Essay Example on Embrace Diversity: A Vital Element for Workplace Well-Being and Growth

Introduction

Diversity refers to all the differences that make an individual unique as well as the recognition that everyone is different. Such differences include but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical abilities as well as political and religious beliefs. Within a workplace, diversity is a key element to the well being and growth of an organization since an organization that is cognizant of their levels of diversity treats its employees with dignity irrespective of their peculiarities. Thus, in a work setting diversity means that an organization's workforce includes people of different ages, culture, sex, race, education religion among others. Additionally, workplace diversity has been seen to promote businesses since with the understanding of peculiarities among people helps in devising ways of appealing to more customers and employees. It is therefore important for any organization that believes in growth to come up with measures to encourage diversity among its workforce by taking a key role in establishing diversity programs as well as valuing diversity in all business aspects since such would impact the organization's workplace dynamics greatly.

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How an Organization Can Encourage Diversity

With globalization, it has become common to find organizations with employees who come from different parts of the world since with the human civilization, different people have acquired specific skills that they can be identified with. On the other hand, cultural diversity has become a hot issue especially with regulations across the world for equality among people and hence the need for companies to device ways that they can promote diversity since it has become inevitable. Among the many ways, an organization can encourage diversity at the workplace include devising diversity policies that need to be followed to allow for diversity.

Using such diversity policies, different organizations can come up with diversity-friendly policies such as flexible working hours as well as on-site childcare to accommodate for people of different religions as well as mothers and young women who need to take care of their young ones as well as work (Patrick, & Kumar, 2012). Furthermore, by allowing employees to take days off work for the various religious holidays and activities can come in handy for an organization to encourage diversity at the place of work. Besides, a company can encourage workplace diversity by making the physical structures and office usable to the members of staff that may be disabled, which would in turn aid the organization attract more talented workforce to further its growth agenda. Also, such diversity-friendly can help an organization attract more customers such as in the case of mothers preferring buying from companies that have employment policies favouring mothers.

Another way a company can encourage diversity at the pace of work is by ensuring effective communication at the workplace since communication is an integral part of diversity promotion (Miller, & Rowney, 1999). For instance, an organization using a clear language to describe its diversity goals and programs can help promote diversity as every individual feel part of the company's plans. Further, diversity can be promoted by the management laying down fair and clear strategies on disciplining members that get involved in activities such as workplace teasing, bullying among other activities that might jeopardize diversity. Besides, diversity can be efficient within an organization when managers and other senior staff listen to the worker's grievances and acting without favour. By doing so, every member of staff would feel that the company accommodates them and thus would work more aggressively to realize the company's goals.

Additionally, the establishment of diversity taskforces within an organization to aid in the understanding of ways of eliminating discrimination and creation of a more diverse workforce with each focusing on the different elements of diversity such as gender, religion, race, sexual orientation and ethnicity (Miller, & Rowney, 1999). Through such an initiative, views can be collected from employees and thus help in the formulation of ways the organization can be diverse of the different areas of diversity. Besides, such taskforces can also help reach more diverse customers which would greatly impact the company's growth. An example of how diversity taskforces could help an organization realize diversity at the workplace was in the case in the '90s when IBM devised a women's task force that offered them ideas of providing specialized support to the small enterprise that was owned majorly by women and the minorities. As a result, the company was in a position to boost its revenues greatly within a short period of three years.

In addition to diversity programs, an organization can also undertake diversity training among its staff as a way of promoting diversity at the place of work (Patrick, & Kumar, 2012). This is because most people happen to be biased and unconscious of other people's differences naturally which would influence their choice of those they associate with or hire. To overcome this natural nature of humans and promote diversity at the place of work, it is integral to first overcome this bias by developing awareness among people through diversity training. However, some organizations only take the human resource team for diversity programs, but it is important for everyone including the C.E.O and other top managers to undertake the programs since inclusive attitudes need to start from the top. Thus, by making managers understand the importance of workplace diversity would go a long way in aiding them to support people from different backgrounds. Additionally, to educating the staff on diversity, a company needs to offer the right resources that would create a culture within an organization that celebrates diversity.

