Opinion

"To compete effectively you need the best people ­ and you can't say the best people are always male and white." That is how Sainsbury's corporate personnel director Judith Evans sums up the business case for diversity in the workplace. She doesn't just mean employing more women, or more Asians, but welcoming people of every race, creed, colour, disability, gender, sexual orientation and hairstyle if they reflect your target market, if they bring a different and valid perspective to the job, and most of all if they happen to be the most talented people available. Perhaps it is not so extraordinary that two decades or more after the Race Relations Act we still have so far to go. It takes more than one generation to change ingrained attitudes, and you don't have to travel far to find out how little has changed in some places. So it could take another 20 years for those who are only now gaining access to the job market to reach the corridors of power in numbers. Sainsbury can be commended for helping shatter the glass ceiling for women, who now number 27% of its middle managers and 9% of senior managers. The number of staff from ethnic minorities has risen from 3% to 7% in five years, including 3% in management roles. Lessons have apparently been learned from its Shaw's subsidiary in Connecticut, USA, whose active diversity programme includes developing in-store ranges to meet the needs of particular ethnic groups, and an "aggressive programme to eliminate potential discrimination and harrassment throughout the company". The proponents of diversity, who also include Littlewoods and GrandMet, insist there is a clear, bottom-line benefit from the policy. So why aren't more firms doing it? Positive discrimination may be unlawful, but there is nothing to stop employers ensuring a truly open recruitment policy or guaranteeing support for any talented individual who wants to climb the career ladder. Growing your own managers takes a long time. If the case for diversity may prove watertight in five or 10 years time, the time to start acting is now.{{NEWS}}