Diversity in the workplace

Diversity is important to understand, and it is necessary to improve it in any organization and /or company. Like diversity can be helpful for your business, how harder it is to achieve in the workplace. Diversity might start from attracting diverse candidates in the hiring practices to a good adaptation in the workplace culture to retain your workers.

A recent Medium article defines workplace diversity as “ a company which employs people of varying characteristics, such as gender, age, religion, race, ethnicity, cultural background, sexual orientation, religion, languages, education, abilities, etc.”(Westover, 2020).

Diversity benefits

Research shows that diverse work groups produce more cognitive processing and more of information. Diversity brings in new ideas and experiences, and people can learn from each other. Bringing in different ideas and perspectives leads to better problem-solving. Working in diverse teams opens dialogue and promotes creativity (Segal, 2019). Whether it is for reasons related to company performance and the bottom line, or just an organization’s desire to be employee-centric and sincerely focus on the human needs of its employees, leaders need to look for ways to help every employee feel welcomed, needed, wanted, valued, and that they have a genuine way to connect and contribute ( Westover,2020). Diversity is a broad concept, there are so many ways to think about diversity, and to ensure that your workplace is really fair and equal to have the full benefits of diversity. workplace diversity can improve the work culture, that can drive to greater productivity and profitability.

Diversity challenge

Diversity in the workplace goes well beyond recruiting men and women to be part of your team or working toward a racially balanced workplace; it is encouraging and searching for individuals with an array of expertise, ideas, experiences, education levels, backgrounds and more. Building strong, diverse teams, in every sense of the term, enriches company culture and success (Jiang 2019). Diversity keeps us healthy physically, financially, professionally, and emotionally. It leads to innovation and creativity. When we live, work, and play in culturally diverse communities we are healthier, and that is why we need diversity (Segal, 2019). Diversification in life may influence physical, financial, and emotional health. Diversity goes across all sides of our lives and it plays an important role. The multiplicity of plant and animal life in nature can teach us about the value of diversity. Variability among and between all organisms builds strength. Financial diversification spreads risk and improves the overall chance of success, we don’t put all money in one stock to avoid losing everything if one stock fails. Even people invest in stocks, bonds, or real estate we have to make sure to cover enough different ways to invest.

Diversity and work Performance

Even though considering differing opinions and opposing points of view during brainstorming session can be frustrating, the process almost always seems to lead to an elegant and feasible solution. According to research, the same principle can be applied at work, studies show a diverse workforce can boost employee performance as well as that of the company as a whole (Joshi,2018).When we meet and live and work with people who are different, we are more likely to be exposed to new ideas and new ways of thinking. Mixing with people of different backgrounds and life experiences bring us to question why we are doing things the way we do. It forces a questioning of values and beliefs (Segal,2019). Diversity is becoming more and more important in today workplace. Protest and events against racism are in worldwide conversation about what organizations can do to address racism in the workspace and generate a diverse and inclusive environment. Nowadays, Race and culture are central facets when talking about the diversity and inclusion.

Conclusion

In the wake of major social and political changes over the past decades, leading companies are taking steps to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion. Yet progress in most sectors remains tepid. Programs designed to increase diversity and inclusion in the workplace often fail. So that leads to a natural question: What is working? (Pedulla, 2020). A deficiency of diversity in the workplace can have negative effects inside an organization, from expanding the risk of harassment to being a fence to recruitment and retention. Diversity training is one of the important steps that organizations can take to stimulate a more open, welcoming culture and promote diversity and inclusion to create positive change. Diversity can give employee consciousness of the importance of working together with person from different backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs.

*Fregens DONATIEN*

MScM, Master of science Management, Eastern Nazarene College, Massachusetts USA    

Doctoral Student, Doctoral Business Administration (DBA), Liberty University, USA.

References

Westover, J.H. (2020). Creating a Workplace Culture of Belonging, Diversity, and Inclusivity.    Www.Forbes.com.

Jiang, S. (2019). Driving Diversity and Inclusion in The Workplace. www.Forbes.com    

Joshi, V. (2020). The Importance of Having Diversity in The Workplace.www.entrepreneur.com.

Pedula, D. (2020). Diversity and Inclusion Efforts that Really Work. Harvard Business Review,    www.hbr.org.

Segal E.A. (2019). Why We Need Diversity. www.psychologytoday.com