remotely. 68% of employees used this possibility up to now. Similarly to the possibility to have flexible working time, also the possibilities of remote work are more frequently available to employees of small and medium-sized companies (61%). Interviews with representatives of companies evidence that companies have implemented several measures to ensure a balance between work and family life. Companies most frequently make working time shorter or grant an additional day-off. Although Latvian regulatory enactments do not oblige to grant an additional day-off, incl. paid, in case of different off-duty events, which are not related to the performance of direct job duties, interviews with CEOs of companies evidence that days-off are granted on the 1st of September, on the Mother’ Day or on other days, when schools or kindergartens organise events with participation of parents: “Parents with children have the 1st of September free. We also provide employees days-off or part of days off to visit events of their children, for example, the to visit Mother’s Day, Christmas events. With these initiatives we support employees and encourage their families to grow.” (Draugiem.lv). Payment for days-off depends on the opportunities of each company, however, the companies, where such a possibility is provided, indicate that they are paid: “Payment for days-off is reviewed on a case-by-case basic, however, in the majority of cases these days-off are paid” (Konekesko). Employee survey results evidence that 46% of employees have admitted that their workplace provides parents with small children the possibility to take an extra day-off, when necessary. 36% of polled employees having small children have used this opportunity up to now. It is important that the possibility to take an unscheduled day-off is provided also to other employees, who have no small children, thus creating no advantages to one group of employees only: “Other employees, who have no small children, can take an unscheduled day-off as well” (ZAAO). In total, 62.5% out of all the polled employees have used the possibility to take a day-off. Some companies offer other opportunities to improve the work environment to employees with small children. To help employees with children, four (three small and one medium-sized company) of interviewed management representatives of companies have created rooms for children or when necessary support their employees by providing a nurse, if they need to take their children with them to work (two companies). One of company representatives indicated: “Our company also has a room for children. We employ a nurse who is looking after children, when they, for instance, are sick, but not so sick to stay at home” (EY). Employees of these companies also indicate that other employees and company’s management have no objections that there are children in the office. 33

//Adaptation of the environment to people with disabilities One of ways to make the company environment more inclusive is to improve its availability to people with disabilities, for example, with reduced movements. Interviews with company representatives evidence that companies most frequently think about the adaptation of the work environment to the disabled, only when company already employs or is planning to employ a disabled person: “If our company employed a disabled person, then the company’s management would think about adaptation of the work environment and would certainly provide necessary working conditions for that, however, no disabled had applied to work with us.” However, in individual cases companies have admitted that they could not employ disabled people, most frequently with movement disorders, because their offices are located on top floors of buildings or are arranged in such a way, that they would not be available for people in a wheelchair: “Although our company employed a person with movement disorders earlier, we should admit that the work environment in our company is not available for people in wheelchairs”. It should be mentioned that Section 7 of the Labour Law obliges employers to adapt their work environment, unless these measures are an excessive burden for the employer. For example, an excessive burden might be to request an employer to install an elevator in the building, where there was no elevator, however, the requirement to provide additional lighting or to buy a standing chair is considered to be appropriate. Premises of more than twenty interviewed companies are adapted to disabled people, justifying this by the needs of specific employees: “Yes, the company is thinking about environmental availability. Premises of our company have no thresholds, we have an elevator, doors are wide. Although the company does not have employees with movement disorders right now, we had such an employee before, and therefore our premises are adapted to such employees”. In its turn, a CEO of some other company indicated: “There were cases, when an employee gets sick and then disabled. In such a case the management does everything to keep this employee employed, to let him continue his work in the company and have all the necessary work conditions.” This is an example of a socially responsible attitude, when any employee’s health condition changes, the company adapts the environment to his needs rather than fires him. Although environmental availability is most frequently related to the possibilities of people to move, up to now two companies have effected measures to ensure effective communication with employees having impaired hearing: “We have a person with impaired hearing in our warehouse. Of course, we adapt to this employee providing him necessary equipment to work easier.” (Aldaris) In its turn, the company providing room cleaning services communicates with its deaf-mute worker about organisational job matters using sms: “As to deaf-mute employees, we think about environmental availability. Technological progress, for example, sms, is the thing that allows to provide the environmental availability aspect to such employees.” (Impel Serviks) Although 61% of CEOs of companies admitted that the work environment in their companies is adapted to disabled people, and in case of appropriate professional skills disability would not be a barrier for work in the company, 35% of polled employees believe that the work environment in their company is not adapted to disabled people and 37% are not informed whether it is adapted. Employees of large companies (32%) have a more positive sate of mind regarding the adaptation of the work environment to disabled people, while employees of small and medium-sized companies more often indicate that the existing work environment is not available to people with disabilities. The availability of the work environment is an important factor, which can significantly promote the increase of the number of employed disabled people in Latvia, which is currently very low.

50 % 40 30 20

0 Large

SME

- Yes-

I don’t know

- No

Graph 12: Is the work environment in your company adapted to employees with disabilities? (%) Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

//Equal career opportunities for all employees 55% of respondents indicated that there are flexible career opportunities, incl. internal rotation possibilities, in their companies. One of CEOs of companies admitted: “If we see from the point of view of the management that other work or position in our company would be more appropriate for any employee, we talk to this employee, and, if he or she agrees, we offer another position, which frequently presents better growth possibilities.” (Datorzinību centrs) Although 76.6% of employees admitted that their company usually offered open vacancies to its existing employees first, 49.7% employees indicate that such practices are implemented only, when any specific employee has necessary qualification to take this position.

18,3% 49,7%

- No - Yes, always

26,9%

- I don’t know 5% Graph 13: Does the company practice offering free vacancies to its existing employees first? (%) Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

Interviewed CEOs of companies indicate that career opportunities of employees depend on the results achieved, goals set by and professional skills of employees. Therefore, every employee has the possibility to apply for vacant positions. 8 out of 32 interviewed company representatives (4 large, 3 medium-sized and 1 small) admitted that an internal competition is announced for each vacant position first and employees having professional experience and competence can apply for it. If there are no such people in the company, an employee from outside is being searched. Although the Latvian Labour Law sets out the prohibition of different attitude not only when recruiting, but also when promoting employees and when defining work conditions (Section 29), there can be situations, when being a member of a vulnerable group can be the cause, why a free vacancy is not offered to the specific

employee. Employee survey data evidence that the majority of employees (76.3%) are convinced that age, gender, national origin, health conditions, sexual orientation or religion of any employee cannot be an obstacle for his or her career opportunities in their company. Employees of small and medium-sized companies are sure of this more often (82%), and this indicator is smaller in large companies – 70%.

100

80 60 40 20 0

70 7

Large

13 SME

- Yes-

I don’t know

- No

Graph 14: In your opinion, can age, gender, national origin, health condition, sexual orientation or religion be an obstacle for career of any employee in your company, although this does not affect the quality of direct job duties? (%) Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

Although employees in interviewed companies are convinced that the principle of equal attitude is observed on their workplaces, individual employees admitted that they faced potential discrimination on their workplaces themselves or it was turned against some of their colleagues. Such cases were most frequently related to employee’s age or disability. Also, successful career growth at workplace was complicated by generally accepted stereotypes (for example, “the tradition in construction – men are managers” or “the best employees are aged below 30”) and common prejudices (“a disabled person cannot be a good employee” or “prejudices and conservative perception of employees of the company. It would be hard for different people to work here”). Data of the study evidence that the majority of employees in large, small and medium-sized companies do not believe that the discrimination problem is topical, although some employees faced prejudices in the work environment.

//Employee support and motivation measures For a company to retain the most capable and qualified employees in conditions of competition in the labour market, and to stimulate them to improve and to achieve more, companies implement different support and motivation programme measures. These can be financial measures, for example, by rewarding employees for their deeds, support measures, for example, providing free lunch or issuing health insurance policies or gym subscriptions. Some companies introduced a system to award the best employee, which provides the possibility to give prominence to the most talented employees: “Employees are offered financial support, which is a good motivation for employees to achieve more. The company has a system of best employees, which commends the best employee of the month for the achieved results” (A-birojs). Support and motivation programmes are introduced to engage employees into the evaluation of operations and planning of necessary changes and improvements: “... employees have the right to come up with any ideas or improvements and, if this idea is approved by the management, this employee gets a reward. Such a motivation programme for employees is more focused on the engagement of employees and re-analysing what might be improved in company’s work.” (RBSSKALS Serviss) Although the majority of employees (48.2%) admitted that at their workplace the most talented employees are provided additional support, for example, the possibility to improve their 36

qualification, more than one third of polled employees (37%) indicated that they were not informed about the existence of such measures. Employees stated that the most frequently implemented support measures are possibilities to improve qualification at different courses and seminars, incl. outside Latvia, mentoring measures and premiums for good work results. In individual cases, the most talented employees are offered a promotion. If we break down these data by company size, only 10% of employees in large companies and 4% of employees in SME answered that such support is not available in their company, which allows to conclude that almost all companies have at least one measure to promote career opportunities of employees.

//Internal communication in the company – mainly in Latvian and taking into account different needs of employees Internal communication in polled companies is most frequently in Latvian (90.4%). In its turn, in 8% of large companies the main internal communication language is English. Large companies also show a trend that dayto-day communication among employees and between employees and their managers is in three languages – Latvian, Russian and English. The second most frequently used language of communication is Russian (48.4%). However, the engagement of employees into company’s development does not always depend on the language used in the company. A prerequisite for successful engagement of employees is that internal communication is provided according to the needs of all employees. Employee survey results evidence that 78.5% of employees believe that the format of information provided in the company and its communication is ensured according to the needs of all employees, although a comparatively large number of employees – 14.6% were not able to answer this question. Although the majority of interviewed representatives of companies are convinced that when internal information exchange is ensured, different needs of employees are taken into account, in terms of habits of use of language and technology. However, representatives of six companies (1 – large, 3 – medium-sized and 2 small) admitted that since the working language of the company is Latvian, then there is no adaptation to the needs of employees in terms of language use or such adaptation is very rare. At the same time, these companies indicated that the language aspect is taken into account in communication with customers and employees of companies adapt to customer needs, because “this is the main aspect of successful cooperation”. Therefore, these companies link adaptation to customer needs with potential benefits for business.

//Diverse team – the key of achievements to team efficiency International studies about the implementation of diversity management in companies have proved that the more diverse team is engaged into the development of new projects or services and their promotion in the market, as well as into servicing of customers, the better results and the more diverse range of customers they get. Supplementing competences of different employees are able to provide innovative solutions, thus creating a service or a product, which meets the needs of specific target groups. Seven representatives of interviewed companies indicated that, when they create a team for the development of new projects or products, they think about team diversity. Although most of emphasis is placed on the combination of different experiences (including employees with long employment history and new employees into the team), CEOs of companies also indicate that the customer profile and needs are of great importance: “the formation of different groups helps to foster a wider range of vision, this helps to understand different needs of customers”. Part of interviewed CEOs of companies admitted that when they create a new project team, not only professional skills are taken into account. Some interviewed CEOs believe that “it is not necessary to form a team, which would consist of representatives of different community groups”, mentioning as an argument that “customers wish to see in their projects only experiences employees, who have strong professional competences and communication skills”. Data of the study evidence that the majority of companies do not strategically think about diversity, forming employees teams for the creation of new services or products or the implementation of some other products. 37

//Employee surveys to evaluate their satisfaction and improvements in their companies Regular employee satisfaction surveys are a valuable tool to evaluate the attitude and the level of satisfaction of employees (incl. job duties performed, work environment, growth opportunities, internal communication, etc.) in companies. They provide the possibility to evaluate the existing situation in the company, as well as to become aware of necessary changes, which might improve the ability of the management to respond to challenges and to create a productive work environment. Almost all the interviewed company representatives admitted that their companies organise annual employee surveys to study the attitude and the level of satisfaction of employees with their direct job duties and work conditions. Within the scope of these surveys employees are provided the possibility to submit their recommendations about the work process and improvements to the work environment, which, as the majority of CEOs admit, are evaluated and implemented as much as possible. The majority of polled employees (73.3%) admitted that there are employee satisfaction surveys on their workplace, 88.1% of them indicated that such surveys are organised every year. However, these surveys tend to happen more often in large companies (78%).

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

68 7

Large

- Yes-

SME

I don’t know

- No

Graph 15: Does your company organise employee surveys to evaluate their attitude and the level of satisfaction? (%) Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

Similarly to interviewed company representatives, employees also admitted that propositions of employees are evaluated and implemented as much as possible (82.2%). Although 11.2% of employees indicated that propositions of employees are not introduced, 8.6% of these employees admitted that in these cases their employer always explains why it is impossible to do. In some companies, employee satisfaction surveys also include questions about discrimination: “We create an annual personnel research... In this research we also ask our employees, whether they feel discriminated in the workplace. As an example, I can mention that it is asked whether company’s employees feel discriminated because of their religious beliefs, sexual orientation. In our opinion, it is important to ask employees about discrimination to prevent it in the company’s work environment from the very beginning.” (Konekesko) Such examples evidence that employee satisfaction surveys can serve as an important tool for the creation of an inclusive environment and the prevention of discrimination. However, it is essential not only to poll employees, but also to analyse the information obtained in terms of groups of employees to evaluate whether all groups of employees are in equal situation and whether there are no groups the level of satisfaction of which is clearly low.

Conclusions regarding adaptation of the work environment to different employees Data of the study evidence that Latvian companies implement measures focused on the creation of a friendly and inclusive work environment, incl. respecting individual needs of employees. 72.5% of polled employees of companies admit that their needs are usually or always taken into account, however, this mainly happens in large companies (64%), but also in 23% of cases in small, medium-sized companies. The majority of polled employees (70%) admit that they have the opportunity to use the possibilities of flexible working time, up to now 62% of employees used such an opportunity. In its turn, 54% of respondents admitted that they can work in their company remotely, and 68% used this opportunity before, which evidences that generally, flexible forms of work are widely spread in Latvian companies. Although 61% of company CEOs indicate that premises of their companies are adapted to disabled people, and in case of appropriate professional skills disability would not be a barrier for work in the company, 72% of employees of companies are not convinced about this or believe that the work environment is not adapted to disabled people. The availability of the work environment is an important factor, which can significantly promote the increase of the number of employed disabled people in Latvia, which is currently very low. The change of attitude and breaking of prejudices that people with disabilities cannot be good employees also play an important role in the promotion of employment of the disabled. Data of the study evidence that only 21% of interviewed Latvian companies think purposefully about the creation of diverse teams in the process of development of new products/services. 55% of CEOs and employees of companies admitted that there are flexible career opportunities, incl. internal rotation possibilities, in their companies. Although free vacancies are often offered to existing employees first, career opportunities of employees depend on the results achieved, goals set by and professional skills of each employee. The majority of interviewed companies organised employee surveys regularly to study the level of satisfaction of employees with their work and to evaluate the existing situation and mood in the company, as well as to become aware of necessary changes. 82.2% of participants of the employee survey admitted that propositions of employees are evaluated and implemented as much as possible

2.3. WORK WITH DIFFERENT CUSTOMERS International studies about the implementation of diversity management in companies evidence that staff diversity in a company is able to attract different customers, because employees representing different community groups can better understand needs of these groups and are able to better communicate with them. To help a company to adapt its services and products to certain groups of customers, it is important to be aware of the existing customer profile, for example, language, age, gender, lifestyle, marital status of customers and other factors, which can affect product or service usage habits. Such an approach specifically concerns companies, which are directly related to customers â&#x20AC;&#x201C; natural persons, for example, trade or catering companies, service providers, incl. banks. In its turn, companies, whose operations are related to the servicing of corporate customers, for example, construction or information technology companies, food producers, must be aware of the country of origin, area of operations and the market of their customer, as well as the language and the style of communication of representatives of their companies. This section provides an evaluation of the measures and initiatives implemented by companies with regard to customer diversity.

//Study of the existing customer profile – basis for the attraction of new customers Two thirds of interviewed CEOs of companies indicate that they have not performed a study of their customer profile, mostly because their companies provide services to corporate customers and it is impossible to perform a study about this customer profile, which is related to belonging to different social groups. However, one of interviewed CEOs of companies admits: “The company is currently implementing a study about the existing customer profile... legal entities are customers of the company (99%). This study includes matters about the language spoken by the customer. 70% of our customers speak Latvian, 30% speak Russian and English. We study the information about decision-makers – their gender and age structure.” To become aware of existing customers and their product or service usage habits, companies carry out studies, during which they obtain data about language, age, gender, income level, marital status or occupation of their customers. However, one of companies indicated that “aspects like marital status, race, national origin are usually not asked, because this would not be correct”. One of ways to address and attract new customers is to use customer diversity in the creation of the external image of the company, for example, in advertising, attraction of new customers or social projects. 7 companies interviewed within the study used such practices before – 3 large, 3 medium-sized and 1 small. This is mainly done to attract new employees rather than to address potential customers. One of interviewed CEOs of companies indicates: “The diverse image of employees is included into the advertising of to reflect the diversity of staff in our company”, but a CEO of other company indicates: “When our call centre is searching for new employees (students), videos are created. These videos most frequently present young people to be able to address students easier and faster.” The companies, which have not used such an approach before, indicate that products and their properties are used in the creation of the external image of the company, because it is more topical and more appropriate for the specifics of company’s operations: “It is very important that the company provides quality services, therefore staff diversity in the creation of the external image does not seem to be an important factor yet”. One of companies also indicated that it is shaping its image using different projects, for example, cooperation with Ziedot.lv or Iespējamā misija rather than by consciously emphasising its staff diversity. The descriptions in this section allow to conclude that although CEOs of companies emphasise that the need to adapt to the diversity of customers is one of the causes, why employees from different community groups are attracted, the majority of companies do not purposefully create different employee teams and do not use the diversity of its staff as a resource to better understand needs of different customers.

//Customer service policy Companies, which are aware of the diversity of their customers and identify from which community groups their customers come, can get more achievements, because such an approach allows to become aware of the needs of each group of customers and to identify obstacles, which can prevent representatives of different target groups from using services or products of the company. One of the ways to ensure effective cooperation with different groups of customers is to integrate these cooperation principles into customer attraction and service policies. Surveys of employees within the framework of the study evidence that the majority of employees (87.1%) are informed about their company’s policies (special instructions, written or oral cooperation principles, etc.) in the work with customers, service providers or cooperation partners. If we compare answers of employees broken down by company size, it should be concluded that no significant differences are observed in the level of awareness of employees among employees of large and small/medium-sized companies.

Awareness of employees of company's policies on work with customers 100

80 60

40 20

Large

SME

- Yes-

I don’t know

- No

Graph 16: Are you aware of your company’s policies in the work with customers, service providers or cooperation partners? Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

Although the majority of employees (68.3%) indicate that customer service policies include the equal attitude approach towards customers regardless of their age, gender, national origin, mother tongue or any other factors, 25% of employees have admitted that they are not informed about this aspect. The principle of equal attitude is more frequently included into the customer service policies formulated in writing or orally in small and medium-sized companies (76% of employees of SMEs pointed this out). In its turn, 32% of employees of large companies admitted that they are not informed about such an approach.

70 60 50 40 30 20 10

61 32

Large

SME

- Yes-

I don’t know

- No

Graph 17: Do customer service policies include the equal attitude approach towards customers regardless of their age, gender, national origin, mother tongue or any other factors? Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

Only 22.3% of respondents indicated that the customer service policy of the company they represent stipulates specific measures with regard to different customer groups. This is an evidence that companies in most cases are still not aware of the benefits of cooperation with different customer groups, if different needs of these groups are taken into account. This matter is little bit more often stipulated in customer service policies of large companies (27%), while almost half or 45% of small and medium-sized companies have admitted that such measures are not stipulated in their policies yet. Interviewed CEOs of companies indicated that the measures stipulated in their customer service policies are most frequently related to: •• the type of communication and adaptation of language to customers: “We adapt advertisements,

language, communication type and other indicators, which would be important for customers”;

•• faster or priority servicing of pregnant women, mothers with small children, seniors and the disabled:

“Servicing of pregnant women, mothers and elderly people in branches without waiting in line”; •• information of employees about types of communication with representatives of different cultures:

“Sales persons are informed about cultural diversity and what should be taken into account in cooperation”.

Special measrues in customer service policies

40 30 20

Large

SME

- Yes-

I don’t know

- No

Graph 18: Do customer service policies stipulate specific measures with regard to different customer groups? Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

84% of polled employees confirmed that customer diversity (ethnic origin, age, gender, health condition, mother tongue, etc.) is taken into account, when servicing customers. The answers provided by employees do not show any differences between large and small/medium-sized companies. Employees, believe that such an approach improves both customer satisfaction (87%) and service quality and efficiency (82%). More rarely the respect of customer diversity is linked to the attraction of new customers (46.2%).

Taking into account of customer diversity improves 100

80 60 40 20

86,7

46,2

Graph 19: What factors, in your opinion, are improved, if customer diversity (ethnic origin, age, gender, health condition, mother tongue, etc.) is taken into account, when servicing customers? Several options are possible. Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

In its turn, the employees, who indicated that customer diversity is currently not taken into account when servicing customers, such an approach might improve customer satisfaction (56.3%) and service quality and efficiency (52.1%).

Taking into account of customer diversity might improve 60

50 40 30

56,3

20 10

52,1

25,4

Graph 20: What factors, in your opinion, might be improved, if customer diversity (ethnic origin, age, gender, health condition, mother tongue, etc.) is taken into account, when servicing customers? Several options are possible. Source: Created by authors using the data obtained in the course of polling of employees

Almost all the polled employees (99.6%) indicated that the main communication language with customers is Latvian, while the second most frequent language of communication is Russian (65.9%). At the same time, all the polled employees indicate that customer service language if possibble is adapted to the language, which the customer speaks. This is an evidence that the approach, when employees of companies try to adapt to the language used by customers, is very widely used among Latvian companies. This is a customer-oriented approach, which corresponds to the nature of diversity management.

//Customer satisfaction surveys are used to learn about satisfaction and wishes of customers One of the simplest ways of becoming aware of customer satisfaction with services and products of the company are regular customer satisfaction surveys. These surveys also allow to identify whether the service or the products provided by the company reach the target audience, incl. different community groups. 26 of the companies polled within the framework of this study organised regular customer (both natural and legal persons) satisfaction surveys. They are mainly carried out in order to learn about satisfaction of customers with the sold product, cooperation with company’s employees and to identify the areas, which need improvement. However, the study of satisfaction of specific customer groups, for example, by age, gender, language use was measured before only in two companies. One of representatives of companies indicated: “Yes, satisfaction of different groups is also measured. Data are collected with the following breakdown, and then ranged and studied. Data are collected by gender, age, income level. We organise in-depth studies of data of users of “Paldies” cards, because it helps us to understand our buyers and their habits. Using these data, we study needs, usage habits and other aspects of specific groups.” (Maxima) Representatives of those companies (6), which do not study customer satisfaction, indicate that “customer satisfaction in this sector can be defined by sales volumes” or they have a convenient procedure for filing complaints and propositions, therefore individual surveys are not required.

Conclusions about work of companies with different customers According to the data of the study, the majority of companies have a defined customer service policy (although, as evidenced by the employee survey, it is not always a written document), and the majority of employees of large and small/medium-sized companies are informed that such a policy exists. An absolute majority of employees believe that when their company services customers, customer 43

diversity is taken into account, and this improves customer satisfaction (86.7%) and service efficiency (82%). CEOs of companies interviewed within the framework of the study admit that they regularly carry out customer satisfaction surveys, evaluating general trends of customer satisfaction, however, customer satisfaction in different groups of customers is not evaluated. Only two companies study satisfaction of different groups of customers, for example, by age, gender, language use. Such an approach improved the opportunities of companies to adapt the services and goods provided by the company to the needs of different customers. Unlike EU companies,48 Latvian companies more rarely use the diversity of their employees as a factor improving the external image of their company, which would show that the company is open to representatives of different community groups and respects diversity. Therefore, companies do not use the possibility to better reach different groups of customers, improve customer satisfaction, as well as to attract customers from new target groups.

