About the project
Despite the increasing diversity in the Slovak society, we have been witnessing the significant rise in intolerance and prejudice. According to the survey conducted by the PwC Slovakia, 97 % of participating companies consider diversity and inclusion as one of their corporate values. However, more than a half of these companies (55 %) predominantly understand it as a marketing tool boosting the position of the company at the labour market. This can also be supported by the PayLab Diversity Study, according to which 44 % of Slovak employees have no actual experience with diversity at workplace. If they do have such experience, it is usually an experience with mothers with small children, the elderly or foreigners. While mothers or older persons are perceived positively at workplace, members of LGBTIQ+ communities, persons with disabilities and ethnic minorities are usually perceived with negative connotations.
LGBTIQ+ communities
The Nationwide LGBTI survey conducted by the Initiative Otherness (Iniciatíva Inakosť) showed that 62.5 % of LGBTIQ+ respondents hid their sexual orientation at workplace and 36 % of respondents reported that they had a negative experience at workplace related to their sexual orientation. Some transnational employers promote mainly social and communication activities to make workplace inclusive for employees belonging to LGBTIQ+ communities. However, systematic measures to adapt workplaces to the needs of LGBTIQ+ communities (e.g. adoption of effective hiring policies, measures to protect privacy or use of inclusive language) are often missing also at the level of bigger employers. The main reason is the lack of technical and personal capacities
Persons with disabilities
Concerning persons with disabilities, many employers in Slovakia fail to meet their obligations and do not hire persons with disabilities, as they prefer other forms of subsidiary fulfilment. According to the Institute for Labour and Family Research, more than a half of employers that employ persons with disabilities make a job offer conditional upon the type and degree of disability. Many employers have no experience with creating the work opportunities for persons with disabilities and often connect them with high initial costs and other burdens.
Roma communities
The unemployment of Roma is alarming. In 2017, 28 % of all unemployed persons in Slovakia were Roma. Besides other issues, the major obstacle to the employment and inclusion of Roma at workplace are established prejudices and discrimination of the Roma ethnic group in Slovakia. Employment of marginalized Roma differs based on the type of business or employer. In case of larger employers and transnational corporations, the biggest obstacles lay in insufficient qualification of Roma applicants as well as their working habits. In case of SMEs, prejudices of the management and other employees are often the cause.
Women
According to the European Institute for Gender Equality, the overall score of Slovakia in respect to gender equality at workplace for the year 2017 was only 65.5 points. Since 2017, there has been no significant improvement. In average, Slovak women work less years over their lifetime than the Slovak men. While men work approximately 35.9 years over their lifetime, women only work 30.9 years, which is less than the European Union average. The remuneration system in Slovakia is adapted to the male life cycle and needs. So, women must adapt to male modes of work (e.g. the experience gained out of paid jobs or family care is usually not considered).
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT:
Diverse and non-discriminatory working environment is crucial for all vulnerable groups. Diversity creates the culture of mutual respect, trust and empathy that enables employers to be more innovative, effective and creative in solving problems. It also serves an effective tool to build good relations with employees.
Considering the limited understanding of diversity at workplace by employers and extremely low experience of employees with diversity at workplace, the Project aims to build capacities of employers to create, manage and maintain real diversity at workplace, as well as to regularly measure and assess it at their workplace. The Project aims to increase technical capacities of employers by creating accessible tools.
As part of the Project, employers were provided with a hybrid training module and a tool to measure diversity at workplace – the Diversity Index.
