Diversity and Inclusion Strategies for Assure Pharmaceutical Company

This report examines diversity and inclusion within Assure Pharmaceutical Company, addressing challenges such as gender pay gaps, ethnic discrimination, and lack of accommodations for disabled employees. The report, acting as a consultancy piece, proposes strategies like diversity training, cultural sensitivity programs, and revisions to HR policies. It emphasizes the importance of employee feedback, communication plans, and committee formation to implement these changes effectively. The recommendations aim to foster a more inclusive workplace, improve employee participation, and enhance organizational performance by creating a diversified workforce. The report underscores the benefits of diversity in innovation, employee satisfaction, and overall company success, highlighting the need for leadership to champion these initiatives.

Running head: LEADERSHIP, CHANGE AND CONSULTANCY
Leadership, Change and Consultancy
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Abstract
Organizations that embrace diversity as well as inclusion in all aspects of their policies
statistically outperform than the ones who do not. Workplace diversity gives an
understanding of the acceptance of people belonging to different backgrounds, ages, genders,
disabilities or sexual orientations. Diversity and its inclusion should be the mission, strategy
or practice of each and every organization. The best practices include equal opportunities, fair
treatment, collaboration and teamwork, conflict resolution procedures and many more. The
report discusses about diversity and inclusion, by taking into consideration a large sized
organization, Assure Pharmaceutical Company. The report highlights some strategies for
changing the work conditions and employee participation. Moreover, it also recommends
some ways on how the organizational leaders can adopt strategies for introducing a better
workplace, with high productivity level.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Diversity and Inclusion..........................................................................................................4
Designing strategies for changing the condition....................................................................5
Implementing diversity within the workplace........................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10
Appendix..................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
The history of Assure Pharmaceutical Company dates back to 1957, when the
company opened its first outlet at London. It gained immense popularity as it provides its
customers with quality pharmaceutical as well as healthcare products and services. The
company’s operating division is Assure Limited and the saga of this chain still continues to
grow. Assure Pharmaceutical Company is successfully operating at more than twenty
countries with over five hundred stores. In addition to this, the company has government
certified papers and more than that, with its highly skilled employees, the Assure has
managed to win the hearts of many people (Fullan 2014).
The report throws light on the inclusion of diversity, by taking into consideration a
large sized organization Assure Pharmaceutical Company. The purpose is to design some
strategies for creating and changing the conditions for work inclusion and employee
participation. In addition to this, the report recommends some ways and strategies on how to
implement the plans in order to introduce a better workplace, with higher productivity. Being
the consultant of the company, it is important to construct some plans and strategies and
implement them, so that it can help the organization to create some diversity policies in its
culture.
Discussion
Today, Assure Pharmaceutical Company is proudly servicing the pharmaceutical and
health needs of millions of customers, which includes over 100 corporate clients, nursing
homes, NGOs, reputed hospitals and others, by ensuring that they get high quality products as
well as services. The company has not only managed to win the hearts of many target
consumers and clients, but also it has provided its employees with a balanced professional

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and personal life. It has certified documents and its own patent proprietary medicines like
cough syrups, ointments and others, which are mostly prescribed by doctors. However,
recently the company is facing some issues regarding diversity inclusion in some of its stores,
which is hampering its reputation (Sotarauta, Horlings and Liddle 2012). Being the
consultation of the company, it is important to throw some light on the company’s policies
and how few strategies can be implemented for the overall profitability.
Diversity and Inclusion
Workforce recruitment organizations always have to fight with issues related to
diversity each day. Few organizations believe that diversity at the workplace is simply related
to the required quotas for the employees’ gender or race. However, it is much more than this.
Diversity and its inclusion in the organizations refers to the promotion of acceptance,
teamwork and respect despite the differences in gender, age, race, political beliefs, sexual
orientation, religion, native language or the communication styles among the employees. In
addition to this, there are various benefits in having a diversified workforce within the
organizational setting. Product and process innovation results from having diversified
workforce from various backgrounds or demographics (Wilson 2014).
Assure Pharmaceutical Company highly accepts diversified workforce and promotes
acceptance in its organizational policies. However, in some stores, employees are facing few
issues related to their ethnicity. It is important for the human resource consultant of the
company to take some steps and identify the issues of the employees. At times, when
different minds work together for achieving the common organizational goals, the results
could be monumental. Moreover, the companies, which practice diversity and its inclusion at
the workplace, have the potential to outperform non-diverse companies by fifteen percent
(Dawson-Shepherd, Kellner and Neumann 2013). Therefore, it is immensely crucial for the