Moreover, diversity at the workplace can be promoted by creating opportunities for cultural awareness among its employees (Patrick, & Kumar, 2012). Such can be facilitated by a company having more than one office in different parts to allow them to send the employees for short assignment in different areas so that they can have a practical chance to learn about their co-workers as well as the different cultures across the world. In instances where such physical offices may seem expensive for a company then volunteer days can be organized to allow employees to learn from people of different cultures such as working with the poor, homeless or the orphans. Through such volunteers, then the employees can get a new view on various issues as well as expand their horizons when it comes with working with people from different backgrounds as well as aid in team building.

Employee resource groups creation would also be instrumental in promoting workplace diversity since they can be used internally to develop talent pools as well as put the managers at a better position to acquire useful insights from the groups (Miller, & Rowney, 1999). Within these ERG's it is important to ensure that every member can participate as well as include a senior member to ensure that the group's goals align to the business goals as well as enhance its visibility. Besides, mixing up seating arrangements within the workplace would go a long way in enhancing diversity. By ensuring that tables include members from different backgrounds would allow employees to learn about other employees they work on a daily basis as well as promote innovation.

Diversity at the place of work can also be encouraged through the acknowledgement of multiple religious and cultural practices among employees. This acknowledgement can be achieved by focusing on and recognizing religious and cultural holidays and celebrations among all members of staff. As a result, the company can achieve inclusion which is the only scalable way of building diversity within an organization (Yu, 2018). For instance, an organization can have all-friendly bathrooms to accommodate different cultures as well as have a nursing room for mothers to allow for diversity. Furthermore, through the use of gender-neutral language throughout the company benefits and policies would go a long way in promoting diversity as every individual would count themselves part of the organization they work for. Another example of ensuring that people from different cultures and religions are accommodated in the organization can be by ensuring that during company events, non-alcoholic drinks are also served since not all people take alcohol.

A company can foster a culture where every voice is welcome and respected as a way of promoting diversity at the workplace (Patrick, & Kumar, 2012). This is motivated by the fact that people may have different opinions regarding various issues and thus listening to them would make them feel part of the organization. Since most employees quit jobs whenever they feel that their uniqueness is not valued or respected, ensuring that such employees feel free to express their divergent views irrespective of their age, sex, gender, ethnicity or cultural background would go a long way in promoting diversity. Hence, a company can promote diversity at the place of work by supporting inclusion, avoiding playing favourites, practising basic courtesy as well as paying attention to the ways of embracing non-discriminatory practices and policies.

A company can promote diversity at the place of work by allowing dialogue on gender pay inequality which has become a major debate among many companies (Miller, & Rowney, 1999). By doing so, a company can bring about workforce trust as well as a sense of inclusion due to the transparency depicted in the company's policies and communication. Hence, by opening such channels for employees to air their opinions regarding the disparities in pay among genders would help them understand that the organization is committed to taking action to fill the pay gap.

Moreover, diversity can be promoted by opening a multilingual workforce to ensure that everyone feels included. For instance, it would not be productive for a multinational company to employ people that speak one language since in cases where they have to work in different countries where different languages are spoken. Furthermore, if a need arises to have one official language at the place of work, then it would be advantageous to the employees as they can have the chance of learning new languages and thus expand the boundaries of their working stations.

How Diversity Can Affect Workplace Dynamics

The levels to which a company embraces workplace diversity plays a crucial role in the growth and well being of a company. As a result of the trends in globalization as well as the increased gender and cultural diversities, it is key for companies to learn how to manage diversity. This is because, as a company's workforce becomes more diverse, there are challenges and opportunities that accompany the change in terms of managing diverse employees. Among the opportunities that accompany embracing diversity at the place of work is the increased competitive advantage while challenges may arise in managing employees with different work attitudes, beliefs and values.

When a company pursues a strategy that values diversity it is likely to have cost advantages since they may not likely be sued for workplace discrimination. This is driven by the fact that factors such as gender, age, race and religion are protected by the law and thus an organization that embraces policies to encourage tolerance for a diverse work en...