2.4. BENEFITS FOR COMPANIES AND LATVIAN EXAMPLES To successfully implement the diversity management approach in a company, it is important to understand, what benefits CEOs of companies see in this approach in the companies, where such practices are already in place. This section summarises the conclusions of representatives of Latvian companies given during interviews regarding business benefits from the implementation of diversity management initiatives in practice. About two thirds of interviewed company representatives named at least one of the below mentioned benefits, which the implementation of a diversity awareness oriented policy provides:

•• Benefits in attraction and retention of employees; •• Benefits in attraction of customers. The third benefit – diversity as a source of efficiency and productivity of team work was mentioned comparatively more rarely (7 companies): “When we need to introduce a new product, promote and develop it in the market, such a team is created, which represents various persons. The formation of different groups fosters a wider range of vision, this helps to understand different needs of customers.” (Iecavnieks&Co) “Each employee has a different vision of different situations, problem solution and work with different customers. Different employees have different strengths, which can give value added to their company. Working in a diverse team, employees become more motivated. A growing customer satisfaction is a confirmation of that, because customers really appreciate that employees can adapt to their wishes.” (EY) “We have employees of different generations – employees of the x and y generation, the Millennial generation, and the middle generation. Although all of them have different expectations and hopes regarding what they want to receive from the company, their contribution, different vision and approach to the resolution of situations, only benefit the company. Not only our employees are different, our customers are also different. Therefore, by diversifying our team we can get many advantages. Thus, for instance, by combining the Millenial generation, which is very fast, able to take decisions quickly, and the x and y generation, which is slower and more self-possessed, we can achieve a every effective team work provided that these difference 48 See Section 3 – case studies of diversity management in foreign companies.

are identified and respected. Skills of each generation are completely different.” (PwC) “The first is that the attraction of different employees helps to better understand and fulfil wishes of customers. The second is that a diverse team creates solutions and ideas, as well as takes decisions based on different opinions. Therefore, such solutions, ideas and decisions are more weighed out.” (Swedbank) Taking into account that only a small fraction of CEOs of companies (7) admitted that they purposefully create teams consisting of different employees (for example, for the implementation of specific projects), it is not possible to identify the trend whether these are large or small companies, or even to identify sectors, in which this is observed most frequently. Generally, opinions about benefits of diversity management demonstrate the link between the implementation of a diversity management approach in the internal and external environment of companies (for example, selection of personnel and attraction of customers). By attracting diverse employees, companies, which are aware of the positive effect of diversity, think about attraction and satisfaction of diverse customers. Thus, for example, a representative of EY, a company in the audit sector, believes that the implementation of the diversity management approach impacts both the internal environment, which is attraction of different employees, and the external environment, which is attraction of customers and impact on business performance. Swedbank forms the same link in its diversity management strategy. The attraction of different employees is able to ensure that also customers from different community groups are attracted. The companies, which implement diversity management, explain that the biggest benefit is the increase in competitiveness. A representative of a financial company mentions: “We are able to better satisfy different needs of customers (we attract employees from the same segment, from which our customer comes, thus understanding customer’s needs better). The ability to understand our customers better gives us a considerable competitive advantage. We certainly have introduced diversity management also to be able to service different customers more efficiently.” A CEO of a marketing company believes that the main benefit of the implementation of the diversity management approach is attraction of customers, understanding and satisfaction of their needs: “Different employees are able to respond to wishes of customers in a more flexible way. If all the employees were equal, we could not understand needs of our customers so quickly and flexibly.” Another significant observation of the study is that CEOs, who perceive diversity as a value and emphasise its importance for the company (about half of interviewed CEO and representatives of companies), more frequently see several advantages of diversity for business performance or their company’s ability to achieve good results in the market, and see these benefits in two or several areas – attraction of employees, low personnel turnover, productivity of employees, attraction and satisfaction of customers. A representative of a manufacturing company mentions: “When we implement work environment improvement aspects, employees of our company become more capable of work, they work with higher yield.” In its turn, a representative of a construction sector tells: “The human resources policy that focuses on the improvement of the work environment, promotes satisfaction of employees with their workplace, reduces rotation of employees, and the company benefits as a result of that, because, first of all, the financial situation of the company improves (costs related to the rotation of employees reduce), and secondly, the performance of employees improves.” Benefits of implementation of diversity management measures/initiatives are related to the satisfaction of employees with the company: “Our company has a very small personnel turnover, employees are motivated and satisfied with their work environment. Different employees bring us different experiences, because every employee has its own “advantages”. The attraction of different employees certainly helps us to understand needs of our customers, creates better cooperation, improves the quality of customer services.” (Konekesko) 45

â&#x20AC;&#x153;...Competent and satisfied employees provide benefits of attraction of customers in the sector, positively affect the performance of the company.â&#x20AC;? (PwC) Answers provided in interviews of CEOs of companies certify that generally, CEOs of those Latvian companies, which are already implementing the diversity management approach or at least individual measures in this area, see similar benefits as representatives of those EU companies, which also implement diversity management. These are benefits in attraction and retention of customers, benefits in attraction of customers and productivity of the team. At the same time, Latvian companies rarely carry out evaluations of the impact of their diversity management policy to measure its influence on business performance.

//Examples of the diversity management approach in Latvian companies When we talk about diversity management in Latvia, it is important to remember that this approach is introduced in Latvian companies, which are operating in conditions, which differ from conditions of larger EU countries in some aspects (for example, smaller numbers of potential employees, smaller numbers of large companies). This section summarises examples of good practices in large, medium-sized and small companies. When researchers selected examples of good practices, they guided themselves by several criteria, of which at least two should have been met. These criteria include: a formulated diversity policy, measures performed to identify diversity of employees and/or customers, measures to attract employees from different community groups, adaptation of the work environment to employees from different community groups, attraction of customer from different community groups, as well as opinions of the management that the implementation of the diversity management approach is beneficial for the company. Out of six selected companies, two small companies represent Latvia-based companies without parent companies in other countries. These examples were selected for the purposes of showing that Latvia-based companies are implementing diversity management measures, although they have not defined (written) diversity management policy. .

CEMEX LATVIJA Equal attitude policy of the company CEMEX Latvia (an international company with branches across the world, manufacturing sector) has developed a diversity management policy, because it is a Latvian subsidiary of an international company. Positive and non-discriminating attitude towards diversity is stipulated in the Code of Ethics (all the polled employees of the company admit that the Code of Ethics includes the aspect of equal attitude), employees attend trainings on different topics (63% of employees confirm that the company organises trainings on diversity and equality matters), as well as there are regular diversity audits. 92% of polled employees admit that, when they were employed or changed their position, they were provided an internal introductory training in the company. It means that the company has a responsible attitude to the practical implementation of the values declared in its policy and trains its employees, so that they are aware of and fulfil the equal attitude policy of the company The Code of Ethics of CEMEX was created thanks to the policy of its parent company. It also states the principle of respect for diversity and equal attitude towards employees and customers. The Code of Ethics of CEMEX includes the commitment â&#x20AC;&#x153;to promote respect for individual

differences and opinions, thus avoiding any discrimination or improper relations”. The Code of Ethics includes also practical examples of actions, if any colleague behaves in an intolerant or scornful way towards any colleague because of that colleague’s country of origin, national origin or culture.49 All employees receive trainings about the Code of Ethics, which include matters about diversity of colleagues, discrimination, leadership, equal attitude matters and intercultural communication. Trainings are organised in small groups, 15 persons in each, to ensure a closer contact between employees and teachers. Each group is taught in a language chosen by its participants. According to the company’s audit data, the company employs employees of different nationalities (Latvians, Russian, English, Germans, Americans, Mexicans, Ukrainians, Kazakhs), there is staff diversity in terms of mother tongue, age, gender, sexual orientation. We also employ disabled people.

Benefits from the diversity management policy According to the opinion of a management representative of CEMEX, the CEMEX’s diversity management approach helps to retain and attract employees: “There are benefits in the area of attraction of human resources, because employees link their workplace with positive memories a convenient work environment. Therefore, these employees are the best advertising of the company. They recommend the company as a good workplace to their acquaintances.” The benefit of the company is also a recognised, safe and inclusive environment: according to the global Sustainability Report of CEMEX, in 2014 the Latvian branch showed the fastest improvement in the area of safety and health protection of employees in the entire global business of CEMEX.50 CEMEX is in the golden category in the Sustainability Index 2015 – it means that the company is demonstrating openness and transparency, aspires to expand and adapt its risk management processes, including into them the most significant corporate responsibility aspects, and the company’s responsibility strategy includes clear and measurable goals 51

EY (Ernst & Young Baltic) Equal attitude and diversity policy of the company EY (previously Ernst & Young) is a global audit company having an office in Latvia as well. The EY parent company and its Latvian branch have developed an equal attitude and diversity policy. The company also has a Code of Ethics, about which all the employees of the company are informed. This Code of Ethics also discusses the principle of equal attitude. All the employees polled in the company indicate that when they get employed, they are provided internal introductory trainings or introductory programmes in the company. Although interviewed representatives of the company indicated that the company provides employee trainings on diversity and equality topics, only one third of polled employees were informed about them.

49 CEMEX, “Code of Ethics”, [online]. Riga, 2015 [viewed 28 September 2015]. Available from: http://cemex.lv/Userfiles/Personals/Etikas%20kodekss_23_02_2015.pdf 50 CEMEX, “Building Resilient and Sustainable Communities”, [tiešsaiste]. Mexico, 2015 [viewed 28 September]. Available from: http://www.cemex.com/MediaCenter/ PressReleases/PressRelease20150519.aspx 51 Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility Institute, “Sustainability index”, [online]. Riga [viewed 20 August 2015]. Available from: http://incsr.eu/lv/novertejums/ ilgtspejas-indekss/

The personnel management policy of the company describes the attraction of employees from different community groups. Representatives of the company’s management indicate: “Diversity is our value, so our strategy also mentions the attraction of employees from different community groups. It is important for the company that its workforce is as diverse as possible.” At the initiative of its international parent company, EY in Latvia also carries out a staff diversity audit. It collects information about the employee profile of the company: for example, gender, age, nationality. It also collects data about the profile of employees, which are promoted within a certain period of time, so that they could aspire executive positions in the company in the future. The company should also justify, why that particular employee was promoted, as well as should ensure that gender equality is ensured in the company (equal growth opportunities for representatives of both genders). When recruiting a new employee, a report should be provided, why this particular person rather than some other candidate is employed. In their interview representatives of the company indicate that when they select new employees, they primarily evaluate education, experience and skills of candidates, however, thanks to the implementation of the diversity management approach there is staff diversity in the team: “The company employs people, who studied abroad and in Latvia. We are also diverse in terms of nationalities. We also have disabled employees.”

Benefits from the diversity management policy Representatives of the company see benefits of the implementation of the diversity management policy – in the area of attraction of human resources and customers, as well as they believe that diversity has a positive influence on the company’s business performance. EY’s representatives believe that they considerable benefit is their diverse team, which provides the possibility to search for solutions from several points of view, because diverse teams can do that and this fosters their productivity: “The more diverse we are, the more diverse our vision of projects, problems, solutions is. When we develop projects, consult companies, it is very important to think in a broader way, to think from different points of view, so diverse workforce is important.”

SWEDBANK Company’s diversity management policy Swedbank in Latvia defined its diversity management policy like its international parent company seated in Sweden. When overtaking the diversity management policy from Swedbank in Sweden, it was adapted to the Latvian environment: thus, for example, if one of goals of diversity management in Sweden is to attract part of employees, who were not born in Sweden, so that immigrants are represented in the company as well, Latvia does not have such a goal yet, because the wave of immigrants here is not so wide. About 60% of employees of this company believe that the company is purposefully thinking about attraction of employees from different community groups, and 77% of polled employees confirm that the company’s management supports diversity by words and deeds, which is the evidence that employees are aware of the existence of the company’s diversity strategy. However, only 36% of employees confirm that the company organises trainings about diversity and equality matters, which means that practical overtaking of diversity-related knowledge and values is still at its comparatively early stage. One of Swedbank’s diversity management policy is to consciously create and adapt its personnel policies in such a way that the employee profile and the customer 48

profile match. It is mainly believed that the company should be able “to put itself in its customers’ shoes” and to understand, what wishes of our customers are (to create an individual approach to customers from each community group). Representatives of the company believe that “for us, as a company, to provide services to a large part of our community, and for us to better understand them, we must understand our customers and reflect in our customer database ensuring that the profile of our employees matches the profile of our customers”.

Benefits from the diversity management policy Representatives of Swedbank believe that diversity management provides significant advantages in the attraction of customers: “The ability to understand our customers better gives a considerable competitive advantage. Diversity management promotes competitiveness of our company.” The customer satisfaction surveys carried out by Swedbank confirm that customers appreciate that the company adapts to different needs. Loyalty of our customers is also a significant benefit: “Our employees have been loyal to us for many years.” Swedbank is also in the Golden category in the Sustainability Index 2015.52

ALDARIS Equal attitude and personnel policy of the company Aldaris is a large company in the food sector, which has a separate personnel selection policy, which was overtaken from Carlsberg, an international company of the same group in Denmark. The employee selection policy prohibits any discriminating practices, as well as defines that the gender balance principle should be observed in the selection of employees. The company has developed a Code of Ethics, which is translated into Latvian and Russian, and employees are regularly reminded that such a code exists. The company organised trainings on the topic of diversity and equal attitude, although only 20% of polled employees answered that they were aware of such trainings, which can mean that diversity and equal attitude are not considered to be priority topics among employees. The team of Aldaris is consciously created in such a way, to represent employees of different age, gender, national origin and education level. The company’s management has performed a diversity audit and concluded that the company employs representatives of about 13 different nationalities, including Latvians, Russians, Bulgarians, Poles, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Belorussians, etc. The management of the company perceives a diverse composition of its employees as an advantage rather than as a difficulty. Representatives of the company note that by employing people from different community groups, for example, people with disabilities, it is important to have a flexible approach and to adapt the work environment: “When we started to employ a deaf-mute person, of course, we had a talk with colleagues that we would work with such a person and he would need help. Today, it is all natural. Of course, if some other employee, who is disabled would apply for a job with us, and if he had necessary professional skills and, if this work would not create any health hazards for him, we would employ him without any problems and would create necessary work conditions.” 52 Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility Institute, “Sustainability index”, [online]. Riga [viewed 20 August 2015]. Available from: http://incsr.eu/lv/novertejums/ ilgtspejas-indekss/

Benefits from the diversity management policy Representatives of the company believe that diversity management provides practical advantages to business, for example, a diverse team with different employees and different competences creates new ideas: “Diversification of our team fosters a more productive work environment, a proactive approach to work... Diverse employees also foster the creation of new ideas. If all employees are equal, then we can do well only one thing. Challenges in the market are huge, so the more diverse our employees are, the more diverse is competence of these employees, which has a positive influence on company’s operations.” However, the main benefit for business performance, in their opinion, is satisfaction of employees: “Satisfaction of employees with their work environment and their wish to engage into company’s development. The turnover of employees reduces – the more satisfied our employees are, the less they change. It has a positive influence on business performance, which has a close link with satisfied employees.” Aldaris in the Platinum category in the Sustainability Index 2015.53 Platinum companies have fully integrated corporate responsibility into their operations.

FASTR BOOKS (FABULA) Personnel policy of the company Fastr Books is a small, young company in the area of computer programming and publishing. The company operates in three countries – Latvia, Estonia and Finland. Its employees are people of different nationalities, different ages, genders and interests. The company has not developed a code of ethics or a diversity management policy yet, but the company carries out a staff diversity audit, and employees are attracted according to the need of the company to attract diverse employees – to match their profile to that of customers. For these purposes the company has lately made the decision to employ more women, because 90% of customers are women, but the company employs 67% of men. With such initiatives the company increased the average age of its employees, because employees of the company are slightly older than the average employee of the company. Mother tongues of customers are also taken into account, when selecting employees: the team includes Estonians and Finns to talk to customer in their mother tongue. Representatives of the company emphasise that policies with regard to diversity of employees and customers come up “naturally” in response to market challenges, and initiatives in this area come from the management and from employees of the company: “Diversity management initiatives have created naturally. Our range of customers affects our decisions to implement these initiatives, we want to adapt to it.” Almost all the employees confirm that the company is purposefully thinking about attraction of employees from different community groups. The majority of polled employees (88%) believe that the company’s management supports diversity by words and deeds.

53 Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility Institute, “Sustainability index”, [online]. Riga [viewed 20 August 2015]. Available from: http://incsr.eu/lv/novertejums/ ilgtspejas-indekss/

Benefits from the diversity management policy More than half of polled employees of the company believe that the diversity in company’s staff improves the quality of performance of work. Management representatives of the company believe that the main benefit from the implementation of the diversity management approach is a more successful attraction of new customers, because they believe that it is easier to understand the customer, if the employee profile matches the customer profile and the employee is aware of customer’s needs. Representatives of the company name creativity of the team as another benefit of diversity: “I believe that diversity fosters the best ideas, however, we need time to be 100% sure of that. It certainly fosters a more creative environment as well.”

DRAUGIEM Equal attitude policy of the company The company, which hosts an internet network www.draugiem.lv, is a small, Latvia-based company, which has clearly defined its values – fairness, experiments and initiatives. It should be noted that it has not developed a separate diversity management policy yet. The majority of polled employees believe that the company’s management supports diversity by words and deeds. First of all, this concerns the animation of the principle of equal attitude in the company, because all the employees of the company believe that this principle is important for the company. All the employees also believe that employees have equal opportunities to participate in decision-making, as well as to improve or develop products and services proposed by the company. A friendly, encouraging work environment for different employees is considered to be a prerequisite for successful team work in the company: “The company and its employees take care that the work environment is appropriate for them and pleasant.” The work environment in the company is adapted to individual needs of employees, including in the area of health protection: “The company has searched opportunities to cooperate with orthopaedic shops to construct special arm supports for employees. If employees need to improve the work environment, the company acts immediately to satisfy these needs.” The company has performed a staff diversity audit, and the human resources department of the company collected data about the diversity of employees: “The company employs Latvians and people of other (Russian, Australian, Canadian and American) nationalities here in Latvia. The ratio of women to men in the company is 45% to 55%. The company employs people with different sexual orientation, it also has employed disabled people for many years.” The company sees value added in the diversity of its team also from the point of view of attraction of customers: “although our employee profile is not identical to our customer profile, company’s representatives believe that it is quite identical to the customer profile in some aspects (for example, age).”

Benefits from diversity Company’s representatives believe that the openness of the work environment to diversity has a significant influence on creativity of employees: “The main advantage of our company is its work environment – the more diverse it is, the more creative, complete and psychologically valuable it is”. Staff diversity is a positive factor in the attraction of customers: “Customers are the second aspect – the more diverse employees of the company are, the more satisfied our customers are. Here we benefit from novelty, attraction of new customers, enhanced creativity. In such competitive conditions, small parts definitely play a big role in successful business.” The examples reviewed in this section confirm that only international companies have a written diversity management policy in Latvia, however, Latvia-based companies also frequently implement diversity management measures: attract employees from different community groups, identify the diversity of existing employees and adapt their work environment to the needs of different employees. For large companies (such as CEMEX and Swedbank) it is comparatively much easier to provide employee trainings on topics of equal attitude and diversity, however, in individual cases such trainings are also offered to employees of SMEs, for example, in EY. Generally, the ability to implement a diversity management policy depends on the resources available to the company (trainings, materials explaining the use of the Code of Ethics,the ability to provide and monitor a personnel policy), and also on the availability of knowledge that diversity management is implemented in other EU countries and in international companies.

3. EXAMPLES OF FOREIGN COMPANIES This section of the report introduces you to the implementation of the diversity management approach in 10 EU and EEA companies. Experience of medium-sized foreign companies was chosen for purposeful case studies so that it is more suitable for the Latvian business environment. Companies like ISS Eesti (Estonia), Prezi (Hungary), Tesco (United Kingdom), Ericsson (Sweden), Hewlett Packard (Austria), Infineon (Germany), Orange (Poland), Sodexo (Ireland and Great Britain), Fazer (Finland), PwC (Poland) were selected for the study of good practices, because the diversity management approach in them has been implemented and has been in force for several years, and it is one of the main guidelines and values of these companies. The purpose of the study of good practices is using the case study approach to show Latvian businesses business benefits offered by the implementation of diversity management practices, as well as to identify the recommendations, which would be valuable to consider when implementing diversity management in a company.

3.1. ERICSSON (SWEDEN) Information about the Ericsson is one of the largest manufacturers of telecommunication company: equipment and software in the world, as well as the provider of

communication services. Its parent company is seated in Sweden. Offices and representations of the company are located in more than 180 countries, and the area of its operation is the entire world. Business model: The company provides equipment, software and services in the area of communication technologies.

Place of business: The company is operating in numerous European countries: Andorra,

Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, Albania, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Lithuania, Macedonia, Norway and so on. Staff headcount: 12400 (in Europe) Website: www.ericsson.com

Sector: Ražošana Headquarters: Stokholma (Zviedrija) Year of registration: 1876. gads

//Source of the diversity management approach initiative Diversity has been high up on Ericsson’s agenda for many years and the company believes that diverse teams are the best teams. The company’s representative tells that it is hard to achieve success in a global and competitive market, and for a company to be successful it requires tapping into a broad talent pool. 54 Before the implementation of the diversity management strategy, the company implemented a regional diversity management policy, which was different in each country, taking into account laws and regulations and policies of the country concerned.55 Since the company is operating in 180 countries and on five different continents – in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America, the company’s management decided to implement the diversity management policy. The Ericsson’s diversity management policy is a written document that was created by the company’s management. The company has developed not only a diversity management policy, but also a diversity and inclusion global strategy. The initiative of the diversity and inclusion global strategy is the migration of the population from one country to another caused by globalisation. Due to these reasons the company wished its global diversity management strategy to be based on its common business strategy. The diversity and inclusion global strategy is represented by the board of the company, which consists of representatives from each Ericsson’s business line executives. Members of the board are inherent of business thinking, and they see the direct benefits which diversity management can provide to the company. The management believes that it is important not only to talk about the diversity management policy, but also to use it in practice by implementing the diversity and inclusion global strategy. The diversity management practices implemented by 54 Ericsson, “Our approach”, [online]. [viewed 3 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.ericsson.com/thecompany/sustainability-corporateresponsibility/our-approach 55 Person interviewed: Maria Angelica Perez – Global Head of Engagement and Diversity, representing all Ericsson’s offices

the company are also affected by the Swedish Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality, whose competences include consumer protection, gender equality matters, defence of human rights, integration matters, minority matters and so on. For example, there is a Discrimination Law in the country, which regulates gender equality in companies, as well as prevents any discriminating or harassing behaviour at work.

