Workplace Diversity : Meaning, Importance, and Ways to Promote

What is Workplace Diversity?

Workplace Diversity means the inclusion of employees from various backgrounds, races, cultures, genders, ages, religions, and sexual orientations in the workplace. It means including all kinds of employees with different sorts of abilities and disabilities. It will bring a diverse set of skills, talent, and knowledge to the workplace. Because of workplace diversity, an organisation can benefit from a wide range of ideas, thoughts, and perspectives, which will drastically improve the organisation and make it more innovative and competitive because of its diverse skill set.

Importance of Workplace Diversity

1. Bringing More Ideas: If an organisation has a wide range of diverse people with different abilities, coming from different cultures, people of different ages, etc., then they will bring a wide range of different ideas for the growth of the organisation because people from different communities have different ways of thinking, which they will bring with them. They will provide diverse ideas and problems of people belonging to their community.

2. Happier Employees: If the employees feel like they are accepted for what they are and are provided opportunities equal to people of other communities, then they will feel like they are valued and will be happier to work with the organisation. If the company discriminates against some community of people, then they will lose people from that community, not only people, but they will also lose their skills and talent. That is why workplace diversity is important.

3. Better Customer Understanding: If the team reflects people from different communities, skill sets, countries, and ages, then they can understand the problems of clients or customers better and can help the organisation in providing solutions for a wide range of customer’s problems, which will help in building a stronger business.

4. Better Reputation: Making a diverse workplace where everyone gets equal and fair opportunities has a good reputation among people. Skilled and talented people love to work in those organisations where everyone is equally valued. It will enhance the brand image and customer loyalty for the company, which will help in their success and growth.

5. Broader Talent Pool: An organisation that believes in the inclusion of people from diverse communities has many more options for hiring talent as compared to one that hires people from some specific community because various communities bring different sorts of skill sets and also the competition for any particular job role will increase. A larger number of people means better options and higher chances of hiring skilled people.

How do Diversity and Inclusion Affect Workplaces?

1. Increased Productivity and Performance: Diverse teams will bring together different experiences, perspectives, ideas, and problem-solving approaches, which will surely lead to increased productivity in the organisation. Also, if diverse people are put together, they will compete and challenge each other’s ideas and think out of the box, which will also increase performance. Good productivity and performance will further lead the company to achieve its goals and objectives more easily.

2. Boost Customer Satisfaction: A company with a diverse workplace has members from different communities, age groups, and countries, which will help in better understanding problems and providing solutions. Also, teams with diverse members can create better products and services that will meet the client’s requirements, which will increase customer satisfaction and loyalty to the products.

3. Compliance with Legal and Ethical Standards: Most of the legal jurisdictions prohibit discrimination in getting a job based on race, culture, gender, age, religion, etc. They prioritise equality in society means everyone has equal opportunities to get a job whether they belong to any religion, age, or community. So, if an organisation has a diverse and inclusive workplace, then it will be safe from any legal problems related to equality.

4. Improved Decision-Making: In a diverse workplace, people have more ideas and perspectives. They will think about the same problem in multiple different ways and make the decision that is perfectly fit for the situation. So, the overall decision-making will be improved due to diversion and inclusion in the workplace. It would lead to better and more informed choices based on experience and various skill sets rather than biased choices.

5. Communication Barriers: Hiring people from different communities and cultures will create a communication barrier between employees due to different cultures, languages, beliefs, and experiences. So, it is necessary to overcome these barriers by supporting and understanding each other. Otherwise, it may lead to conflicts and misunderstandings. As some things may be considered inappropriate by some cultures.

Ways to Promote Workforce Diversity

1. Recruit and Retain a Diverse Talent Pool: To create a diverse workplace, you need to hire employees from a diverse pool. For example, employees from your home country as well as from other countries, employees from younger age groups to experienced ones, employees having proficiency in one programming language and multiple languages, etc. In this way, you will get a wide range of choices to choose from. Also, retain and hire employees based on skills and talent, not based on appearances or backgrounds.

2. Create a Supportive and Inclusive Culture: For making employees of diverse communities work together, it’s important that everyone should respect each other’s differences and similarities, and everyone is treated equally irrespective of background or culture. This can be done through healthy communication and a collaborative approach, where everyone helps each other in addressing any challenges. Promote a culture where employees celebrate diversity and encourage others’ feedback.

3. Make Inclusive Policies: Companies should form policies that promote inclusion in the company, like policies of properly welcoming newcomers, fair pay and strict non-discrimination policies for employees, offering flexible schedules for employees (like women need time for children, parenting), supporting employees during any significant life events (like providing leave if someone is ill in the family), rewarding and celebrating diverse teams for working together and achieving.

4. Retention and Growth: After hiring employees from diverse places and communities, it’s important that they can match with teams and work together. Match diverse employees with mentors and sponsors from different backgrounds to offer guidance, support, and visibility within the organisation. Form teams or groups by pairing experienced team members with newcomers, so that they can get proper guidance and support. Also, encourage collaboration among teams for better understanding.

5. Measure and Monitor Progress and Outcomes: Proper monitoring and measuring is an important part of successful businesses. You can observe the outcomes of diversity by different surveys, measuring the company’s performance, customer feedback, diversity, etc. These things help us know the effectiveness of diversity in the organisation. It will also help in finding out the areas of improvement.

6. Celebrate Together: A lot of fun activities can be organised in the workplace to celebrate diversity and cultures in the workplace, like people of different cultures sharing their food, and special events can be organised for holidays. People can learn about each other’s languages, cultural beliefs, traditions, and backgrounds through workshops and story-telling sessions. Also, some time can be spared for celebrating all different cultural festivals, whether it is Diwali, Eid, or Christmas. This way, everyone will be happy and feel respected in their workplace.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the importance of diversity in the workplace?

Answer:

It’s important for improving performance, more creativity and innovation, and better decision-making in the workplace.

2. Does diversity include employees from different genders and races only?

Answer:

No, workplace diversity includes gender and race equality, but it’s not limited to race and gender. It means people of different cultures, countries, skill sets, abilities, and disabilities working together.

3. What role does a leader play in promoting workplace diversity?

Answer:

A leader has an important role in promoting workplace diversity. He can form inclusive policies, provide support and guidance to newcomers, and appreciate them for their small collaborative achievements.

4. What could be the possible challenges in maintaining workplace diversity in my organisation?

Answer:

Several challenges arrive with a package of benefits that we get from diversity, like communication barriers and stereotypes because of differences in approach & beliefs conflicts and misunderstandings could happen, and challenges in working with people of different styles and preferences. There could be several challenges, like communication barriers, as people are from different communities, stereotypes, conflicts and misunderstandings, and different work styles and preferences.

5. What are possible ways to measure diversity in an organisation?

Answer:

You can analyse the data regarding demographics, the satisfaction of employees, and their performance. Also, organising surveys, audits, and interviews regarding diversity will help.