Diversity Works New Zealand's latest New Zealand Diversity Survey has found that bias is a growing concern for New Zealand businesses trying to increase diversity and inclusion in their workplace.
The survey of 302 organisations was carried out in April 2017. Of the respondents, 54.3% were in the private sector, and 17.5% were in the professional, scientific and technical services sector.
The results show that 48% of organisations identified bias to be a key issue - up 18% from the previous survey six months ago. Bias is now ranked as the third most important diversity issue in the workplace, behind wellbeing and flexibility.
Importance of diversity issues for organisations
| Issues | Apr-17 | Oct-16 | Apr-16 |
| Wellbeing/wellness | 66.9% | 62.3% | 63.3% |
| Flexibility | 54.6% | 53.1% | 55.4% |
| Bias | 48.3% | 30.1% | 34.7% |
| Ageing | 47.0% | 43.8% | 46.2% |
| Gender | 45.0% | 28.9% | 31.5% |
| Ethnicity | 41.4% | 27.0% | 28.1% |
| Bullying and harassment | 35.8% | 25.6% | 30.6% |
| Employment transition for | 27.5% | 27.6% | 26.1% |
| Disability | 24.2% | 16.2% | 16.2% |
| Sexuality | 17.9% | 11.0% | 12.3% |
| Religion | 12.3% | 7.7% | 6.9% |