Human Resources: The Diversity Challenge

With our current labour market, four generations in the workplace and an increase draw on migrant workers, diversity in the workplace is greater than ever. Not only are the workteams more diverse, but with a global market, so are our customers. The challenge for employers is to create an inclusive environment that draws on the strengths of their people and meets the needs of the customer base.

What differences do you have in your workplace? And, are you maximizing on the differences to leverage success for your staff and your organization?

We hear a lot of talk about diversity, generally meaning differences, which can be any difference that you can conceive i.e.: height, weight, eye colour, right handed vs. left handed, gender, physical ability, age, ethnicity, and on a deeper level: parental status, sexual orientation, veteran status, work style, etc.

The challenge for employers is to move from diversity to inclusion in the workplace, removing the barriers to full participation in order to achieve business outcomes. It involves managing the differences within the workforce to create an environment where all people can fully engage in the workplace, thus utilizing their differences in order to meet business needs while creating an atmosphere of mutual respect and appreciation that supports staff to collaborate effectively.

In this labour market, managing diversity simply makes good business sense. Let’s look at how diversity can impact the workplace. What happens in your organization when a staff member or several staff members do not feel valued? Decreased communication, decreased self esteem, decreased involvement, decreased morale, lowered productivity and increased absenteeism, are a few indicators that diversity is not being managed well in your workplace. People that feel respected for their talents and differences and recognized for their strengths, will be more engaged in their work, more likely to accept a challenge and want to contribute to the team, experience increased morale, and increase productivity. When people are given the opportunity to use their talents to benefit the workplace, morale is increased and a mutual respect amongst team members is fostered. How can recognizing the differences within your organization improve overall morale in your workplace? When team members recognize the value in each others differences and learn how the different talents can be combined to benefit the outcome of a project or service, they are more likely to respect one another, work more cohesively and improve productivity in the workplace, which, for the employer pays off in improved service and production which impacts the bottom line. This of course for a business owner, means lower costs and increased profit. Let’s face it, if your staff is happy, they are more productive, they stay with your business and they treat your customers better and if your customers are treated well, they buy more and return to your place of business again and again, as well as let others know about the outstanding service they have received.

Internal diversity is one factor that impacts your business/organization, it is also important to consider external diversity. Not only are our employees more diverse, but so are our consumers. Capitalizing on the diversity of your workforce can give you the edge on the consumer market. How are the differences among your employees similar to the demographic that you serve? Are there talents within your organization that you can tap into in order to better meet the diverse needs of your market? Do you need to add to the diversity of your workteam in order to better access and serve the diverse market you want to reach?

Managing diversity and working towards inclusion takes a certain skill set. Some of these include: cultural awareness and understanding, generational awareness and understanding, cross cultural communication, teamwork and conflict resolution. If you are looking at creating an inclusive workplace at your place of business, combining these skills will give you the necessary tools to create a work environment that is respectful and inclusive as well as giving you the edge on responding effectively to the opportunities and challenges that diversity brings to your business.

So you want to develop a diversity/inclusion strategy in your organization, where do you start? First identify your goals, determine what you would like to achieve in the next three to five years and link this to your people strategy. What level of diversity do you currently have in place? What are you missing? How can you leverage your people as a competitive advantage? Do you want to expand your market, if so, what is it you need to add when you are looking to hire?

Creating an inclusive climate will be different for each business/organization. Depending on the blend of diversity you currently have within your team and where your strengths and weaknesses are now. Talking to your staff is important, what is their perception of the work environment? Quite often, it may be different than you think. Your internal temperature will give you the best guide for moving forward. Look at what other organizations are doing that is successful, adopting ideas from others best practices can be helpful in developing your own strategy for inclusion, keeping in mind that tailoring it to your workplace needs will be required to keep it relevant to your desired outcomes. Include your people in the development of your inclusion initiatives and inform your new people about the inclusion policy you have in place and the initiatives you have to support it and then reward your people for participating in workplace inclusion practices.

Some strategies for inclusive workplaces can take the form of mentoring, diversity committees, and shared accountability and responsibility processes. Choosing the right system for your people can go along way towards ensuring your inclusion initiatives are effective.

Keeping your inclusion practices relevant and updated is also important. Building measurements into evaluations can be a useful tool for giving value to your inclusion initiatives and measuring your inclusion participation with your people. Also, measuring the impact of your inclusion practices will help you stay focused, go beyond managing diversity and help you take a more strategic approach to inclusion. Choosing the right combination of metrics to measure your success rates and identify areas of focus will be sure to give you a leg up when it comes to managing diversity strategically and effectively.

Kathline Holmes