Managing Performance and Diversity.

Downgrading

I believe the police have downgraded their standard in order to have a better chance of recruiting from a bigger pool.  If they lower their skills, which are required in order to join the force, is this diversity or merely an organisation objective?  I believe the labour market isn’t the driving agenda for equality and diversity in this sector.  Because of the negative aspect related to the police force people are reluctant to join them; this is certainly the case for ethnic minority and black people.  The former commissioner to the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Condon said that there is a element of constitutional racism existing within the police force and this has been clearly found out by the recent BBC report on Panorama.  Why should Asians and Black people join the police force when they are not respecting people who they serve? As Rossett and Bi (1994) said, “Diversity is linked with business priorities”, and I believe this is certainly the case for the police.  They are doing this in order to meet targets, which have been imposed on them by the Government rather than valuing diversity.  

Recently there has been massive advertisement with black people to join the force.  They are targeting black and minority people.  

The normal starting salary when joining the police force is £18 000, this is on par with big corporate salary for a graduate.  This salary is high when compared with other professions.  There are other benefits when joining the force in order to encourage the labour market to apply to them.  

Is the Police Diverse?

If we look at other side of the coin then coin then we can say that ‘yes’ the police are diverse and are trying to become more diverse.  It is not just the police force that is embracing diversity but across whole range of organisations from private sector to public sector.  The report of Stephen Lawrence Inquiry stated, “the Home Secretary and the Police Authorities policing plan should include target recruiting, progression and retention of ethnic staff”5.  I think the police force are embracing diversity not just because there is a labour shortage but rather they are trying to reflect the society they serve.  A special conference was held in April 1999 entitled “Dismantling Barriers to reflect the community we serve”, the aims and objective of the conference were to:

• Identify barriers to the recruitment and selection of process adversely impact on ethnic minority people
• Produce a strategy to ensure that the diversity of the community is reflected in the police force and
• Ensure equality of treatment to serving minority ethnic officers6

The police have set up ‘Diversity Strategy Monitoring Unit’.  These strategies set out guidelines of what action is needed and how to implement them.  There is also an ongoing progress measure.  The Diversity Strategy Monitoring Group has highlighted some of the key points below:

• Inclusive diversity training for all staff
• Community is involved in diversity training
• Diversity training for all leadership ranks and all newly promoted Sergeants and Inspectors7  

All these points seem to fit in well with the model of Cox and Blake (1991).  They suggested that in order to have diversity fully engaged then everyone connected with the organisation should support it and it’s just not the job of the line manager.

Only few years ago the police had a minimum height restriction in order to join but that has been abolished due to unfair to the ethnic minority group.  They have realise that people from south Asia and far east Asia countries are a lot shorter than their British counterpart.

What Other Factors Encourage Organisation To Become More Diversity?

Today more and more organisation are becoming more diverse, whether they are doing this as a social responsibility or genuinely concerned about diversity remains to be seen.  It is no surprise that that the police force is also becoming diverse.

Multicultural Society

Britain is one of the most multicultural society in Europe.  It has a population ranging from Caribbean to Chinese.  Within the police force this is reflected.  For example, Leicester has one of the highest ethnic minority population in UK.  Their police force reflects the society, which they serve.  The ethnic community would not accept all workers coming from white population.  The advantage of the police force by recruiting ethnic minority is that they will be dismantling the psychological barrier.  Recruiting an ethnic minority will give them a better chance of understanding the community even better.  Black and Asian people always held suspicion over the police and one way of getting around this problem is by getting them to join the force.

Recruitment

“Diversity is central to modernisation in the police service and we want to ensure that the police service accurately reflects the community it serves”8.

It has been suggested by Kandola & Fullerton that one of the advantage of Diversity is recruitment.  Organisation have realised that if their organisation is diversity then they have better chance of recruiting high standard of people.  I believe if a person was to choose between an organisation, which was not diverse, and one, which was diverse, then they would choose the latter.  Certainly there is problem of recruitment and retention problem with the police force.  A lot of Black and Asian people do not apply due to the negative views held about the police.  And even after they do join they leave after short time.  There is a degree of element that diversity improves job satisfaction and increase productivity.  If an employee feels that they are being valued and their needs are being met then its only natural that they will pay back their employers.  

“Some organisation have already recognised the mapping the diversity of the external environment into their own internal organisation can have a positive impact on profibility”9.

Benefits of Diversity- Business:

• Better access to and understanding market segments and understanding of consumer behaviours
• Becoming an employer of choice through development of its employees value proposition and an improved external image
• Improved attraction and retention of talent, and in return improved bottom line services10

Employee:

• A more representative and balanced workforce
• Opportunities for people to contribute fully

Police Strategy

The police force have realised that they cannot just rely on male officers to run the force.  They have realised that women can also play a major role.  “Women represent 44% of economically active population”11.   In order to reach that target market they have put in several strategies:

Promotion & Development

They have redesigned accelerated promotion scheme- the High Potential Development Scheme.  Designed it to be more attractive to women, such as enlighten training delivery, more regular opportunities to join, increased capacity to setp off and back on

Gay & Lesbian Sexuality Issue

This is a market, which has not been touched upon.  The Association of Chief Police Officers has issued guidelines to the Police Service on the issue of sexual orientation.

Conclusion

From my research I have found that the Police are indeed a very diverse workforce compared with other organisation.  Maybe this is because they are public service, their main job is to serve the community they represent.  I believe the Police Force have accepted diversity not just because they are having problems recruiting people but because they also see the benefit.  If they want to provide the best service to the people they serve then the best way is to recruit those people.  

Reference

• Managing Diversity, An IPD position paper,
• CIPD Recruitment and Retention Survey, June 2003
• The Home Office Website,
• 10 Downing Street Website,
• Commission for Racial Equality,
• The Journal of People Management

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