Human Resource Strategies Proposal
1. Propose
This document will explore what a company can do to foster diversity in the workplace. The business case highlights the development and implementation of organizational initiatives that could:
A increase the numerical representation of historically excluded groups,
B empower a diverse workforce once it is in place to participate fully in organizational decision making,
C ensure the inclusion of a diverse workforce in every aspect of organizational life[1]
2. Introdution
In an ideal world, every person is treated equally when it comes to getting a job, advancing in his or her career and being treated fairly in the workplace. Unfortunately, discrimination still exists in hiring, firing and promotions; and the diversity of the workforce regrettably can cause hostility in the workplace when individuals do not appreciate and respect the differences among themselves and their co-workers.
Businesses that promote diversity in today's global marketplace are better able to attract and retain the best talent. Employing a diverse workforce allows a company to utilize the potential within the job market to its fullest and contributes to overall economic growth and prosperity. Differences among co-workers should not divide a workplace. Rather, differences among co-workers should be used to foster creativity and innovation, thereby driving profitability and business success.
3. Diversity - What Is It?
Traditionally, diversity refers to an assortment of races, ethnicities, genders, ages, disabilities and perhaps sexual orientations. A definition of diversity, however, should not be constrained by traditional categories such as these. Such a definition should also include categories such as religion, educational level, life experience, geographic location, socio-economic background, marital status and work experience. Indeed, each person employed by a company possesses unique qualities that encompass many factors.
The Dimensions of Diversity encompasses two Dimensions[2] (see the presentation Slide 5).
4. Factors that motivate companies to diversify their workforces
Here is a overview of seven predominant factors that motivate companies, large and small, to diversify their workforces, As a Social Responsibility, As an Economic Payback, As a Resource Imperative, As a Legal Requirement, As a Marketing Strategy, As a Business Communications Strategy, As a Capacity-building Strategy.
For whichever of these reasons that motivates them, it is clear that companies that diversify their workforces will have a distinct competitive advantage over those that don’t.
5. How To Diversify the Workforce
Gender, racial, and ethnic diversity means different things to different people. Some believe that diversity is about quotas, and affirmative action. Others believe that diversity is something that will happen on its own with out intervention. Some experts who study diversity, however, believe that diversity is not something that should be left up to chance. It is important, therefore, for organizations to take action to encourage and foster diversity in the workplace (Clarke, 1995, p. 13).
Diversity used to be considered just the “right thing to do.” But in my experience, intentionally building a diverse workforce reveals a much deeper impact. An inclusive workplace – one in which people feel they belong and to which they can bring the richness of their experiences to work every day – is imperative for any organization that wants to succeed in the global marketplace.
Workforce diversity has become a reality in organizations. More organizations have written workforce diversity policies or programs. Although there is still no consensus on how to define workforce diversity, diversity policies and program are producing positive effects in organizations. Diversity in the workplace is a way of defining acceptable behaviors of employees. Diversity represents all the ways in which individuals are both similar and different. It involves a variation of characteristics such as: age, sex, color, religion, national origin, disability, or any other differences. Although diversity initiatives are common in the workplace today, this is due mainly to the federal government use of constitutional amendments, legislation, and executive orders, along with court decisions to interpret the laws for equal rights (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, 2010). The way an organization defines diversity and how it manages its diverse workforce may determine its effectiveness.
Diversity is vital to the success of today’s business model. Companies small and large have demonstrated benefits from an economic standpoint as well as talent management perspective. Canas & Sondak outline four pillars of change necessary for a successful program. These pillars are described as “demonstrate leadership support”, “engage employees as partners”, integrate diversity with management practices” and “link diversity goals to business goals” (Canas & Sondak, 2014). Novartis as a global company validates the theory to lead diversity within its organization.
