Diversity in the workplace is becoming more important as the workplace is becoming more diverse. The differences between individuals and organizations constitute equal treatment of the employees and respect. Diversity ensures equal opportunities for all employees to succeed in the organization and contribute to more productive and efficient work. The increase in the number of employees in an organization essentially constitutes inequality and mounting tension among some employees among racial lines. This paper will address the challenges in managing diversity, the appropriate strategies, and the critical role of Human resources.
Challenges For Managing Diversity
Lack Of Understanding of What Diversity Means
The organization’s challenges result from a clear understanding of the meaning of diversity. When the number of employees in an organization increases, there is a need to deploy diversity initiatives that ensure all the employees are valued and included in decision-making. Diversity results in equal opportunities among employees, giving them the morale to perform better (Inegbedion et al., 2020). The failure to understand the need for diversity in the organization and the need to treat employees from different racial lines with different personalities make diversity management difficult. The organization failed to have clear importance of diversity, making them manage the employees effectively since every individual has their way of behaving and failure to study their pattern of performance and characteristics results in disagreements and disrespect from other employees.
Ensuring Fairness and Equality
There are several challenges that the human Resource Director comes along with managing diversity within an organization. Ensuring that the organization treats all their employees fairly and equally is one of the biggest challenges I face in managing diversity. Lack of understanding or respect for diversity within the organization made achieving equality and fairness difficult. Employees from different backgrounds have different ways of doing things that differ from one another (Riccucci, 2021). When employees do not get equal treatment, they develop a character of low self-esteem that lowers their morale in the workplace. When the organization do not make the strategies that allow fairness and equality among employees, they feel not included and valued, and that causes conflicts.
Lack Of Resources to Support Diversity Initiative
Implementing diversity initiatives requires financial and human resources to ensure effective diversity in an organization. Lack of enough resources and financial support results in failure in managing the diversity initiative. The organization’s inadequate resources limit the diversity’s scope to only a few employees and make it difficult for all the employees to enjoy fairness and equality (Inegbedion et al., 2020). The organization’s failure to support the adoption of diversity and create understanding among the employees makes them view the initiative as unnecessary. Limiting the scope of diversity to only a few employees in the organization makes other employees resistant to changes and view diversity as a threat to their job, making it difficult for the organization to manage.
Strategies For Managing Diversity
Communication
Communication is vital in ensuring the effective management of diversity within the organization. The organization should communicate the importance of diversity in the workplace to ensure that all employees are aware of the organization’s commitment to diversity (Axelsson, 2022). The organization also needs to ensure that there is a clear channel for communication between employees and the management; this makes it easy for employees from diverse backgrounds to have an equal opportunity in the workplace and imbues the organization with creative ideas that increase performance. Proper communication will ensure the employees know the respect and fair treatment of other employees with various personalities. Fairness and equality will make diversity management easier to create employees’ awareness of the importance of respect,
Training and Development
To effectively manage diversity in the organization, the management should implement training and development programs to boost the understanding of the importance of diversity and inclusivity. The organization, through the management, should introduce training topics to all the employees to study the need to treat others fairly (Axelsson, 2022). The organization should avoid making assumptions about employees from diverse backgrounds and instead introduce a ground where every individual respectfully gets equal treatment. The organization also needs to create a ground for judging employees according to their merit of success, not the actions attributed to their background.
Equality In Hiring Employees and Talent Assessment
The organization need to recruit and hire employees who are talented and from diverse backgrounds. The organization should have qualified people with good leadership skills and hiring decisions to help overcome bias when conducting interviews and talent assessments (Inegbedion et al., 2020). Organization overcomes the bias by hiring talented with experience, skills and qualified employees regardless of their culture and background, resulting in an easy relationship between employees from diverse backgrounds and workplaces to respect and treat others fairly and equally.
Encouraging Employees to Work in A Diverse Group.
Encouraging a diverse work team in an organization contributes to respect, fairness, and equality and create a close relationship among employees from diverse background. The organization must encourage unity and job rotation in the diverse workplace to allow employees to interact with others, share their experiences, and learn about others’ personalities (Axelsson, 2022). The organization should set policies and procedures that constitute and promote diversity in the workplace. The organization should encourage the employees to recognize and appreciate other individuals’ experiences, cultures and backgrounds, which will break the preconceived cultural misunderstandings.
Role Played by Human Resources in Managing Diversity in The Organization
Ensuring That All the Employees Are Treated Fairly and Equally
Human Resource ensures that all the employees, despite their culture and diverse background, get all the information required to perform their jobs. They should recognize the employees’ efforts, results and accomplishments and provide them with the necessary tools and resources to perform their jobs without basing the decision on their culture (De Stefano et al., 2018). For fairness and equality, the Human resource director must encourage employees of the organization to work as a team and listen to employees’ concerns and address them appropriately.
Creating And Maintaining a Positive and Inclusive Work Environment
Human Resource has a role in creating and maintaining a positive and inclusive work environment to promote diversity (De Stefano et al., 2018). HR creates an environment that respects differences and values every employee’s contribution by creating awareness of the importance of respect and equal treatment. HR help to identify and address unconscious bias in the workplace, thus ensuring a positive and inclusive work environment. which can lead to discrimination and cause a barrier to create a diverse and inclusive workplace.
Promoting Diversity and Inclusion Within the Organization
An important part of HR’s role in promoting diversity is to create policies and procedures that are inclusive of all employees. These policies should ensure that all employees are treated fairly and with respect. Additionally, HR should provide training on diversity and inclusion to all employees. This training can help employees to understand the importance of diversity and how to create an inclusive environment.
Conclusion
As the workplace becomes more diverse, diversity is becoming more important since it promotes equal opportunities for all employees to succeed in the organization and contribute to more productive and efficient work. However, to manage diversity, an organization faces challenges like a lack of understanding of the meaning and importance of diversity, ensuring fairness and equality, and lacking adequate financial resources to support diversity initiatives. Therefore, to manage diversity, the organization must implement effective communication, training and development, encouraging employees to work in diverse groups and ensuring fairness in hiring and assessing talents.
References
Inegbedion, H., Sunday, E., Asaleye, A., Lawal, A., & Adebanji, A. (2020). Managing diversity for organizational efficiency. Sage Open, 10(1), 2158244019900173.
Riccucci, N. M. (2021). Managing diversity in public sector workforces. Routledge.
Axelsson, E. L. (2022). Managing Diversity in Organizations: Implementing Strategies, Practices and Measurements to Enhance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Workforces: A Qualitative Case Study of Diversity Management in Organizations Operating in Sweden.
Werner, J. M. (2021). Human resource development: talent development. Cengage Learning.
De Stefano, F., Bagdadli, S., & Camuffo, A. (2018). The HR role in corporate social responsibility and sustainability: A boundary‐shifting literature review. Human Resource Management, 57(2), 549-566.
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