//Description of company’s diversity management policy measures The Ericsson’s diversity management policy embraces three aspects: staff diversity, work environment diversity, and customer diversity. The diversity management policy is mainly implemented in the staff recruitment process – when new employees are recruited. Five tasks are defined in the company’s diversity management policy:

•• to create an inclusive work environment; •• to ensure that the company has a good reputation as an employer; •• to become choice No.1 for job seekers; •• to create such corporate culture that would attract the most talented employees; •• to integrate diversity management into all business processes. The diversity management strategy is closely linked to company’s values, mission and vision. Thus, for instance, the company has defined in its vision that it can make the world better and more sustainable, if all people are united and employees are provided possibilities to fully use their potential. Ericsson believes that the notion of ‘diversity’ includes principal differences and personal differences between employees such as age, gender, race, nationality, temper, and religious beliefs. It also includes diversity of employees based on their experiences such as education and job expertise, marital status and organisational differences with regard to job duties and position. The company is attempting to get competitive benefits with the help of diversity management, constantly aspiring to be a job, which takes into account, respects and appraises individual differences between employees. The diversity management practices implemented by the company are popularised in various ways, for example, on company’s website, in social media – Twitter and Facebook. The company constantly implements special public relations campaigns, where diversity management is used for attraction of young and talented employees. For instance, the company had implemented a social media campaign that the company celebrated the International Women’s Day. The company also supports the He for She campaign created by UN Women, a United Nations entity. He for She is a social campaign involving men who undertake to act against gender discrimination and violence to promote gender equality. The company prepares an annual plan on the number of women recruited and ways of their recruitment. Ericsson believes that gender equality is not a problem of women only, but rather a matter of human rights. It should also be mentioned that the company celebrated the Day for Cultural Diversity. The Day for Cultural Diversity is celebrated as a tribute to 168 nationalities working in the Ericsson Group. The purpose of these celebrations is to inform and promote the understanding of cultural differences at work, as well as to promote an inclusive work environment. In celebration of the Day for Cultural Diversity the company organises virtual seminars on cultural diversities. The Ericsson’s representative emphasises that all the campaigns implemented by the company are very closely linked to its diversity management policy. The entire Ericsson’s diversity management strategy consists of seven strategic elements to be achieved by each company’s representation. All company’s regional branches must develop a diversity management plan listing goals and tasks of the diversity management policy. This diversity management plan must state company values so that each employee is informed about them and works in line with them. The company 54

must also ensure that the company’s diversity management strategy is understandable to every employee, therefore it is necessary to talk to employees about this strategy regularly. The diversity management strategy mentions that integration and inclusion of employees should be ensured in each Ericsson’s branch, because diversity management is measures within each regional branch, and later these results are assessed crossreferencing them with the diversity and inclusion global strategy. The company’s representative emphasises that for a diversity management policy to be successful, Ericsson ensures the inclusion of all employees into the company and respect for their specific needs. The company is also thinking about the future to attract qualified workforce. To ensure that the most talented employees are recruited in the future, the company organises events for the young to stimulate them to study the IT area.56 The company is committed to equal opportunity in employment, development and all other personnel actions. It also does not allow discrimination due to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, age or disability. Ericsson actively supports the attraction of young and diverse talent. It is important to emphasise that the company is committed to creating awareness among employees about diversity management and developing the leadership skills necessary to manage a diverse workforce.57 The company is convinced that a diverse and inclusive workplace taps into the best of global talent, fosters innovation, and brings differentiated value for customers, employees and shareholders.58 Based on the implemented diversity and inclusion global strategy, the company is implementing various programmes and initiatives, which prove that diversity management is very much supported in the company. One of such initiatives implemented by Ericsson is the Teach Women initiative, within the framework of which the company attracts, educates and supports young women from Africa and the Middle East in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to empower them to work at Ericsson in the future. Women from counties like Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Zimbabwe and so on participate in this programme. Another initiative which helps the company to support diversity management is Women Up. It is a programme implemented in Sweden, within the framework of which 40 talented women working in the company are supported. During this programme these women improve their management skills to be able to occupy leadership positions by applying for vacant executive positions. The company also sponsors the Watermark initiative, and is one of the members of this programme. In this programme, women have reached an executive director’s position starting from the lowest position in the company. The purpose of the programme is to develop and promote representation of women in the companies lacking them. Ericsson is also part of the Battle of the Numbers project, which is being implemented in Sweden with the aim to increase the number of women at management level. 10 large Swedish companies wishing to promote the involvement of women in company management are engaged in the protect. Ericsson also implements the Girls in ICT measure aiming to attract and encourage secondary school girls to start their professional career in the IT sector.

//Benefit for business The Ericsson’s representative admits that it is hard to measure quantitative or numeric benefits of diversity management. Of course, benefits of diversity management can be seen, for example, by evaluating how many persons have engaged in the social campaigns organised by the company, or, for example, how many persons ‘follow’ as the company celebrates the International Women’s Day. A lot of people follow company’s activities in social media sharing news, employees also willingly tell to the public that they are working in Ericsson. Firstly, this improves company awareness, image and reputation, and, secondly, this attracts potential customers. Thanks to different social campaigns, Ericsson has increased the number of its customers, as well as its popularity in the communities over the last few years. 56 Person interviewed: Maria Angelica Perez – Global Head of Engagement and Diversity, representing all Ericsson’s offices 57 Karabacakoglu, F., Ozbilgin., O., “Global Diversity Management at Ericson: the business case”, [online]. Turkey: 2012 [viewed 3 July 2015]. Available from: http://www. sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042812045028pp. 82-83. 58 Ericsson, “Our approach”, [online]. [viewed 3 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.ericsson.com/thecompany/sustainability-corporateresponsibility/our-approach

Ericsson carries out a customer satisfaction survey every year. By analysing survey results, it is able to observe the increase in customer satisfaction, which, according to the Ericsson’s representative, is the result of the implemented diversity management strategy. The company’s representative explains that the Swedish companies that implement diversity management have 2.5 times higher customer satisfaction. The number of innovations proposed by employees also increases. The Ericsson’s representative admits that when the company implemented the diversity management strategy it did not expect that its employees would be so much involved into diversity management initiatives. Employees are truly interested to engage in events through which they can personally make their work environment more inclusive and by implementing which the team will become even more diverse. Over the last few years, since the company has implemented the diversity management approach, the cohesion and mutual trust of employees, as well as their trust to their managers has grown significantly.59 Ericsson has received various awards, for example, it was appraised as one of TOP 50 Most Attractive Engineering Employers in Europe in 2013. This assessment comes from Universum, the global leader in company branding. The company received awards not only in Sweden, but also outside it. Thus, for instance, in 2014 Ericsson was awarded a title Great Place to Work Finland. Furthermore, in 2014 the company received a Randstad’s award Most Attractive Employer in Telecom Industry in Russia.60

//Result for target groups By implementing the diversity and inclusion global strategy the company management identified issues, which have not been addressed. For instance, only men applied for the jobs proposed by Ericsson at the dawn of the company’s development. This made the CEO of the company think why no women had applied for these jobs. For this reason, the diversity and inclusion global strategy devotes special attention to the increase of the number of women in the company. Ericsson has implemented several initiatives to promote staff diversity in the company, for example, set a goal to ensure that 30% of company’ staff are women by 2020. Ericsson is interested to have people from different community groups in its team, as well as that these people feel involved and are supported, thus allowing them to implement their potential more completely. For example, the company promotes inclusive culture at work, where lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals (LGBT) have equal development and career possibilities. The company is operating in the global environment, so it is open for people of different national origins. For example, the 10 most represented nationalities in the Ericsson Group are Indians, Swedes, Chinese, Americans, Italians, Brazilians, Britons, Spaniards, Canadians and Germans.

//Conclusions and recommendations Ericsson faced its greatest challenge, when it has set its strategic goal to have 30% of women in its staff by 2020. Part of employees were inquiring why the company had not set a bigger number of women in the company, for example, 50%. The company management engaged into the explanation of the decision made justifying it by the size of the company and its financial possibilities in the specific situation. Part of employees still believe that 50% of women should be set as the strategic goal. Employees frequently mix up different goals set in the diversity management strategy with the goals implemented by the company, therefore the company management should devote special attention to the explanation of their goals and education of their employees in this area to create common understanding. It is for this reason that the company has defined future plans to resolve this problem, for example, to organise trainings, where employees will be explained what the diversity management strategy is, why this strategy is important for the company and what the role of every employee in its implementation is. After these trainings it is planned to organise discussions to 59 Person interviewed: Maria Angelica Perez – Global Head of Engagement and Diversity, representing all Ericsson’s offices 60 Ericsson, “Recognition and Awards”, [online]. [viewed 3 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.ericsson.com/careers/our-story/recognition-awards

provide the employees the possibility to discuss among themselves what they have learned. There are also plans to develop and provide e-training tools on the topic of diversity and the diversity management strategy in Ericsson. If the company management wishes to implement diversity management, it should not only support it, but also talk about it every day. The company’s CEO should be the person, who encourages both employees and customers to talk and think about this topic. It is very important that the company management takes decisions and performs activities related to the implementation of the diversity management approach. The board of Ericsson is not only thinking about diversity management, but is also talking about it within and beyond the company. Moreover, middle level managers and their deputies should also be ready to talk about the diversity management strategy, because these people meet their employees most often. The diversity management strategy should be well thought-out, i.e. the company should make sure that the strategy focuses both on diversification of its staff and on the creation of an inclusive work environment. Diversity includes both visible and invisible differences, however it is an involving work environment that forms the relations between employees. For a diversity management policy to be successful, it is important that employees are informed about the importance of the diversity management strategy and their ability to see the benefits of its implementation. The process of implementation of the diversity management strategy is time-consuming, and this does not happen quickly. For example, the Ericsson’s diversity and inclusion global strategy has been implemented for two years, and the process is still ongoing. The company’s management also encourages companies to organise trainings about the diversity management strategy, respectively, to explain why this strategy is important for the company, what it gives to the company and what company’s main values are. When organising such trainings, it is important for the company to organise discussions at the end of these trainings to ensure that their employees have perceived, are aware of the information and are ready to discuss it. It would also be important to provide different training tools to ensure that all the employees receive the information. Ericsson provides both in-class trainings and e-trainings, as well as many virtual training tools about the diversity and inclusion global strategy in Ericsson. 61

61 Person interviewed: Maria Angelica Perez – Global Head of Engagement and Diversity, representing all Ericsson’s offices

3.2. HEWLETT-PACKARD (AUSTRIA) Information about the Hewlett-Packard (HP, in short) is a technology company having its company: headquarters in California, US. HP is one of the largest technological

companies operating almost in all countries of the world. Business model: The company specialises in manufacturing of computers, printers, data storage and network software.

Place of business: The company has representations in such European countries as Austria,

Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Spain, Great Britain, Estonia, Latvia and so on. Staff headcount: 34000 Website: www.hp.com

Sector: Manufacturing Headquarters: California (US), the company has offices in

77 countries all over the world Year of registration: 1939

//Diversity management initiative The origins of the HP’s diversity management policy can be traced back to sixties and seventies of the twentieth century, when it was developed with a view to reduce discrimination. Diversity management initiatives were introduced, when the company was established, and when people of different races and sexual orientation started to work in the company.62 The purpose of the company is to create innovative products. Diverse staff representing different opinions, views and ideas is necessary to create them. It is important for the company to attract diverse staff also because it allows to expand its market share globally by selling products to a very wide variety of customers.63 HP has introduced diversity management, because the company management believes that an inclusive and flexible work environment, which considers differences between employees, first of all, motivates employees and, secondly, improves their results. The company involves and develops diverse staff to better understand wishes and needs of different customers. The HP’s representative believes that diversity management positively affects results of company’s work, because it can sell its products in an increasingly wider market addressing increasingly larger potential target audience.

//Description of company’s diversity management policy measures The HP’s diversity management policy defines that each employee must treat other employees with respect and courtesy despite the community group they come from. Employees follow the diversity management policy as guidelines and a value respecting each other’s diversity. To ensure that the diversity management policy is observed, employees are encouraged to report violations related to discriminating practices or attitude. Due to this reason, the company provides an anonymous phone number, where you can report 62 Person interviewed: Birgit Aichholzer, Head of Human Resources in HP Austria 63 HP, “Annual Report 2014”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 1 July 2015]. Available from: http://h30261.www3.hp.com/~/media/Files/H/HP-IR/documents/reports/2015/hpqannual-report-2014.pdf

violations related to discrimination of employees 24/7. The company’s diversity management policy is a policy that does not allow for discrimination and promotes a work environment without any discriminating or harassing behaviour (Harassment-free work environment policy). Rules of this policy concern all the people who are in any way related to the company – employees, customers, suppliers, cooperation partners, visitors and stakeholders.64 The implementation of the diversity management policy is especially important for HP, because it is the key to company’s achievements allowing it to operate in the global market and to offer its products to various customers. When a company is implementing a diversity management policy, the company is able to attract well-educated and talented employees who are able to create new products for diverse community groups. HP implements its diversity management policy also in its work with cooperation partners. Namely, HP supplies computer equipment to many companies across the world. To establish long-term-relations with them, HP should be able to adjust to the specific needs of each customer regardless of the region they are operating in. The Board of HP believes that diversity management fosters innovation and the creation of new products. The company uses talents, skills and partner relations of its employees to improve the company’s internal environment and to create positive social changes all over the world. Moreover, the company emphasises on its website that companies which implement diversity management have a higher turnover than the companies which do not implement it.65 When the company implements its diversity management policy, it carries out measures which include recruitment of diverse workforce and development of their talent in leadership, the creation of an inclusive work environment, the promotion of positive attitude to diversity fostering the involvement of employees into company’s activities. The company implements “advantage programmes” adapted to the needs of each employee. Advantages include care for health and well-being, insurance of the risk of trauma and disease, pension and savings plans, free time programmes. Any employee is able to choose the most appropriate, for example, a health insurance, a pension savings plan or a free time programme. To evaluate the efficiency of diversity management, once a quarter the company analyses main diversityrelated data, such as the proportion of employees taking into account gender, nationality, sexual orientation, disability, employee satisfaction with the work environment, work results by regions, subregions and representations. It is believed that such an analysis is essential in supervision of the development of the diversity management concept.66

//Benefits for business The company’s representative explains that it is hard to measure benefits of diversity management accurately and quantitatively, yet diversity management has positively influenced business performance, for example, in areas like distribution of products across the world. Today the company is operating almost all over the world. The implementation of the diversity management approach attracts and helps to retain the most talented employees who are able to better understand and satisfy needs of customers.67 HP is renowned as one of the leaders in the diversity management area, and has received many awards. For example, in 2014 a company from the HP Group received several diversity management-related awards:

•• HP received 100% on the Corporate Equality Index rating American workplaces on LGBT equality. This ranking is given by the Human Rights Campaign working to achieve LGBT equality in America. Corporate Equality Index companies are rated according to four criteria – prevention of discrimination based on sexual orientation, proposition of health insurance 64 Person interviewed: Birgit Aichholzer, Head of Human Resources in HP Austria. 65 HP, “Global Diversity & Inclusion”, [online]. [viewed 2 July 2015]. Available from: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-information/about-hp/diversity/index.html 66 European Union Platform of Diversity Charters “Assessing Diversity Impact in Business”, [online]. European Union, 2014 [viewed 6 May 2015]. Available from: http:// ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/files/assessing_diversity2014_en.pdf 67 Person interviewed: Birgit Aichholzer, Head of Human Resources in HP Austria.

to different employees, including transsexuals, organisation of trainings for employees of all levels and cooperation with LGBT organisations. Each criterion is assessed by awarding a certain score. In 2014, HP US received the highest score.

•• HP was named one of Working Mother’s 100 Best Companies in the United States. The company offers financial support of up to 5000 US dollars per year to every working mother who needs it, as well as helps to find child care specialists. Apart from the leave according to the law young mothers receive an additional leave from 15 to 25 days per year. The company offers its employees a flexible work schedule, for example, employees can choose a starting time for their eight hour working day. The company offers part-time work schedule in the long-term (as a constant work model) and in the short-term. Targeted recruitment measures are implemented with regard to women and there are special rules for pregnancy and childbearing leaves.

•• “Best of the Best” Top Veteran Friendly Company in the United States. The company offers veterans discounts on their products, as well as employs veterans developing their management abilities and technological skills. It is important for the company to employ people from different social groups, because they can attract different customers.

•• One of the best companies ensuring equal opportunities, awarded by Careers & the DisABLED Magazine. The magazine prepares publications about companies creating friendly work environment conditions for women, representatives of minorities and disabled persons. This publication mentions HP US as one of the best employers according to readers, which ensures progressive work environment for disabled persons.

•• One of the best top 50 companies for executive women. This award was presented to an HP Group company by the National Association for Female Executives. For the purposes of evaluation of companies, the award application includes more than 200 questions about women at all levels, but special attention is devoted to executive levels. The application analyses how companies promote women in executive positions by evaluating the measures and initiatives implemented by the company.68

The fact that the company has received this award proves that it has achieved its vision of the environment facilitating employee and customer diversity. These awards inspire the company to continue and develop the started diversity management strategy. Moreover, the company’s representative points out that the reception of such awards improves the awareness and goodwill of the company across the world. Achievements in this area are used to address potential employees. Although these awards were not given to HP Austria, they improve the reputation and goodwill of each HP representation, as well as improve satisfaction of employees with HP. The company’s representative believes that diverse workforce helps to better implement the company’s potential. Diverse workforce ensures sustainable competitive advantages. Diversity management in the company also promotes creative work, which, in turn, promotes innovation. The innovation created by the company promotes its economic performance and business achievements, as well as extends the range of its customers, because new products are created for new groups of customers.

//Result for target groups Within the framework of the diversity management strategy, the company is implementing inclusive measures for groups of employees as Afro-Americans, disabled persons, employees of different generations, Latin 68 HP, “Global Diversity & Inclusion”, [online]. [viewed 2 July 2015]. Available from: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-information/about-hp/diversity/index.html

Americans, employees with different sexual orientation, employees of different cultures, Asians, veterans and women.69 It would be important to mention that the company has three time higher proportion of females than other IT companies in Austria. HP Austria employs about 30% of women, and there are 18% of women are in the Board of the company. It is essential that the company purposefully recruits women not only as employees, but also as officials in the Board of the company.70 To promote the well-being of discriminated groups in the company, different measures are implemented, for example, the company has set the goal to increase the rate of women in its diversity management documents. In 2009, the rate of women was 30%, which continued to increase year after year. Today, the goal is to increase the proportion of women to 50%. HP also practices a flexible working hours model. It would be important that HP was the first IT company to introduce shift work based on mutual trust between employees and HP management, namely, the company does not control whether employees are on their workplaces, but rather assesses the results that they achieve. HP offers its employees 46 different part-time work models, within which they should work at least 7 hours per week. The company also offers the possibility of telework. The statistics shows that about 28% of employees in the HP Group company do telework. Such a work is paid in the same amount as full-time work in the company. Employees of the company are informed that the company organises meetings for women employees regarding matters related to pregnancy and childbearing leaves, where they are explained how employees can keep in touch with the company, while they are absent. It is important that any HP Group company has a monitoring programme (most often in the form of trainings) to support women executives.71

//Conclusions and recommendations HP believes that the creation of a diverse and inclusive environment is uninterrupted work for many years. To ensure advantages of sustainable competition when implementing the diversity management policy, it should be constantly revised. The diversity management strategy should be adjusted to the situation in each country, where the company is operating. The company must be aware of the composition of the population in each country, the composition of company’s customers, because characteristics of these groups, for example, age, gender, national origin, can be variable, therefore the existing diversity management strategy needs revision and amendment from time to time. The company did not believe that employees would be so responsive to the diversity management strategy. HP’s employees believe that diversity and integration are the main drivers of creativity, innovation and inventions. The diversity management policy must be based on the system of equal wages, which envisages equal wages for the same kind of work for both genders. To ensure efficient implementation of the policy and its sustainability, it is important for the company to ensure uninterrupted nature of its diversity management policy. For any diversity management policy to be successful, it should be emphasised that diversity management initiatives must come from the company’s management closely cooperating with the Head of Human Resources.72

69 HP, “Global Diversity & Inclusion”, [online]. [viewed 2 July 2015]. Available from: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-information/about-hp/diversity/index.html 70 European Union Platform of Diversity Charters “Assessing Diversity Impact in Business”, [online]. European Union, 2014 [viewed 2 July 2015]. Available from: http:// ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/files/assessing_diversity2014_en.pdf 71 HP, “HP 2014 Living Progress Report”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 2 July 2015]. Available from: http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/c04152740.pdf 72 GenCo Partnership, “AT-15 Gender (-Diversity) sensitive business culture @ Hewlett Packard Austria” [online]. [viewed 5 July 2015]. Available from: http://gendercompetence.eu/en/toolkit3/AT-15

3.3. INFINEON (Germany) Information about the company:

Business model: Place of business: Staff headcount in Europe: Website: Sector: Headquarters: Year of registration:

Infineon is a manufacturing company developing semiconductors and system solutions. The company develops technologies that consume less energy and can be used conveniently by any person. The goal of the company is to make life easier, safer and greener for all the people with the devices it develops. The company specialises in the development of semiconductors and system solutions for electronic devices. The company is operating in several European countries – Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania and others. 13179 www.infineon.com Manufacturing Munich (Germany), California (United States), Reigate (United Kingdom) 1999

//Diversity management approach initiative Infineon has a diversity management strategy approved in writing. The source of this diversity management initiative is company’s management, which includes a human resources department, a public relations department, business entities of this company are responsible for measures to promote diversity management. Companies of every country have a delegated person, who is responsible for the implementation of the diversity management approach in its representation of the company.73 In Infineon’s Human Resources Report 2014, Arunjai Mittal, a Member of Management Board, notes that diversity management is being implemented in the company for several reasons. The company’s management is convinced that diversity is a fundamental building block for company’s success. In order to be successful the company needs to think about its diversity management strategy and diversity of its workforce. Such an approach helps to be competitive in markets of different continents. It should be emphasised that diversity helps to understand customer needs and to respond to them in a flexible way. Employees from different groups have different, unique abilities helping them to understand customer wishes, as well as helping the company to create innovations. Infineon is operating based on a wide range of social values, because it believes that “these are people who make Infineon a first-class company.”74 The purpose of the company is to become one of TOP5 largest companies in the sector globally over the next five years, therefore today it is very important to attract a diverse workforce, which can respond to changeable needs of customers. 73 Person interviewed: Bernadette Seitz, diversity management representative, Germany 74 Infineon, “Human Resources Report 2014”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 20 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.infineon.com/human-resources-report-2014/files/ Human-Resources-Report_2014.pdf

It should be noted that the state also plays a big role in the implementation of the diversity management approach. The German government has not defined precise quotas yet, which would define, for example, a certain proportion of women in executive positions in companies. However, the country has the German Corporate Governance Code, which defines that diversity should be kept in mind, when appointing a board of any company specifically focusing on appointment of women as managers. The country also has Book 9 of the Social Code (Neuntes Buch des Sozialgesetzbuches) and the Law of Equal Rights for the Disabled (Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz): these laws define the principles which do not allow to discriminate people because of their disability. The laws have been created with the aim to promote the quality of life, equal opportunities of the disabled and their families in any situations in life. The law says that the companies with a workforce of 20 or more are required to fill 5 % of their jobs with disabled employees. If a company does not comply with the quota, it has to pay a monthly compensation penalty for each unfilled place of a disabled person.75 76

