Reference no: EM132996078

BSBDIV601 Develop and implement diversity policy

Assessment 1 - Written Questions

1 Explain any five (5) issues across the operations of a business that can be linked to diversity. Your response should be in no more than 200 words in total.

2 Identify four (4) potential benefits of diversity for a business, in no more than 300 words in total.

3 Describe with the help of relevant examples how diversity can be demonstrated within the business environment in terms of cultures, beliefs and traditions and practices. Your response should be in no more than 150 words.

4 Briefly describe the following contemporary theories about diversity and its potential contribution to business advantage. Your response should be in no more than 400 words.
a. The Institutional Theory of Diversity Management
b. The Resource Based Theory of Diversity Management

5 Provide a comprehensive outline of the legislation, codes of practice and national standards that would be applied to the development of diversity policy. Your response should not exceed 300 words in total.

Assessment 2 - Project - 1 - Develop a diversity policy and action plan

Scenario

Soft-Authent is a startup which provides two-factor authentication software. The founder and CEO of the company, Brent Halliday, wants to build an inclusive culture in his workplace.

The current diversity policy of Soft-Authent is a generic policy, which does not reflect the values which the CEO wants to create in his tech startup.

Due to the lack of an effective diversity policy, the company is making recruitment decisions that are affected by unconscious biases of the recruiters. Teams are being built by staff and new recruits whom the team leaders or managers in charge or recruitment already know and trust.

Currently, Soft-Authent employs 120 people. Its employees are 95% male and 5% female. Their ethnicity data refers to Australian employees only, and indicates 90% white, 7% Asian, 3% identifying as two or more races. The company does not have any support systems for employees from diverse racial or religious backgrounds, veterans, women in IT, people with disability, LGBTQ+ employees, etc.

Soft-Authent's strategic objectives for 2020-2021 are as follows:
• Increase revenue by 5%
• Increase employee retention rates to 75%
• Establish a culture of innovation to improve process efficiencies and release a minimum of 2 product upgrades per year

You are the Human Resources Manager of Soft-Authent, and you have been tasked with preparing a diversity policy tailored to the needs of the company.

Part A - Research and report on inclusions of diversity policy

Read the case study scenario and analyse Soft-Authent's existing diversity policy in Appendix A.

1. Conduct research to identify at least 3 potential benefits of organisational diversity for Soft- Authent's in relation to achieving their strategic objectives.

2. Access diversity policies from at least 3 similar organisations and review them for relevance to Soft-Authent's needs.

3. Prepare a report for the CEO that contains the following:

a. Description of the benefits of diversity in relation to Soft-Authent's strategic objectives
b. Diversity policies and practices of similar organisations, including:

o An overview of 3 similar organisations' diversity policies (indicate the name of the organisation and the source/ location from where you accessed the policy), and a discussion of which policy was most relevant to Soft-Authent's needs
o At least 2 critical aspects of relevant policies that can be adopted by Soft-Authent for their own diversity policy

4. At least 3 gaps in Soft-Authent's existing diversity policy, in relation to strategic objectives, and suggestions for inclusions or changes to be made to close gaps, identified through your research.

Your report should be no longer than 500 words.

Part B - Role play: Consult stakeholders about diversity policy requirements

This is a continuation of the scenario in Part A.

In this part, you are to consult key stakeholders at Soft-Authent about their requirements for the diversity policy.

Meet with Brent Halliday, the CEO, and Ahmed Faiz, the COO, and:
• explain the purpose of the meeting
• present the gap analysis and recommendations from your report in Part A
• seek inputs from stakeholders about policy elements, processes or practices that they would like to include in the diversity policy
• make notes of their inputs during the meeting
• conclude meeting by summarising all the inputs from stakeholders, and identifying how they will affect the development of the diversity policy (e.g. actions you need to take, etc.)

Retain the notes of inputs you have made during the meeting. These inputs will form the basis of the new diversity policy and plan for the company, which you will prepare.

This is a role play.

Your assessor will organise for two volunteers to play the parts of Brent Halliday and Ahmed Faiz. Alternately, your assessor will play one of the roles themselves. Volunteers will be given cue cards on the basis of which they will brief you about their ideas and needs.

Part C - Draft diversity policy

1. Draft a comprehensive diversity policy for Soft-Authent based on your research, and your discussion with stakeholders in Parts A and B.
Use the policy template provided in Appendix B. The policy should cover the following points:
• legislations and standards the policy will adhere to
• key policy areas and practices, including:
o recruitment practices and quotas
o employee benefits and support systems
o training and professional development for employees
• at least 3 monitoring methods and metrics used to measure effectiveness of policy implementation, and the frequency of monitoring
• 3 benchmarks against which effectiveness of policy implementation will be measured
• allocation of responsibilities for implementing and monitoring policy
• other related policies
• version control and approval information
• a Diversity Action Plan with at least 5 actions that the organisation should take immediately to start implementing the diversity policy, such as but not limited to:
o development of materials or documents
o creation of teams
o further research, etc.

Assessment 3 - Project 2 - Implement and monitor diversity policy

Part A - Prepare communication plan Scenario
This is a continuation of the scenario from Assessment 2.

You have commenced the implementation of the Diversity Policy and Diversity Action Plan prepared in Assessment 2.

Task

Prepare a communication plan to communicate the Diversity Policy and Action Plan to all affected stakeholders, including:
• current staff
• future staff
• contractors and clients

Use the template in Appendix C to prepare the plan.

Part B - Role play: Present diversity policy and action plan to staff

This is a continuation of the scenario in the previous part.
Make a presentation to all senior management of Soft-Authent to inform them of the new Diversity Policy and Diversity Action Plan.

