This article originally appeared on DiversityInc.com on January 26, 2006

If you are an employee planning your next career move, the important role diversity plays in your decision making and the need for it to be integral to your corporate culture could have major implications for your personal success and a company's growth.  

If avoiding a homogeneous work force is high on your preference list when considering a potential employer, before taking that job, you need to evaluate whether the company has made a real commitment to diversity and not mere lip service. If they are sincerely trying to create an inclusive environment, it shouldn't be a secret.

Checking a corporate Internet site is a good beginning. Many companies use this communication vehicle to proudly let the world know about their diversity efforts. When evaluating a site, look for details on work-force diversity, supplier diversity and community commitment, as well as diversity awards and recognition and how close this information is to their homepage. Pay particular attention to whether the company has made The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list, which is the most empirical, detailed and objective ranking of corporate-diversity success.

For example, anyone interested in pursuing a career with Bausch & Lomb (B&L) won't have much guesswork when it comes to figuring out what role diversity plays within the corporate culture at the eye-care-product manufacturer's offices, headquartered in Rochester, N.Y. And that's the point. A visit to the careers section of its Web site emphasizes the seven cultural drivers that everyone up and down the ranks at B&L (No. 33 on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list) is expected to adhere to at all times, together with a well-defined statement emphasizing the company's commitment to diversity.

An effective diversity plan is well thought out.  A company with a purposeful culture has done a great deal of research. "Every company has a culture.  If there isn't one it will develop over time," says Kim Spivey, senior organizational development consultant, Wachovia.  "You have a choice as to whether it develops by accident or whether you're intentional about it."

Undergoing a recent merger between First Union and Wachovia (No. 31 on The DiversityInc 2005 Top 50 Companies for Diversity list), leadership made a concerted effort to ensure that their culture would be well defined. First, they administered a culture survey across the employee base of both organizations, approximately 90,000 people and got close to a 60 percent response rate.  "Considering that it was a time of tremendous ambiguity for folks, it was a very good response rate.  We learned a lot about the differences between the cultures," says Spivey. They also commissioned the Gallup Organization to gauge their customer service.

Even when information was shared with Wachovia's employee-base about the brand's way to deliver service, the potential differential impacts across the different groups were evaluated to see what effects they could have on various identity groups.

"That's one of the ways that we walk the fine balance between creating a culture that's identifiable, that differentiates us [from other banks], without doing it to an extent that we send a message that people aren't able to be fully who they are as individuals in the workplace," says Spivey.

Another positive indication is when companies specify that they want to "access new markets" or hire people from "different backgrounds."  This usually means they understand the need for different perspectives and talents for the company to flourish.

Riddled with layoffs, disappointing earnings and legal battles, just four years ago diversity for B&L was based on the old company values that only referred to race and gender.  Today, the company has made a turnaround.  Its diversity initiative has progressed to cultural drivers that recruit people from different backgrounds, cultures and worldviews to bring unique perspectives and talents to the table.

"We believe that that dynamic--an environment rich with ideas and expression--permits innovation, creativity and high-quality problem-solving to occur," says Clay Osborne, vice president, human resources, diversity and organizational effectiveness. They've figured out how this collective talent base can help them gain new markets. 

A company that is serious will be clear about its expectations. To eliminate confusion about what B&L expects, a thorough pre-assessment interview to make certain that a candidate is a good fit, a follow-up interview that also details the company's culture to make certain you understand the fit, and orientation serve as reinforcement.

To ensure that Wachovia's employees display the values and embrace the culture, a Service Excellence Group that utilizes various communication vehicles keeps employees abreast on the standard way to do everything from answering the phones to conducting business meetings.

"The way that you experience our financial-services brand is through our people.  Our employees have to feel our brand promise. They have to understand it and know how to deliver it to our clients. So while we're out advertising about how Wachovia learns from the world around us, that we offer uncommon wisdom and help people succeed, that message has to ring true when our consumers walk through the door and interact with our employees," says Renee Brown, brand manager. 

