HR Magazine seized a rare opportunity to speak with Subha Barry, Managing Director and Head of Global Diversity and Inclusion for Merrill Lynch. DiversityInc recently ranked Merrill Lynch seventh out of the “Top 50 Companies for Diversity.” Barry shares her candid advice on what HR managers can do to ride out the current economic contraction by incorporating diversity and inclusion in their organisations.
Have you found that there are any specific challenges in implementing Diversity and Inclusion programmes in Asia?
When we launched our Global Diversity and Inclusion program in 2005, I came to Hong Kong with the understanding that the way that diversity issues play out in the Pac Rim region may be very different to how they play out in the United States.
What might this current economic climate mean for employee development programmes in Hong Kong?
What is important in a time like this is that all the HR managers in Hong Kong should try to collaborate in this group challenge. Group diversity needs to be nurtured and refined.
Very often it is during downturns that a lot of good work that has been done and progress that has been made gets undone, and if we can have collaboration maybe there are certain sectors that are less affected. Those sectors that are less affected, and the ability for us to make sure those sectors continue to nurture talent and are able to do more hiring, will enable good talent to find a home.
Do you feel that Hong Kong has an advantage for this type of cooperation over other financial centers in Asia?
For this kind of collaboration Hong Kong can be a model. Because unlike the other countries in the Pacific rim where business tends to be very spread out and regional, in Hong Kong businesses are very close to each other.
Hong Kong itself can decide that it will be the leader, the pioneer, the role model to show the rest of the Pacific rim how to do this.
Aside from the evident positive branding and CSR promotion that companies who invest in Diversity attain how else might companies benefit?
I am going to tell you something very simple. Diversity has long stopped being a good thing to do, or a nice thing to do, or something you do just to build good will. It is smart business, whether it is direct development because you are building diverse communities or whether it is talent that you are trying to engage, it is something that sets you apart and gives you an edge.
How can having a well-defined Diversity program help companies to improve their business practices?
The reason you want to create a diverse environment is because you want people from those communities to feel like they could come and work in your company and know that they have as good an opportunity to rise and succeed as anybody else. When it comes to my company, and looking at the competition, then my company obviously has a built-in advantage—a competitive advantage.
In what way does having a diversity and inclusion hiring policy affect your companies talent pool?
If you take people with disabilities as an example, you stop looking at them just as disabled people and you start looking at them with people with unique abilities, because that is one of the things that they discovered: people who have disabilities have some very powerful compensating abilities and the opportunity that this gives to companies like Merrill Lynch is to hire them for their abilities and not just judge them for their disabilities. If we are able to do this better than the competition then we are probably going to have an advantage in terms of looking at talent.
Do you see this as a growing trend in HR?
I am of the opinion that more and more companies will see the opportunity that sets us apart. I truly believe that there will be a sense of competition around it.
In what way do you feel Merrill Lynch’s merger with Bank of America will affect Merrill’s existing diversity and inclusion policy?
I actually think that the merger with Bank of America will be very positive for our diversity and inclusion program. Bank of America in the US has a very well defined, well-evolved policy and programme around diversity and inclusion and I am confident absolutely that we will be supported in that. In the US they have done a lot that we can learn from so it’s going to be a win-win situation.
Do you have any final advice for HR managers on how Diversity and Inclusion programmes might help their organisations?
Again, if we can start thinking about creating inclusion as being something that is a smart business decision, it is time for the dialogue to evolve from the political correctness, etc. to focusing on increasing bottom line revenues and business for the company—that’s where this is headed.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
