An organization’s commitment to the ideals of diversity begins with the executive tier of leadership. By continually communicating the business case for change and the diversity vision of success, while exhibiting the expected inclusive behaviors, executives understand how their commitment can serve as the organization’s role model. Executive Commitment is a demonstration of the leadership team’s desire to introspectively understand the organization’s culture instead of just checking the box to “OK” the diversity initiative. This course focuses on building leaders’ ownership of diversity while preparing them to demonstrate their diversity commitment to the organization.
By understanding the strengths and opportunities for an organization’s improvement in five key areas -- workforce, workplace, diverse suppliers, marketplace and community – the Kaleidoscope Group is able to create a baseline which can be used to monitor the progress of a company’s diversity journey. In addition, assessments also give a diverse perspective of the issues through the eyes of all stakeholders, from the senior executives to the “wrench turners” in the field. The Kaleidoscope Group’s assessment product and service offerings are designed to understand the issues from all diverse perspectives, knowing that everyone in the organization may see things differently.
Businesses know their business, but sometimes spend an enormous amount of time and energy working to create an environment where everyone feels valued and part of the organization, leading to the completion of successful business objectives. The purpose, objectives and responsibilities which lead to diversity success are expansive. Due to the complexities, organizations frequently struggle with simplifying this process. As organizations address diversity, a clear and easy to understand roadmap is needed to align all stakeholders in a unified manner. The Kaleidoscope Group focuses on partnering with our clients to develop clear strategies and specific action plans with responsibilities and timelines for achieving desired objectives for every step in the diversity journey.
Every organization strives to attract, recruit, hire and retain the best talent. But many organizations look for this talent in limited areas, instead of expanding their opportunities for success by searching in diverse cultures and backgrounds where the best talent can be found. If your organization is not attractive to or represented by individuals that make up the entire available workforce, you risk missing out on obtaining the best talent. The Kaleidoscope Group focuses on defining clear representation goals, establishing diverse recruitment processes, developing recruitment skills and providing practical expertise which leads to business success.
The Kaleidoscope Group believes that the most effective learning is experientially-based. To this end, all of our Diversity Education & Development professional services leverage a variety of experiences, exercises, styles and media to keep the format lively and interactive. We pride ourselves on creating an environment for “real” dialogue on issues often seen or perceived as too sensitive to discuss. Our processes challenge participants in a non-attacking manner, making it easy to discuss all viewpoints, both mainstream and non-traditional. Our Diversity Education process takes participants through five stages: Creating Diversity Awareness, Developing Diversity Skills, Advanced Development, Commitment and Sustainability. At every stage, participants leave with new lessons learned, as well as models and well-established tools for use back on the job.
The Kaleidoscope Group often works with clients to develop their internal talent to help facilitate diversity workshops within the organization. TTT is an interactive process, enabling people to develop the skills necessary to facilitate sessions within their own organization, while developing internal and external expertise. We help you select the most appropriate trainers and work with them one-on-one to conduct sessions effectively. We also will certify successful trainers individually.
When organizations invest people and financial resources into a diversity initiative, a strong return on the investment with measurable benefits to the business are expected. Without a strong measurement and accountability strategy, the benefits of diversity may be questioned, remain unknown, or never be realized. The Kaleidoscope Group focuses on establishing organization-wide diversity standards of measurement and developing systems to ensure that accountability is established and progress on the journey is monitored and measured. This process can be completed by partnering with initiatives already in place and enhancing the measurement process an organization already utilizes.
In the manner in which an organization works through the diversity journey, employees sometimes feel the company’s diversity initiative is a “program of the month.” In this spirit, the Kaleidoscope Group works with company’s established internal and external communication practices to develop messages that resonate the importance of the diversity initiative. A focus on Diversity Communications can help a business mold inclusive visual and vocal messages to effectively and authentically communicate goals, strategies and current initiatives to employees, top management, customers, suppliers and media.
Most companies have integrated their multicultural marketing efforts into their marketing strategies, and many are now realizing that infusing their new diversity knowledge into those strategies increases customer knowledge in all segments and increases profitability. To empower our partners in this area, The Kaleidoscope Group has formed SynchronUs, our Multicultural Marketing practice. Utilizing our deep understanding of individual diverse population segments, SynchronUs supports your marketing department with information about who those individuals are, where they are, what their potential value is and they type of resources you should utilize to make them your customer.
Organizations that are intimately connected to the communities in which they reside realize a significant return on their good citizenship. Enhanced reputation, employee pride, as well as improved recruitment and retention are among the benefits. Without a community strategy connected to corporate goals, corporate largess can be costly, ineffective and possibly counter-productive. Our Community Connection process enables you to assess your current practices, align them with corporate goals and structure them to yield the results you expect in measurable, manageable and repeatable ways.
Following an assessment, The Kaleidoscope Group can jointly create a Supplier Diversity strategy and detailed implementation plan to reach quality and value-added targets in relevant purchasing categories. The Kaleidoscope Group believes that supplier diversity is a business issue. In this spirit, The Kaleidoscope Group is well-versed to deal with the challenge of creating a diverse supplier base to address the diverse customer needs in the market place. Often companies have a mismatch in suppliers relative to customer needs. This occurs because of a lack of collaboration across the internal supply chain and a poor supplier mix. We use comprehensive tools that address the rational, political and emotional components of a company’s Supplier Diversity business challenge. We have found that without adequate support, tools and processes, the task of supplier diversity strategic planning, execution, and impact is almost impossible. Our distinctive Supplier Diversity methodology adds value in three ways:
- In-depth process knowledge of strategic sourcing and e-procurement
- Experience with helping suppliers successfully respond to RFPs and online auctions
- Expertise in Merger & Acquisitions, growing suppliers in scope & scale in key categories to allow clients to rapidly get to the billion dollar round table