//Description of company’s diversity management policy measures Diversity management is implemented in the company using different measures. The company’s diversity management policy ensures equal opportunities to everybody regardless of their age, gender, disability, sexual orientation or any other aspect. As a result of this policy such a work environment is provided, where relationships between employees are full of respect. In its actions, the company is guided by its Business Conduct Guidelines prohibiting any type of discrimination in the company. Any employee, customer, business partner or other interested person has the possibility to report violations, which do not meet company’s guidelines and the diversity management strategy.77 Since the company concluded that the proportion of women in the Board is too small (12.5% in 2014), the company has developed a strategy envisaging the increase of the proportion of women in executive positions. The strategy envisages to increase the proportion of women in executive positions at Infineon to 15% by 2015, and to 20% by 2020. The current proportion of women in executive positions is 12.5%. To increase the proportion of women in executive positions, the company participates in the programme Changing Company Cultures - Avoiding Career Breaks, which aims at developing a new approach to avoid career breaks in women in executive positions. The culture of Infineon is characterised as open, while participation in this programme promotes the engagement of women into executive positions. The diversity management policy implemented by the company defines that it has a remuneration system envisaging equal remuneration for the same work regardless of the employee’s gender. The company’s management perceives the lack of women as the loss of ideas and innovations. An inclusive work environment is created within the company which respects needs of every employee. To help employees to balance family and job relations, employees of the company are encouraged to visit the company and meet their colleagues, while they are in a parental leave, or in other cases, when any employee is absent for a long time. Employees always have the possibility to come to the company to have a breakfast to continue their communication with the company, even if they do not work at the moment.78 The company proposes flexible time schedules helping every employee to balance work with their individual needs. The company employs people of different nationalities to foster diversity management. People of 81 nationality are working at the Infineon Group, and the company is operating in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. To ensure gender equality, the company organises events intended not only for employees of the company. For example, Infineon Germany, in cooperation with Infineon Austria, have introduced a Gender diversity network, the purpose of which is to create equal work conditions for women and men. In this way the company is attempting to increase the proportion of women in executive positions and in positions requiring 75 Ipreo, “Proxy season review: Germany”, [online]. Germany, 2011 [viewed 20 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.ipreo.com/deutsch/pdf/German_Proxy_Season_ Review_-_2011.pdf 76 M., Kock, “Disability Law in Germany: An Overview of Employment, Education and Access Rights” , [online]. Germany, 2011 [viewed 20 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/43601396_Disability_Law_in_Germany_An_Overview_of_Employment_Education_and_Access_Rights 77 Person interviewed: Bernadette Seitz, diversity management representative, Germany 78 Infineon, “Human Resources Report 2014”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 20 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.infineon.com/human-resources-report-2014/files/ Human-Resources-Report_2014.pdf

technological knowledge, ensuring equal opportunities to representatives of both genders. The Girls’ Day is one of such events, where girls from secondary schools are informed about IT studies and job opportunities at Infineon.79 During this event girls get an insight into the specifics of the IT area and the opportunities it can provide to young women. Results of the programme approve the goal of the programme, because 40% of placement students are women. Once a year, the company celebrates the Diversity Day, when employees have the possibility to learn more about diversity using informative materials, social campaigns and trainings. Thus, for example, as a part of the Diversity Day the company has created an application on Facebook, when any Infineon’s employee or any customer can complete a test and supplement their knowledge about different countries and cultures. Under the diversity management policy, the company organises a Team Diversity event, the purpose of which is to create understanding of managers of different levels about diversity management by informing them about the company’s diversity management policy and improving their leadership skills.80

//Benefits for business When implementing diversity management, the company has observed benefits which can be measured quantitatively as well. The company believes that a flexible time schedule helps to balance work time and private life of employees, improves motivation and job results of employees, as well as attracts and retains the best employees. Moreover, by implementing the diversity management approach, the company has gained good reputation, which attracts young employees even more. Worker turnover is shown by the worker turnover rate – it was 2.1% in 2013, and increased to 3.4% in 2014. Statistical data about German companies evidence that the average worker turnover there is 32%.81 Although in 2014 the worker turnover at Infineon increased by 1.3%, the low worker turnover rate evidences that employees are very satisfied with their jobs and rarely want to change it. Reinhard Ploss, a Chairman of the Board of the company, admits that companies implementing diversity management gain benefits from different skills, work methods and thinking style of their employees, because these different skills, work methods and the diversity of employees is used to create new products and to understand customer needs. The benefit of diversity management is also the fact that needs of different customers are satisfied by implementing the diversity management approach in the company, which, in its turn, attracts a wider range of customers.82

//Result for target groups The diversity management implemented in the company has a favourable effect on circumstances and welfare of discriminated groups. Since the main business line of the company is related to the IT sector, women are one of those discriminated groups, because men workforce prevails in this sector. To prevent this, the company developed a women rate increase programme, which by now has ensured the increase in the proportion of women from 9% in 2006 to 12.5% in 2014. Employees of the company are provided equal remuneration, because the scope of job remuneration is defined based on job results and experience of the employee rather than criteria like gender.83 In 2009, Infineon carried out a research, the data of which have proved that both genders are provided the equal remuneration policy for the job of equal importance. 79 Infineon, “Human Resources Report 2014”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 22 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.infineon.com/human-resources-report-2014/files/ Human-Resources-Report_2014.pdf 80 Infineon, “Human Resources Report 2014”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 20 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.infineon.com/human-resources-report-2014/files/ Human-Resources-Report_2014.pdf 81 Bellmann, L., Gerner, H.D., “Job and worker turnover in german establishments”, [online]. Germany, 2011 [viewed 24 June 2015]. Available from: http://ftp.iza.org/ dp6081.pdf 82 Infineon, “Diversity”, [online]. 2015 [viewed 20 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.infineon.com/cms/en/careers/why-us/diversity/ 83 Infineon, “Human Resources Report 2014”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 20 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.infineon.com/human-resources-report-2014/files/ Human-Resources-Report_2014.pdf

The company is developing a working time system which respects needs of different community groups, for example, working time which can be adjusted to individual needs of anyone, part-time work or work from home for representatives of both genders. Such a system improves the motivation of employees to work, because they feel that they are understood and respected. The company willingly continues to employ employees also after they achieve the retirement age to keep the technical knowledge base and to promote the transfer of this knowledge to next generations. Infineon supports and attracts young people offering them places for practice or the possibility to work during studies. Different trainings about company’s operations and the performance of work are organised to support working students. Since the company provides the possibility to adjust work time to individual needs, students can also combine their work with studies.84 85 The company also supports employees having children providing them the possibility to choose an appropriate time schedule for their work. For the attempts and the work contributed to the creation of a family-friendly company, the German Federal Ministry, which is responsible for the development of policies ensuring needs of different social groups (family, elderly people, women and youths), granted Infineon the Audit career and family certificate in 2010.86

//Conclusions and recommendations One of the main challenges faced by Infineon when implementing the diversity management approach, was combination of different cultures to create a uniform workforce, because every employee has different views and values. The company faced different personal attitudes of employees to their work, which was related to their cultural peculiarities. The company’s experience evidences that the attitude of different social groups tends to differ, for example, some employees lack motivation, therefore the company should develop a plan to improve motivation of these employees. The lack of knowledge about ethnic values was a challenge for the company and its employees, because employees react differently to ethnic values of different ethnic groups, and therefore conflict situations can happen. For diversity management to be successfully introduced and implemented in the company, decisions regarding its implementation should be taken by the management of the company. The company believes that informing of employees about proposed changes and initiatives is one of the main success factors in the implementation of diversity management. It is a challenge in a big company, but the company will create solutions. For example, the company holds annual general meetings for all employees, department meetings, at which the company’s management informs employees about latest news. Moreover, to promote the implementation of diversity management, as many employees as possible should be tied into it – both men and women.87 Targeted and systematic work should be performed to ensure cohesion of diverse workforce. Time is required until colleagues from different groups learn to work together and to accept each other’s differences. Infineon recommends to organise events for employees – excursions, joint meals or other events to promote cohesion of the team. Spending time together gives employees the opportunity to get to know each other better, to learn about differences between people and to create tolerance to each other. To promote understanding of employees of different cultures, it would be valuable for employees to participate in different experience exchange trips to company’s branches in different countries or to use the possibility to work in a company’s branch in other country. Experience exchange trips foster tolerance of employees and their awareness of different cultures. The company invites to evaluate the opportunity to increase participation of employees of both genders in decision-making, because women and men have an equal acquired knowledge base today. 84 Infineon, “Human Resources Report 2014”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 20 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.infineon.com/human-resources-report-2014/files/ Human-Resources-Report_2014.pdf 85 Interviewed person: Bernadette Seitz, diversity management representative , Germany 86 Infineon, “Diversity”, [online]. 2015 [viewed 20 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.infineon.com/cms/en/careers/why-us/diversity/ 87 GenCo Partnership, “Gender and Diversity Management. Diversity through women in technology”, [online]. [viewed 23 June 2015]. Available from: http://gendercompetence.eu/en/toolkit3/AT-03

Moreover, the involvement of women into decision-making can provide additional opinions and viewpoints, which decision-makers did not take into account before. For a diversity management policy and company’s operations to be successful, the company needs to organise trainings for employees to inform them about the diversity management policy, values and vision of the company. It is also necessary to exercise equal and fair attitude to all the employees to eliminate disputes and discrimination. It is recommended to organise open house days to attract more diverse employees, especially women. The organisation of these events ensures higher interest of potential employees to apply for a job in the company, because they are provided the possibility to know the company better.88

3.4. ISS EESTI (Estonia) Information about the company: Business model: Place of business: Staff headcount: Website: Sector: Headquarters: Year of registration:

ISS Eesti is one of the leading companies in the area of servicing of real estates, it offers room cleaning, property management, guarding and other services. The company has been operating in Estonia since 2005. The company specialises in the sector of servicing of real estates providing cleaning services, property management, guarding services, and catering services. The company is operating in more than 50 countries in Europe, Asia, North America and Latin America. 1700 (Estonia) www.ee.issworld.com Servicing of real estate Copenhagen (Denmark) 1901

//Diversity management approach initiative ISS Eesti has no special diversity management strategy or policy, however, it is implemented in the form of individual events aiming at the attraction of employees from different vulnerable groups into the company. These measures are implemented within the framework of the Personnel Attraction and Selection Strategy, which is a part of the personnel policy, which is based on three main questions: Whom do we employ? How do we employ? and What do we offer to our employees? This is a targeted company policy. Its purpose is to provide job opportunities to people, whose access to the labour market was restricted before. This initiative was developed and promoted by Helo Tamme, the Head of Human Resources, who indicates: “I believe that in this way I will be able to make something important and to affect positively the life of many people and their families.”89 Support from executives of the company was also very important, because without it no initiative could be implemented.

//Description of company’s diversity management policy measures At the beginning of 2013, the management of ISS Eesti made the decision to initiate strategic employment of persons belonging to different risk groups. Since 2014, ISS Eesti has been implementing the Personnel 88 UK Essays, “Dificulty in handling diversity workforce. Management esssay”, [online]. [viewed 27 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/ management/difficulty-in-handling-diversity-workforce-management-essay.php 89 Person interviewed: Helo Tamme, Head of Human Resources in ISS Eesti

Attraction and Selection Strategy, which focuses on five main target groups. One of the strategic target groups are people with various disabilities, including physical and mental development disorders. According to the strategy, most of attention is focused on this particular target group. The strategy also offers young people to combine their work with studies or part-time work. The company also employs people, who do not speak Estonian, including Estonian and foreign residents speaking Russian and English. The strategy also focuses on the attraction and employment of elderly people. As evidenced by the data collected by the company, the oldest worker in the company is aged 85, while the average age of workers is 49-50 years. The Personnel Attraction and Selection Strategy also focuses on people searching for extra job, for example, young mothers and workers of other companies.90 To attract and inform potential employees about job opportunities in the company, the company is implementing a targeted personnel attraction policy, developing special advertising materials (posters and videos) intended for each group about job opportunities in the company in Estonian, Russian and English.91 Advertising materials have a special approach: potential workers are addressed by a representative from each target group.92 Created videos are distributed not only on the company’s website, in social media (Youtube and Facebook), but are also used in job interviews to give an insight into the company and the specifics of the work. The company recruits disabled people (especially people with mental and movement disorders) through mediation of non-governmental organisations. The company cooperates with education institutions to recruit young people, and the National Employment Fund of Estonia. Beside that, the company cooperates with the non-governmental sector to prepare employees dealing with human resources of the company for work and communication with people with disability. To promote the inclusion of those workers into the company, who speak English only, the most important documents related to the legal employment relationship – employment contracts, internal rules, procedures and other – are translated into English. The Head of Human Resources of the company notes: “All workers must understand their job duties and rights, so all the important information must be available in the language they understand regardless of whether this takes us much work and time.”93 A one-day introductory programme is organised for new workers in Estonian and in Russian (and, when necessary, also in English) about the company and job duties, incl. communication with customers. The duration of the introductory programme is adjusted to the needs of each target group in terms of language and duration. Special adjustments for each target group are necessary, because needs of each target group differ significantly, namely, communication with workers with mental disorders need simple language, because they usually perceive information slower than, for example, young people. The company provides a special trained person to disabled people, who can provide support to such workers. The company implements different initiatives to create a more pleasant and inclusive work environment for workers. For example, an internal newspaper of the company is issued to all workers of the company in Estonian and Russian twice a year to inform workers about latest news in the company. Workers of the company also receive congratulations on important events in their life, for example, the company sends a greeting card to employees on their birthdays. The company takes care of welfare and health of its workers, for example, paid sport classes are provided to all the workers, who work full time and to all disabled workers. Worker satisfaction surveys are organised regularly and all workers of the company participate in them. The purpose of these surveys is to learn the opinion of workers about the work in the company and necessary improvements. The work environment is improved based on the results of worker satisfaction surveys and propositions made there. When workers have worked for one year in the company, they are invited to individual interviews about further growth opportunities.94 90 ISS, “ISS World”, [online]. [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.issworld.com/about-iss/strategy 91 Person interviewed: Helo Tamme, Head of Human Resources in ISS Eesti 92 ISS ,“ISS Eesti AS signed a diversity agreement”, [online]. Estonia, 2014 [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.ee.issworld.com/en/press/news/2014/12/11/ mitmekesisuse-kokkulepe 93 Person interviewed: Helo Tamme, Head of Human Resources in ISS Eesti 94 ISS ,“ISS Eesti AS signed a diversity agreement”, [online]. Estonia, 2014 [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.ee.issworld.com/en/press/news/2014/12/11/ mitmekesisuse-kokkulepe

Benefits for business The company has not comprehensively evaluated the impact of the diversity management initiative on company’s financial indicators yet. However, the Head of Human Resources states that the Personnel Attraction and Selection Strategy, that has been implemented up to now, has provided opportunities to people having comparatively limited or no opportunities (especially with regard to disabled and people not speaking Estonian). Company data evidence that the number of the disabled is growing year after year. The company employed 130 disabled (~ 8% from the total number of workers) in 2011, 150 (~ 9%) in 2012, however, after a targeted policy was developed and introduced, the number of disabled workers in 2014 exceeded 200 (~13% from the total number of workers), and this is the highest indicator in Estonia.95 The Head of Human Resources states: “Usually nobody wants to employ these people, because they are afraid of difficulties of working with such people. So we are offering jobs to those people, whom other companies do not offer any job. Our experience tells that disabled people are more loyal and satisfied workers. The duration of their employment usually is about one year longer than that of other employees of the company”96 Although no accurate statistical data are available about different groups of workers in the company, its Head of Human Resources points out that in conditions, when the company has comparatively high worker turnover rates because of remuneration, and the work needs low qualification, the retention rates of the target groups mentioned in the Personnel Attraction and Selection Strategy are comparatively higher than in other groups of workers. Also, the number of workers speaking English only has grown considerably during the year: only one Indian national worked in the company in 2014, and 25 foreign nationals, who do not speak Estonian, work there in 2015. By implementing targeted activities to attract representatives from groups with low social protection and to train workers of the company, as well as by informing the community and participating in different public events, for example, the Diversity Day, the company has improved its awareness and acquired a reputation of a socially responsible company. Tolerance has also grown, and not only among executives and workers, but also among customers and in the society. The Head of Human Resources of the company pointed out that they face only some individual cases, when customers asked not to send them a person with dark skin colour (1 case) or with disability (some cases). In all these cases, job at some other customer was found for all these workers.

//Result for target groups The Head of Human Resources of the company confirms that ageing of workforce, low birth rate and migration of the population in Estonia97 encourage to attract workers from community groups that were not represented or were weakly represented before. Although the community and customers do not always appreciate this, the experience of the company evidences that targeted programmes and information of the community/ customers can change the attitude of the society to people from different vulnerable groups, especially people with mental disorders, representatives of different races and cultures. The Head of Human Resources of ISS Eesti admitted that in conditions of increasing mobility of the population, the company should continue to strategically plan the attraction of diverse workforce in terms of culture, thinking that: “to encourage people to think that these people are like us and they can work and live here like any of us.”98 When the company started to purposefully attract and employ disabled people, workers of the company discussed whether customers should know that their offices are cleaned by a disabled person, incl. a person with mental disorders. As a result of these discussions the decision was taken that customers would not 95 EFQM Good Practise Competition, “Achieving Sustainable Excellence”, [online]. 2015 [viewed 29 May 2015]. Available from: http://www.efqm.org/sites/default/files/ gpc2015_promo_v0.2.pdf 96 Person interviewed: Helo Tamme, Head of Human Resources in ISS Eesti 97 Estonian Demographic Association, “Estonian population development in European and Baltoscandian context”, [online]. Estonia, 2012 [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.popest.ee/node/28 98 Person interviewed: Helo Tamme, Head of Human Resources in ISS Eesti

be specifically informed about this, not to attract increased attention to these workers and not to create unnecessary, stereotype-based fears. Practices of the company evidence that support of top executives plays a significant role, when starting new initiatives. Special attention should be devoted to the preparation of managers of the lowest level to ensure a constructive dialogue between managers and their teams, as well as to prevent potential conflicts and violations of the prohibition of unequal attitude.

3.5. PREZI99(HUNGARY) Information about the company:

Business model: Place of business: Staff headcount: Website: Sector: Headquarters: Year of registration:

The idea of founders of Prezi was to replace the usual presentation technology with a new free application and a story building tool. Its main product (Prezi) is a web-based cloud application providing users the possibility to present their ideas in a non-linear form, allowing them to freely use text and audiovisual content. Founders of Prezi received a European award as the best ‘startup’ web entrepreneurs in 2014.99 The word ‘prezi’ is short for the Hungarian word ‘presentation’ Freemium is offered free of charge, however additional tools can be purchased for a fee. Budapest (Hungary), San Francisco (United States) 290 www.prezi.com IT Budapest (Hungary) 2009

//Diversity management approach initiative Prezi positions itself as social values based and community values motivated company, which is actively cooperating with the social environment. Values of the company prove this approach by emphasising the need:

•• “to improve ourselves, our company, our community, and the world with better communication”;

•• “to eliminate those moments when we look back and think, “I shouldn’t have let that go””; •• “we do everything necessary to deliver on our promises”; •• “acquire new knowledge and skills”; •• “use empathy as our guide to producing quality work and create a more beautiful future by building products with elegance and style.100” 99 European Commission, “Startup Europe: founders of Prezi, Alumn-e, paij and CartoDB declared Europe’s top web entrepreneurs of 2014”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 29 May 2015]. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/startup-europe-founders-prezi-alumn-e-paij-and-cartodb-declared-europes-top-webentrepreneurs 100 Prezi, “Our values at work”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 29 May 2015]. Available from: https://prezi.com/vkwg8grvkfc3/prezi-our-values/

These values are based on social liabilities of founders, and these are also values of Peters Arvai, the CEO of the company, who has grown up in Sweden, where openness, equality and acceptance of diversity are generally accepted values.101 The diversity management initiative and related activities of the company have deeply rooted into the company’s organisational culture, which is also based on the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, resolution of social problems and the belief that they can make the world better. One of interviewed employees emphasised: “we wish to create the culture of our people, the culture of our company and our community rather than just respond to their needs. The creation of culture is not a matter short-term solutions.”102 For this reason, the company’s management has been trying to support joint outside-work activities since the establishment of the company. Such initiatives unite team-building elements and charity work, and they are guided by Prezi’s deeply rooted vision of social responsibility. The company sells its products only online, using the Freemium model: it is the company’s main product and is available to everybody free of charge, additional functions can be purchased for a fee. The product is distributed using the company’s website, which is available in several languages – thus the diversity of customers is taken into account.

