Initially, diversity was treated from the point of view of Corporate Social Responsibility and not from the approach that organizations are diverse in itself. Now we know that management of diversity is necessary, since it brings benefits to areas such as innovation, competitiveness and efficiency. This is the message that Fundación Diversidad has spread in its 10 years of existence, and with that it has contributed to generation of cultural change that brings equality, tolerance, and business competitiveness to the Spanish business sector.

Form the beginning, the foundation has worked primarily with the private sector along with the government and the civil society. During these 10 years, Fundación Diversidad has influenced most of the stakeholders that, in one way or another, promoted the importance of diversity in Spain.

In a survey that was done in 2018, some signees of the Spanish Charter valued the activities of the Foundation, and the analysis revealed that 76% consider the published studies to be very useful. On the other hand, 60% affirmed that being a signee of the Diversity Charter helped them to sensitize their employees, clients and suppliers in terms of equality and employment. 53% also stated that being part of the Charter contributed to improving their knowledge in diversity management.

The Foundation has had the opportunity to collect data on trends and challenges regarding diversity in the Spanish business sector. Specifically, with valuable information of the signees of the Charter that serves, on one hand, to analyze the maturity of the management of diversity in the Spanish company and, on the other hand, to propose awareness actions and create new diversity management policies in companies and organizations. Similarly, it is also useful to detect work niches to reinforce the correct management of people within organizations. Likewise, an improvement was detected in the strategies implemented in the selection of staff members to achieved a diverse workforce.

In 2016, of the companies surveyed, only 10% said they had implemented a Diversity and Inclusion Program in the workplace. In 2018 we saw a clear upward trend as the figure increased to 27%. Another example of improvement was the use of the blind curriculum. In 2016, 20% of the respondents claimed to have used this practice while in 2018 the number of uses climbed to 31%. Finally, 80% of the companies surveyed said they had given some type of specific training on the subject to their employees or at least a part of them.

The 900+ companies that have subscribed to the principles defended by the Charter of Diversity represent over 550,000 workers in Spain. Majority of them are small and medium enterprises (a representative sample of the business sector in Spain and Europe), which may face an additional difficulty when wanting to promote diversity policies, especially since the large companies have a specific department dedicated to diversity. Nevertheless, the signatories of the Spanish Charter have internalized the culture of diversity regardless of the size of their organization

Since 2015, the Foundation has created a strategic alliance with the IE Business School to deepen certain aspects and areas of diversity, such as generational diversity in Spanish companies focusing on senior talent and the correlation between diversity and innovation. Two studies on the subject were published. A second part will be published later in 2019 about the Study on Diversity and Innovation.

In the words of the President of Fundación Diversidad, Ms. María Eugenia Girón, one of our objectives is to build the "Business Case" of Diversity, to demonstrate how diversity and inclusion are correlated with greater innovation and competitiveness.