During the presentation, you must:
• introduce the purpose of the presentation
• explain the policy and action plan in detail to the members of senior management staff, and how it will affect current and future staff
• explain the benefits of the policy
• explain the communication plan you have developed for the policy

The time limit for the presentation is 5 minutes.
You may use Microsoft PowerPoint to prepare presentation slides. This is a role play. You are the HR Manager.
Your assessor will organise a group of your classmates to play the role of the senior management staff of Soft-Authent.

Scenario

This is a continuation of the scenario from the previous part.

It is now a year since Soft-Authent implemented the Diversity Action Plan.

The organisation had set the following targets for ensuring workplace diversity:
• Increasing female representation
• Creating employment opportunities for indigenous Australians
• Supporting employees or potential employees with disabilities
• Increasing participation by employees of Asian/ CALD backgrounds
• Promoting age diversity
• HR initiatives - retention

Results of the monitoring

Recently the business undertook an assessment all of its divisions and a range of internal and external stakeholders, including employees, customers, government, investors, peers and suppliers.

Quantitative and qualitative data was obtained to assess the effectiveness of the diversity program through sources such as employment statistics, customer insights, employee surveys, review of strategic plan, priorities and targets, traditional and social media reviews.

The Business Information data revealed the following:

• Increased resources were allocated to identify and develop high potential women; as a result, the organisation currently has a total staff of 50, and employs 18 women.
• The average turnover for the past six months has been 6% for both women and men.
• Gender-based pay discrimination is not part of Soft-Authent's remuneration system.
• Improvements in the working environment and organisational culture that result from workforce diversity policies has reduced the incidence of direct and indirect discrimination, therefore costs of litigation and dispute resolution have decreased.
• Reduced labour turnover and higher retention rates have resulted in lower recruitment and training costs for company.
• Improvements in the working environment and culture have reduce absenteeism.

Employee feedback obtained through formal surveys, informal feedback and conversations indicated that a majority of the staff believed that:

• People of diverse backgrounds work in all levels and departments of the organisation

• Diversity is seems to be a goal in recruitment strategies

• There is equity in employment actions and systems

• The business employs people irrespective of their age, based on their experience, merit and suitability for the job

• Employee issues are raised and heard with respect and honesty, and are resolved in an effective, timely manner

• Organisational issues and personnel grievances are resolved effectively with active, appropriate input and participation from all levels

• Managers are trained, assessed, held accountable and rewarded for managing people of diverse backgrounds effectively

Some of the suggestions for improvement that emerged from these surveys include:

• Diversity strategies should be made integral to organisational strategic plan and objectives

• People of diverse backgrounds should be included in all levels and in all departments of the organisation

• Representation of women in executive and management roles should be improved

• Hiring and retention of high potential females should be made a key performance indicator for senior management

The following are the results of the traditional, online and social media reviews:

• Its employees, clients, and other stakeholders view soft-Authent as an ethical player in its professional area and in the community where it is located

• The organisation's products and outputs reflect a broad and diverse client base and partner network

Information about Board of Directors

• The membership composition of the Board of Directors is skewed in terms of gender, discipline, cultural background and professional expertise. None of the members of the current board has gender and diversity expertise.

• As part of its strategic planning function, the Board is required to assist the organisation in aligning gender and diversity initiatives to its core work and strategic goals. The Board can achieve this by emphasising that gender and diversity goals and outcomes are also high priority goals of the Board.

• The board has been discussing setting a key performance indicator for the retention of high potential females to the management; this will improve the representation and retention of women in executive and management roles.

Part C - Monitor and report on implementation of diversity policy

You are now required to monitor the reported information to determine efficiency of policy.

You must read and analyse Soft-Authent's information about diversity, the policy and its implementation and:

1. Analyse the quantitative and qualitative information from the scenario above and compare it to the business' objectives given in the scenario in Assessment 2.

2. Identify the impacts of policy implementation by asking questions such as:
a. In overall terms is the Diversity Policy and Action Plan ‘fit for purpose' - that is, usable and workable?
b. Does the policy and plan adhere to legislative requirements?
c. Did the implementation help the business meet its objectives?
d. Did the implementation realise all the expected benefits that were identified?

e. Did the implementation meet the CEO and COO's expectations?
f. Did the implementation have unintended impacts on the business or breaches of legislative requirements?
g. What 3 actions can you recommend to address issues identified in this analysis?

3. Prepare a report for the management team covering the above assessment. In this report, you must include your analysis of the information above, and make recommendations for changes to the policy, based on your evaluation.

Your report should be no longer than 800 words.

Part D - Role play: Provide feedback to stakeholders on policy implementation and revise policy

Scenario

This is a continuation of the scenario in the previous part.

As part of your role, you are required to provide feedback to the CEO of Soft-Authent on the impact of the implementation of the Diversity Policy and the Diversity Action Plan in the last one year.

Task

1. Conduct a meeting with Soft-Authent's CEO, Brent Halliday, to:
• explain the purpose of the meeting
• provide feedback on the implementation of the policy
• discuss your recommendations for changes to the policy
• seek approval to make the recommended changes to the policy
• conclude meeting by summarising all the inputs from CEO, and identifying the revisions you will make to the policy
• make notes of the CEO's inputs during the meeting This is a role play.
Your assessor will play the part of Brent Halliday.

2. Revise diversity policy to reflect the changes agreed with the CEO, and the additional inputs from CEO.

Attachment:- Develop and implement diversity policy.rar