//Description of company’s diversity management policy measures Prezi devotes considerable attention to the diversity of its employees in its personnel policy and to the creation of an environment appropriate for different individual needs at work. Diversity matters are included into company’s public relations and corporate social responsibility activities, they meet the goal of its founders – to manage a socially responsible company. Prezi is cooperating in the We Are Open Manifesto. This initiative was created in 2012 for the companies, organisations and communities wishing to support openness and inspire others to act in the same way. Prezi and two other partner companies (Google and Epspell) believe that openness can be the main corporate value meaning by this that “employees are evaluated taking into account only their professional performance, rather than gender, age, national or ethnic origin, political views, physical abilities, sexual orientation and other properties.” Prezi also supports human rights of different community groups, and it is an important message for Prezi’s employees. Prezi was the first Hungarian company, which officially joined the Budapest Pride Festival in June 2010. In 2014, Prezi undertook to implement gender equality promotion measures in its company. This decision was taken, because in Hungary young mothers having small children return comparatively late to the labour market, because only 16% of children under 3 have access to places in kindergartens.103 By the end of 2015, the company has undertaken to publish on its website diversity indicators: data about women and men employees and executives, the percentage of ethnic minorities among employees, and so on. The company has also undertaken to increase the number of part-time jobs, especially for women, who are “partially” in a parental leave as permitted by Hungarian laws, and to create its own kindergarten in its Budapest office with two professional teachers, thus providing the possibility to educate and look after children at work. Hungarian laws define that since 2014 parents can continue to receive their childcare allowance after the child reached the age of one year also in the cases, when they return to work. Additionally, the company has undertaken to continue its attempts to demonstrate to its potential employees available career opportunities in the computer engineering sector, and to inspire pupils to essay their powers in programming. Until the end of 2015, the company will continue training programmes for its employees and will organise lectures about 101 Persons interviewed: Julianna Pécsi, Manager of the Idea House, Gábor Váry, Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility Manager 102 Persons interviewed: Julianna Pécsi, Manager of the Idea House, Gábor Váry, Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility Manager. 103 European Union, „Hungary: Developing childcare services to help parents back to work”, [online]. [viewed 29 May 2015]. Available from: http://europa.eu/epic/ countries/hungary/index_en.htm

gender equality for the purposes of discovering discriminating cases in the company and to teach to avoid unconscious discriminating or harassing behaviour towards colleagues. One of the goals of the company is also to continue to revise advertising and marketing materials, job announcements to avoid any messages evidencing of stereotypes related to gender roles (sexism). The company also organises trainings about non-harassing behaviour to educate employees about stereotypes in communication and their influence on mutual relations. Prezi has an open remuneration payment procedure, which defines wages based on the equality principle and performance of each employee. The evaluation of results of the diversity policy within the company takes place within the framework of project evaluation: the company organises evaluation meetings at the end of each project, where they evaluate results of each project and discuss diversity management-related matters. Diversity of employees. Prezi selects employees in two rounds. Diversity is one of the criteria set at the first stage of selection of employees, which provides the possibility to apply for a job to candidates with various skills, level of preparation and motivation. At the second stage of the selection the main selection criteria are merits and achievements of the candidate in the professional area, where skills and knowledge of each candidate are evaluated using such evaluation methods as tests and interviews. The candidates, who have passed both selection stages, are invited to work for a week on probation in a Prezi office. Work environment. Prezi is open to ‘heteronormative solutions’ in the creation of the work environment. For example, the Budapest office is a good example of how to create colourful and inspiring work premises. Amenities for men and women are coloured in orange, which is considered to be a gender-neutral colour, and the main hall of the office looks like a public room. Since 2012, Prezi has been participating in the Romaster programme, which offers support to Roma youths wishing to study at a university. Within this programme, the company provides financial support to Roma members (about EUR 400 to every student in addition to the tuition fee, for example, for language classes, purchasing of books and transportation costs); support through personal mentors (company employees, who have applied voluntarily); possibility of job placement in the company. These intensive professional relations between employees and young Roma students continue during studies and may continue also after them, then this programme is over.104 In 2014, 4 Roma students were supported, and were coordinated by a Roma project manager, who participated in the programme herself in 2012 and later started to permanently work in Prezi.105 he programme was created in 2007, and is guided by HBLF”106 and IBM Hungary. The Prezi’s management emphasises that support for this programme is related not only to the wish to attract young, talented employees, but also the wish to make a contribution to youth development: “We frequently get back more than we have given. It is hard to name something more inspiring than seeing people stretch their wings and start to fly on their own.107” In 2014, Prezi announced a new initiative in Hungary – Coding Girls”108 with a slogan “There are things for boys and things for girls, but coding is not among them!”. This initiative was created to show that information science can be interesting and it can fascinate girls as well. The company offers free classes for girl pupils in coding and program building. Trainers are Prezi’s employees and classes take place in the Prezi’s office in Budapest. In 2014, a group of 17-18 years old girls, who live in Budapest, was formed. These girls are motivated and want to study information science in a university in the next year. Thirty girls were provided an opportunity to participate in the trainings, which lasted ten weeks. To apply for these trainings, participants had to send their curriculum vitae (CV) and a presentation created on the Prezi website. When selecting participants for the 104 Romaster, “Ismét lehet pályázni a HBLF-ROMASTER Alapítvány pályázatára”, [online]. Hungary, 2015 [viewed 30 May 2015]. Available from: http://www.romaster. hu/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=193:ismet-lehet-palyazni-a-hblf-romaster105 Prezi, “#mynerdstory—Vera Gergely, Project Manager”, [online]. Hungary, 2014 [viewed 30 May 2015]. Available from: http://blog.prezi.com/latest/2014/1/30/ mynerdstoryvera-gergely-project-manager.html 106 HBLF is short for the Hungarian Business Leader Forum, a non-profit business association, which represents initiatives of local companies, local companies in international transactions, and the most influential businessmen in the country. It supports and promoted practices of responsible businessmen in Hungary, www.hblf.org 107 Árvai, P, “Change Making. presentation dowloaded from”, [online]. Hungary, 2014. [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: https://prezi.com/unzdqwcmww3e/changemaking/ 108 Coding girls, “About”, [online]. [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://girlswhocode.com/

trainings, it was important that applicants have no previous experience in coding. Feedback from participants confirmed that the biggest challenge for them was to overcome the negative stereotype about abilities of girls rather than to master the coding logics.109 In 2014, Prezi created the Jump programme110. TIt is a junior mentoring programme, which focuses on secondary school graduates, as well as students, who would like to get into the sector by learning computer engineering in the right company”.111 These programmes are not the company’s only way to support young people. Prezi offers a five-months paid placement programme in development companies for young engineers. Apprentices work in company’s development projects, receive support from 8 full-time mentors, and can use all the tools and internal resources of the company. Advertising is also used to attract young people to the company. Advertising materials say: “We love diverse teams made up of diverse personalities having different origins and education level. We need your positive attitude to work, no university diploma is demanded.” The purpose of this advertising is to demonstrate that Prezi has a flexible attitude to recruitment, so talented young persons wishing to link their life to the IT sector can do that, even if they have no academic qualification yet.

//Benefits for business Prezi has seen a fast a constant growth over the last five years. Today, the number of Prezi’s users has reached 50 millions, and the internal turnover of the company has grown from EUR 600,000 in 2009 to EUR 11 million in 2014.112 Prezi started its operations in a small apartment in the centre of Budapest as a small company made up of eight employees, three of whom were founders of the company. In 2014, the number of employees of the company in two offices on two continents was 280. The company’s management thinks that the company is successful because of its diversity management policy. Prezi’s representatives believe that it is possible that one of causes of their achievements is that this company is a very attractive place for work for young professionals in Budapest and in the United States. It is confirmed by high inflow rates of employees and the reputation of the company, which is based on the belief that openness is closely linked to creativity. Business growth results were also affected by the demand for company’s products and related marketing activities.

//Result for target groups The Hungarian society is still full of stereotypes about women, Roma and sexual minorities. The company is implementing different initiatives and programmes to include such employees into the company. For example, We Are Open (Nyitottak vagyunk)113 initiative to support LGBT rights, Coding Girls to support women coders and Romaster to support Roma youths show representatives of these groups that the company is open to members of different community groups. When implementing these programmes, the company supports openness and equality-oriented culture in the community as a whole. Prezi is planning to continue and extend its activities in the implementation of diversity management initiatives by supporting and implementing the initiatives that have been started, as well as creating a storage of examples of good practices for member organisations online. For example, there are plans to offer the Coding Girls training programme in remote Hungarian regions, inviting to participate also coders from other companies, IT students of large universities and secondary school teachers. The company will also implement new initiatives proposed by its employees. Representatives of the company believe that personal engagement of founders and executives and support for diversity management initiatives is the main key to success of the company. 109 Prezi, “A progamozás az új szexi”, [online]. Hungary, 2014 [viewed 3 June 2015]. Available from: http://vs.hu/magazin/osszes/a-programozas-az-uj-szexi-0704 110 Prezi, “Junior mentoring program”, [online]. [viewed 3 June 2015]. Available from: https://prezi.com/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fsso.prezi. com%2Fauth%2F%3Fredirect_uri%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fjump.prezi.com%2F 111 Prezi, “Junior mentoring program”, [online]. [viewed 3 June 2015]. Available from: https://prezi.com/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fsso.prezi. com%2Fauth%2F%3Fredirect_uri%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fjump.prezi.com%2F 112 Persons interviewed: Julianna Pécsi, Manager of the Idea House, Gábor Váry, Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility Manager 113 Persons interviewed: Julianna Pécsi, Manager of the Idea House, Gábor Váry, Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility Manager

Prezi’s business strategy is based on the belief that it is possible to popularise alternative ideas that challenge stereotypes. The company’s business model also demonstrates its open and positive attitude towards representatives of different community groups, which is rooted deeply in common values of all the three founders and values of the entire company. The Prezi’s mission includes corporate values with practical meaning, and it defines goals of the company and forms its culture. Diversity management initiatives of the company are always evaluated taking into account common values of the company. Three founders of the company play an important role in this. They help to maintain these common values in company’s daily life. They provide opportunities to employees to come with their ideas and are ready to support them, if they are in line with the company’s mission. The image created by the company matches the way how it is perceived by its cooperation partners and customers. Prezi is a good example of how to create a successful company by attracting talented newcomers through openness and diversity.

3.6. TESCO (UNITED KINGDOM) Information about the company:

Business model: Place of business: Staff headcount: Website: Sector: Headquarters: Year of registration:

TESCO retail company is one of the leaders in its sector not only in the United Kingdom, but also across the world. It has a network of food stores in 12 countries. The total annual turnover of the company was 69.7 billion pounds sterling (95.3 billion euro), its total profits are 1.4 pounds sterling (1.9 billion euro). The company is one of the largest retailers in the United Kingdom.

TESCO is operating in many countries – United Kingdom, India, Malaysia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, China. 50 000 www.tescoplc.com Retail trade Hertfordshire (United Kingdom) 1919

//Diversity management approach initiative Two factors influenced the implementation of a diversity management policy in the company. Firstly, it was the wish of its management to ensure the development of the company taking into account changes in the community.114 TESCO draws attention to several factors, such as ethnic and cultural diversity in the society of the United Kingdom. Since 1990 the number of people of different nationalities coming to the United Kingdom increased from about 300,000 to 500,000.115 The company draws additional attention to the changes in numbers of employed women and men, because the employment of women has significantly grown since 1971 – from 53% to 67% in 2013, and it continues to grow.116 The company also takes into account that numbers 114 Person interviewed: Laurence Webb, Corporate Relations Manager. 115 Office for National Statistics, „Migration Statistics”, [online]. England, 2015 [viewed 28 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/migration1/ migration-statistics-quarterly-report/february-2015/index.html 116 Office for National Statistics, „Full report – Women in the labout market” , [online]. England, 2013 [viewed 30 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/ dcp171776_328352.pdf

of elderly people are growing in the community as a whole, so there is ‘workforce ageing’, which has also affected the average age indicator of the company’s employed. In the period of time from 1974 to 2014 the average age of employees has grown from 34 to 40 years.117 In view of these changes in the community, there was a need to include them into the company’s strategy. Secondly, regulatory enactments of the UK in the area of gender equality have fostered the need for a diversity management policy in the company. The United Kingdom adopted several acts protecting rights of women and minorities to equal opportunities in the labour market. The Equality Act 2010 is the most important of them. It provides for the protection of rights of vulnerable groups regardless of gender, age, ethnic origin, sexual orientation and religious beliefs. Since UK’s anti-discrimination acts are strict, and their application is effective, there are more benefits for employers to introduce diversity support policies rather than deal with claims in courts and fines.

//Description of company’s diversity management policy measures Unlike other companies in the United Kingdom, TESCO has defined its approach to diversity management in a very clear and accurate way. The diversity management policy is included into TESCO’s Code of Business Conduct, which is available to anyone – to employees and to customers. The company has a clearly defined vision, values, management principles and a Code of Business Conduct.118 The main motivation for the preparation of such documents is vision of the company’s management about the creation of a correct work environment and attitude towards company’s employees – all employees are treated equally in the company. The main rule of the company is: “People are on the first place in TESCO”, and people are both customers of the network of stores and its employees. In the area of diversity management, TESCO draws attention to several factors, for example, ethnic and cultural diversity, changes in proportions of women and men, as well as the increase in the number of elderly people in the community (ageing of workforce). The TESCO’s Code of Business Conduct also includes the goal of TESCO – employment of a diverse and balanced workforce, i.e. the workforce, which reflects the diversity of the community in terms of ethnic origin, gender and age, eradicating any discrimination. The TESCO’s diversity strategy is applied in all employee-related matters – recruitment, training of employees, as well as promotion of development of employees on a day-to-day basis. This is applied in practice through a “talent framework”, which is used to develop employees at 3 levels: business development planning, individual career planning and job growth planning (advices how to make career in the company). All TESCO’s employees are provided the possibility to create their individual development plans, which are reviewed during regular evaluations of employees, which the company does for each employee. The company’s representative does not state the time interval, with which these talks are organised. In these talks all employees are provided equal opportunities to discuss their performance and development possibilities in the future. In the same way, higher level employees, i.e. managers and personnel management employees, regularly meet to discuss, which employees are ready for the next career move to help them develop. Since these meetings take place at least once half a year, goals and development plans of employees are regularly reviewed and renewed. TESCO has created four different networks to provide support to some employees of the company. One of these networks is Out at TESCO group, which represents sexual minorities (LGBT) and defends their rights. 117 Office for National Statistics, „Population ageing in the United Kingdom its Constituent Countries and theEuropean Union”, [online]. England, 2012 [viewed 28 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_258607.pdf 118 Tesco, “Our code of business conduct”, [online]. [viewed 29 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.tescoplc.com/assets/files/cms/Code_of_business_conduct_2015. pdf

Within this support group employees can receive mentor support, as well as jointly participate in the London Pride with support of their employer. The company has also created the Women in Business network. It is the oldest network of TESCO’s employees, which supports women in their career development through trainings, mentoring and career sponsoring. It is important that women from any company’s management level can join the network. Another TESCO’s network is TESCO Asian Network, a support network, which focuses its attention on employees of Asian origin. The network organises two events per year, when employees of Asian origin are provided the possibility to make new contacts, share their experiences, as well as to study different career opportunities in the company. These meetings have also helped to create ‘parent evenings’, which are intended for parents of employees of Asian origin to show them job opportunities at TESCO, which are enjoyed by their children. The latest network of the company is ABC Network, the purpose of which is to popularise TESCO in the labour market for employees of African and Caribbean origin, as well as to provide trainings and development opportunities to help company’s employees of different races to occupy executive positions in the company.

//Diversity strategy TESCO has a Diversity Council, which develops company’s diversity strategy. Its purpose is to demonstrate that TESCO is a company that is open for all the people and occupies an important role in all the communities, in which it is working. Currently, the company is still deciding whether it needs a separate network to support disabled people. TESCO also cooperates with several other partners in the area of diversity, for example, the Employers Forum on Disability. The forum was created for the purposes of finding appropriate jobs for the disabled. It helped TESCO not only to find new employees, but also to create a friendly work environment for disabled people with advisory support. The company cooperates with Stonewall, a charity organisation working in the area of defence of rights of gays and lesbians. Stonewall helps TESCO to carry out the annual employee survey to evaluate company’s achievements in the implementation of the diversity management policy. The company also cooperates with Opportunity Now, which supports ensuring of equal opportunities to women and men. The provision of employment opportunities to people with disabilities and people from socially vulnerable groups is also a significant part of TESCO’s diversity strategy. In the area of provision of job opportunities TESCO also cooperates with organisations like Remploy, Shaw Trust and Whizz-Kidz, ensuring “guaranteed interviews”. This means that if TESCO has a free vacancy and any of the above mentioned cooperation organisations has an appropriate candidate, then this candidate is certainly invited to a job interview. An interview does not guarantee that there will be a job offer, but such candidates most frequently get employed, because they meet the requirements set for the vacancy. TESCO also offers placement opportunities so that potential candidates might get necessary work experience. TESCO has established a Protection Line, which provides the possibility to all TESCO’s employees to report different violations, including discrimination cases, which they observed in their daily work. This phone line is anonymous and is provided by an independent company, which TESCO hired for the provision of such a service.

//Benefits for business Although the company has not carried out a comprehensive evaluation of the diversity management policy yet, there are reasons to believe that the company gained several benefits from its diversity strategy. For example, it provides TESCO the possibility to choose employees from a wider range of candidates, searching for the best potential candidate. Employees are able to better understand customer needs, because they jointly reflect the same diversity as the community. At the same time, diversity management promotes the development of new ideas and opportunities, because there are representatives of different cultures among employees. 75

Similarly, TESCO also appraises the presence of employees of different ages in the company, emphasising that “such a diversity enriches the company with an extensive range of knowledge, experience and communication”119. Although TESCO does not publish data about the composition of its employees, in 2008 already one fifth of TESCO’s employees were older than 50.120 Finally, the presence of diversity in the company “ensures better results and lower costs, because employees can offer a better range of skills and experience, which, in its turn, improves work efficiency, productivity and reduces potential losses”.121

//Conclusions and recommendations TESCO believes that the main goal of the company should be closely linked to the changes in the surrounding community. “Today our brand must include something more than functionality – we should consider how we organise our work, by which values we are guided in our life and what heritage we leave behind. We cannot resolve all the problems in the world, but we want TESCO always choose to act in good faith, inspire and gain trust of all the people, with whom we are working together. We are guided by the statement: together we can make the most essential things better. And we will continue to work according to such principles”.122

3.7. ORANGE (POLAND) Information about the company:

Business model: Place of business: Staff headcount: Website: Sector: Headquarters: Year of registration:

Orange Polska is the leading telecommunications company in Poland, whose total number of customers exceeds 20 million. Orange Polska is a company belonging to the Orange Group that operates all over the world, and which has an office and several customer service/trade places in Poland. Telecommunication services

Poland 20,539 (in Poland in 2013) www.orange.pl Telecommunications Poland 1991

//Diversity management approach initiative A new diversity management policy, which will combine and reinforce previous attempts in this area, is currently being created in Orange Polska. Previously, diversity management was part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (hereinafter referred to as the CSR) strategy of Orange Polska and one of its priorities. Today 119 Person interviewed: Laurence Webb, Corporate Relations Manager. 120 HR magazine, “One in five Tesco workers are over 50”, [online]. England, 2008 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/ one-in-five-tesco-workers-are-over-50 121 Person interviewed: Laurence Webb, Corporate Relations Manager. 122 Person interviewed: Laurence Webb, Corporate Relations Manager.

the company is working on a separate diversity management policy, however, its aspects are already included into the CSR strategy, in several documents and human resources management processes, for example, when defining the competence profile of managers and implementing employee attraction measures. The company has a clearly defined vision, values, management principles and a code of ethics, which define principles of actions and cooperation between Orange Polska and its workers, customers and cooperation partner..123 The Code of Ethics defines diversity management principles – equal attitude towards people regardless of their gender, age, disability and so on. As noted by the CSR representative of Orange Polska,124 several factors affected the implementation of diversity management. Firstly, diversity management plays a big role in the company’s dialogue with cooperation partners and employees. Secondly, diversity is part of the CSR policy of Orange Global, which was developed in an international parent company. Thirdly, Orange Polska as a member of the Responsible Business Forum participated in the development of the Diversity Charter of Poland, as well as has signed it and has publicly undertaken to apply diversity management in practice. The company is engaged in the Lewiatan project of the employers organisation, which has developed indicators to evaluate diversity management initiatives of companies within the framework of the Diversity Index.

//Description of company’s diversity management policy measures The development of diversity management measures in the company started from the provision of general information about matters like respect for the different, its various manifestations and the use of differences for positive aspects in team management. The main lines of activity and priorities to develop and implement a policy in the area of diversity management were identified, taking into account internal audit results in relation to diversity matters. The company employs 57% of men and 43% of women. 12% of employees are aged below 30, 68.5% – from 31 to 50 and 19.5% – over 50. The current diversity management policy of Orange Polska embraces three main aspects of discriminated groups: gender, age and disability (physical abilities). Since the Orange Group is operating in the international environment, big attention is devoted to the matters related to cultural differences. As it was noted by the company’s representative, “diversity of employees – their age, gender, attitude to life, views or professional abilities – extend our field of vision, increase the efficiency of our team and facilitate better understanding of needs of our customers. We believe that competent diversity management at work creates new possibilities for everybody.”125 The prevention of discrimination is one of the most important aspects of diversity management, which is clearly defined in the company’s Code of Ethics. It also defines procedures, which give employees the possibility to identify cases of discrimination and to turn against them. The matter of discrimination is also included into training programmes, which are related to the Code of Ethics and which should be learned by all employees of the company. Orange Polska observes the principle of prohibition of discrimination when recruiting and employing people, and by ensuring everyone equal access to training programmes and career opportunities. To promote reporting about cases of discrimination and mobbing (only in this way these cases can be eliminated), the company has created an anonymous phone line and a trustee was appointed, whom employees may contact in such situations. Before assuming office, each manager must participate in an electronic training course about the prevention of discrimination and mobbing. The ability to manage diversity in the company is one of the requirements for managers to promote constructive dialogue between managers and their teams. This competence includes the ability to understand each type of diversity, understanding also its use to increase efficiency of work. Starting from 2013, very employee of the company must take an electronic training course 123 Orange, “Ethic code and policies”, [online]. [viewed 31 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.orange-ir.pl/csr/ethic 124 Person interviewed: Monika Kulik, Corporate Social Responsibility Expert 125 Person interviewed: Monika Kulik, Corporate Social Responsibility Expert

about corporate social responsibility. The company also cares to ensure a gender balance, especially among executives. To provide the possibility to apply for an executive job to men and women, the recruitment procedure includes a principle which says that representatives of both genders must be proposed for any job. Orange Polska attempts to employ people with disabilities, for example, in 2013 the Yes to Health programme was initiated, within which disabled employees of Orange Polska were provided additional support measures (for example, medical services funded by the employer), as well as availability of proper environment at work. In this way the company demonstrates that it values every employee. In 2013, the company carried out an audit of its intranet, which is the main source of information for employees of the company, to make sure that it is available to every employee. The company also organises regular “Me in My Company” employee surveys and customer satisfaction surveys to identify the areas, which need improvements in the implementation of the diversity management policy. The company also carries out measures, which facilitate the possibilities to combine work and private life ensuring and promoting flexible job opportunities, for example, a flexible time schedule and remote work. In 2012, the company created a team, whose task was to promote the awareness of employees about possibilities of flexible time schedule in the company. The main target group of this initiative were employees with children and employees taking care of elderly people. Several diversity management activities, which are related to age and disability aspects, are implemented also in the customer service area, however, they are mostly related to overcoming of digital exclusion of these groups. For example, the availability of services is ensured to people with disability and training programmes are organised for employees and managers about work with disabled customers. Orange Polska also offers equipment and support measures in its use to elderly people, for example, a simplified aid phone. The company also participates in the Orange Warsaw Festival, providing necessary equipment to improve the availability of festival events to disabled people.

//Benefit for business Diversity management is one of elements of the CSR strategy, which is year-after-year included and analysed in the annual CSR report, incl. using human resources statistics – indicators, which reflect gender equality, employment of disabled people and so on. The efficiency of diversity management measures in the company is closely linked to three aspects: satisfaction of employees, competence of managers and the creation of a positive image of the company. The matter of diversity is also one of the aspects forming reputation of Orange (for example, popularisation of the Diversity Charter, participation in the Diversity Index and in events of the Diversity Day once a year) and influences communication within the company (the Diversity Week for employees).126 According to the employee survey data of the company for 2013, 77% of employees had a positive opinion about Orange as an employer and 2/3 of employees would recommend the company to others as a good employer.127 In 2013,128 the company participated in the first national-level Diversity Index survey to get an external assessment of the diversity management measures implemented in the company. The results of the Diversity Index showed that the index score of Orange Polska (65%) was much higher than that of other companies. The company also carries out the GEES (Gender Equality European Standard) audit for the purposes of evaluating the policy of equal opportunities and gender equality in the company. The company has received a GEES 126 Karta , “Diversity unites us”, [online]. Poland, 2013 [viewed 31 July 2015]. Available from: http://odpowiedzialnybiznes.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/KARTA-RPrzewodnik-ANG-podglad-OST.pdf 127 European Union Platform of Diversity Charters “Assessing Diversity Impact in Business”, [online]. European Union, 2014 [viewed 6 August 2015]. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/files/assessing_diversity2014_en.pdf 128 Orange, “Corprate social responsibility report Orange Polska”, [online]. Poland, 2013 [viewed 6 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.orange.com/en/content/ download/24047/525927/version/3/file/Orange-RSE2013-EN_W3C.pdf

certificate, which is awarded to each company, which has successfully passed the Gender Equality European Standard audit –it means that the company observes gender equality principles and an appropriate reward and career growth policy is implemented.

//Result for target groups The impact of the diversity policy in terms of gender equality is mainly evaluated taking into account two factors. One of these factors is equal rewards – by monitoring waging indicators broken down by gender at all management levels of the company and comparing them with general indicators in the country. In 2013, the reward of women in executive positions in the company was 90.9% compared to men, and 76.7% in other positions. The second factor is the availability of positions to representatives of both genders – the management of Orange Polska has set the goal to ensure that 35% of executive positions are taken by women by 2015. In 2013, the number of women executives in the company was 27.6%.129 In its turn, in the area of disability the CSR strategy envisages that there will be at least 2.3% of disabled people among employees in 2015. This indicator was 0.8% in 2013. 130 Main changes in the company under the influence of the diversity management policy: revision of procedures to ensure women the possibility to occupy executive positions and the increase in the number of disabled employees. A considerable number of employees, who did not inform the employer about their disability before, have done this under the influence of the diversity management policy, and therefore received additional support measures.

