Module 3 Subject Photos in the Employee Newsletter Please te

Module 3

Subject: Photos in the Employee Newsletter Please tell me what to do about photos in the monthly employee newsletter. I’m concerned that almost no single issue represents the diversity of employees we have here. As you know, our layout allows two visuals each month. One of those is always the employee of the month (EM). In the last year, most of those have been male and all but two have been white. What makes it worse is that people want photos that make them look good. You may remember that Ron Olmos was the EM two months ago; in the photo he wanted me to use, you can’t tell that he’s in a wheelchair. Often the EM is the only photo; the other visual is often a graph of sales or something relating to quality. Even if the second visual is another photo, it may not look balanced in terms of gender and race. After all, 62% of our employees are men, and 78% are white. Should the pictures try to represent those percentages? The leadership positions (both in management and in the union) are even more heavily male and white. Should we run pictures of people doing important things, and risk continuing the imbalance? I guess I could use more visuals, but then there wouldn’t be room for as many stories—and people really like to see their names in print. Plus, giving people information about company activities and sales is important to maintaining goodwill. A bigger newsletter would be one way to have more visuals and keep the content, but with the cost-cutting measures we’re under, that doesn’t look likely. What should I do?

Solution

Going by the adage- \"A picture is worth a thousand words\". You should reflect your company\'s diversity through any medium available at your discretion and by doing this, you can create an \'cultural openness\' sentiment for your company in the present and prospective employees. You could possible try to make a collage of people undertaking different activities like presentation, sports, etc. In case this is not possible, you can put in photographs of the contributors towards the newsletter alongside their articles (I believe the percentage would not be skewed in that part), and thus increasing the number of people being photographed.

On the other hand, it is perfectly fine if somebody doesn\'t want to be pictured in his wheelchair. Moreover, it shall actually help you to portray the \'equal treatment for all\' factor. But if you are interested in showcasing the ethnicity and special abilities of the people, you can surely write a brief note about the background of the employee.

Nevertheless, you can always ensure the people and the activity being photographed and thus meet the intent with assurance.

I hope I was able to help you properly. In case you need further explanation, let me know in the comments :-)