Each employee also has a wallet card that spells out the company's vision, value, brand and service philosophy. "It's really a very important part of our culture that we are consistent, but we don't force conformity, because diversity is a very heartfelt value in our organization. We still have work to do to be a completely inclusive environment, but it is an important part of our values," says Spivey.

Companies that evaluate their employees and have metrics in place usually are right on track. B&L employees meet with their managers twice a year to go through a guided process of identifying their developmental needs and having them addressed. "We have a robust Performance Management System. It identifies the employee's strengths and weaknesses by measuring how they are meeting their objectives. This is how we evaluate people on the cultural drivers," says Osborne. This process requires objectives be set at the beginning of the year, and employee performance is measured mid-year and again six months later. If there are performance-related issues that need addressing, the Individual Development Planning Process allows you to get some help.

One key element for employees when adapting to diversity issues and the general ins and outs of corporate culture requires being receptive to change. If you are working in a company that's "renovating" its philosophies, understand you may be held to a higher standard. When B&L began moving in a new direction, some of its employees had a difficult time, as reflected in their performance reviews, which Osborne explains is an ongoing challenge. "Some people didn't get it because of the higher amount of scrutiny and supervision. This meant a greater deal of benchmarking, with an evidenced-based approach, rather than accomplishing work through gut feelings. Some people didn't like that supervision and either didn't make it or chose not to make it," he says.

Stay on top and understand the culture as it is, but also recognize that diversity for many companies is a process. It's been 10 years since Health Care Services Corp. (HCSC) (No. 17 on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list) formally created a diversity department, after recognizing the business implications. "It started innocently. We [observed] a lot of companies incorporating diversity into their culture and [thought] maybe we need to as well," recalls Rita Taylor-Nash, director of corporate diversity for HCSC, a non-investor-owned mutual-insurance company based in Chicago, which operates through its Blue Cross/Blue Shield divisions in Texas, New Mexico and Illinois.

Since that time, the company has moved through several phases, including awareness and competency. Taylor-Nash adds that there's still work to do to be completely inclusive. 

A company working to master diversity looks internally and externally. When diversity is truly working, the organization actively understands cultural differences in the workplace as well as the marketplace. The end result is a greater awareness and sensitivity. While HCSC was in the process of overseeing a merger between two companies with different cultures--southwestern and Midwestern--the need to be responsive to cultural differences and develop a diversity strategy became even more obvious.

Internally, HCSC managers are expected to take ownership of the company's diversity efforts and come up with a plan for how this will be integrated into every aspect of the way their business units do business. Their plans are reviewed every year and they are evaluated by the president. This accounts for 5 percent of the divisional bonus. "Diversity at its best is dispersed. This is really everybody's responsibility and you have to see it owned and played out on all different levels," says Taylor-Nash.

This plan also must facilitate a better understanding of customers. Taylor-Nash says this means listening beyond accents and dialects and even being aware of certain terminology. For example, she says, "When an African American refers to having 'sugar,' they are often speaking of diabetes." In the Bible belt, it may mean dealing with religious conversation. "When we interact with our customers and clients, diversity means being [responsive] to that individual's uniqueness and idiosyncrasies," she adds.

All of leadership plays a major role in setting the tone. "We didn't exclusively focus on race and gender [when defining our plan]. If it's just about representation, then it's not a tool. There were other things included, such as cognitive style. Everyone was part of the discussions. In fact, one of the key diversity champions at this company was the president--a white man," says Taylor-Nash.

As is the case with HCSC, leadership is expected to set the standard at Wachovia as well. "What's far more important is what people experience over time. It's the things that aren't necessarily said, that don't show up on a nice little card with your value statement. It's the behavior people observe at the top--particularly leadership behavior," says Spivey.

Individuality is respected and welcomed. Even in giving employees guidance on standard procedures, Spivey says, "They had specific enough guidelines but were not told 'you must.' Instead, we focused on the spirit of what we were trying to achieve. We gave them options, which gave them the opportunity to feel like they could bring their individual creativity, talent and spark to the table. This makes it a little bit more of a challenge than saying, 'this is how everyone's going to do it, down to the letter.'"