//Conclusions and recommendations The diversity management of Orange is purposeful and consequent – in line with the management policy, diversity as a value must be included into the company’s Code of Ethics and into training programme, and also into developed policies. However, the most important thing is to use the developed diversity management policy in practice. To use diversity management in practice, goals to be reached should be set, indicators for monitoring of the set goals should be developed. It is also vital to discover cases, when the company violates the developed diversity management policy, because in those cases immediate response and action of the company’s management is required to eliminated those violations. The aspect of education is also very important, especially by demonstrating employees that their managers understand the importance of this matter. To provoke interest of the management in the implementation of these measures, it would be necessary to include diversity management skills as one of aspects of evaluation of work of managers and to ensure support in the form of training programmes. It is also important to talk about diversity emphasising its benefits for employees, for the company and any member of the community. The main barrier for Orange Polska is that they must convince employees and other companies that the matter of diversity is important for the company and its employees. To convince managers of the company that diversity management is necessary and to inform them about the achieved results, meetings are organised, where they discuss results of surveys, audits or any other assessments, demonstrating that the diversity of employees and the team is an important factor that fosters innovation, that it is not only an important value of the company, but also helps to create new products or services and to attract new customers.

129 Orange, “Corprate social responsibility report Orange Polska”, [online]. Poland, 2013 [viewed 6 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.orange.com/en/content/ download/24047/525927/version/3/file/Orange-RSE2013-EN_W3C.pdf 130 Orange, “Corprate social responsibility report Orange Polska”, [online]. Poland, 2013 [viewed 6 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.orange.com/en/content/ download/24047/525927/version/3/file/Orange-RSE2013-EN_W3C.pdf

3.8. SODEXO (United Kingdom and Ireland) Information about the company:

Business model: Place of business: Staff headcount: Website: Sector: Headquarters: Year of registration:

Sodexo was established in France and today is operating all over the world, including in several EU countries. The company is not only one of the leading companies in its sector (hospitality, catering and care services) in Europe, but also globally. It has branches in 80 countries. In this case, the study was carried out in companies of two countries– Sodexo representations in the United Kingdom and Ireland, because they have joint management. Sodexo offers catering services to private corporations and companies, governments, schools, universities, hospitals, and military bases. 80 countries all over the world, 8% of employees work in the United Kingdom and Ireland 35,000 in the United Kingdom and Ireland www.sodexo.com Services, catering Issy-les-Moulineaux, France 1966

//Creation of the diversity management approach The Central Office of Sodexo in France was one of the first in the EU to consequently focus on diversity management. By observing human resources policy development trends in the United States, where the company expanded its activities some time ago, its management representatives came to the conclusion that it is necessary to follow these trends and to implement the diversity and equality approach also in the United Kingdom and Ireland. This approach includes the diversity and equality strategy, which supports employees from different community groups and provides them equal opportunities – both in terms of adaptation of the environment and in terms of career growth. According to the opinion of management representatives of Sodexo United Kingdom and Ireland, the implementation of the diversity management policy in the company was affected by several factors – requirements of laws and regulations, the wish to be an attractive employer, the wish to develop, attract and support diverse workforce, the wish to better understand the market environment and its impact on the supply of the company.131 Laws and regulations in Ireland and in the United Kingdom require that companies ensure that any type of discrimination is prevented. Since anti-discrimination acts are strict, and their application is effective, there are more benefits for employers to introduce diversity support policies. Sodexo is a large company and a large employer, which means that it competes with large companies for qualified workforce. For this reason, the reputation of Sodexo as an employer is particularly important. Representatives of the company believe that diversity management is part of policies of any good employer. The diversity management strategy of Sodexo in Ireland is supervised by the Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Department of the United Kingdom and Ireland, however, Sodexo’s Personnel Management Department of 131 Persons interviewed: Raj Brainch, Diversity and Inclusive Policy Adviser, Sodexo Central Functions; Jean-Michel Monnot, Sodexo Central Functions

the United Kingdom and Ireland was responsible for it before. In 2008, the Personnel Management Director allocated separate funding to the Diversity and Inclusion Department, and the strategy was further developing according to the example of the Sodexo’s diversity and equality strategy in France. Sodexo in France was one of the first companies in Europe that introduced diversity management, and one of the main initiators of the Diversity Charter in France (the first Diversity Charter in EU countries).

//Description of company’s diversity management policy measures Sodexo’s global diversity and equality vision is: “To develop and improve the brand of Sodexo by making it attractive in the eyes of employers, employees and potential employees, as a brand that highly appraises diversity and equality, thus promoting more active engagement of employees, increasing customer satisfaction and ensuring their loyalty to the company, as well as improving the quality of life of employees, their customers, suppliers and other cooperation partners and colleagues.132” To implement this vision, the company has created a Diversity and Inclusion Council, where representatives of all sub-departments of the company, 20 managers in total, are represented. The Council uses several tools to ensure the achievement of set goals, for example, the quality of life index, quantitative indicators and measurements of their achievements, 40% of women executives by 2018, studies of customer feedback, brand awareness measurements, etc. The Council is working in 5 different directions to ensure that people dealing with equality matters are aware of the brand of the company as a brand. These directions are gender equality, equal opportunities for people with disability, regardless of their ethnic origin or religious beliefs, sexual orientation or age. Work in these directions is related to the setting of strategic goals, for example, by 2018 to achieve that least 10% of employees of Sodexo in United Kingdom and Ireland are from families of Africa, Asia and other ethnic minorities. This goal proves to potential employees from these (large) population groups in the United Kingdom and Ireland that Sodexo is an employer who is interested to attract employees from these groups. Sodexo is implementing special initiatives in some directions or participates in initiatives of other organisations. For example, the Generations network is open to all the Sodexo employees in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The purpose of the network is to facilitate a supportive and positive attitude towards employees of all generations in the company. The network facilitates mutual understanding and cooperation between employees of different generations. The Genmatch Game, which is used in team events, was created for the needs of the network. The goal of the game is to promote cooperation between employees of different generations. The Women Work network was created only in 2011 for the purposes of facilitating professional and career growth of women in the company. As a part of network measures, elder employees /managers are invited to share their experiences to help women to make career in the company. The Improving Employability initiative in Pembrokeshire are trainings for unemployed young people in Wales, within which young people learn to improve their CV writing skills, learn to answer questions at job interviews and try their efforts in the chosen work. Participation in such initiatives not only promotes the implementation of the image of Sodexo, but also helps Sodexo as an employer to establish relations with local communities, from which employees can be attracted. The Employment for People from Immigrant Communities initiative of the Business in the Community organisation, in which Sodexo is participating in Ireland, focuses attention on immigrants from economically marginalised groups. Cultural differences, non-recognition of professional qualifications and the lack of specialised trainings are only some of barriers, which prevent immigrants from finding proper work. Within this initiative, Sodexo jointly with other companies provide representatives of immigrant communities with jobs and help them to integrate into the work environment. 132 Sodexo, “Diversity and Inclusion: our priorities”, [online]. [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.sodexo.com/en/corporate-responsibility/diversityinclusion/our-priorities.aspx

//Benefits for business According to the employees survey data of 2014, 78% of employees were satisfied with the Diversity and Inclusion Policy (D&I) in place, which is by 12% higher than in 2012. The interviewed Sodexo representative133 believes that employee satisfaction positively influences productivity of employees, and thus business is only gaining from this. The implementation of the diversity management approach increased the awareness of the company’s brand thanks to different awards and successful cooperation with customers. For example, in 2012 Sodexo received a US Catalyst Award for the promotion of gender equality at work.134 Since Sodexo introduced measures to support gender equality, the balance of genders in executive teams in several countries has improved, which is the purpose of Sodexo’s policy and which is gradually being achieved. The gender balance in management teams improves the performance and achievements of the company – it is also proved by international researches, such as the Deloitte study on the impact of the diversity management.135 Since 2012, the proportion of women among medium and high level managers in Sodexo United Kingdom and Ireland has increased by 5%, which the company’s representatives believe to be the result of a purposeful policy. Minorities from multicultural communities in the United Kingdom and Ireland also benefit from the company’s policy, the proportion of which the company started to measure for the purposes of increasing their engagement into their company.

//Conclusions and recommendations By focusing attention on the above mentioned lines of diversity management, Sodexo wishes to develop a workforce, which is diverse, inclusive and flexible. The company purposefully attracts, retains and motivates the most talented employees in the communities, where Sodexo is operating. Representatives of Sodexo emphasise that the answer to the question “How will my company benefit from diversity management?” will differ in each company, it will depend on the type of business and integration of diversity goals into the company’s strategy. Representatives of Sodexo believe and their experience shows that two factors are important in the implementation of a diversity management policy –– to focus attention on the composition of the team and to be aware of prejudices to avoid them and prevent them from negatively affecting the development of the company.

133 Person interviewed: Raj Brainch, Diversity and Inclusive Policy Adviser, Sodexo Central Functions 134 Sodexo, “Diversity and Inclusion: our priorities”, [online]. [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.sodexo.com/en/corporate-responsibility/diversityinclusion/our-priorities.aspx 135 Deloitte, “Only skin deep? Re-examining the business case for diversity”, [online]. Australia, 2011 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: https://www.ced.org/pdf/ Deloitte_-_Only_Skin_Deep.pdf

3.9. FAZER (FINLAND) Information about the company: Business model: Place of business: Staff headcount: Website: Sector: Headquarters: Year of registration:

Fazer is one of the largest food manufacturers in Finland, having representations also in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Baltic counties, Russia and the United Kingdom. Dining facilities, cafés, production of sweets.

The company is operating in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Baltic counties, the United Kingdom and Russia. over 10,000 www.fazer.fi Manufacturing, catering Helsinki (Finland) 1891

//Creation of the diversity management approach Fazer has an Equality Plan and has formulated equal attitude principles, which foster diversity management in the company. The Vice-President of Fazer Finland believes that the society is becoming increasingly more diverse and it is important to apply the regulation set out in Finnish laws and regulations regarding diversity matters (equality, fair attitude, anti-discrimination measures, etc.). The representative of Fazer notes: “Our company as a good employer also plays a big role in ensuring equal approach and inclusive attitude towards diversity, and at the same time we should adapt our goods and services to continue offering them in different directions. We joined the corporate responsibility network named the Diversity Charter at the end of 2014 and we plan to continue developing our diversity management plan.136”

//Company’s diversity management policy Ethical principles of the Fazer Group are based on values of the Group and provisions of the United National Global Compact, the purpose of which is to support sustainable development and good corporate citizenship. These ethical principles serve as a guidance in Fazer’s work in all its business areas and counties of operation. The first six principles of UN Global Compact focus the attention on the social dimension of corporate sustainability, and human rights are its cornerstone. They also include the reinforcement of the role of different groups of employees, the promotion of gender equality, measures to foster opportunities of disabled people in the company. 137 Fazer’s ethical principles envisage equal attitude towards all the employees, fair and equal payment according to internationally defined rights, respect of personal dignity, privacy and personal rights of every individual 136 Person interviewed: Mika Videman, Senior Vice President, Fazer Group 137 United nations global compact, “Transformin business, changing the world” , [online]. [viewed 25 August 2015]. Available from: https://www.unglobalcompact.org/ library/1331

and intolerance to any discrimination, intimidation, harassment or offence at work. The Fazer Group has formulated the following principles of equal attitude:

•• opportunities open for all; •• fair treatment; •• encouragement for a career; •• gender neutral.138 The Fazer’s diversity management policy includes measures which help to implement ethical principles in relations between employees, between employees and their managers, between the company and its customers, and between the company and its suppliers. The company regularly organises surveys of employees for the purposes of evaluating satisfaction of its employees and to learn their opinion whether equal attitude principles in the company are in place in practice. Fazer also monitors that suppliers observe equal attitude principles towards their employees and customers. “We also ask our suppliers to observe our ethical principles, and our ethical principles define that we treat our suppliers, customers and consumers fairly and equally. It means that from the point of view of diversity we are ready to observe diversity management principles not only within our company, but also in external relations.139” According to the Finnish regulation, Fazer has developed and has in place an equality plan – it defines goals to ensure equal reward level to women and men (comparing the average rewards of employees – women and men – at each level across the company), as well as the goal to provide equal career opportunities to representatives of different groups. The fulfilment of goals of the plan is evaluated once a year, and new measures are added to it, taking into account the actual situation. The website of the company says: “We update our equality plan every year, not only as a legal obligation, as required by the law (Finland), but also as a concrete way of promoting equality. Its objectives include wage-related targets and seeking equal opportunities for development. It also encourages employees at all organisational levels to aim for any position, regardless of gender.”140 The company’s strategic resource management policy and its requirements are always implemented, taking into account Fazer’s ethical principles and values, as well as Fazer’s business strategy. The Fazer Group has undertaken to provide equal job opportunities to all its employees meaning that there is no discrimination in the company and all the people are treated fairly, with honour and respect there. The company has implemented an individual programme for the purposes of creating a work environment appropriate for people with disabilities and for immigrants. The company’s representative points out: “We have created a two to three year apprenticeship programme together with an education institution to teach newcomers to be chefs in our restaurants.141”

//Benefits for business The Fazer Group is currently evaluating the influence of only one diversity indicator on business performance, it is the aspect of gender equality, including the proportion of women and men in executive positions and the equality of wages for the work of equal importance. The Fazer’s management believes that improvements are observed in this area, because the proportion of women at different management levels in the company is growing. At the same time, the management is aware of the need to evaluate also the influence of other diversity factors on business development. “Individual projects and programmes have provided good results, however, right now we are in the process of planning and development of concrete measurements for the diversity policy. One indicator, which we already use, is the breakdown of our workforce by gender, however, we are aware that it is necessary to develop measurements for the diversity policy.142” 138 Fazer Group, “An Equal and Diverse Workplace”, [online].[viewed 25 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.fazergroup.com/careers/great-tasting-jobs/anequal-fair-and-diverse-workplace/ 139 Person interviewed: Mika Videman, Senior Vice President, Fazer Group 140 Fazer Group, “An Equal and Diverse Workplace”, [online].[viewed 25 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.fazergroup.com/careers/great-tasting-jobs/an-equalfair-and-diverse-workplace/ 141 Person interviewed: Mika Videman, Senior Vice President, Fazer Group 142 Person interviewed: Mika Videman, Senior Vice President, Fazer Group

//Conclusions and recommendations The equality policy adopted by Fazer, the purpose of which is to provide employees and customers equal opportunities, has been developed both thanks to the initiative of the company’s management and thank to the acts in the area of equality that were adopted in Finland. The Fazer’s management believes that we should constantly keep in mind human development in the company to provide equal opportunities. The company’s representative points out: “The main prerequisite for human development in Fazer are neverending opportunities and settings for the development of skills, as well as interest of all the parties involved in strong and motivated people and teams, which are able to work in complicated situations.”

3.10. PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS (POLAND) Information about the company: Business model: Place of business: Staff headcount: Website: Sector: Headquarters: Year of registration:

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC in brief) is an advising and financial audit company, the second largest network of professional services in the world (in 2014). Work with companies and owners of companies in provision of professional services – audit, tax consultations and other financial matters. The company is operating in more than 157 countries. over 2000 www.pwc.pl/en Business consultations, audit London (United Kingdom) 1998

//Creation of the diversity management approach The company has developed a diversity management policy, the formation of which, as believed by company’s representatives,143 was fostered by internal and external factors. Internal factors are related to the global nature of the company (representations of PwC are located in 157 countries) and views of the company’s management and employees with regard to the need for a new policy which is related to the diversity in the company. External factors are related to expectations of customers of the company that the company will operate in an ethical way, will accept diversity and will satisfy different needs of customers. The diversity management initiative with regard to the implementation of the equality policy in the company was initiated 8 years ago, and was mainly oriented towards gender equality-related matters. However, in 2011, at the initiative of the company’s management and having become aware of opinions of employees, using the focus group model, it was decided to work also with such dimensions of diversity as marital status, age and disability. Currently, diversity management matters are included into the Code of Conduct of PwC’s employees and into the corporate social responsibility strategy. PwC has also signed Diversity Charters in several EU countries, including Poland. 143 Person interviewed: Malgoržata Marek, Corporate Responsibility Manager

The declaration of values of PwC also notes: “We take pride in the diversity of our workforce and view it as a competitive advantage to be nurtured and expanded.”144

//Description of company’s diversity management policy measures PwC defines diversity as “properties, which make us unique / different both visually and internally: gender, race, country of origin, age, personality, education, style of thinking”. In its turn, the company’s diversity management policy is focused on cultural awareness and inclusiveness. PwC defines cultural awareness as understanding oneself, openness and empathy, which is required to work together. In its turn, according to the company, inclusiveness is recognition of differences, respecting them and using them to achieve a positive result – company development and uniqueness in the market.145 Openness, empathy and tolerance are not gifts – these are skills which, as PwC believes, can be developed through learning. That is why the company has organised trainings to develop these skills, in particular for the management of the company. The PwC’s diversity management policy focuses on solutions supporting diversity, for example, possibilities of remote work by supporting employees’ possibilities to work from home to combine work with studies or raising of children. The company also organises trainings for employees about diversity matters and provides placement for disabled students. PwC in Poland also implements special support measures for women and disabled people. The most successful of them is provision of placement to disabled students in offices of PwC Poland. Five apprentices were offered two months placement, during this placement they evaluated the work environment of PwC Poland. Within the framework of this, no significant barriers which could prevent the company from employing disabled people were found in the company’s work environment. Apprentices prepared offers about minor improvements in the planning of new offices to ensure that all the workplaces and common premises were fully available to everybody. The company’s representative believes that this initiative has positively influenced also the confidence of company’s employees that “if something happens to me, PwC will still employ me”.

//Benefits for business The company’s representatives believe that the main benefits of the implementation of the diversity management approach are satisfaction of employees with their job and more efficient team work. As evidenced by the PwC’s Global People Survey, which also include questions about aspects of diversity, 75% of respondents in the PwC network (globally) admitted that the work environment in the company is inclusive, and individual differences are respected. 71% of respondents would recommend PwC to others as a great employer.146 According to the representative of PwC Poland, indicators of the department in this area are similar to global indicators. As to team work, one of representatives of PwC Poland notes that “it is important for the company to promote diversity in its teams. My experience shows that nothing stimulates effective work better than a combination of different work styles and views when resolving problems”147 In 2013, PwC Poland received the Equally-Important Award and Lewiatan, the Confederation of Private Employers of Poland, gave the company a high score in the Diversity Index).148 The Diversity Index is formed by several measurements, including matters of equal opportunities and the diversity management policy both 144 PwC, “Respecting others”, [online]. [viewed 26 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/about/ethics-business-conduct/respecting-others.html 145 PwC, “Creating value through responsible leadership”, [online]. 2013 [viewed 26 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.pwc.com/mt/en/assets/pwcmalta_ corporate_responsibility.pdfcorporate_responsibility.pdf 146 PwC, “Our people: Proud to be at PwC”, [online]. [viewed 26 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/about/global-annual-review-2015/ourpeople.html 147 O., Grigier, , “PwC. Creating value through responsible leadership”, [online]. [viewed 26 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/about/globalannual-review-2015/our-people.html 148 Diversity Index “JAK POLSKIE FIRMY ZARZĄDZAJĄ RÓŻNORODNOŚCIĄ? RAPORT Z BAROMETRU RÓŻNORODNOŚCI”, [online]. [viewed 26 August 2015]. Available from: http://diversityindex.pl/pl-PL/news/show/jak_polskie_firmy_zarzadzaja_roznorodnoscia_raport_z_barometru_roznorodnosci

with regard to employees and with regard to company’s customers. The placement programme for disabled students created as part of these efforts was recognised to be the best placement programme in Poland.

//Result for target groups The representative of the company’s management believes that the most evident results of the implementation of the company’s diversity management policy in the attraction of employees is the placement programme for disabled young people. Four of five apprentices were offered employment contracts after the end of their placement. In their placement evaluation, apprentices of the company evaluated PwC as an employer, which has sufficient knowledge and level of preparation to employ people with disabilities. When evaluating the results of this initiative, the company stated that it is further necessary to broader popularise job opportunities in PwC for people with disabilities in positions like auditor, accountant, economist and lawyer, including this message of PwC as an employer into its branding and communication strategy. The implementation of this placement programme influenced also the general attitude of employees – employees have become more aware that they must try to create work conditions that are appropriate for everybody, and this does not mean any “special attitude” to some specific group.

//Conclusions and recommendations As noted by the representative of the company: to successfully implement different diversity management measures, management support and role models are necessary – people whose example others will willingly follow. Even if the company supports diversity as such, there are several mental “barriers”, therefore, it is important to ensure direct communication and trainings on the topic of diversity. The attraction of diverse employees, the awareness of different needs of employees and provision of work conditions according to their needs improve the efficiency of work of the company, because diverse teams can create better solutions and ensure better performance in business, even if the creation of such teams requires more effort.

4 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 4.2 CONCLUSIONS •• The significance of the diversity management approach in strategies of European and US companies is affected by several social and economic aspects – the increasingly growing community diversity, community demand for a tolerant attitude towards different groups, as well as changes in the workforce due to ageing and migration of the society. The companies, which consciously plan their human resources strategy, frequently come to a conclusion that a diverse workforce, similarly to the balance of women and men in the company, improves productivity and even financial performance.149

•• The development of diversity management policies is also influenced by the development of EU’s equal opportunities policies and legal regulations on equality, yet, it should be noted that diversity management includes not only the principle of equal opportunities, but also a proactive approach to the attraction of workforce and work with customers by recognising the growing diversity in the community.

•• The diversity management approach is efficient only when it is integrated into company’s strategy and day-to-day practices. Considerations of representatives of foreign companies received during this study and other studies150 prove this. The application of diversity management in routine practices means, for example, the inclusion of representatives of different community groups into the employee selection process, the arrangement of the work environment in such a way to make it comfortable for work with different customers, as well as the adaptation of company’s approaches to the needs of different customers.

•• During the feasibility study it was stated that the implementation of the diversity management approach positively affects operational results of companies, improving both motivation and productivity of employees and financial indicators. The main benefits mentioned in connection with diversity management are the ability of the company to resolve problems with a different approach, the increase in motivation of employees, as well as the increase in yield from the innovation process.

•• Latvian companies do not implement comprehensive and purposeful diversity management measures in the process of selection of employees, however, individual diversity management measures are implemented within the framework personnel policies, mainly, to retain existing employees and to extend the range of potential employees with new ones.

•• In Latvia, the diversity management policy is defined and developed only in subsidiaries of international companies, also as a separate direction of policy it was developed in only one company – Swedbank. On the contrary, Latvia-based companies do not create separate diversity management policies with certain goals, but mainly implement individual diversity management measures, and they are usually not mentioned in written policy documents

•• Data of the study evidence that only small part of companies (33% of large companies and 22% of small and medium-sized companies) train their employees on diversity and equality matters, and develop cross-cultural skills of managers and employees, because these matters are not related to skills and knowledge, which their employees might use in the performance of their direct duties or in work with customers. Only in 3 companies more than half of employees answered that the company organised trainings about diversity and equal attitude matters. All the three are subsidiaries of international companies in Latvia, and such trainings are part of the policy of their parent companies.

•• The companies included into the study employ employees from different community groups, therefore there is actual diversity of staff in the majority of companies. Moreover, the majority 149 McKinsey”&Company, “Diversity matters”, [online]. London, 2015 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/why_ diversity_matters 150 Mor Barak M.E. “Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace. 3rd Edition.” London: SAGE Publications, Inc 2014. 403 pp. ISBN 9781452242231.

of polled employees (57% of employees of large companies and 70% of employees of small and medium-sized companies) and almost all the interviewed CEOS believe that their companies support diversity by words and deeds. This is also the evidence that diversity has already become a significant value among Latvian companies, even thought companies still do not animate these values in their personnel management policies.

