Requirements
Policy is potentially the toughest of all these to address, perhaps along with rewards and incentives. Policies can pose the largest barriers. We do a great job of saying we want our school environments to be inclusive or diverse, and then we bump against some policy that keeps us from doing precisely what we should. Let's look at a corporate example first.
Example:
Workplace diversity – Some organizations have “flexible work” policies. In some organizations, that policy simply is, “Employees are not allowed to work from home, job share, or work hours other than those posted as normal operating hours.” This sort of policy is onerous to many individuals who may be highly competent and in fact unnecessarily limits the pool of applicants from which an organization can hire.
Other organizations have policies that allow for at-home work, job sharing, flex-time and other arrangements that allow individuals to adjust work schedules to meet a variety of demands.
These sorts of flexible schedules open the work environment to a diverse array of competent individuals who require the flexibility to meet the demands of their lives. Single moms, the “sandwich generation” of adults who care for aging parents and children, person's who are geographically constrained and the like all benefit from these sorts of flexible – or universally designed – policies.
When a business does not have these sorts of flexible policies, they actually limit their own ability to hire the most qualified applicants. The most qualified individual may also happen to be an individual whose life requires some flexibility.
Reflection:
What are some policies in your school/work environment that limit diversity? How could they be adapted? By not adapting those, what could the potential costs be to your school or work?