managing workforce diversity

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DIVERSITY AND TALENT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AT IBM

Presented by:

Apoorva DhingraNiyati jainTanushree banerjeeSahil goelRahul jindal


INTRODUCTION

The case examines the diversity and talent management practices of the US-based IBM, the leading IT Company in the world. IBM figured in the Fortune magazine's list of "America's Most Admired Companies" in the year 2004. It was appreciated for recruiting and retaining the best talent across the world. IBM actively encouraged recruiting people from various social and cultural backgrounds irrespective of their age, sex or physical status.

In the same year, IBM had developed a talent marketplace to effectively manage its workforce. The marketplace supported employees to find the most suitable job across different organizational units within the company.

IBM manages its interior structure of work force and labor managing of different culture in order to improve the efficiency of the Organization as well as its performance .


HISTORY OF IBM 1924-Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) which was formed in

1911 by the merger of 3 companies, namely, International Recording Company, Computing Sales Company and the Tabulating Machine Company was renamed to International Business Machine Corporation, popularly known as IBM.

The first president was J. Watson Sr. 1932-An Education department was formed to provide training and

educational programs to employees and customers.

1942-IBM launched a program to train and employ disabled people. Michael Supa, a blind psychologist helped the company to recruit 181

disabled people in next one year. 1943-The United Negro College Fund was conceptualized.

1952-Watson Sr.’s son became the President of IBM.


1956-Watson Jr. became the CEO of IBM after Watson Sr. Died

1961-IBM came out with non – discrimination policy. 1966-IBM announced a family medical plan for the employees. Launched a

special care program to support employees who had handicapped children.

1970’s-T. Vincent Learson became the new CEO. EEO became the integral part of IBM. IBM formed a well structured career development plan for minorities and woman.

1980’s-Company recruited more than 10,000 women. John F. Akers became the new CEO. In the late 80’s more than 12,000 employees were redeployed and early retirement incentive was introduced. Recognized as “Employer of the Year” in 1988.

1993-Louis V. Gerstner became the chairman and CEO of IBM.


Workforce diversity at IBMDiversity calendar was maintained where important days for different communities were listed.

Floating Cultural Holiday Policy was issued that offered an option of trading official public holidays for a day that was of cultural significance to the employee.

IBM actively promoted diversity through its diversity task forces, diversity network groups & diversity councils


• Diversity Task Forces

– Executives which were commissioned: Asian, Black, Hispanic, Men, Native American, People with Disabilities & women.

– Purpose: to increase the market for IBM’s products & services by reaching a diverse & wide range of customers.

– Each group scrutinized the work environment & company policies according to interests of their groups


– To make group feel more valued members introspect on issues such as further improvement in work environment etc.

• Diversity Network groups: voluntarily by employees

– Promoted internal networking, career development & community service.

– Forming teams, networking, mentoring & coaching, performing community tasks, planning etc


• Diversity Councils

– Region specific & headed by the top management.– Objective: to increase employee awareness &

management sensitivity towards diversity.– Promoted diversity through mentoring, education &

diversity recruiting programs.– Roundtables meetings were arranged to generate

practical ideas to promote diversity.– Awards were also given to employees who succeeded

in it


– Managers assigned business in other countries provided with intra based data resources. Ex; quick views & learning clusters.

– Designed to educate managers on various issues of diversity.

– Consisted of interactive learning modules & self assessment tools etc.

– Shades of Blue: online learning & a two day workshop– structured for managers to understand behaviors &

communication styles of a particular culture, cultural gap & impact of cultural bias in business


Recruiting people with disabilities

Programs conducted by IBM to recruit people with disabilities:

1.Entry Point

2.Project Able

3.Lift 3 major areas considered to facilitate the employees with disabilities

were:

1.Accommodation

2.Accessibility

3.Attitude It is handled by Accommodation Assessment Team. AAT comprises of

manager, medical professional and human resource professional.


WORK/LIFE BALANCE

Work/life balance program is based on following principles:

Employees must take the responsibility for their own work/life balance needs. Program must have a positive impact on all employees involved.

Quality is given more importance than quantity.

Teams should be flexible in balancing their working and personal needs.

Each employee must be treated as an individual.

Two prerequisites for the program – ongoing performance and contribution.

Achieving work/life balance is hard work and ongoing.


Measures to implement Work/Life principles:

Job sharing policy - To create a flexible working arrangement so that the employees would be able to meet their personal commitments while, company would be able to meet its business need at the same time . This policy helped the employees to work simultaneously on a particular job by working part time.

Part time work policy - An option of part-time work to the employees. It was observed that people voluntarily opted for part time jobs for number of reasons such as care for family members, continue their studies and for health and well being.

Men at work - It involved a two-day workshop dealing with basic issues regarding a person’s work & family life, and offered practical solutions to achieve work or life balance.

Get balanced - These were company-wide workshop for managers that trained them to assist individual employees and teams to achieve their professional as well as personal goals.

People oriented Job Redesign – This was an online based tool used by managers to identify non-value adding work.


Watson Sr in 1935 stated that “Men and women will do the same kind of work for equal pay. They will have the same treatment , the same responsibilities , and the same opportunities for advancement .IBM started recruiting women professional well before the Equal Pay act 1963.IBM’s management provided women-friendly facilities to cater the different needs of it’s women employees.


Talent management

-To achieve a balance between talent supply and demand, IBM often redeployed its workforce. The internal redeployment process was designed to minimize the loss of productivity of skilled employees.

-In 2004, IBM developed a talent marketplace to support employees to find the most suitable job across different organizational units within the company.

-IBM talent practices were not restricted to internal recruitment. It also involved effective management of skilled people and utilizing them properly to attain a competitive advantage.

-In 2005, the Human Capital Management team at IBM developed a talent management model covering both micro and macro levels.


Road ahead-The employees of IBM being from different social and cultural strata helped the company expand its market by obtaining business from small and medium sized enterprises.

-IBM benefited from its diversified policy. The workforce helped in generating wide variety of thoughts and ideas that the company considered important for its success.

-Various internal studies conducted by IBM showed that a diverse workforce led to increased employee retention and productivity.

-The success stories of IBM led to an enhanced goodwill to its stakeholders, which led to a good growth and promotion to the company.

managing workforce diversity

Documents

ceo of ibm

president of ibm

usbased ibm

history of ibm

promoted diversity

workforce diversity

education diversity

various issues of diversity