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Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Solutions
By: Josh Greenberg
Workplace diversity refers to the variety of differences between people in an organization. That
sounds simple, but diversity encompasses race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality,
cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, education, background and more.
Diversity not only involves how people perceive themselves, but how they perceive others.
Those perceptions affect their interactions. For a wide assortment of employees to function
effectively as an organization, human resource professionals need to deal effectively with issues
such as communication, adaptability and change. Diversity will increase significantly in the
coming years. Successful organizations recognize the need for immediate action and are ready
and willing to spend resources on managing diversity in the workplace now.
Benefits of Workplace Diversity
An organization’s success and competitiveness depends upon its ability to embrace diversity
and realize the benefits. When organizations actively assess their handling of workplace
diversity issues, develop and implement diversity plans, multiple benefits are reported such as:
Increased adaptability: Organizations employing a diverse workforce can supply a greater
variety of solutions to problems in service, sourcing, and allocation of resources. Employees
from diverse backgrounds bring individual talents and experiences in suggesting ideas that are
flexible in adapting to fluctuating markets and customer demands.
Broader service range: A diverse collection of skills and experiences (e.g. languages, cultural
understanding) allows a company to provide service to customers on a global basis.
Variety of viewpoints: A diverse workforce that feels comfortable communicating varying
points of view provides a larger pool of ideas and experiences. The organization can draw from
that pool to meet business strategy needs and the needs of customers more effectively.
More effective execution: Companies that encourage diversity in the workplace inspire all of
their employees to perform to their highest ability. Company-wide strategies can then be
executed; resulting in higher productivity, profit, and return on investment.
Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace
Taking full advantage of the benefits of diversity in the workplace is not without its challenges.
Some of those challenges are:
Communication - Perceptual, cultural and language barriers need to be overcome for diversity
programs to succeed. Ineffective communication of key objectives results in confusion, lack of
teamwork, and low morale.
Resistance to change - There are always employees who will refuse to accept the fact that the
social and cultural makeup of their workplace is changing. The “we’ve always done it this way”
mentality silences new ideas and inhibits progress.