Increasing diversity in the workplace
Encouraging workplace diversity has its own share of positives and surplus benefits to clients. However, one needs a holistic approach toward diversity and hiring technique- retaining workers may turn out to be harder than fresh enrolment (Rice, 2015). This is a fact for organizations located in areas with less diversity hence minority workers feel disengaged. Furthermore, an individual must take an active duty in assisting minority employees adjust and connect with the work environ and the external community.
Diversity not only harbors beneficial results but sometimes negative outcomes. It is vital to note that heterogeneity among workers or teams may minimize intra-group cohesiveness and also result into disagreements and misinterpretation hence depressing workers’ satisfaction, residency traits, and lower turnover (Guillaume et.al, 2017). On other hand, adequate evidence shows that work performance increases with increases in diversity in the workplace because it improves creativeness and innovativeness via the team members’ varied opinions. The public have slight information on the circumstances and mental mechanisms needed for increasing worker performance especially within groups and dynamic settings.
Diversity in the workplace, from a conceptual perspective means variance existing among people on any features, which may result into observations of one person is different from another individual (Guillaume et.al, 2017). Some of the examples of diversity are demographic features, practical features, personality traits, individualistic values spiritual views, and even sexual orientation.
Consulting local establishments with societal networks such as churches, educational institutions may help employers increase diversity in the workplace. Community establishments assist in getting candidates from various backgrounds thus increasing diversity. One the other hand, a business entity can recruit assistance from nonprofit institutions such as urban league or from internet platforms, which offers information on marginal job seekers (Guillaume et.al, 2017). However, employers should not limit themselves to local areas alone. If able, an employer can go further and expand his or her search to foreign territories. The internet makes it easier for streamlined searches and locating people with unique territories.
Recruitment strategies
Increasing diversity leads to differentiated talents, which gives firms an upper hand in terms of competition and recruiting talented personnel. The first tip is writing a job advertisement in a manner that appeal to diverse populations. If one can attract a group of diverse potential candidates, then the language utilized is the only thing that makes the difference. Secondly, coming up with workplace policies which accommodate and encourage diversity is key in ensuring an increment in workplace diversity. In addition, research reveals that organization with flexible working hours and situated in friendly neighborhood assists in attracting more diverse workforce (Hunt et.al, 2017). The third tip is the utilization of personality evaluation techniques during recruitment to enable more diversity in terms of character and background. The normal recruitment standards relies an organization’s needs and the qualities of the workers such as educational qualifications and experiences. In the end, only the qualified makes it through the front door hence decreasing diversity. Therefore, the only reliable way of increasing workplace diversity is through the evaluation of a candidate’s personality, skills, and inspirations. Personal evaluations increase the probability of attaining diverse workforce and influence other function of the workplace positively. The forth tip through which one can increase diversity at the workplace is selecting sourcing approaches which cover diverse work personnel. One of the underlying reasons for lack of diversity in the workplace is hiring through referrals. From an overall perspective, people’s network consists of persons of similar nature. Therefore, the diversity of decreases when a person hires through referrals. Hence, an employer has to search for workers from a public rather than rely on people’s referrals.
Issues that may arise due to increased diversity in the work place
Workplace enrolment organizations have a way of battling diversity issues on a daily basis. Some people are of the opinion that diversity is simply striking a balance between race and sex. Nevertheless, diversity is more than just race and gender parity in the work place. More so, diversity in the workplace enables acceptance, mutual admiration, and collaboration between workers in spite of the variances in ethnicity, age, sex, values, and communication mannerisms between workers (Hunt et.al, 2017). The benefits of having a diverse work place outweigh the minor negatives associated with diversity. First of all diversity causes an upsurge in innovation outcomes due to having workers from various upbringings and demographics. When people from various backgrounds integrate under the same workspace, they may use varied ways of solving challenges and meet target or work goals. In fact, human resource experts revealed that organizations, which practice and retain workspace diversity, perform better than firms with a low diversity index do.
Whereas diversity in the workplace ensures a more rounded work ethic, some challenges may arise as a result of high diversity. One of the challenges arising from a high diversity in the workplace is accommodating foreign beliefs and norms from various people. Integrating personal values from one worker to the next makes it hard due to the distinction thus it is easy to disrespect other people’s opinion and language.
References
Guillaume, Y. R., Dawson, J. F., Otaye‐Ebede, L., Woods, S. A., & West, M. A. (2017). Harnessing demographic differences in organizations: What moderates the effects of workplace diversity?. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(2), 276-303.
Hunt, V., Layton, D., & Prince, S. (2015). Diversity matters. McKinsey & Company, 1, 15-29.
Rice, M. F. (2015). Diversity and public administration. ME Sharpe.
