Organizational culture is the essence of a business. One could say, in short, that culture is equivalent to personality. The personality of a company refers to a set of behaviors, values and relationships that characterize the organization itself, internally and externally.
The elements belonging to the culture of an organization are varied, such as mission and corporate vision, working environment, i values, professional ethics, future expectations and objectives. Of course, every enterprise is a world of its own and, consequently, every enterprise is unique as a whole; For example, some companies have a team-based culture, with employee participation at all levels, while others have more traditional and formal management.
But there is one vital factor that unites all companies in the world: le human resources. People are the heart of every organization, the key element of its corporate culture because they share its common values, ethics, mission and goals.
Every person, just like any enterprise, is a complex set of values, thoughts and characteristics that identify it as such and that diversify it from others.
In recent times it has been realized the strategic importance linked to the diversity (or better still, the uniqueness) of each person: Towards the end of the 1980s, the Workforce 2000 report was published to deepen the emerging trends of the U.S. population as the 21st century approached.
Attention shifted to the fact that if the United States wanted to continue to thrive, several actions would have been needed, including: making the workforce dynamic, reconciling the conflicting needs of women, work and families and integrating workers of different ethnic groups completely.
Thus the theme of Diversity Management was born, later implementing the importance of themes such as inclusion, equality and belonging: concepts of fundamental importance, increasingly assimilated within the organisational culture of enterprises.
Today the ability to include diversity is not only an ethical issue for companies, but also a competitive leverage and strategic.
The creation of an environment in which all staff feel comfortable and can express themselves, therefore their diversity and uniqueness, implies that people are subjected to less stress and work better. Diversity & Inclusion Management, in fact, refers to that set of practices and policies aimed at enhancing diversity in its multiple meanings within a working environment; so age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origins, culture, physical and cognitive skills.
An organization that puts all this into practice, in the correct way, can be identified as an ethical organization, flexible, heterogeneous and contributing to innovation and change.
More and more people are very attentive to this theme and, as a result, direct their consumption towards inclusive companies, therefore innovating in terms of Diversity & Inclusion brings highly impacting advantages also on their business, improving, in parallel, the Corporate Welfare and Brand Image.
The confirmation comes from numerous reports, including the one presented by Istat and UNAR presenting the main results of a study on the diversity management measures for LGBT+ diversity that have been carried out by companies with at least 50 employees of industry and services.
As early as 2019, it was estimated that more than one fifth of companies (20.7%, or more than 5,700) had taken at least one non-compulsory measure by law with the aim of managing and enhancing the diversity between workers linked to gender, age, citizenship, nationality and/or ethnicity, religious convictions or disability. The implementation of these measures involved 34% of large enterprises (with at least 500 employees), compared with 19.8% of smaller enterprises (50-499 employees).
These measures include: training events aimed at top management and workers on LGBT+ diversity issues; initiatives to promote inclusion culture and enhancement LGBT+ diversity; ad hoc measures for transgender workers; permits, benefits and other specific measures for LGBT+ workers.
The management of diversity in companies is a challenge that opens to many opportunities, although there is still a widespread tendency not to address this issue in a problematic and resolute way, at least in Italy.
The fact that there is still a lot of work to be done has been confirmed by the Covid-19 emergency, which has made it clear that some progress in recent decades, considered significant, has actually been of little comforting progress: in this regard it is clear that, speaking of gender equality, a period of uncertainty and unclear prospects has depressed women, relegating them to take even more care of home and family at the expense of any work ambition (we suggest reading our article on the subject https://www.ambire.net/gender-gap-a-point-of-situation/ to have an overview of the situation).
Ambire SB contribute to innovation and the dissemination of an organisational, managerial and individual culture that fosters more and better opportunities for employment, guidance to young people in the labour market, enhancement and Inclusion of diversity, people’s work-life balance and increasing employment rates, generating a sustainable impact through SDGs 4.5 and 8 driving it, promoting an inclusive working environment and constantly open to integration.
