Importance for Diversity Manager for Business | Required Skills

The diversity manager is responsible for promoting diversity and the prevention of discrimination within the company by raising awareness and implementing projects. Diversity manager is also known as Responsible for diversity and disability, Responsible for diversity and CSR, Responsible for Ethics and Diversity and Director of Social Innovation and Diversity, etc.

Why Diversity Manager is Important for Business

Implementation of a Diversity Policy

• Defining internal policy on diversity
• Animate a network in-house: HR managers, managers, diversity managers within the different entities of the group.
• Establish and run partnerships with associations working for diversity (Advocate …).
• Work with internal communication for the promotion of diversity (specific operations, intranet pages, articles on diversity in internal newspapers, etc.).
• Define concrete human resources applications (recruitment, mobility, promotions, works organization, etc.).
• Participate with the social partners in the implementation of diversity agreements: framework agreement against discrimination, equality agreement, senior’s agreement, parenthood charter, disability plan.

Training / Awareness for Internal Staff

• Implement diversity training for managers and HR executives, HR staff and e-learning courses.
• Create communication campaigns to raise employees’ awareness.

Evaluation / Control of HRD Actions

• Put in place control actions: for example recruitment testing to verify that the company does not discriminate in hiring.
• Set up indicators and report regularly to senior management.

External Communication

• Animate a network of external partners.
• Represent the company in conferences, external events, symposia on diversity issues.

Realization of HR studies

• Internal audits, statistical analyzes, interviews

Possible Activities of Diversity Manager     

Depending on the perimeter of responsibility of the diversity manager, it may be responsible for managing recruitment campaigns, qualifying candidates.

Variability of Activities

When there is no diversity manager, in most cases, the HRD handles this function.

The law against discrimination has 18 criteria. If companies do not therefore have to discriminate against any of these criteria, most nevertheless choose to prioritize certain themes according to the existing ones within the company. The perimeter of the diversity manager can therefore vary from one company to another.

In a group, the international dimension also changes the perimeter of the business, with the diversity manager having to adapt to the specific problems in each country where the group is located.

Diversity management also exists in consulting firms. The activities of the consultant consist of missions of accompanying companies: qualitative and quantitative diagnosis, accompaniment to the diversity label, training animation.

Required Skills for Managing Diversity Manager

Technical Skills

• Expertise in project management and change management.
• Control of labor law.
• Mastery of written and oral communication techniques.
• Fluent English in groups or in companies of international dimension.
• Knowledge of all HR processes.

Personality Traits

• Excellent interpersonal skills as the diversity manager is involved in communication and employee awareness
• Creativity to find the right kind of communication
• Ability to carry projects, motivate teams
• Power of conviction to defend his ideas, to know how to argue and to adhere to the stakes of diversity

Professional Evolution

• Career Manager
• HR Development Manager
• Human Resources Manager
• HR Director

Factors in the Evolution of the Diversity Manager

This business is of recent implantation in companies. If the fight against discrimination is not a new theme, the term diversity is about ten years old.

Backed by the direction of human resources, the function of responsible for diversity has developed in large companies with the rise of legal constraints (law on combating discrimination in 2001 and charter of diversity in 2004, creation In 2005 the Halde replaced by the Defender of Rights) and the social concerns surrounding the themes of diversity and equal opportunities. Diversity concerns both the problems of older workers, the professional equality between men and women and the social or geographical origin of employees.

Finally, diversity has grown with the development of labeling programs for organizations. Some companies have in fact set up a certificates.