•• Employees and executives of companies included into the study generally admit that diversity management has a positive influence on the company. Over 70% of employees believe that diversity of employees improves the work environment in the company, which can also potentially enhance the willingness of employees to work in this company. About two thirds of the 33 interviewed CEOs of companies believe that staff diversity brings direct benefits for business. These benefits affect the following areas: •• attraction and retention of employees; •• attraction and satisfaction of customers; •• efficiency and productivity of team work.

•• The study of international researches evidences that diverse teams are more productive, they come up with innovative ideas more often, because such teams represent different opinions (executives of 321 large companies across the world were interviewed).151 The CEOs of Latvian companies interviewed within the scope of the study mention the increase in the number of customers and the attraction of customers in new markets as indirect benefits from purposeful support of diversity.

•• Those Latvian companies, which are aware of benefits of diversity, consciously create such an approach to their human resource policies and work environment development, which enhances a positive effect of diversity. Little bit less than a half of interviewed executives of Latvian companies (14 out of 33) indicated that their companies purposefully identify diversity of their staffs: gender, age, national origin and other factors. However, the majority of companies do not use anonymous questionnaires for these purposes, although it is a safe and ethical approach to identification of staff diversity and opinions about the real status of diversity in the company. As evidenced by the results of the research, executives of companies have a misleading idea about the requirements of Latvian laws and regulations, i.e., which information and data they have the right to collect and store about their employees. As a result of that, being afraid to violate the law, companies most frequently do not collect any data on the diversity of their staff and their belonging to specific social groups.

•• The majority of employees in large, small and medium-sized companies believe that age, gender, national origin, health conditions, sexual orientation or religion of any employee cannot be an obstacle for his or her career opportunities in their company. However, age or disability are mentioned as potential grounds for discrimination. By supporting diversity as a value of the company and creating equal opportunities for employees regardless of their gender, age, mother tongue, sexual orientation or health condition,152 the company can avoid discriminating practices, which negatively affect opportunities of the company to attract employees and to retain them.

•• CEOs of Latvian companies are mostly ready to adapt the work environment to the needs of different employees within the scope of their opportunities. However, if we analyse the provided answers and company size, it can be concluded that needs of employees are much more frequently respected in large companies (64%), while only 23% of interviewed employees confirmed this in small and medium-sized companies.

151 Forbes, “Global Diversity and Inclusion Fostering Innovation Throught a Diverse Workforce” [online]. ASV [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://images.forbes. com/forbesinsights/StudyPDFs/Innovation_Through_Diversity.pdf 152 The Ministry of Welfare “Equal treatment in labor , social and services”, [online]. Riga [viewed 2 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.lm.gov.lv/upload/dzimumu_ lidztiesiba/situacija_latvija/tiesibsargs_vienl.pdf

•• The CEOs of companies interviewed within the framework of the study admit that they carry out customer satisfaction surveys regularly, evaluating general trends of customer satisfaction, however, satisfaction of different groups of customers is not evaluated. Such an approach limits the possibilities of companies to adapt specific services or products to the needs of different customers. However, the majority of Latvian companies are already trying to take into account interests of different customer, for example, by choosing the language of communication, which is more convenient for the customer.

•• Generally, it can be concluded that only part of polled Latvian companies consciously implement diversity management measures. The companies, which do that (perform staff diversity audits, try to attract diverse employees, adapt the work environment to the needs of different employees, organise trainings on diversity), already admit that this approach is productive. Interviews of CEOs of companies evidence that generally, CEOs of those Latvian companies, which are already implementing the diversity management approach or at least individual measures in this area, see similar benefits as representatives of those EU companies, which implement diversity management: possibilities to attract employees and loyalty, possibilities to attract customers and to foster team’s productivity.

•• Case studies of foreign companies show that diversity management practices in Latvia and in other EU countries partially differ. Latvian companies set out their diversity management policy in written documents more rarely and almost never define measurable strategic goals in this area (for example, % of women executives). They also cooperate with NGOs, which represent groups that are less represented in the labour market, more rarely. Practices of foreign companies evidence that cooperation with different NGOs representing these groups is one of resources for the attraction of new employees from groups that were worse represented before in the labour market. Special measures to attract apprentices from groups, which are weaker represented in the sector of national economy concerned, are implemented in Latvian comparatively more rarely (Digigirlz, the project of Microsoft is an exception). Unlike UK companies, none of studied Latvian companies have support networks for women or employees from groups subject to the discrimination risk in the community.

•• Examples of foreign practices also evidence that managements of companies play a very big role in the implementation of diversity management. For diversity management policies to be successful and efficient, company’s management should take decisions and introduce them into routine work through clear and targeted communication and trainings.

•• It can be concluded that the implementation of a diversity management policy in a company is a time-consuming process, which lasts several years, because the diversity management approach includes not only employment of diverse employees, but also the creation of a tolerant, friendly work environment in the long term.

•• Representatives of EU companies emphasise that thanks to the implementation of a diversity management policy, they improve reputation, awareness, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction of their companies. Moreover, the implementation of such a policy helps companies to attract and retain the most talented employees. Representatives of companies emphasise that by implementing a diversity management policy, they create such a work environment, where employees respect each other and are able to cooperate perfectly.

4.2 RECOMMENDATIONS No.

Problem

Recommendation

Addressee group

According to the survey data, it can be concluded that a diversity management policy is defined and developed only in Latvian subsidiaries of international companies. On the contrary, Latvia-based companies do not create separate diversity management policies with certain goals, but mainly implement different diversity management measures/ initiatives.

It would be important for the companies, which are already implementing or plan to implement diversity management measures, to develop and to lay down in writing their diversity management policies. To the extent possible it is necessary to ensure that this policy is included into documents regulating operations of the company and defines certain goals in the area of diversity (for example, attraction of employees from community groups that were not represented before in the company, gender balance, adaptation of the work environment to different employees), as well as defines specific measures for the achievement of these goals. Such activities allow employees and executives to better understand diversity management policies of their companies and to evaluate their efficiency, and the results achieved after a certain period of time.

Company’s management

For the implementation of effective diversity management, companies must identify their employees by age, gender, national origin and other aspects, for example, to understand whether there is a balance of genders in the company or to also make sure that no community group is systemically excluded at the stage of selection of employees, whose abilities and skills might be valuable – for example, young people or pre-retirement age people. As evidenced by the results of the research, executives of companies have a misleading idea about the requirements of Latvian laws and regulations, i.e., which information and data they have the right to collect and store about their employees. As a result of that, being afraid to violate the law, companies most frequently do not collect information about the diversity of staff in the company and their belonging to specific social groups.

It would be valuable, if the companies, which want to identify the diversity profile of their employees and its potential for the company’s growth, once a year carry out anonymous employee surveys, including into them such questions, which would allow to analyse the employee structure broken down by age, gender, mother tongue, sexual orientation, physical abilities, marital status, and other features, which can affect the situation or the well-being of the employee in the work environment, and to identify ways to provide equal opportunities to all the employees to get involved into operations and the development of the company. It is essential to be aware that Latvian regulatory enactments do not prohibit to collect and process data about the diversity profile of employees with the legitimate purpose to promote equal opportunities for employees from different groups, provided that confidentiality of the data is observed.

Company’s management, human resources department

No.

Problem

Recommendation

Addressee group

Data of the study evidence that only small part of companies (33% of large companies and 22% of small and medium-sized companies) train their employees on diversity and equality matters, and develop cross-cultural skills of managers and employees, because these matters are not related to skills and knowledge, which their employees might use in the performance of their direct duties or in work with customers.

Companies need to draw their attention that their employees have the possibility to improve their understanding and knowledge of diversity and equal attitude matters, as well as to develop their cross-cultural skills, because such trainings help managers and employees to understand benefits of diversity for the team and the work environment, as well as to better understand and reach different customers and prevent any potential misunderstanding or conflicts proactively.

Company’s management, human resources department

The majority of polled companies in Latvia do not purposefully think about attraction of different employees in the process of attraction and selection of employees. For example, when selecting personnel, they disregard the fact that some specific work can be performed by people with disabilities, as well as external communication of the company frequently does not encourage people from some certain group to apply for announced jobs.

Companies should be aware that for purposeful attraction of diverse employees they should revise their employee attraction and selection process, evaluating how the information about vacancies is presented and how it reaches different target groups, using as wide information channels as possible (for example, social media, company’ website, etc.). Within the scope of possibilities, it should be emphasised in job announcements that young people or people with disability are specifically invited to apply. It should be taken into account that this does not mean a refusal from professional conformity criteria, but rather supplementing this criterion with other considerations for the company to be able to create a diverse team for more successful achievement of company’s goals.

Company’s management, human resources department

Data of the study evidence that only 21% of interviewed Latvian companies think purposefully about the creation of diverse teams in the process of development of new products/ services, thus using the human resource potential available to the company insufficiently.

When implementing diversity management principles, companies should evaluate the possibilities to promote and support that product/service teams, including the executive unit of the company, included as diverse people as possible – by gender, age, ethnic origin and other aspects, because international studies evidence that team diversity promotes creativity, helps to identify better solutions and to achieve better results.

Company’s management, middle level managers

No.

Problem

Recommendation

Addressee group

Latvian companies currently do not create support networks for different groups of employees, i.e. they do not use the tools for support of staff diversity, which are used in Europe and globally. For example, for people with disabilities or young people, for the purposes of supporting their selfconfidence and their ability to grow in the company, because their situation in the labour market is still unequal.

We recommend companies, which employ employees from different community groups, to create support networks for those groups of employees, whose chances in the labour market or career growth are worse than those of the majority of employees. For example, in case of Latvia, for women, disabled people, young people, elderly people and other groups. Experiences of foreign companies evidence that the creation and operation of such support networks improved motivation of employees and their loyalty to the company. They serve for improvement of professional, social skills and psychological security of employees, these can be trainings, mentoring and joint socialising events.

Companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s management, employees of companies

Although the majority of polled employees (about 70%) admit that they have the opportunity to use the possibilities of flexible working time, only 62% of employees used such an opportunity up to now.

To promote satisfaction of employees with their work environment and to create the possibility to harmonise their work and family life, companies should motivate their employees to use the possibility to work remotely or support the use of flexible working time possibilities, of course, taking into account the specific of particular work. One of efficient tools is to perform regular evaluation of the work environment, incl. employee satisfaction surveys. It is also very important to provide feedback to employees, namely, to explain, which recommendations of employees with regard to the work environment can or cannot be practically implemented.

Companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s management, human resources department

Despite the fact that employees of companies mainly use the language of the customer when servicing customers, however, as the range of customer from the countries, with which Latvia did not cooperate before, for example, China or United Arab Emirates, expands, companies may face the lack of employees, who know necessary foreign languages or habits of the work environment of other cultures. This can affect the capacity of companies to provide quality services to the specific group of customers.

When companies seek and develop cooperation with customers from other countries, it would be wise to identify languages and cross-cultural communication skills of the employees, who are available in the company, to make sure that employees who work with customers every day, are able to effectively communicate with customers according to their needs.

Companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s management, human resources department

No.

Problem

Recommendation

Addressee group

The CEOs of companies interviewed within the framework of the study admit that they regularly carry out customer satisfaction surveys, evaluating general trends of customer satisfaction, however, satisfaction of different groups of customers is not evaluated. Such an approach limits the possibilities of companies to adapt services or products to the needs of different customers.

If a company wishes to expand its range of customers and to promote customer satisfaction through customer surveys, answers should be evaluated breaking them down by different groups, for example, women or elderly people. In such case the company would have data about specific groups of customers and therefore the possibility to evaluate whether it is necessary to implement additional measures for the improvement of services or products according to the needs of different customers.

Companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s management, customer service

10.

Although the majority of Latvian companies cooperate with higher education establishments and vocational schools, for example, within the framework of career days or by providing placement, cooperation with existing non-governmental organisations representing different community groups is still not developed, yet they can provide informative and education support and help to attract employees from groups, which were less represented in the labour market before.

It would be valuable for companies to develop cooperation with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) representing different community groups, because they can provide practical and education support to those companies and their employees, which already employ, for example, people with disabilities or representatives of different ethnic groups, as well as help to attract new employees. For instance, an Estonian NGO, which works with disabled people, provides special training to employees of ISS Eesti telling what should be taken into account, when working and communicating with people with disabilities (in particular people with mental and movement disorders). In its turn, employees of the human resources department were trained about different support measures for people with disabilities.

Companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s management

11.

The majority of polled Latvian companies (90%) implement only individual diversity management measures/initiatives, yet the implementation of an effective diversity management approach required a written diversity management policy. Since only subsidiaries of international companies have such knowledge and experience in Latvia, Latvia lacks the platform for companies to exchange experiences and best practices in the area of diversity management.

The public and the private sector should cooperate for the purposes of developing the diversity management potential in Latvia to create a platform/cooperation network, for example, a Diversity Charter in Latvia, similarly to other European countries, so that it can be used to stimulate and promote exchange of knowledge and experience of companies on the implementation of the diversity management approach. Such a platform would not only allow companies to save resources, when acquiring necessary knowledge, but also to improve business results. Experiences of European companies evidence that the companies, which introduce and implement diversity management, have a higher turnover than those, which do not do that.

ECL and LCCI, Cross-Sectoral Coordination Centre

No.

Problem

Recommendation

Addressee group

12.

Although Latvia has an antidiscrimination and gender equality policy, companies in the private and public sector lack methodical support about the implementation of diversity management.

National policy makers, who are responsible for the implementation of equal attitude and opportunities, and discrimination prevention policies, need to work on the preparation of methodical resources and provision of advisory support to help companies to animate the equal attitude principles (regardless of gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, disability and other differences) among employees and at the management level of companies.

National policy makers (MoW, MoC) in cooperation with social partners (ECL, FTUCL)

13.

Although 61% of company CEOs indicate that premises of their companies are adapted to disabled people and disability would not be a barrier for work in the company, if the candidateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s professional skills allow to perform specific job duties, 72% of employees of companies are not convinced about this or believe that the work environment is not adapted to disabled people. The availability of the work environment is an important factor, which can promote the increase of the number of employed disabled people in Latvia, which is currently very low.

At national level, obstacles should be identified that prevent businessmen from employing people with disabilities, and to the extent possible additional support measures should be implemented to promote the employment of disables people, for example, in the form of tax advantages or mentor programmes. For example, Germany has a separate law on equal opportunities for people with disabilities (Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz), which obliges companies with the number of employees above 20 to employ 5% or one disabled person.

National policy makers (MoW, MoE)

14.

Since the majority of Latvian companies still do not implement the diversity management approach, but â&#x20AC;&#x153;ageingâ&#x20AC;? of the society and emigration of the population can reduce the availability of qualified workforce even in the medium term, it is necessary to educate companies about advantages of diversity management and to demonstrate the potential of those community groups, which were employed comparatively less in the labour market before.

To educate and motivate Latvian companies to use the resources available in the community and to introduce diversity management into day-to-day activities, informative seminars, conferences should be organised with state support, involving representatives of foreign companies, so that they can share their positive experiences in the implementation of diversity management. The implementation of such experience exchange events should facilitate the understanding of CEOs of companies about the diversity management approach and its positive influence on business results.

National policy makers (MoE, MoW)

ANNEXES ANNEX 1 – LIST OF SOURCES OF INFORMATION USED 1. Árvai, P, “Change Making. presentation dowloaded from”, [online]. Hungary, 2014. [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: https://prezi.com/unzdqwcmww3e/change-making/ 2. Bellmann, L., Gerner, H.D., “Job and worker turnover in german establishments”, [online]. Germany, 2011 [viewed 24 June 2015]. Available from: http://ftp.iza.org/dp6081.pdf 3. Business Case Studies, “Establishing a diversity initiative”, [online]. [viewed 10 June 2015]. Available from: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/cummins/#axzz3sdo8Pd1B 4. Business Case Studies, “Positive about disability”, [online]. [viewed 15 June 2015]. Available from: http:// businesscasestudies.co.uk/lloyds-tsb/positive-about-disability/#axzz3sdo8Pd1B 5. CEMEX, “Code of Ethics”, [online]. Riga, 2015 [viewed 28 September 2015]. Available from: http://cemex. lv/Userfiles/Personals/Etikas%20kodekss_23_02_2015.pdf 6. CEMEX, “Building Resilient and Sustainable Communities”, [tiešsaiste]. Mexico, 2015 [viewed 28 September]. Available from: http://www.cemex.com/MediaCenter/PressReleases/PressRelease20150519. aspx 7. Central Statistics Database, “Resident Population by Ethnicity at the Beginning of the Year” [online]. Riga, 2015 [viewed 10 November 2015]. Available from: http://data.csb.gov.lv/pxweb/lv/Sociala/Sociala__ikgad__ iedz__iedzskaits/IS0070.px/?rxid=cdcb978c-22b0-416a-aacc-aa650d3e2ce0 8. Central Statistics Database, “Resident Population by Major Age Group by Sex at the Beginning of the Year”, [online]. Riga, 2015 [viewed 10 November 2015]. Available from: http://data.csb.gov.lv/pxweb/lv/ Sociala/Sociala__ikgad__iedz__iedzskaits/IS0022.px/?rxid=cdcb978c-22b0-416a-aacc-aa650d3e2ce0 9. Cesu alus, „POLKA The introduction of value & enlivening“, [online]. Riga: 2014 [viewed 7 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.slideshare.net/Ilgtspeja/cesu-alus-polka 10. Coding girls, “About”, [online]. [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://girlswhocode.com/ 11. Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility Institute, “Sustainability index”, [online]. Riga [viewed 20 August 2015]. Available from: http://incsr.eu/lv/novertejums/ilgtspejas-indekss/ 12. Cross-Sectoral Coordination Centre, “Latvia 2030”, [online]. Riga, 2010 [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.pkc.gov.lv/nap2020/latvija2030 13. CSR The sustainable market, “Best practice catalogue” [online]. Riga, 2014. [viewed 7 June 2015]. Available from: http://ilgtspeja2.turn.lv/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/csridejutirguskatalogs140604100826-phpapp01.pdf. and Go Beyond social project “Promotion of employment for people with disabilities” [online]. Riga, 2014 [viewed 7 June 2015]. Available from: http://gobeyond.lv/wp-content/ uploads/2013/07/RIMI_Vadl%C4%ABnijas-cilveku-ar-invalidit%C4%81ti-nodarbin%C4%81%C5%A1anai.pdf 14. Deloitte, “Only skin deep? Re-examining the business case for diversity”, [online]. Australia, 2011 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: https://www.ced.org/pdf/Deloitte_-_Only_Skin_Deep.pdf 15. Department for Business Innovation & Skills, “Bis occasional paper No. 4, The Business Case for Equality and Diversity” [online]. 2013 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/ other/the-business-case-for-equality-and-diversity 16. Diversity Index “JAK POLSKIE FIRMY ZARZĄDZAJĄ RÓŻNORODNOŚCIĄ? RAPORT Z BAROMETRU RÓŻNORODNOŚCI”, [online]. [viewed 26 August 2015]. Available from: http://diversityindex.pl/pl-PL/news/ show/jak_polskie_firmy_zarzadzaja_roznorodnoscia_raport_z_barometru_roznorodnosci 17. EFQM Good Practise Competition, “Achieving Sustainable Excellence”, [online]. 2015 [viewed 29 May 96

2015]. Available from: http://www.efqm.org/sites/default/files/gpc2015_promo_v0.2.pdf 18. Employer’s Confederation of Latvia, “Lecture “The added value of diversity in business””, [online]. Riga, 2014. [viewed 28 Oktober 2015]. Pieejams: http://www.lddk.lv/notikums/lekcija-dazadibas-pievienotavertiba-biznesam/ 19. “Our approach”, [online]. [viewed 3 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.ericsson.com/thecompany/ sustainability-corporateresponsibility/our-approach 20. Ericsson, “Recognition and Awards”, [online]. [viewed 3 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.ericsson. com/careers/our-story/recognition-awards 21. Estonian Demographic Association, “Estonian population development in European and Baltoscandian context”, [online]. Estonia, 2012 [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.popest.ee/node/28 22. European Comission “Population Ageing in Europe” [online] 2014 [viewed 11 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.net4society.eu/_media/Population_Ageing_in_Europe.pdf 23. European Commission (2012), “Managing Diversity at Work”. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2011, 17 pp. ISBN 9789279218415 24. European Commission, “Overview of Diversity Management Implementation and Impact amongst Diversity Charter signatories in the European Union” [online]. 2015 [viewed 1 September 2015]. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/diversity/charters/index_en.htm 25. European Commission, “Startup Europe: founders of Prezi, Alumn-e, paij and CartoDB declared Europe’s top web entrepreneurs of 2014”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 29 May 2015]. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/ digital-agenda/en/news/startup-europe-founders-prezi-alumn-e-paij-and-cartodb-declared-europes-topweb-entrepreneurs 26. European Union Platform of Diversity Charters “Assessing Diversity Impact in Business”, [online]. European Union, 2014 [viewed 2 July 2015]. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/files/ assessing_diversity2014_en.pdf 27. European Union, “Hungary: Developing childcare services to help parents back to work”, [online]. [viewed 29 May 2015]. Available from: http://europa.eu/epic/countries/hungary/index_en.htm 28. Europen Commission “Diversity Charters across the EU” [online] 2015 [viewed 9 September 2015]. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/diversity/charters/index_en.htm 29. Fazer Group, “An Equal and Diverse Workplace”, [online].[viewed 25 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.fazergroup.com/careers/great-tasting-jobs/an-equal-fair-and-diverse-workplace/ 30. Forbes, “Global Diversity and Inclusion Fostering Innovation Throught a Diverse Workforce” [online]. USA [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://images.forbes.com/forbesinsights/StudyPDFs/ Innovation_Through_Diversity.pdf 31. GenCo Partnership, “AT-15 Gender (-Diversity) sensitive business culture @ Hewlett Packard Austria” [online]. [viewed 5 July 2015]. Available from: http://gender-competence.eu/en/toolkit3/AT-15 32. GenCo Partnership, “Gender and Diversity Management. Diversity through women in technology”, [online]. [viewed 23 June 2015]. Available from: http://gender-competence.eu/en/toolkit3/AT-03 33. HP, “Global Diversity & Inclusion”, [online]. [viewed 2 July 2015]. Available from: http://www8.hp.com/ us/en/hp-information/about-hp/diversity/index.html 34. HP, “Annual Report 2014”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 1 July 2015]. Available from: http://h30261.www3. hp.com/~/media/Files/H/HP-IR/documents/reports/2015/hpq-annual-report-2014.pdf 35. HP, “HP 2014 Living Progress Report”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 2 July 2015]. Available from: http://h20195. www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/c04152740.pdf