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Assure Company to take these factors into consideration in order to give outstanding
performance in the upcoming years.
Firstly, in some parts, employees of the Assure Company are not getting equal wages
as per their working hours or qualifications. The women employees are receiving less salary
and bonuses as compared with the men employees. In fact, it is seen that some of the women
employees are more qualified and experienced than that of the men employees. In addition to
this, the employees are not getting adequate leaves and have to serve overtime, without any
payments. Incentives and bonuses are also not adequate for the women employees and they
are not even getting maternity benefits. The human resource manager of that regional office
is not taking any steps regarding such issues and the senior authorities are not even aware of
these situations (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). Assure Company’s vision is to provide its
employees with the best working environment but however, this is not getting fulfilled.
Moreover, in few branches of the company, the employees are not respecting each
other due to their ethnicity. The human resource managers need to be aware of such facts and
report to the senior authorities, depending on the severity of the issues. They should be aware
of the several challenges which are associated with the diversity inclusion, so that it can be
addressed and prevented at the early stage. Few employees hold some prejudices against the
individuals who have different culture, religious and ethnic backgrounds as their own. In
addition to this, the gender pay gap still exists within the organization (Olins 2017).
Therefore, being the human resource consultant of the company, it is immensely crucial to
take some necessary steps, in order to prevent these issues.
Designing strategies for changing the condition
In many organizations, employees have the mindset of “we have always done it in this
manner”, which needs to be changed. It is important to take some strategies at this stage, in

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order to retain the organizational values and image. Firstly, conducting diversity trainings by
adopting the Resource Based Theory will benefit the organization to a huge extent. The
diversity trainings will assist the employees in understanding, respecting and accepting each
other’s differences. Conflicts may arise at any point of time, where there is a lack of
acceptance among the employees regarding cultural beliefs and diversity (Biech 2016).
Therefore, proper training sessions must be conducted by hiring expert professionals and
certified trainers, who will impart education on diversity acceptance and its importance.
Secondly, employees should keep their personal and ethnic beliefs independent of the
work duties and responsibilities. Diversity in spiritual, political and cultural beliefs can pose a
great challenge in the diversified workplace. Therefore, each and every individual must be
instructed to keep their personal beliefs independent of the work responsibilities. However,
they must be given adequate time to perform their religion practices or rituals, if any. In
addition to this, few employees hold prejudices against the ones who have different cultural,
religious and ethnic backgrounds as their own. To solve this, cultural sensitiveness trainings
as well as diversity awareness programs must be held within the workplace in order to
address these issues (Vega and Colón-Berlingeri 2016).
Thirdly, gender pay gap still exists within the organization and being the human
resource consultant, it is immensely important to address this issue and take adequate steps. It
is high time that employers prevent gender discrimination as well as maintain equality in
terms of salary, promotions, hiring, selection and opportunities. Fourthly, disabled employees
often face difficulties in navigating through their workplace due to unavailability of proper
accommodations and wheelchair ramps (Syed and Ozbilgin 2015). Therefore, the Assure
Company needs to ensure a comfortable and fair working environment to its disabled
employees and help create a diversified workforce. Moreover, in several organizations, there
are diversified age groups, that is, from teenagers to senior employees (Devarakonda and

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Powlay 2016). Assure Company also have to deal with such issues as some workers feel
isolated from the group, due to the age gap and different social circles.
This issue can be resolved by creating an open communication culture so that it helps
in bridging the communication gap within the organization. The communication and
language barriers are present in every company having a diversified workforce. The human
resource consultant should conduct language training sessions for the non native English
speakers, in order to prevent any miscommunication (Deane 2013). In addition to this, Assure
Company needs to hire bilingual or multilingual employees so that it helps in bridging the
communication barriers. Increasing diversity within the workplace can benefit the Assure
Company on the long run. The companies with more diversified workforce have the potential
to perform forty percent above the national industrial medians.
Implementing diversity within the workplace
In order to implement diversity within the workplace, the human resource consultant
of the Assure Company needs to reshuffle the existing strategies and replace them with some
new ones. Firstly, it is important to establish a committee, which is one of the major steps in
implementing the diversity strategies. This should include the feedbacks and opinions of the
employees in each step of the entire process. This procedure includes the cross section of the
employees, that is, the employees from various departments and at different levels. This is
more likely to generate employee support and assist in diversity implementation. The first
and foremost step is to form a committee of the employees, who will give their valuable
opinions in reviewing the employee systems. This throws light on the Institutional Theory
of Diversity Management (Muzio and Tomlinson 2012).
Secondly, creating an effective and efficient communication plan is immensely
important as well as essential in raising awareness. It will help in communicating necessary

