DIVERSE WORKFORCE

How Cirque du Soleil manages the equality in diverse workforce

How Cirque du Soleil manages the equality in diverse workforce

Introduction

Cirque had changed the face of circus with its innovative practices. As of 2007, 3,000 people, with average age of 35 years, from more than 40 countries were employed with Cirque. To manage such a diverse workforce, it had a dynamic HR team which had to be 'constantly on the move'. Talking about how difficult the HR task at Cirque was at times, Gagnon said, “Guy Laliberte (Cirque du Soleil's founder) says that we reinvented the circus. But sometimes you have to reinvent HR.”

Discussion

In a span of over two decades, Cirque which began as a small company with 73 performers had spread its operations across the world. The company had two regional offices at Amsterdam and Las Vegas in addition to the headquarters in Montreal. As the company grew, Cirque had to undergo a complete paradigm shift when it came to recruitment, training, and even planning out HR policies for its employees.

For instance, in early 2005, Sylvain Carrier (Carrier), Director - Compensation, Benefits, and HR Systems, and his team reviewed and revamped Cirque's group insurance system. For this purpose, they had to measure the liabilities and risks of general insurance and human capital.

They wanted a consistent insurance policy and insurance provider for all employees of the company. However, this was very difficult to achieve because of the global spread of the Cirque employees and so the company decided to differentiate its insurance coverage on the basis of four geographical locations - the International Headquarters in Montreal, the Las Vegas office, the Amsterdam office, and the touring shows (all tours grouped as one location). Such a policy ensured that the performers got satisfactory coverage, wherever they were located in the world. Cirque was quite clear that it wanted only the best talent as its performers.

The increasing complexity of research on diversity in an organization is equivalent to the development of organizations into growing sophisticated and ever changing forms. Almost a decade before, Miles and Snow (1986) explained a revolutionary system of organization featured by consistent evolving within the team connections that permit organizations to rapidly react to market and technological changes, and hence get better chances of existence. Now, we observe pervasive implementation of these team based organizations. (Cox, 2006)

For the organizations, it has become so complicated to manage work force diversity. The administration of workforce as an instrument to proliferate organizational efficacy cannot be under emphasized, more significantly with recent changes spreading all over the globe. It has been claimed that those organizations who give importance to their diverse workforce will definitely grow as successful organization and will have a future in this globally ever changing labor market. Managing workforce diversity has evolved to be the most important and critical issue both for the private and governmental organizations. Free labor movement because of globalization and human struggle for their own rights by some particular minority cluster, who were having a thought of ...