Initiating a diversity program: the process and its risks and returns

From an internal perspective, we had to go beyond the traditional arena of "multiculturalism". Although we had employees with diverse personal backgrounds, our challenge internally was to confront Issues of differences in the five corporate cultures which were now one company. Additionally, biases and stereotypes about different staff (lenders, branch staff, operations staff) created assumptions and barriers within the company. These internal corporate issues were not intentionally addressed, but in the classes, they became a topic of discussion and were formally acknowledged for the first time, The diversity philosophy also dovetailed into programs to comply with two regulatory standards established by federal legislation: the Community Reinvestment Act, which stipulates that a certain proportion of the bank\´s lending activity be concentrated in the communities from which we garner deposits and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The initiation of this project obviously addressed a variety of corporate goals. As a natural step in a sequence of projects, the program was given a context and our employees were committed to the idea