Building a diverse workforce is one thing, but managing it well is another. While enabling diversity at work may look good on paper, it only contributes to organizational growth and development when effectively managed.
Effective diversity management at work is critical because poor management can impede organizational growth. This article explores the concept of diversity in the workplace, its importance, and simple strategies for managing it effectively.
Workplace diversity describes the range of individual variances accommodated within a company. An organization enables diversity through efforts to employ a broad section of individuals from different demographics.
Diversity at work shows how well a company or organization embraces differences. It is the trait of a company’s culture that informs it to prioritize blending the employee workforce.
Earlier, workplace diversity was only used to address ethnic and racial differences. Today, diversity at work has expanded to encompass several different characteristics, including:
Workplace diversity is not simply about having people from different backgrounds and demographics. It involves creating an environment where these people are valued with and for their differences.
A diverse and multicultural workforce offers numerous benefits to an organization, especially with the increasing globalization of the business landscape. Every business needs diversity to maintain a competitive advantage in their industry. Consider some top benefits companies enjoy from a diverse workforce:
Companies with diversity in their core value and culture earn a better reputation among customers and talents. It makes them appealing to people of various backgrounds and demographics, earning them loyal and repeat customers.
Similarly, companies with workplace diversity are perceived as better employers. As a result, they can attract top talent and human capital more effectively, even in highly competitive industries.
Diversity encourages creativity, innovation, and adaptability in operations across all business processes. In a diverse workplace, there are more ideas and perspectives and a wider range of skills and experiences, which increase productivity potential.
A company with a diverse workforce enjoys stability, efficiency, and resource optimization. Even when problems arise, working with people from various backgrounds and cultures makes developing solutions that ensure continuous productivity and sustained growth easier.
Expansion into new geographic markets is a significant indicator of growth, which every business desires. It is easier for businesses with a diverse workforce to expand and thrive in these markets.
A diverse workforce enables a company to design new local products or effectively tailor advertisements to reach the target market. Companies represented by a diverse workforce are also more relatable to customers, who readily patronize them.
The concepts of workplace diversity and inclusion are often used interchangeably. While they are related and go hand-in-hand, they do not mean the same thing. Diversity in the workplace refers to the variations or differences in physical, social, and personal characteristics like gender, age, ethnicity, and race.
On the other hand, inclusion describes how these differences are valued and integrated into the organization. It covers the processes a company takes to ensure that people coexist with their differences in a mutually beneficial way. Diversity is only beneficial to an organization where there is inclusion.
Enabling diversity offers many benefits to a company or organization. However, diversity can become counterproductive with poor inclusion and diversity management. Not only will it prevent harnessing the advantage of the diverse workforce, but it can even impede the company's growth. It is important to invest in proper diversity management as a transformational leader. Below are a few effective strategies that can help:
Workplace diversity management starts with the hiring process. When building your workforce, your hiring process must encourage and seek out diverse individuals. You can lay the foundation by selecting impartial people to lead interviews and the hiring process.
Use merit-based diversity when hiring to ensure you get the right talents in your team. This involves hiring people for what they can do despite their background, not simply hiring people from different backgrounds and demographics for a diverse outlook. Hiring the right talents makes their management easier in a workforce.
Design inclusive policies and embed these into the company culture to guide the practices of employees within the organization. These policies should cover all areas and processes, from recruitment to retention, promotion, and other opportunities.
Implement these policies strictly across all organizational levels. This will show everyone that inclusivity is a fundamental principle in the company.
Unconscious biases are subtle, involuntary judgments and assumptions people make about others, influenced by cultural stereotypes. These biases can impact daily interactions and create a toxic work environment. You can address these biases by raising awareness through training and interactive sessions.
Encourage open communication and use diplomacy and constructive dialogue among employees to identify and explore opportunities for improvement. You can also launch anonymous surveys to gain insight into employee experience and learn where to focus your attention.
One of the best ways to manage diversity and implement inclusion is to treat all employees fairly, equally, and respectfully. Refrain from encouraging favoritism based on personal, physical, or social characteristics instead of work efficiency.
Encourage equality at all leadership levels, from line managers to C-executives. This will ensure that equality is embedded in the company’s culture and everyday practices.
Clear communication is important in a diverse workplace, and one way to achieve this is by using inclusive language. Encourage employees to communicate clearly with language that is simple to understand. They should also respect everyone’s gender identity and use their preferred or generally inclusive pronouns.
Teach employees to communicate without making assumptions or using thoughtless jokes. In addition, train them to avoid defining people by their characteristics. Instead, they should call everyone by name or work title.
Design your workspaces to be inclusive and encourage interpersonal communication. Where practical, build shared workspaces with little barriers. And if possible, allow employees of various levels to work in the same shared spaces.
If using shared spaces in employee workstations is impractical, implement them elsewhere to foster interactions. For example, you could design shared restrooms or hire a locker company to design a locker room with employee lockers and benches.
Whenever there’s a need to work in groups, encourage diverse groupings and reshuffle the groups regularly. This allows employees to spend time with others with unidentical backgrounds and characteristics to build tolerance.
As team members spend time with different people, they get to know others beyond surface appearance, helping them dismiss preconceived notions and cultural stereotypes. Diverse grouping also encourages innovation and creativity, resulting in increased productivity.
Sensitivity training is crucial in managing diversity at work. Most employees may have no experience working with people from other or specific backgrounds and demographics. This training helps them to learn how to coexist with a diverse group.
Sensitivity training aims to make employees more self-aware of their cultural biases and prejudices. This will help them adjust their perspectives about others and learn to appreciate others’ views.
This training also teaches employees what actions are perceived as offensive and how to avoid them.
Create simple, actionable diversity goals for your organization. Clear goals provide a roadmap towards achieving diversity and help you to measure your success. However, your goals should not only be numerical. Rather, they should aim to impact employees, improve your work environment, and transform the company.
Consider involving your employees in the goal-setting, monitoring, and evaluation process. With all employees invested in the process, your diversity goals will be more easily achieved.
Look for opportunities to celebrate employees’ individual and cultural differences. Special events and native holidays provide excellent opportunities to celebrate organizational differences. Use this opportunity to help other employees learn more about the individual's culture and background, building their appreciation and respect.
You can also celebrate differences by recognizing and rewarding diverse perspectives and contributions. When employees see that their contributions to inclusion don’t go unnoticed, the entire organization is encouraged to follow that path.
It is evident that managing diversity and ensuring inclusion is demanding. It helps to hire or assign a diversity manager to handle this responsibility. Their role would include identifying diversity-related problems and creating and implementing strategies to resolve them.
Establishing a dedicated role focusing on diversity and inclusion ensures proper implementation and highlights its importance to other employees and external parties.
Diversity refers to the differences in a company's employees' physical, social, and personal characteristics. Enabling diversity offers numerous benefits to organizations, including increased productivity, a good reputation, and increased marketing opportunities. You can effectively manage diversity at work and foster inclusion by implementing inclusive policies, upholding equity, addressing unconscious bias, providing sensitivity training, and encouraging diverse teams and groupings.
