Vive la difference.

• Author: Scott, Samuel C., III
• Position: Managing workforce diversity - Management Strategy

As the nation's demographics continue to shift, corporations that meet workforce diversity issues head-on can attract talented employees and compete more effectively in global markets. And it's not just a human resources problem -- change begins in your own backyard.

Would you intentionally eliminate 80 percent of your labor pool? Most executives would say no, but that's exactly what happens when businesses ignore the issue of workforce diversity. By the end of the decade, 60 to 80 percent of the workforce will be "people of difference." Perhaps as few as 20 percent will be white males. If we alienate a continually growing part of the population, we're not going to get the best talent possible.

Globalization is another compelling reason to address diversity issues. For example, Corn Products, like many other American companies, is now starting to export all over the world. If we can bring people of difference into our organizations and make the most of their talents, we're going to be more effective in serving, competing in and capitalizing on both global and local markets. And we can all benefit from the new ideas that a more eclectic workforce can offer.

The concept of workforce diversity stretches beyond gender and race issues. It can encompass anything from age to single parenthood to regional differences. But no matter which diversity issues come into play at your corporation, they're bound to affect the corporate culture, employee morale and ultimately your competitiveness. Sometimes it seems that our nation may not want to confront our changing demographics. But increasingly, the business community has little choice but to do so.

The word "diversity" has some very charged connotations, so at Corn Products we've tried to defuse those by emphasizing the value of employee differences. But it didn't turn out to be quite as easy as we thought. Our cultural odyssey began five years ago. At the time, I had 10 people on my staff, of which one was a woman and the rest were white males. I am an African American. We decided to go away for two days to learn about diversity. I also invited one other senior-level woman in our organization. We watched some films that chronicle what it means to have been born in certain decades. For example, if you grew up during the Depression, you have different attitudes and values than someone who grew up during the Vietnam War. Everyone on my staff understood the message.

The next day, we began to view a series of seven films on valuing difference, which brought up corporate culture, as well as issues like racial jokes and the exclusion of women from men's networks. We had planned to spend the whole day watching and discussing one tape at a time. But at the end of the third or fourth tape, one of my staff members stood up and said, "What are we doing this for? Tell us what you want and we'll do it. These films are just an example of bad management."

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