Multiculturalism in foodservice: how diversity impacts your business

Nation's Restaurant News, August 12, 2002

For Hispanics, nearly 80 percent of the respondents said they do not have any Hispanics on their boards, 71 percent do not have any Hispanic corporate officers, almost 55 percent do not have any Hispanic top managers, 67 percent do not have any regional managers who are Hispanic and about 17 percent do not have any unit managers who are Hispanic. (See figure 8)

The results were also similar for Asian/Pacific Islander and Native Americans.

The percentages were high despite a clear majority of respondents indicating that they have mandatory diversity training for employees and senior managers. Almost 67 percent of 87 respondents said they conduct diversity training for employees. And 63 percent said they do the training for upper management as well. Nearly 87 percent of 68 respondents said the training is mandatory.

Employees get diversity training primarily through classes, seminars, workshops, their jobs and language classes.

However, 61 percent of 36 respondents said they do not apply specific incentives to managers for applying diversity initiatives. And half of them do not consider progress on diversity initiatives in a manager's performance review. (See figure 9)

Nearly 61 percent of the 115 respondents said they do not have specific programs in place to help recruit, retain and promote qualified minorities. (See figure 10)

Of the almost 40 percent who do, those efforts took the form of mentoring programs, internships, support networks, fast-track management strategies for minorities, support groups and a variety of other methods, including a community relations project, English language classes and succession plans. (See figure 11)

Conclusion

Although the 2002 survey shows little progress in establishing corporate diversity goals, supplier/vendor programs, ethnic marketing plans and promotion of minorities to management positions, there are indications that restaurant operators still desire to embrace diversity in their business. Survey respondents wrote that they are creating programs to include and promote minorities and designing methods to measure how well they are achieving their goals.

Respondents repeatedly emphasized the importance of a multicultural workforce and described their efforts to reach minority workers. Although only about 40 percent of 41 respondents said they have programs in place to recruit, retain and promote minorities, those who did reported some successes with their efforts.

Mentoring programs and internships were found to be the most effective methods. It also was found that what works is to create a corporate culture that welcomes all groups. Some respondents said having numerical goals and objectives established by the chief executive officer is effective. Others found support groups helpful.

One respondent wrote: "Our African American and Hispanic recruiters are by far the best mentors because they help new minorities on board during the first six weeks when it's pretty hectic, and they might be having second thoughts. Mentoring allows for a personal touch, and the mentor can help bring issues to the right person's attention before a trainee crashes and burns!"