36. HR magazine, “One in five Tesco workers are over 50”, [online]. England, 2008 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/one-in-five-tesco-workers-are-over-50 37. Infineon, “Diversity”, [online]. 2015 [viewed 20 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.infineon.com/ cms/en/careers/why-us/diversity/ 38. Infineon, “Human Resources Report 2014”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 20 June 2015]. Available from: http:// www.infineon.com/human-resources-report-2014/files/Human-Resources-Report_2014.pdf 39. Ipreo, “Proxy season review: Germany”, [online]. Germany, 2011 [viewed 20 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.ipreo.com/deutsch/pdf/German_Proxy_Season_Review_-_2011.pdf 40. ISS ,“ISS Eesti AS signed a diversity agreement”, [online]. Estonia, 2014 [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.ee.issworld.com/en/press/news/2014/12/11/mitmekesisuse-kokkulepe 41. ISS, “ISS World”, [online]. [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.issworld.com/about-iss/ strategy 42. Kandola, R. & J. Fullerton, “Managing the Mosaic: Diversity in Action.” 2nd Edition. London: CIPD Publishing House, 1998. 168 pp. ISBN 9780852927427. 43. Karabacakoglu, F., Ozbilgin., O., “Global Diversity Management at Ericson: the business case”, [online]. Turkey: 2012 [viewed 3 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S1877042812045028 44. Karta , “Diversity unites us”, [online]. Poland, 2013 [viewed 31 July 2015]. Available from: http:// odpowiedzialnybiznes.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/KARTA-R-Przewodnik-ANG-podglad-OST.pdf 45. Keil M., Amershi B., Holmes S., Jakoblonski H., Lüthi E., Matoba K., Plett A., Unruh K. “International Society for Diversity Management”, [online]. Riga, 2007 [viewed 1 May 2015]. Available from: http://www. lak.lv/uploads/filedir/Faili/Dazadibas_celvedis.pdf 46. Latvia Saeima: “National Development Plan 2014–2020”, 9 January 2013 47. M., Kock, “Disability Law in Germany: An Overview of Employment, Education and Access Rights” , [online]. Germany, 2011 [viewed 20 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.researchgate.net/ publication/43601396_Disability_Law_in_Germany_An_Overview_of_Employment_Education_and_ Access_Rights 48. McKinsey&Company, “Diversity matters”, [online]. London, 2015 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/why_diversity_matters 49. McKinsey, “Why Diversity Matters” [online]. London, 2015 [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/why_diversity_matters 50. Monks, K. ”The Business Impact for Equality and Diversity. Dublin: The Equality Authority” [online]. Ireland, 2007 [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.ihrec.ie/download/pdf/the_business_ impact_of_equality_and_diversity.pdf 51. Mor Barak M.E. “Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace.” 3rd Edition. London: SAGE Publications, Inc 2014. 403 pp. ISBN 9781452242231. 52. O., Grigier, “PwC. Creating value through responsible leadership”, [online]. [viewed 26 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/about/global-annual-review-2015/our-people.html 53. O’Connell, P. and Russell, H. “Equality at Work? Workplace Equality Policies, Flexible Working Arrangements and the Quality of Work“ [online]. 2005 [viewed 10 June 2015]. Available from: https://www. esri.ie/news/equality-at-work-workplace-equality-policies-flexible-working-arrangements-and-thequality-of-work/ 54. Office for National Statistics, “Full report – Women in the labout market” , [online]. England, 2013 [viewed 30 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_328352.pdf 98

55. Office for National Statistics, “Migration Statistics”, [online]. England, 2015 [viewed 28 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/migration1/migration-statistics-quarterly-report/ february-2015/index.html 56. Office for National Statistics, “Population ageing in the United Kingdom its Constituent Countries”, [online]. United Kingdom [viewed 28 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/migration1/ migration-statistics-quarterly-report/february-2015/index.html 57. Orange, “Corprate social responsibility report Orange Polska”, [online]. Poland, 2013 [viewed 6 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.orange.com/en/content/download/24047/525927/version/3/file/ Orange-RSE2013-EN_W3C.pdf 58. Orange, “Ethic code and policies”, [online]. [viewed 31 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.orange-ir. pl/csr/ethic 59. Prezi, “#mynerdstory—Vera Gergely, Project Manager”, [online]. Hungary, 2014 [viewed 30 May 2015]. Available from: http://blog.prezi.com/latest/2014/1/30/mynerdstoryvera-gergely-project-manager.html 60. Prezi, “A progamozás az új szexi”, [online]. Hungary, 2014 [viewed 3 June 2015]. Available from: http:// vs.hu/magazin/osszes/a-programozas-az-uj-szexi-0704 61. Prezi, “Junior mentoring program”, [online]. [viewed 3 June 2015]. Available from: https://prezi.com/ login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fsso.prezi.com%2Fauth%2F%3Fredirect_uri%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fjump. prezi.com%2F 62. Prezi, “Our values at work”, [online]. 2014 [viewed 29 May 2015]. Available from: https://prezi.com/ vkwg8grvkfc3/prezi-our-values/ 63. PwC, “Creating value through responsible leadership”, [online]. 2013 [viewed 26 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.pwc.com/mt/en/assets/pwcmalta_corporate_responsibility.pdf 64. PwC, “Our people: Proud to be at PwC”, [online]. [viewed 26 August 2015]. Available from: http://www. pwc.com/gx/en/about/global-annual-review-2015/our-people.html 65. PwC, “Respecting others”, [online]. [viewed 26 August 2015]. Available from: http://www.pwc.com/gx/ en/about/ethics-business-conduct/respecting-others.html 66. Romaster, “Ismét lehet pályázni a HBLF-ROMASTER Alapítvány pályázatára”, [online]. Hungary, 2015 [viewed 30 May 2015]. Available from: http://www.romaster.hu/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&vi ew=article&id=193:ismet-lehet-palyazni-a-hblf-romaster67. Saeima of the Republic of Latvia: Labour Law, 6 July 2001 68. Sippola, A., red. “Essays on Human Resource Management Perspectives on Diversity Management”, [online]. Finland, 2007 [viewed 11 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.uva.fi/materiaali/pdf/isbn_978952-476-193-2.pdf 69. Society Integration Foundation, “Study of the situation of women and men in large Latvian companies” [online]. Riga, 2015 [viewed 1 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.sif.gov.lv/images/files/SIF/progressdazadiba/Petijums_diskr_final.pdf, 70. Society Integration Foundation, “Study on anti-discrimination policy monitoring system. Research results report” [online]. Riga, 2015 [viewed 6 May 2015]. Available from: http://www.sif.gov.lv/images/files/ SIF/progress-dazadiba/Petijums_diskr_final.pdf, 71. Sodexo, “Diversity and Inclusion: our priorities”, [online]. [viewed 1 August 2015]. Available from: http:// www.sodexo.com/en/corporate-responsibility/diversity-inclusion/our-priorities.aspx 72. State employment agency, “Overview of the unemployment situation in the country”, [online]. Riga, 2015 [viewed 10 November 2015]. Available from: http://www.nva.gov.lv/docs/28_55db1a725c3445.49266031.pdf

73. Tesco, “Our code of business conduct”, [online]. [viewed 29 July 2015]. Available from: http://www. tescoplc.com/assets/files/cms/Code_of_business_conduct_2015.pdf 74. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), “The business case for diversity management”, [tiešsaiste]. UK, 2014 [viewed 7 May 2015]. Available from: http://www.accaglobal.com/ content/dam/acca/global/PDF-technical/human-capital/pol-tp-tbcfdm-diversity-management.pdf 75. The Ministry of Welfare “Equal treatment in labor , social and services”, [online]. Riga [viewed 2 July 2015]. Available from: http://www.lm.gov.lv/upload/dzimumu_lidztiesiba/situacija_latvija/tiesibsargs_ vienl.pdf 76. UK Essays, “Dificulty in handling diversity workforce. Management esssay”, [online]. [viewed 27 June 2015]. Available from: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/difficulty-in-handling-diversityworkforce-management-essay.php 77. United nations global compact, “Transformin business, changing the world” , [online]. [viewed 25 August 2015]. Available from: https://www.unglobalcompact.org/library/1331 78. Zankovska-Odiņa S., “The training course “ Diversity Management . Unused opportunities “ methodological guidelines” [online]. Riga, 2013 [viewed 9 September 2015]. Available from: http://www.vas. gov.lv/lv/box/files/par_mums_projekti/dvkursametodiskasvadlinijas.pdf

ANNEX 2 – FULL LIST OF THE COMPANIES INCLUDED INTO THE INITIAL SELECTION OF THE STUDY 100

Participation in identification of diversity management

Company name

Form of business

SME / Large

Balticovo

JSC

medium

Iecava

Latvijas Valsts meži

JSC

large

Riga

Dimdiņi

LLC

medium

Gulbene

Baltic devon mink

LLC

medium

Iecava

Latvijas balzams

JSC

large

Riga

Aldaris

JSC

large

Riga

Lauma

JSC

large

Liepāja

Lat eko food

LLC

small

Ādaži

Dobeles dzirnavnieks

JSC

large

Dobele

Valmieras stikla šķiedra

JSC

large

Valmiera

Laima

JSC

large

Riga

Spilva

LLC

large

Babīte

Beekid

LLC

small

Ķekava

Madara cosmetics

LLC

medium

Riga

Fazer Latvia

LLC

large

Ogre

Staļi

LLC

medium

Cēsis

Frame house

LLC

medium

Riga

Baltrotors

LLC

medium

Salaspils

Cēsu alus

JSC

medium

Cēsis

Lāči

LLC

medium

Babīte

Food union

JSC

large

Riga

Energofirma JAUDA

JSC

medium

Riga

Cemex

LLC

large

Brocēni

Latvijas maiznieks

JSC

large

Daugavpils

Saldus pārtikas kombināts

LLC

medium

Saldus

Grindex

JSC

large

Riga

Junge (kūku paradīze)

LLC

small

Cēsis

Pakoline

LLC

small

Aizkraukle

Dīlers

LLC

medium

Riga

Vaide

LLC

medium

Riga

Micro dators

LLC

small

Riga

Kurzemes granulas

LLC

medium

Ventspils

Economic sector

1 2 3

19 20

Agriculture, forestry

Manufacturing

Location

Participation in polling of employees and interviewing of CEOs

101

Participation in identification of diversity management

Participation in polling of employees and interviewing of CEOs

Company name

Form of business

SME / Large

Lilit

LLC

small

Riga

Kronus

LLC

medium

Riga

Stenders

LLC

large

Riga

Pure chocolate

LLC

large

Pūre

Latfood

JSC

large

Ādaži

Iecavnieks&Co

LLC

medium

Iecava

Linum color

LLC

small

Iecava

Putnu fabrika Ķekava

JSC

large

Ķekava

GaujaAB

LLC

medium

Inčukalns

Daiļrade Koks

LLC

large

Riga

Preco

LLC

medium

Lielvārde

Anna Barons

LLC

small

Riga

Vispool

LLC

small

Olaine

Verry berry

LLC

small

Gaujiena

Attirance

LLC

medium

Riga

Latplanta

JSC

medium

Babīte

Peruza

LLC

medium

Ropaži

Norden cosmetics

LLC

small

Mārupe

Re&RE

LLC

large

Riga

Siguldas būvmeistars

JSC

medium

Sigulda

Binders

LLC

large

Riga

Dores fabrika

LLC

small

Amata

Merks

LLC

large

Riga

Arčers

LLC

medium

Riga

RBSSKALS

JSC

large

Riga

Nordic homes

LLC

medium

Ozolnieki

Latvijas tilti

JSC

medium

Riga

Cross Timber Systems

LLC

medium

Jelgava

Būvnieku alianse

LLC

small

Riga

WWL houses

LLC

small

Jelgava

ABSystems

LLC

small

Jelgava

Rimi Latvia

LLC

Large

Riga

Viesnīca Latvija

LLC

medium

Riga

Statoil Fuel & Retail Latvia

LLC

large

Riga

Drogas

JSC

large

Riga

Pata AB

LLC

medium

Riga

41 42

102

Economic sector

Manufacturing

Construction

Trade, accommodation, food service

Location

Participation in identification of diversity management

Participation in polling of employees and interviewing of CEOs

Company name

Form of business

SME / Large

Farmeko

LLC

medium

Riga

Jānis Roze

LLC

medium

Riga

ABB

LLC

medium

Riga

Aga

LLC

medium

Riga

GlaxoSmithKline Latvia

LLC

medium

Riga

Volvo Truck Latvia

LLC

medium

Riga

Konekesko Latvija

LLC

medium

Riga

Latvia tours

LLC

medium

Riga

Maxima

LLC

large

Riga

Tez tour

LLC

medium

Riga

Vairāk saules

LLC

medium

Riga

Roche Latvija

LLC

medium

Riga

Narvesen Baltija

LLC

large

Riga

Lage Ko

LLC

large

Riga

Lulū pica

LLC

medium

Riga

Pipelife Latvia

LLC

small

Riga

Rāmkalni

LLC

medium

Inčukalns

Lido

LLC

large

Riga

Prisma

LLC

large

Riga

Apgāds Zvaigzne LLC ABC

medium

Riga

Coffee inn

LLC

medium

Riga

Depo diy

LLC

large

Riga

Reaton Ltd

LLC

medium

Riga

Stockmann

LLC

large

Riga

Coca-Cola HBC Latvia

LLC

medium

Riga

Krāsu serviss

LLC

medium

Riga

Kalnakrūzes

LLC

small

Riga

Philip Morris Latvia

LLC

small

Riga

Virši-A

LLC

large

Riga

Bosch

LLC

medium

Riga

Gandrs

LLC

small

Riga

100

Street Food Inc.

LLC

small

Riga

101

Trusis kafe

LLC

small

Riga

102

Johnson& Johnson AB

LLC

medium

Riga

103

Baltic restaurants Latvia

LLC

medium

Riga

87 88

Economic sector

Trade, accommodation, food service

Location

103

Participation in identification of diversity management

Participation in polling of employees and interviewing of CEOs

Company name

Form of business

SME / Large

104

Pasažieru vilciens

JSC

large

Riga

105

Latvijas dzelzceļš

State-owned JSC

large

Riga

106

DPD Latvija

LLC

medium

Riga

107

DHL Latvija

LLC

medium

Riga

108

Baltic trans logistics

LLC

medium

Riga

109

Baltic taxi

LLC

medium

Riga

110

Ventspils reiss

Municipal LLC

small

Ventspils

111

Latvijas gaisa satiksme

State-owned JSC

medium

Riga

112

Latvijas pasts

State-owned JSC

Large

Riga

113

LatRosTrans

LLC

medium

Ilūkste

Air Baltic corporation

LLC

large

Riga

Dominante

JSC

medium

Ķekava

116

Rīgas satiksme

LLC

large

Riga

117

TNT Latvija

LLC

medium

Riga

118

DSV transport

LLC

medium

Riga

119

Ace logistics Latvia

LLC

medium

Riga

120

Pasta un kurjeru serviss

LLC

small

Riga

121

Omniva

LLC

small

Riga

122

Optilog

LLC

medium

Riga

123

Lady taxi

LLC

medium

Riga

124

Ritloģistika

LLC

small

Riga

125

Sungate

LLC

medium

Riga

126

Bilatris

LLC

medium

Riga

127

CLM transport

LLC

small

Riga

128

Latvijas mobilais telefons

LLC

large

129

Grifs AG

LLC

large

Riga

130

Electrolux Latvia Ltd.

LLC

medium

Riga

Aerodium

LLC

small

Sigulda

Accenture

Latvian branch

large

Riga

SWEDBANK

JSC

large

Riga

x x

114 115

131 132 133 134

Economic sector

Transport and storage

Other commercial services

Location

Riga

PWC Latvija

LLC

medium

Riga

135

4 Finance

LLC

medium

Riga

136

Baltikums

AAS

medium

Riga

137

EY (Ernst&Young)

LLC

medium

Riga

138

Balta

LLC

medium

Riga

104

Participation in identification of diversity management

Company name

Form of business

SME / Large

139

Ogres rajona slimnīca

LLC

medium

Ogre

140

Veselības centrs 4

LLC

medium

Riga

141

Draugiem.lv

LLC

small

Riga

142

Latvijas Radio un State-owned televīzijas centrs JSC

medium

Riga

143

Radio SWH

JSC

medium

Riga

144

Latvijas loto

LLC

large

Riga

145

Olympic Casino Latvia

LLC

Large

Riga

146

SEB

JSC

large

Riga

147

CSDD

State-owned JSC

large

Riga

148

ZAAO

LLC

medium

Valmiera

149

Groglass

LLC

small

Riga

150

X Infotech

LLC

small

Riga

151

Lingmaster

LLC

small

Riga

152

Lattelecom

LLC

large

Riga

153

Exigen Services Latvia

LLC

medium

Riga

Baltic flags

LLC

medium

Rēzekne

Capital

JSC

medium

Riga

Vaives

LLC

small

Riga

Teka telekom

LLC

small

Riga

158

Atea Global services

LLC

medium

Riga

159

Nordea

JSC

large

Riga

160

Venstspils Nafta termināls

LLC

medium

Ventspils

161

Daugavpils siltumtīkli

Pašvaldību JSC

medium

Daugavpils

162

G4s Latvia

JSC

medium

Riga

163

Bite Latvija

LLC

medium

Riga

164

Vidzemes slimnīca

LLC

large

Valmiera

165

Poligrāfijas grupa Mūkusala

LLC

medium

Riga

166

Tieto Latvija

LLC

large

Riga

167

Viasat

LLC

large

Riga

168

Elva Baltic

LLC

medium

Riga

169

IBM Latvija

LLC

medium

Riga

170

Compensa Services

LLC

medium

Riga

171

Getliņi eko

LLC

large

Riga

172

Sadales tīkls

JSC

large

Riga

154 155 156 157

Economic sector

Other commercial services

Location

Participation in polling of employees and interviewing of CEOs

105

Participation in identification of diversity management

Company name

Form of business

SME / Large

173

Tele2

LLC

large

Riga

174

Stora Enso Latvija

JSC

large

Smiltene

175

DNB banka

JSC

large

Riga

176

Danske bank

JSC

large

Riga

177

BTA

AAS

large

Riga

178

Latio

LLC

small

Riga

179

Gjensidige Baltic

AAS

large

Riga

Economic sector

Location

Participation in polling of employees and interviewing of CEOs

180

Microsoft Latvija

LLC

small

Riga

181

Rīgas revidentu birojs

LLC

small

Riga

182

Domenika Latvija LLC

medium

Riga

183

Liepājas RAS

LLC

medium

Grobiņa

184

Datorzinību centrs

JSC

small

Riga

185

Pegasus group

LLC

small

Riga

MTG Latvia

LLC

medium

Riga

A birojs

LLC

small

Riga

Statoil Fuel& Retail business centre

LLC

medium

Riga

186 187 188

Other commercial services

189

Executive Search LLC Baltics

small

Riga

190

Impel serviks

LLC

large

Riga

191

Citadele

LLC

large

Riga

192

Hauska&Partner

LLC

small

Riga

193

BT1

LLC

small

Riga

194

Eiro Personāls

LLC

small

Riga

195

E-synergy

LLC

small

Riga

196

CityCredit (mobilly)

LLC

small

Riga

197

Language master LLC international

small

Riga

198

ImperioEstate

LLC

small

Riga

199

Fastr Books

LLC

small

Riga

200

Froont

LLC

small

Riga

106

ANNEX 3 – LIST OF THE COMPANIES interviewed No.

Company name

Form of business

Company size

Sector

Person interviewed

A-birojs

LLC

Small

Other commercial services

CEO

Aldaris

JSC

Large

Manufacturing

Head of Human Resources

BT1

LLC

Small

Other commercial services

Director of Communications

Cemex

LLC

Large

Manufacturing

Chairman of the Board

Coffee Inn

LLC

Medium

Trade, accommodation, food service

Member of the Board

Datorzinību centrs

JSC

Small

Other commercial services

CEO

Draugiem.lv

LLC

Medium

Other commercial services

CEO

Eiro personāls

LLC

Small

Other commercial services

Head of Human Resources

E-Synergy

LLC

Small

Other commercial services

Member of the Board

10.

EY (Ernst&Young)

LLC

Medium

Other commercial services

CEO

11.

Fastr Books (Fabula)

LLC

Small

Other commercial services

Head of Human Resources

12.

Hauska&Partner

LLC

Small

Other commercial services

Head of Marketing Department

13.

Iecavnieks&Co

LLC

Medium

Manufacturing

CEO

14.

Impel serviks

LLC

Large

Other commercial services

CEO

15.

Konekesko

LLC

Medium

Trade, accommodation, food service

CEO

16.

Aģentūra Lilita

LLC

Medium

Other commercial services

Chairman of the Board

17.

Lulū pica

LLC

Medium

Other commercial services

Head of Human Resources

18.

Maxima

LLC

Large

Trade, accommodation, food service

Member of the Board

107

No.

Company name

Form of business

Company size

Sector

Person interviewed

19.

Microsoft Latvija

LLC

Medium

Trade, accommodation, food service

CEO

20.

Mobilly (City Credit)

LLC

Small

Other commercial services

Head of Human Resources

21.

MTG Latvia

LLC

Medium

Other commercial services

Director of the Personnel Management Department

22.

Painteco (Linum Color)

LLC

Small

Other commercial services

Head of Human Resources

23.

Pegasus group

LLC

Small

Manufacturing

CEO

24.

Pipelife Latvia

LLC

Medium

Other commercial services

Head of Human Resources

25.

PwC Latvija

LLC

Medium

Trade, accommodation, food service

Deputy CEO

26.

RBSSKALS

JSC

Large

Other commercial services

CEO

27.

RE&RE

LLC

Large

Construction

CEO

28.

Swedbank

JSC

Large

Construction

CEO

29.

Tieto Latvija

LLC

Large

Other commercial services

Member of the Board

30.

Virši-A

LLC

Large

Other commercial services

Member of the Board

31.

ZAAO

LLC

Medium

Other commercial services

Member of the Board – Head of Human Resources

32.

Exigen Services Latvia

LLC

Medium

Other commercial services

Head of Human Resources

33.

Philip Morris Latvia

LLC

Small

Other commercial services

Marketing and Communication Specialist

30.

Virši-A

LLC

Trade, accommodation, food service

Other commercial services

Executive Director

31.

ZAAO

LLC

Medium

Other commercial services

Member of the Board

108

No.

Company name

Form of business

Company size

Sector

Person interviewed

32.

Exigen Services Latvia

LLC

Medium

Other commercial services

Member of the Board

33.

Philip Morris Latvia

LLC

Small

Trade, accommodation, food service

Specialist on Corporate Relations

109

ANNEX 4 – LIST OF FOREIGN EXPERTS INTERVIEWED No

Company name

Country

Person interviewed

ISS A/S (ISS Eesti)

Estonia

Head of Human Resources of ISS Eesti Helo Tamme

Prezi

Hungary

Manager of the Idea House - Julianna Pécsi, Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility Manager - Gábor Váry

Tesco PLC (Tesco)

United Kingdom

Corporate Social Responsibility Manager - Laurence Webb

Ericsson

Sweden

Global Head of Engagement and Diversity, represents all Ericsson’s offices

Hewlett Packard (HP)

Austria

Head of Human Resources in HP Austria - Birgit Aichholzer

Infineon

Germany

Diversity Representative at Infineon Germany Bernadette Seitz

Sodexo

Ireland

Diversity and Inclusive Policy Adviser, Sodexo Ireland - Raj Brainch

Orange S.A (Orange)

Poland

Corporate Social Responsibility Expert at Orange Poland - Monika Kulik

Oy Karl Fazer Ab (Fazer)

Finland

Vice President - Mika Videman

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)

Poland

Head of the Public Relations Department at PwC Poland - Malgoržata Marek

110

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The study was developed within the framework of the project implemented by the Society Integration Foundation â&#x20AC;&#x153;Different People,Various experiences, One Latvia IIâ&#x20AC;?. The objective of the project was to raise awareness, disseminate information and improve professional capacity promoting actions of diversity in the work places, nondiscrimination and equal opportunities. Within the project there was several workstreams implemented: survey and awards promoting diversity management in private sector; video stories developed regarding the stereotypes and prejudices; study of the Roma community in Latvia to monitor the situation in employment, health, education and housing and training of trainers program developed and implemented about the diversity in society.

112