Executive Summary
TELUS Communications Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications company that specializes in providing technology services such as television, Internet access, home security, and health care equipment. For more than thirty years in the market, TELUS Communications has launched a series of diversity and inclusion initiatives that concern both employment and customer services, as the company takes pride in being extremely customer-oriented. Currently, inclusion and diversity policies within the company address ethnic groups, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and people with disabilities. It has been established in the course of the analysis that TELUS Communications sets an example for other telecommunication companies. The recommendations for the diversity development include the conduction of an enterprise-wide survey to identify minor barriers to diversity and inclusion and the introduction of regular employee training on tolerance and quality organizational behavior.
Company History and Background
TELUS Communications, Inc. is one of the leading companies in telecommunication both in Canada and globally. According to the company’s website, TELUS is “a dynamic, world-leading communications and information technology company with $16 billion in annual revenue and 15.2 million customer connections” (About, n.d., p. 4). The range of TELUS services includes television, Internet access, virtual health care, home security, solutions for business, and agriculture. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that such a large enterprise should not neglect the fundamentals of corporate social responsibility (CSR), including ethnicity and diversity across the team. According to the company, its primary mission is to bring the world together with the help of technology and connection to the community (About, n.d.) Hence, it is necessary to identify the vision and objectives that stand behind such an ambitious goal.
Organizational Vision and Mission
Organizational behavior is a phenomenon related closely to the management’s presentation of the company in the market. Thus, if a company presents itself as an equality-oriented and socially conscientious enterprise, employees feel more encouraged to follow suit and cherish the company’s values internally. The statement of vision and mission of the company has a profound impact on the employees, as the team feels how their actions contribute to the ownership of the company’s goals. Indeed, according to researchers, “vision desirability may be constructed as either a desirable end goal to achieve or a valuable learning process guided by a laudable, even if utopian, goal” (Kopaneva, 2019, p. 140). Moreover, the overall definition of core mission bears the responsibility of providing directions to the whole enterprise (Bowen, 2018). As far as TELUS is concerned, the company’s vision embraces the opportunity of innovation and spiritual connection within the team (Our strategy and values, n.d.). Thus, it is imperative for the company to promote diversity and inclusion within the team in order to transmit these values to the public.
Ethnicity and Diversity
A diverse workplace is an environment where representatives of various ethnic and social groups work together to ensure quality communication and the development of a service that would be equally valuable to any customer. As far as the diversity policy of TELUS is concerned, the company allocates many resources to securing equality, ethnic, gender, and social diversity in the workplace. Thus, according to the company, inclusiveness and diversity in the workplace are ensured due to the following policies:
- Securing connection and community outreach among female employees. TELUS puts effort into promoting female empowerment among employees by securing equal access to resources and spheres of responsibility;
- Support of Black and indigenous TELUS employees. The company has successfully initiated programs called “Reach” and “Eagles.” The primary goal of these projects is to create a community of like-minded people who create a strong support system while voicing their concerns and desires to the company;
- “Mosaic” program. The program is specifically designed to invite talent from all over the world to join TELUS teams;
- “Spectrum” program. This initiative is designed to unite the representatives of the LGBTQ+ communities and allies in the promotion of equality among the employment team and community (Diversity and inclusion, n.d.).
Hence, having taken into consideration the variety of diversity-promoting initiatives, it can be concluded that currently, TELUS presents an example of an efficient organizational framework that promotes equality through the recognition of diversity. Indeed, many organizations, while creating zero-tolerance policies for racism and discrimination, overlook the importance of embracing diversity and educating the team. According to the scholars, “respondents report lower levels of support for workplace policies when these policies are framed as a mechanism to increase diversity” (Scraborough, Lambouth III, & Holbrook, 2019, p. 194). Hence, when employees are unaware of the reasons for diversity program implementation, the quality of this implementation is likely to suffer in the long term.
Moreover, one of the distinct features of TELUS’s organizational behavior is the promotion of diversity and inclusion across the whole supply chain. Thus, according to the company statements, TELUS pursues the commitment to supplier diversity by giving preference to smaller suppliers that represent diversity groups (Diversity and inclusion, n.d.). Hence, it can be concluded that TELUS Communications, Inc. presents a strong foundation for diversity in organizational employment.
Key Findings, Implications, and Recommendations
The analysis of TELUS Communications has demonstrated that the corporation can be rightfully considered a prime example of efficient implementation of diversity in the workplace. Indeed, the primary strength of the organization’s behavior within the company is its willingness to educate the team rather than impose a diversity framework on them. By paying attention to each employee group separately, the company builds a trusting relationship with its employees and encourages them to learn how to interact with each other meaningfully.
However, despite the number of promising initiatives presented by the company, some recommendations for diversity optimization should be embraced by TELUS. Thus, the first strategy to use will be the individuating approach (Chang & Milkman, 2020). According to this approach, paying more attention to the individual can be more fruitful than uniting several individuals according to their racial and ethnic affiliation. By creating support systems among various diversity groups, there is always a risk of polarization, so organizations should work towards both embracing individuality and eliminating the stigma of diversity in the workplace. Another important recommendation concerns the existing policies of the company. While such groups as “Reach” and “Spectrum” allocate resources for the employees to openly talk about their identity, it is unclear whether the concerns are heard by the management. For this reason, TELUS employees should be encouraged to fill out a company-wide survey on the matter of existing organizational challenges. By following these procedures, TELUS will be able to analyze the existing barriers to inclusion and diversity while placing emphasis on union rather than widening the gap between minority groups within the organization.
Bibliography
About. (n.d.). Web.
Kopaneva, I. M. (2019). Left in the dust: Employee constructions of mission and vision ownership. International Journal of Business Communication, 56(1), 122-145.
Bowen, S. A. (2018). Mission and vision. In R. L. Health, & W. Johansen, The international encyclopedia of strategic communication (pp. 1-9). John Wiley & Sons.
Our strategy and values. (n.d.). Web.
Diversity and inclusion. (n.d.). Web.
Chang , E. H., & Milkman, K. L. (2020). Improving decisions that affect gender equality in the workplace. Organizational Dynamics, 49(1).
Scraborough, W. J., Lambouth III, D. L., & Holbrook, A. L. (2019). Support of workplace diversity policies: The role of race, gender, and beliefs about inequality. Social Science Research, 79, 194-210.