Brussels, 14/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - According to a report established for the European Commission on the "costs and benefits of diversity", published on 12 November, the implementation of policies that promote diversity - that is, aimed at encouraging a mixture of races, sexual leanings, religions, ages and sexes, as well as physical disabilities at the work place - may generate short and long term advantages for business. The report is based on an inquiry made among 200 firms in four EU countries, on the results of 8 case studies of promotion programmes in 6 EU Member States and on 48 meetings with organisations directly concerned (trade unions, firms, public authorities, agencies for equal opportunities and NGOs). Some 69% of the firms taking part in the survey declare that the adoption of policies promoting diversity has allowed them to improve their image; 62% admit that these policies have helped them to attract and keep highly proficient personnel; nearly 60% agree that actions in favour of diversity have improved motivation and effectiveness (58%), stimulated innovation (57%), increased levels and service and customer satisfaction (57%) and helped to palliate labour shortages (57%).
The report identifies two major internal obstacles (to the firm) restricting investment in diversity, namely: the difficulty to change the organisation's "culture", and the lack of information on policies in favour of labour diversity. According to the report, the public programmes may contribute to eliminating the second obstacle but have little effect on the first. The Commission plans to make up for this "lack of information" in many European firms, mainly in SMEs, through different initiatives such as the programme "For diversity - Against discrimination" launched this year by Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou, the Commissioner's spokesperson, Antonia Mochan, recalls in a press release, adding that a list of good practices will be established by the Commission in 2004. The report also evokes the existence of external barriers such as legal restrictions to the registration and processing of sensitive data on details such as ethic origin, religion and sexual orientation. (Information: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/fundamental_rights/ prog/studies_en.htm).