S P E C I A L F E ATURE CERTIFYING DEI AND CHANGING MINDSET SILK RELO CEO KAY KUTT JOHN LIM, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF ASIAN TIGERS SINGAPORE DENISE CALEB, PRESIDENT OF THE HUMAN RESOURCE STANDARDS INSTITUTE A standard for DEI measurability and comparability Silk Relo and its sister group Asian Tigers recently announced they have become the first international relocation companies to earn a new diversity and inclusion organisational certification, a game-changer that enables them to measure their D&I work on the international stage. Asia-based Silk Relo Ltd, Silk Relo Pte Ltd and KC Dat (trading as Asian Tigers Singapore) earned the certification from the Human Resource Standards Institute (HRSI). It demonstrates their HR processes align with ISO 30415 Human Resources Management Diversity and Inclusion standards. John Lim, managing director of Asian Tigers Singapore, says: Over the past few years, diversity and inclusion have taken on prime space in everything that we talk about and do as an organisation. Silk Relo CEO Kay Kutt adds: Diversity was coming up as a hot topic in RFPs, but there wasnt a standard or means to demonstrate D&I initiatives in a comparable sense. HRSI president Denise Caleb says: Organisations see this certification as a game-changer in regards to their ability to apply for contracts with D&I requirements. It enables to them to say our diversity and inclusion efforts have been measured and we have baselines to which they can be compared for continuous improvement. The certification is a guidebook to the way [companies] should approach D&I work, she says. Prior to this, it wasnt the case. Ten different businesses might be doing things completely differently so this gives a new level of confidence that diversity and inclusion work is being done in a certain way and is measured against international standards. The standard checks D&I principles are being applied throughout a business, with more than 40 factors considered, such as workforce planning practices; recruitment, performance management, succession planning, workforce mobility, remuneration and so on. There are advantages to employees from working in a diverse environment, and it offers advantages for business because you get a different level and school of thought, she says. It gives you different opportunities to expand your market, and an inclusive environment increases your ability to retain people because you create an environment where people feel like they belong. To attain certification, organisations must provide tangible evidence of what theyre doing and discuss this with HRSI assessors. They also need to demonstrate that they are making progress on an ongoing basis. To measure this, companies will be reviewed against year one in years two, three and four, with the re-certification cycle beginning in year five. With 30 countries involved in the creation and launch of ISO HRM D&I standard and another 10 having joined since then, Caleb says the name of the standard varies depending on region. Kutt says: In some countries, you dont perhaps have the ability to talk about some diversity topics legally, or to demonstrate that level of inclusivity as demonstrated in the US, for example. In Asia, they only recognise he/she 40 FF307 September-November 22 pp36-41 Special feature_global view of diversity.indd 40 elements of gender. However, this doesnt mean we cant still be doing the right things for all our team members. In practice, for companies operating across different countries, this means having broad umbrella policies and then either amplifying or quietening the LGBTQ+ voice for the parts of diversity that are not applicable or legally available in a particular territory. With the help of its team members, Silk Relo recently rewrote its mission, vision and values, placing diversity and inclusion as one of its guiding principles. Overall, the process of improving the firm is ongoing, says Kutt, and this requires continual questioning, identifying blindspots or areas for development. Its a neverending learning opportunity, she says. There are always opportunities to recognise that we may not have had something in our view before. And now, with our measurable goals clearly defined in the space of D&I, we have key performance indicators to help measure our progress and how were doing. With the company employing suppliers in different countries with different cultural norms, its important, she adds, to distinguish between regulatory compliance, contractual compliance (what has been agreed in an RFP and contract negotiation), and behavioural compliance, or what the company expects of its staff. Practically speaking, this means not excluding working with certain partners because they dont conform to something that might be a US-centric element, but at the same time, looking to honour the behaviours and the words that are part of our mission values. From the point of view of certification, Caleb says every government will have different approaches that mean they either accept or reject components of the standard. What therefore counts most, she says, is that companies are asking themselves the question Are you reflective of the communities you serve? Thats really the core, she says, and thats what were trying to measure against. Lim adds: D&I is unique because, unlike the other ISO systems, it cuts across the human factor. And when you cut across the human factor within a country, you have different races, different beliefs and different cultures. Our customers want to know that we recognise this and honour those differences both internally and externally. CHANGING MINDSET IS ESSENTIAL Andreas Schaal says the key to improving diversity and inclusion across differing regions of the world is simply a willingness on the part of companies and the individuals within them to explore the issue to find out where biases sit. He was introduced to the international mindset change business, the Arbinger Institute, while working for Shell on an internal transformation and change project and was so taken by its approach that, in 2017, when he left Shell, he became the COO of Arbinger South Africa. According to Schaal, companies who want to change and become more diverse do so with top-down approaches, mostly focused on compliance. Those who are merely box ticking or attempting to force WW W. F I D I FOC U S . OR G 06/09/2022 07:33