Many companies like General Motors, Johnson & Johnson and Facebook are pushing diversity and inclusion initiatives within their workforces. This is because they recognise having a diverse workforce leads to better profits and happier employees.
Women are still not equal in the workplace, according to the Global Gender Gap in 2016, which shows that women have to work 2.4 times harder than men to gain the same compensation. Men are still more likely to be promoted, receive better performance reviews than women and get paid more, according to the study from the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The world is becoming more and more diverse, with the number of people of colour, women, and LGBT people on the rise. As we continue to grow, we need to learn from those who have been at the forefront of this change and apply their lessons towards creating a more inclusive and supportive society.
We are going to explore the lessons learned by a number of leaders from global organisations as they share the lessons they have learned on diversity.
Diversity in the workplace
Diversity in the workplace is a hot topic, and it’s something companies have been grappling with for many years.
There are many reasons to talk about diversity: it’s important for creating a more inclusive environment, it breaks down barriers between people, and it can also help build stronger teams and organisations. But, how can you lead a diverse team? What are the benefits and the challenges? How do you make diversity a part of your corporate culture?
Diversity is important because it allows for new ideas and options to be used, as well as the ability to consider the wide range of people to be used in decision making. Diversity can also help with managing performance and the ability to solve problems, and also with employer branding.
Increasing diversity in the workplace will also attract more top-talent into your company because it shows you care about the different people from around the world who can bring fresh and exciting ideas to your company. It also shows you’re more likely to be accepting of differences people have such as culture and lifestyles.
How to recruit a diverse employee base
In today’s workplace, a diverse workforce is a must – and the right people are finding ways to make it happen. Although it may be difficult to get employees to accept the benefits of a diverse workforce, companies are making strides in hiring employees with different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences.
Diversity is a touchy subject for many companies, especially in a world where it is becoming more and more accepted to have people from different backgrounds and lifestyles to work with.
Many companies have been focusing on diversity to increase their applicant pools, but only a few have managed to successfully recruit a diverse employee base. If you want to recruit a diverse employee base, it is important to understand the cultural differences between the groups you want to hire.
When recruiting a candidate for a new position in a company, one of the first things that comes to mind is diversity. However, diversity is not simply about being different from your current employees.
It is important to create an inclusive and diverse culture that encompasses the entire workforce. This is the type of culture that’ll help your company flourish in the long run.
Learning to work with diverse people
As the world finds lessons learned on diversity, and becomes more and more diverse, organisations have started to pay more attention to the needs and perspectives of their diverse workforce.
In an effort to help their leaders and managers gain a better understanding of how diversity affects their organisation and the impact of diversity on their leadership, two organisations, Leaders from Global Organisations and Global Diversity & Inclusion, teamed up to offer a six-day conference for the public sector.
In our increasingly diverse world, it’s not uncommon for diverse people to work side by side, but how well do they get along?
To find out, Leaders From Global Organisations (FLGO) partnered with Global Voices to survey international employees working in their companies.
The first round of the survey, conducted in November 2017, asked respondents about their personal connection to diversity, what they loved most about working at their organisation, and what they would change if they could.
Diversity in the workplace
Diversity in the workplace is becoming more and more important in today’s society. More and more companies are realising the necessity of having a diverse workplace. Not only does it help to increase innovation, it also helps companies to keep up with the times.
In a diverse workplace, the importance of diversity is not only about the fact it improves quality of work, but also it has many other benefits. Diversity in the workplace helps white and black employees to communicate, to learn and support each other. If you have a diverse workforce, it will make you more productive, efficient and creative.
You’ll find with an increase in diversity within your workplace, you’ll attract more talent from outside your community. This is because job applicants will see your business cares about the differences in people and not solely what is on their resume.
This isn’t to say hire based only on skin colour or cultural beliefs. Never hire in such a way because it is only called workplace discrimination, but you can and will likely find a lawsuit coming your way. Instead, think about who at your company can use a promotion or a bit of recognition for their hard work.
Image: Pexels
Diversity in management
According to a new study, diversity management is more effective when it is embedded in the culture of an organisation. The researchers found diversity management is most effective when organisations embed diversity in the culture. They say diversity is most effective when it is embedded in the culture of an organisation.
Notably, the lessons learned on diversity in this study found employees who learn about diversity in their environment are more likely to be more skilful in their job roles and less likely to report a lack of job involvement at work.
As such, holding diversity and inclusion training and seminars will lead to an increased awareness within your workforce about the cultural differences around the world.
This can lead to a decrease in the probability that your workplace will play host to discrimination.
Some people blame the lack of diversity in the workplace on the lack of training and development for those individuals who are making the decisions. While others point to diversity as a “win-win” opportunity for companies. Either way, diversity is a goal we should all hold close. But how do we get there?
Diversity in gender
Diversity in gender is an oppressive topic in the world today, and from a business perspective, it means different things to different people.
For some, it reminds them of the old days of women being discriminated against in the workforce, while others understand the world is becoming more diverse every day.
For example, the number of women entering the engineering field has been growing steadily in recent years, and with the new generation of females entering school, the demographics of the workforce is becoming more female.
Having a diverse workforce will make a company stronger and more successful. But how do you make such a thing happen? What are the key factors that will bring more women and men from different cultures together? What are the top industry trends? And what should you be doing to help foster diversity?
You can start by removing gender biases from your job descriptions and applications. Rather than “he/she” or “him/her” use “they/them”. Also consider changing job titles like secretary to personal assistant, as secretary holds a connotation to a female-dominated position.
Diversity is important
Leaders from global organisations are often asked by the media to share their lessons learned on diversity, and they have to answer tricky questions about how they integrate personnel from different cultures and how they embrace diverse perspectives to work as a team.
Diversity is important and it’s not something that should have to be emphasised; it should be natural in the workplace but unfortunately is not the case today.
Facebook, Google and Twitter all have diversity and inclusion initiatives within their own hiring policies they strive to meet every year.
It’s Twitter’s goal to have at least 50 percent of its workforce consist of women by 2025 and 25 percent of it’s U.S workforce consist of under-represented minorities. For Facebook, the goal is to help all team members feel valued, equalise bias and level the playing field by having their workers have a direct say in what diversity and inclusion policies and initiatives will be.
In Summary
The business world is expanding their values where differences are highly looked upon in the workspace more so than what’s on a resume.
Companies understand lessons learned on diversity, and recognise a gender gap exists and are actively trying to close it and businesses are moving away from gender-specific pronouns and references within the workplace to more gender-neutral terms.
Organisations are asking it’s employees for input in the decision making processes and the policy objectives, which was unheard of 50 years ago. The world is rapidly changing to meet a more progressive-minded mindset and so should your company too.
About the Author
Usman Raza is a CEO and the co-founder of Christian Marketing Experts LLC and a content marketing specialist working with a WP Development Agency and a Minneapolis criminal defence lawyer. He is devoted to helping small businesses bridge success gaps by providing in-depth, actionable advice on digital marketing, SEO, and small business growth. Follow him on Twitter @usmanintrotech
