ORC Sightlines
June 2009
In this issue:
- In-house Employment Lawyers Tackle Global Workforce Management Issues
- Involving Nondiversity Professionals in the Diversity and Inclusion Initiative
- Ah, Spring, When Speaking Engagements Bloom
In-house Employment Lawyers Tackle Global Workforce Management Issues
As multinational companies become more globally integrated, corporate counsel’s work has also become more complex and international in scope. It is no longer always possible to manage legal compliance and contract issues according to the laws of a single jurisdiction, as transactions and relationships touch multiple countries. This is true for employment issues as well as commercial dealings, and members of ORC’s Employment Law & Litigation Group find themselves focusing more and more on global workplace questions.
For example, a topic of conversation at last month’s meeting was how to determine which country’s laws apply to the employment relationship when an employee reports to someone in another country. One member company has attempted to clarify the legal implications of cross-border reporting relationships by giving employees in that situation both a functional manager, who may be located in the headquarters country, and an employment relationship manager in the employee’s home country. The functional manager provides business direction to the employee as well as the first line performance review and merit decisions which are based on the employee’s performance compared with his or her peers. The employment relationship manager takes responsibility for those HR processes mandated by the employee’s local country among other tasks as well as working with the functional manager to support the employee’s overall career needs and goals.
Globalization and the current economic environment have also conspired to create new approaches to deployment of employees. An ELLG member at the meeting noted that his company has avoided some layoffs by offering displaced employees in the U.S. the opportunity to work for the company in other countries where their skills are in short supply. This offer required the employees to resign from the U.S. organization and be reemployed in the new location at local country terms and conditions. The acceptance of an offer from another part of the organization would terminate the employee’s right to severance from the U.S. organization. The company offered some relocation assistance and support services, such as help getting work visas and preparing taxes, but substantially less than what the company would provide to employees on expatriate assignments. For the most part, despite some unfavorable reports in the media, the arrangement was successful in redeploying talent that otherwise might have had to leave the organization.
In partnership with law firm FortneyScott, ORC Worldwide will be bringing global workplace information to in-house counsel and compliance professionals via the Global Workplace Compliance (GWC) Network. The GWC Network’s first webinar, “Redundancy EU Style”, will air September 22. For more information, contact Nita Beecher, +1-212-852-0436.
Involving Nondiversity Professionals in the Diversity and Inclusion Initiative
Study after study ORC has conducted confirms that the companies with most success at creating inclusive work environments rely heavily on involvement of line managers and individual contributors, not only at the senior leadership levels, but throughout the organization. The diversity function plays the role of broker and orchestrator, forging partnerships and integrating the efforts of diversity councils, employee networks, executive champions, HR business partners, and HR specialists. If the diversity leader is dynamic and charismatic, so much the better, but often the real drivers of organizational change are passionate laypeople.
Some companies have gone even further and turned to nondiversity professionals to lead the diversity function. What nonprofessionals lack in direct experience, they are expected to make up for in business acumen, relationship building, and managerial skill. Indeed, these are some of the most important skills included in ORC’s competency model for diversity professionals (see below). When the leader also has a staff of experienced diversity practitioners to rely on, this arrangement can work very well. Even in that happy circumstance, though, the new diversity leader should take pains to learn the basic skills of his or her new profession. Nonprofessionals serving on councils, as leaders of affinity groups, or working on task forces also need to understand the basics of diversity practice and change management to achieve results.
ORC’s Foundations of Diversity Strategy and Practice is an all-day workshop that introduces people new to the diversity world—both new diversity professionals and nonprofessionals involved in diversity work—to the background knowledge and processes for establishing and implementing diversity and inclusion strategy. We offer the workshop at a discount to individuals from companies that belong to ORC networks.
The workshop addresses—in an interactive, small group setting—these elements:
- The meaning and context of diversity
- How to engage partners
- Establishing the business case and setting goals
- Action planning
- Communications
- Metrics
Appropriate participants include new diversity practitioners (under one year of experience in diversity and inclusion), business champions, employee network leaders, and HR generalists and specialists.
Our next U.S. session will be in San Francisco on July 22. Visit our Global EDI section for information on the content of the workshop, cost, and registration. Learn more about ORC’s equality, diversity and inclusion work , or feel free to contact Liz MacGillivray or Michal Fineman.
ORC Worldwide’s Diversity Competency Model
Note that this is a hierarchical depiction of competencies. The base of the pyramid contains fundamental skills required to master the success factors in the center of the pyramid, which in turn are necessary to perform the key roles expected of a diversity leader.
Ah, Spring, When Speaking Engagements Bloom
ORC’s Global Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion experts have been in demand this spring for speaking engagements at public conferences and in-house symposia. Here’s a sampling of their exploits:
- Deirdre Golden addressed the National Health Employers equality and diversity conference in London on “Creating and Managing Staff Networks”.
- Nita Beecher was invited to the Higher Education Symposium in Dallas to present “Practical Tips on How to Conduct Effective Internal Investigations—From One Who Has Been There (and Done That)”.
- Liz MacGillivray gets the prize for most peripatetic consultant. In just the last few months, she addressed the Diversity Business and Leadership Summit hosted by Sodexo on “The Business Case for Diversity”, then it was over to the Federal Reserve System’s Annual EEO and Diversity Conference to speak about “Sustaining Diversity and Inclusion Efforts”. A few weeks later Fox/News Corp. had her discussing diversity trends and developments during its Live Meeting look at “The Obama Administration’s Impact on the Workplace”, and she finished off the season with another Business Case presentation for AOL as part of that company’s Diversity Leadership Speaker Series.
To learn more about how ORC’s experienced consultants and thought leaders might contribute to your diversity event, please contact us.