innovation, growth, intervention). Positive business outcomes from increasing diversity may depend on whether the firm emphasizes an innovation strategy or values retention of top talent. Organizations that value diversity possess organizational flexibility due to the presence of diverse thinking, greater ability to draw and retain the best talent. Apart from affirmative action, a successful diversity strategy must create a work environment that cultivates teamwork, participation, and cohesiveness. These could only be possible with a pro-active approach, long-term commitment of leadership and resources. In general, diversity can be an asset or a liability depending on company’s strategy toward managing
Barak, M. E. (2005). Managing diversity: toward a globally inclusive workplace. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
Diversity in the workplace is important for employees because it manifests itself in building a great reputation for the company, leading to increased profitability and opportunities for workers. Making sure all members, students, parents and guarding’s are welcomed at all times in a well-mannered environment Workplace diversity is important within the organization as well as outside ensuring all different are put aside and everyone can come together and work well as a great team.
Cox, 1991; Cox and Blake, (1991) argued that “managing diversity can create a competitive advantage, better decision making higher creativity and greater success and a better distribution of economic opportunity.”
Diversity is a highly important issue in today’s business, especially in a globalized company. Workplace diversity helps to get better solutions to business problems (Schawbel, 2012). When you have a group of individ...
Moreover, this equivalent opportunity concept in workplace diversity is aimed for guaranteeing that business organizations make the most out of the difference from workforce varieties rather than to losing ability which may help the businesses to be more proficient and effective. Workplace diversity carries with the heterogeneity that should be sustained, developed and acknowledged as method for enriching organizational effectiveness in this modern society (Henry & Evans, 2007). In order to make sure organizations achieve the diversity goals, businesses should take the appropriate actions to boost culturally diverse employees. Thus, businesses need to gain progress toward multiculturalism, which should incorporates to avoid employees ' impression of the degree of separation and bias, the equal rewards and punishment, the openness of critical information, and the chances for employees to stepping up for their career goals in future (Brown, 2008). Truly, develop and implement multiculturalism in the workplace is not an easy thing to do for businesses. It needs a certain numbers of policy and regulations to follow and adjust before businesses or organizations are actually considering diversity. Also, work diverse group come from people that has different ages, ethnicity, and sexual orientation working together to form a multicultural workplace. There are some
The process of intentional including issues of workforce diversity into management is called diversity management. Diversity management refers at least to three disciplines: human resources management, work law, marketing and change management, which mutually derive from their work. However, data collected from global surveys during ongoing downturn show that is first closely related to strategic management (Minchington, 2013, pp. 2–3).
Diversity issues will gain importance because of the effective interactions and communications between the people. Diversity is the reality of the business world. It can have negative and positive impact on the employee’s behaviour towards work and work results. This also depends on how the employees have understood it and grasps it.
Creating a more inclusionary workplace Introduction Diversity has emerged to be one of the core organizational values today. Appropriately so, as organizations have realized the benefits that it brings including greater customer satisfaction, better financial performance and decision making. In a survey by SHRM , respondents (including C-level executives) cited three primary reasons for their organization’s Diversity and Inclusion agenda - tapping into a broader range of backgrounds and skill sets, social and ethical concerns motivated by fairness and justice and thirdly, tapping new sources of talent to understand customers better and increase sales. Hays-Thomas and Bendick (2013, p. 195) define diversity as “the mixture of attributes within
One of the challenges organizations face today is obtaining and retaining human capital while evolving parallel to the continuous changes within our society and diversity in the workforce. (Bohlander & Snell, 2013) Maak & Pless (2004) suggests that the challenges are not based on compliance with legislation, but rather organizations’ ability to embrace and utilize its diverse workforce to the advantage of achieving organizational goals. (as cited in Sabharwal, 2014) In-groups and out-groups can create an inclusion-exclusion continuum and discrimination in the workplace. However, if an organization promotes inclusion (i.e. allowing employees to influence organizational decisions), and supports cultural differences by utilizing employees
Diversity is all around us and how organizations deal with the notion of diversity can be complex and quite diverse. We know that being diverse in the workplace is important to the organization's success, should be recognized, accepted, and embraced. It’s how the organizations live up to what they believe in and must go above and beyond legal compliance and requirements to promoting diversity and inclusion. Otherwise, employees may view the organization's vision and policies as lip service and only be tolerant of diversity because the organization said so.