| Britain has never been more diverse and the need | | | | Not everything that can be measured is important |
| for organisations to recognise and manage | | | | and not everything that is important can be |
| equality and diversity issues has never been more | | | | measured. An undeniable aspect of 21st-century |
| prevalent. Yet many organisations are still standing | | | | working is measurement. Seemingly everything |
| firmly behind the starting line even though they | | | | that is capable of being measured nowadays is. |
| realise they are being left behind. | | | | The measurements that are made within |
| Back in the 1980s equality was, for many | | | | organisations are, more often than not, analysed, |
| organisations, a matter of race and gender issues. | | | | placed into a league table or graph and duly |
| In the early part of this decade there was a rush | | | | offered as a statistic to indicate either |
| to train managers to comply with the (by then | | | | 'performance' or 'opportunity for improvement'. |
| established) gender and race discrimination laws. | | | | In some cases this may well be a good thing but |
| 'Never ask a woman if she intends to have | | | | as a result, an average worker, within all sectors |
| children during a job interview,' said many training | | | | of UK business (including voluntary and not for |
| officers of the time. 'Why not?' replied many | | | | profit) may find themselves analysing targets, |
| 1980s male managers. | | | | measures and key performance indicators as part |
| While it can be argued that things have moved on | | | | of their daily working lives. However, in this world |
| considerably in the last 20 years, more often than | | | | of 'if it counts you can count it' certain important |
| not this is not the case. In reality, many | | | | issues that are not always as easy to 'count' can |
| organisations (large, small, public, private etc) still | | | | often be overlooked. While it is almost impossible |
| remain confused as to what is required of them | | | | to measure, not all employees feel fully included |
| within this area and why they need to do | | | | and therefore do not fully contribute. |
| anything in the first place. | | | | |