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information regarding the company’s diversity objectives and goals, by adopting the
Consultant Approach. The human resource consultant of the Assure Company should
identify as well as document the types, amount and timing of the information which will be
shared all throughout the project. Thirdly, the consultant should review the human resource
policies as well as procedures of the company and identify the barriers which exist (Metcalfe
and Rees 2013). The review should essentially encompass the policies within the groups and
ensure that these policies are fairly and consistently applied in all circumstances.
Fourthly, gathering employee feedback is an excellent source of information for
finding out how the practices as well as policies are really applied within the organization.
The human resource consultant of the company should conduct one on one interview, focus
groups and anonymous employee surveys in order to understand their strengths and
weaknesses, competencies and in-competencies (Winkle-Wagner and Locks 2013). In
addition to this, all the information that is collected should be handled with utmost integrity
and confidentiality and communicated to the senior authorities with utmost sincerity. If these
factors are conducted properly, it will help in increasing employee support for this initiative
(White et al. 2013).
Last but not the least; human resource practices and employment legislation
benchmarks must be applied at the time of analyzing the data. Moreover, the outputs of the
analysis should include the reports consisting of action plans for eliminating employment
barriers, if any. In addition to this, the human resource consultant of the company should also
identify the examples that exist within the organizational practices and policies which
exemplify the positive contributions of implementing diversity (Bhopal and Rhamie 2014).
Therefore, these factors must be kept in mind, so that Assure Company do not face any
diversity issues within their work environment.

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Conclusion
To conclude, Assure Pharmaceutical Company has an unwavering commitment to
diversity and inclusion. The commitment however, starts from the top, with the Chief
Executive Officer of the company and the board of directors as well. They expect the
organizational leaders at all levels to assist in creating as well as sustain an environment,
inclusive of diversity. Their aim is to be most inclusive as well as diversified organization in
the world. They embrace diversity as a powerful source of creativity, competitive advantage
and innovation. However, recently the company is facing some issues related to diversity at
some of its branches, which needs to be taken care as soon as possible.
Diversity and inclusion must be the fundamentals to the core and cultural values at
Assure Company. The human resource consultant of the organization should keep a track and
check that nobody is discriminated because of their differences in terms of age, ethnicity,
disability, expression, sexual orientation and religion. In addition to this, the company should
also check that the business practices uphold the diversity principles, equality and inclusion.
The employees must be encouraged and motivated on a regular basis in order to accept
various backgrounds and diversified workforce within the workplace.

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References
Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015. Changing organizational culture: Cultural change
work in progress. Routledge.
Bhopal, K. and Rhamie, J., 2014. Initial teacher training: Understanding ‘race,’diversity and
inclusion. Race Ethnicity and Education, 17(3), pp.304-325.
Biech, E., 2016. Diversity and Inclusion. 101 More Ways to Make Training Active, pp.144-
152.
Dawson-Shepherd, A., Kellner, K. and Neumann, J.E., 2013. Developing organisational
consultancy. Routledge.
Deane, B.R., 2013. Diversity at work: The practice of inclusion(Vol. 33). John Wiley & Sons.
Devarakonda, C. and Powlay, L., 2016. Diversity and Inclusion. A Guide to Early Years and
Primary Teaching, pp.185-204.
Fullan, M., 2014. Leading in a culture of change personal action guide and workbook. John
Wiley & Sons.
Metcalfe, B.D. and Rees, C.J., 2013. Gender, globalization and organization: exploring
power, relations and intersections. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International
Journal.
Muzio, D. and Tomlinson, J., 2012. Researching gender, inclusion and diversity in
contemporary professions and professional organizations. Gender, Work &
Organization, 19(5), pp.455-466.

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Olins, W., 2017. The new guide to identity: How to create and sustain change through
managing identity. Routledge.
Sotarauta, M., Horlings, I. and Liddle, J. eds., 2012. Leadership and change in sustainable
regional development. Routledge.
Syed, J. and Ozbilgin, M. eds., 2015. Managing diversity and inclusion: An international
perspective. Sage.
Vega, I.E. and Colón-Berlingeri, M., 2016. Diversity is Inclusion. Journal of Undergraduate
Neuroscience Education, 14(2), p.E20.
White, C., Louis, B., Persky, A., Howell, D.T., Griffin, L.M., Simmons-Yon, A. and Scolaro,
K.L., 2013. Institutional strategies to achieve diversity and inclusion in pharmacy
education. American journal of pharmaceutical education, 77(5), p.97.
Wilson, J.P., 2014. International human resource development: Learning, education and
training for individuals and organisations. Development and Learning in
Organizations, 28(2).
Winkle-Wagner, R. and Locks, A.M., 2013. Diversity and inclusion on campus: Supporting
racially and ethnically underrepresented students. Routledge.

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Appendix

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