Photo: Bentley Motors
The British luxury automaker has set out a five-step plan to increase diversity and inclusion among the company's ranks as part of its Beyond 100 (the company is now 101 years old) strategy.
With May drawing to a close, so does the European Diversity month, which means it's time for Pride celebrations to start worldwide. Well, Bentley has come up with a car that would camouflage perfectly at any of these events while also spreading a suitable message: "Love is Love."
The colorful Bentley Flying Spur—named the "Unifying Spur"—is the creation of Bentley designer (and spare time painter and sculptor) Rich Morris. The artist used the nine colors of the Progress flag to cover the sides and the roof of the luxurious limousine in splashes of colors and line drawings, with the engine hood serving as the medium for the "Love is Love" slogan we mentioned before.
The car will be unveiled to everyone at the company's Crewe headquarters before embarking on a series of activities that will probably see it travel around the world. In parallel, the VW-owned company has also announced plans to increase diversity among its employees, setting a target of 30 percent diversity at management level by 2025.
These were the facts. Now, if you'll allow, here's our take on this kind of discourse.
Of course, diversity is good. It's good for the business, it's good for the work environment, and it's good for the community as it gives everyone the feeling they're welcome to join the company, which is how things should be. What it's not good for, though, is recruitment policy.
Bentley says it looks to "drive a positive culture and remove unconscious bias" in the press release. OK, and replace it with what? Conscious bias? How is that better? Bias is bias, and no matter what other word you put next to it, it's still just as bad.
Diversity shouldn't be a quota you need to fill; it should come naturally. In other words, it's not the companies that should cherry-pick their employees based on any other criteria than merit; it's actually the government's job to make sure the available workforce is as diverse as the entire society. Otherwise, if you leave it to the employers, you're just replacing one type of discrimination with another. "Yes, you are qualified to work for us, but we have a diversity policy to stick by, so... sorry".
The colorful Bentley Flying Spur—named the "Unifying Spur"—is the creation of Bentley designer (and spare time painter and sculptor) Rich Morris. The artist used the nine colors of the Progress flag to cover the sides and the roof of the luxurious limousine in splashes of colors and line drawings, with the engine hood serving as the medium for the "Love is Love" slogan we mentioned before.
The car will be unveiled to everyone at the company's Crewe headquarters before embarking on a series of activities that will probably see it travel around the world. In parallel, the VW-owned company has also announced plans to increase diversity among its employees, setting a target of 30 percent diversity at management level by 2025.
These were the facts. Now, if you'll allow, here's our take on this kind of discourse.
Of course, diversity is good. It's good for the business, it's good for the work environment, and it's good for the community as it gives everyone the feeling they're welcome to join the company, which is how things should be. What it's not good for, though, is recruitment policy.
Bentley says it looks to "drive a positive culture and remove unconscious bias" in the press release. OK, and replace it with what? Conscious bias? How is that better? Bias is bias, and no matter what other word you put next to it, it's still just as bad.
Diversity shouldn't be a quota you need to fill; it should come naturally. In other words, it's not the companies that should cherry-pick their employees based on any other criteria than merit; it's actually the government's job to make sure the available workforce is as diverse as the entire society. Otherwise, if you leave it to the employers, you're just replacing one type of discrimination with another. "Yes, you are qualified to work for us, but we have a diversity policy to stick by, so... sorry".
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