Workforce Diversity Management Strategies
Workforce diversity is a human resource issue that every company needs to address in order to reflect the changing business environment. The complexity of this challenge has resulted to development of several strategies to manage diversity. The three main strategies are discussed below.
Attracting, selecting, developing, and retaining diverse employees. According to Robbins and Judge (2011), firms can enhance workforce diversity by targeting “specific demographic groups” (55). The strategy of attracting, selecting, developing, and retaining diverse employees involves creating job advertisements that are geared towards demographic groups of interest. The interviews, training, and promotion and reward systems developed are also aimed at enhancing the participation of such groups.
Diversity in groups. For companies hedging their success on group performance, having a cohesive and working group is paramount. There are many group dynamics that can lead to a group failure including diverse abilities in intellectual and physical aspects. Therefore, managing diversity in groups involves knowing the aspects of the group that need to be homogeneous and those that can be diverse. It has been established that diversity in gender, race, and ethnicity does not hurt the group performance. However, diversity in intelligent, conscientiousness, and teamwork skills has proved to affect the team performance (Robbins & Judge, 2011).
Effective diversity programs. These diversity programs are meant to offer training for managers on the “legal framework for equal employment opportunity” (Robbins & Judge, 2011, 56). As a strategy for managing diversity in a firm, diversity programs enhance the ability of managers to effectively manage diversity and enhance performance in a diverse workforce environment. The programs emphasize the need for leaders to examine the workforce to check the utilization of target groups.
Steps to Ensure and Manage Workforce Diversity on an Ongoing Basis
The need to have a diverse workforce has already been established. The next challenge for manager is to ensure that workforce diversity is a living aspect of the company’s culture and structure. Policy formulation will ensure effective workforce diversity management on an ongoing basis, while steps such as liaising with disadvantaged/minority groups in the society; offering flexible work options; and capacity building will help ensure workforce diversity (Robbins & Judge, 2011).
Establishing workplace policies that recognize diversity. Formulating policies that recognize diversity is the first step towards ensuring diversity in the work place. Such policies should describe hiring, firing, and promotion terms and conditions that are relevant to the target demographic group. Such policy will ensure continued management of workforce diversity through attraction, selection, development, and retention policies of the organization.
Liaising with disadvantaged/minority groups in the society. According to Robbins and Judge (2011), companies can benefit by asking minority groups in the society to forward names for selection in an employment position. This will increase the chances of selecting people from such a group.
Offering flexible work options. This allows a company to offer work options for men and women who have caring responsibilities at home. This allows them to have a stable work-life balance that enhances retention and performance.
Capacity building. This step involves companies offering training for the minority group in order to acquire the necessary skills required in the workplace. This allows them to participate efficiently and improves performance. For example, a company in a community with limited use of English language can offer join with learning institutions in the society to offer English classes for its employees (Robbins & Judge, 2011).
Reference
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2011). Organizational behavior (14th ed.). Upper Saddle River. NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
