What is Workforce Diversity?
"Workforce Diversity", a "Diverse Workforce", and an "Inclusive Workforce" are more or less inter-exchangeable terms expressing a HETEROGENEOUS COMPOSITION of an organization; one that it is composed of employees having different backgrounds. These employee backgrounds include race, language, gender, age, social class, religion, region, ethnicity, sexual orientation and physical disabilities.
The term is also used to indicate the NEED and the APPRECIATION of such workforce. It then indicates a working environment that values individuals and harnesses the abilities of each individual, embracing their different backgrounds and perspectives.
What is Diversity Management?
Diversity Management refers to all organizational actions that aim to promote workforce diversity and greater inclusion of employees from different backgrounds into an organization's functioning through various policies, programs and other means.
Benefits of Workforce Diversity. Advantages
A diverse workforce can bring a set of different experiences and ways of thinking to the table which can drive creativity and support innovation. Because the twenty first century's society is so dynamic, complex and interconnected due to globalization and due to rapid advancements in technology, workforce diversity and inclusion have become more important for many organizations. Diversity in workforce is also establishing a positive corporate reputation and can be helpful in recruitment and decreasing the rate of employee turnover and absenteeism.
Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Checklist
In order to establish, promote and enforce employee diversity and inclusion, an organization can do many things. Here is a checklist:
- Educate leaders about the concept and benefits.
- Form a diversity/inclusion council.
- Set employee diversity and inclusion goals and objectives.
- Write a mission statement that expresses the importance of diversity for the organization. All the dimensions of diversity should be addressed in this statement (such as race, ethnicity, religion, ...).
- Develop a strategy for enforcing employee diversity and inclusion.
- Build a diversity and inclusion policy (HR).
- Communicate the diversity statement, goals, objectives, policy and strategy.
- Elucidate diversity in your organization's perspective.
- Celebrate employee differences.
- Specify a benchmark for best diversity practices.
- Listen to employees. Conduct one on one interviews from employees representing different backgrounds to gather information about their culture and beliefs.
- Offer holidays on the important religious days to the employees having different ethnic backgrounds.
- Encourage employees to celebrate their diversity through sharing their culturally diverse food in lunch party.
- Measure the progress in implementing the diversity and inclusion strategy.
- Organize a cultural audit annually.
- Mentor employees in meetings and through a living example.
- Develop a 360 evaluation process for making the leadership accountable for retaining diversity and employee inclusion.
- Start a communication system or platform for employees internally in which they can share their personal life stories.
- Utilize business parties as a platform for networking with employees from diverse background.
Forum about Diversity Management.
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The Business Case for Diversity
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Management Across Cultures: Managing in a Global Context Cross-Cultural Management, Cultural Dimensions, Cultural Intelligence, Multicultural Teams, Global Leadership, Global HR This presentation consist of six sections that together form an extensive description of management across cultures. The...
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International Human Resource Management Human Resource Management, Globalization, HR in Multinationals Presentation about HRM in an increasingly globalized environment. The presentation includes the following sections:
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Compare with: Cross-Functional Team | Globalization | Six Thinking Hats | Cultural Dimensions | Bottom-up Approach | 360-Degree Feedback | Knowledge Management | Employee Engagement | Empowerment of Employees
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