03/14/2007 - 03/15/2007

Employers are missing the mark when it comes to managing diversity

While much progress has been made, attitudes to diversity in the workplace remain old school. By default most employers seem to be missing out on the real business benefits that a more informed understanding and application of the business case and good practice could deliver. This is according to a survey, Diversity in business – a focus for progress, from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

UK government must protect minority languages

The UK Government must do more to meet its obligations to protect minority languages, a report warned today.

The call came in an 86-page report from a Council of Europe watchdog monitoring the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which came into force in the UK in July 2001. It commits the Government to safeguard and promote Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Scots, Ulster-Scots, Cornish and Manx Gaelic.

Word of the Day: taciturn

taciturn \TAS-uh-turn\, adjective:
Habitually silent; not inclined to talk.

On stage she seemed to become transformed, and the contrast was even more noticeable given her shy, taciturn character, shrouded in the impalpable veil of gloom that always surrounded her. -- Pino Cacucci, Tina Modotti: A Life

A balding, stocky, taciturn man who wore glasses, he gave an impression of distance and seriousness. -- "Diana's Driver: Unsettling Piece in a Puzzle", New York Times, September 21, 1997

Free Email Mini-course on Cultural Competency

Getting executive support for your cultural competency program—one of the biggest challenges faced by diversity committees in hospitals and medical groups, whether for-profit or nonprofit—just got easier, thanks to a free 7-day email course that teaches staff how to recognize the strategic benefits of cultural diversity training programs and argue their merits in the boardroom.

Patient experience expert Tim Dawes created the new email course called “7 Steps to Excellent Service for Patients of Any Culture.� People who sign up at http://www.interplaygroup.com/mini-ecourse.html will receive one email lesson per day for a week. They can opt out of the course at any time.

Better language skills essential, executives told

Business executives in Northern Ireland need to learn more languages, it was claimed today.

Exporting to new markets around the world is easier with better language capabilities, according to Fitch Chartered Accountants in Belfast. Michael Fitch, head of the firm, pointed out: "Businesses that employ people with language skills can achieve up to 44% more export sales than those who don't, new research from CILT, the national centre for languages, has found.

Word of the Day: descry

descry \dih-SKRY\, transitive verb:
1. To catch sight of, especially something distant or obscure; to discern.
2. To discover by observation; to detect.

On a clear day, if there was no sun, you could descry (but barely) the ships roving out at anchor in Herne Bay and count their masts. -- Ferdinand Mount, Jem (and Sam)

The future appears to us neither as impenetrable darkness nor as broad daylight, but rather in a half-light, in which we can descry the rough form of the nearest objects, and vague outlines farther off. -- Robert Conquest, Reflections on a Ravaged Century