Workplace Diversity

1. Diversity And Diversity Management Destincted And Defined

Diversity plays a huge role in affecting the composition of the labour force in both private and public sectors as it is a force of change promoting discovery and personal growth in organisations (Nel, Werner, Haasbroek, Poisat, Sono, & Schultz, 2008) . Diversity can be widely expressed in terms of narrow and broad views, narrow views are a legislative component of prior equal opportunities (Kossek & Lobel, 1996), broad views comprise a range of factors such as age, disability, education, nationality, religion, beliefs, norms, values, sexual orientation, values, ethnic group, lifestyles, physical appearance, economic and social status (Norton & Fox, 1997).

Diversity management is defined as the organisational measure that aim s to enhance greater inclusivity of employees from different backgrounds into a workforce through mandatory programs and policies. Organisations implement diversity management strategies reactive to the ever-growing differences of and amongst the force around globally. Technological development now allow s companies to hire and manage employees from different places throughout the world and in different time zones therefore organisations design specific programs and policies to enhance employee inclusion, promotion and retention of those who are from different backgrounds and cultures.

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These initiatives are designed to create a welcoming environment for groups that lacked access to employment and more beneficial jobs in the past. (ANON)

In summary the core difference between diversity and diversity is that diversity is descriptive of the actual features us ed to point out differences in individuals and diversity management refers to measures placed to ensure that diversity is kept and always promoted at all times.

An example is when an organisation is expanding, as per requisite diversity in the workforce mu st be present therefore all races are to be fairly present in the organisation and the HR department will use measures to ensure that such recruitment is possible through measures like affirmative action in accordance to the Employment Equity Act.

2. Major Benefits Of Having A Diverse Workforce

A diverse workforce is favourable to an organisation (Foma, 2014) because of the following reasons:

• Increases the pool of professionals from different upbringings widening the scope of suitable candidates within the organisation.
• Widens the communication between the organisation and clients for an example when our clients are Portuguese speaking an employee can facilitate the communication making it far much convenient for client therefore satisfaction.
• Formulates a sense of harmony within the organisation as differences are recognised and accommodated in the labour force leading to increased productivity, creativity and effective problem-solving.
• Once differences are recognised the organisation al objectives and plans are effectively executed because management will create a work plan that optimizes productivity through their employees.
• Teams of different ethnic groups engage less in deconstructive conflicts as they possess an understanding for each other's differences and have skills that accent one another.

3. Challenges With Diversity Training When You Initiate The Change (Chaacha, 2019)

• The scope of diversity is too narrow and aligned to only certain specific discussions of interests by facilitator.
• Difficulty integrating across multicultural teams in the face of prejudice or negative cultural stereotypes as trainers may have personal political agendas and/or favour interest of certain groups.
• Presence of a prevailing atmosphere due to political correctness as a result of professional communication being misinterpreted or misunderstood across langua ges and cultures.
• Conflicting working styles across teams and trainer as trainer's psychological values will be seen to be superior and served as a template.
• Training is reactive to recent occurrences and maybe too brief or perhaps too late and be consequential to the organisational culture and image.

4. Methods / Strategies That Will Assist In Recruiting A Diverse Workforce

In order to ensure success amongst an organization, top management together with HR management play a vital role in addressing the complex issues of a diverse labour force such as issues of genders and race, the developing factor of chid and elderly care, emerging challenge of multiculturalism, tolerance of religious practices and inclusivity of people with disabilities in the work environment, therefore, diversity professionals must lead to boost the business to get to that point of a diversified workforce through different measures in recruitment to be discussed (Losey, Meisinger, & Ulrich, 2005).

This could be achieved through the following ways when recruiting:

• Putting concentrated focus on how the job posting/advertisement is presented in order to attract a more diverse workforce. An example to that would be the use of language in the posting, firstly it should accommodate all language groups and again the choices of words also affect the outcome and the way job seekers perceive the message you try to convey through the advertisement. An example again maybe in a construction company posting a job, words like strong regardless of what comes after it in some cases it may already discourage females as it will sound less appealing to them.
• The organisational culture and policies should be appealing so that whenever there is a candidate interested, upon their research they find that policies within that particular organisation are of a diverse nature and promote inclusivity of all different individuals. An example may be when a candidate wants to researches through the company web site, s/he finds that the company makes provision for employees with disabilities therefore it portrays an image of diversity within the organisation again the issues of flexibility is one that attracts a diverse pool of applicants.
• Knowing the individuals all differ in terms if their background and competencies, a personality assessment tool may be a helpful source in the recruitment of a diverse workforce, it is efficient in the assessment of candidate's personality traits, motivations, upbringing and skills. Personality assessments are effective because as assessments are conducted, information about differences is collected which can then influence the selection of a diversified applicant pool. An example may be the uselessness of selecting two individuals with the same traits, skills and motivations as it will hamper creativity but bringing different individuals may be a bonus as things will be view ed from a different perspective and constructive conflict shall emerge leading to growth.
• The use of sourcing methods that will contain a much more diverse candidate pipeline, one challenge in that regard may be hiring through referrals, this is because people tend to evolve their networks around people demographically similar to them therefore diversity that way is less achieved. The use of relevant sourcing methods can bring about a larger pool of different candidates to select from which then promotes diversity in the recruitment process, an example can be use of different platforms like television through sign language to attract and accommodate applicants who are deaf but can see.
• The organisation must adopt employment equity policies in their hiring processes and ensure a fair presentation of different race and gender groups especially in managerial positions. An example is hiring a black woman into the senior management position, again an organisation can give priority to the previously disadvantaged through the application of the affirmative action in the recruitment process. This is to ensure that all groups of people are given a fair opportunity to bring in different skills and views and represent a sense of diversity in the workplace.

Reference List

Chaacha, T. (2019, July 23). Diversity Management . powerpoint presentation a t a HRMA lecture at NWU VTC . Vandrbijl Park.

Foma, E. (2014). Impact of workplace Diversity. Intergrative Business and Economics , 382 - 389.

Kossek, E. E., & Lobel, S. A. (1996). Human resource Strategies for Transforming the Workplace. Oxford: Blackwell.

Losey, M., Meisinger, S., & Ulrich, D. (2005). Future of Human Resource Managemen. Virginia, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Nel, P. S., Werner, A., Haasbroek, G. D., Poisat, P., Sono, T., & Schultz, H. B. (2008). Human Resourcees Management (7th ed.). Cape Tow n: Oxford University Press Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd.

Norton, J. R., & Fox, R. E. (1997). The Change Equation Capitalizing on Diversity for Effective Organisational Change. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.