Management of Careers and Diversity

Introduction

Workplace diversity means having a workforce that encompasses people of various individualities including, but not limited to different genders, religion, sexual orientation, educational background, disability and national origin. It is a characteristic that is protected by the law under the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO). EEO protects workers from employment discrimination that occurs in activities such as firing, hiring, transfers, wages, promotions, employment benefits, advertising, job classification, and referrals. It is the role of employers, therefore, to carry out an audit of their workplace about employment opportunities and ensure the employees get protected from discrimination by clients, supervisors and their fellows. In an attempt to satisfy the federal law, companies are obliged to analyse their current workforce to determine the areas that require affirmative action then set out plans and programs that address the diversity issues. As the new manager of a company facing equal employment litigations and infractions, this paper will look to find methods to address diversity issues, provide a model that will convince the management on company practices and also provide an evaluation method to check on the effectiveness of the proposed changes.

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Strategic HR Plan to Deal with Equal Employment Opportunities

Human resource management is a section of a firm that is tasked with functions and processes directed towards maintaining, attracting and leading the human resources of the organisation. The human resource department stays at the front of the struggle to keep diversity (Cascio, 2018). It is the catalyst that gathers resources and directs them into programs that advance diversity practices. Moreover, it is a link with other departments, and through this, it can ensure that the initiatives of diversity will bear fruits. Through its influence and facilitation, some strategies may be devised to improve Equal employment opportunities (Alhejj et al., 2017). The procedures aim at changing attitudes, structures, practices and policies at every level of the organization. They include;

Diversity Training

Diversity training is a platform that enables educating workers from different groups to adapt and perform more effectively with people from other groupings. Its purpose is to equip workers with knowledge, increase cultural awareness and help create better communication channels. It builds a bridge between employees allowing for a cohesive workplace. It inspires sensitivity to cultures, religion, age, sex, gender, disabilities, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. The training brings out the best out of people, bring down separation barriers between employees and enable the company to harness the benefits of diversity in the organization.

Diversity training helps us understand cultural differences. A diverse environment has many cultures, and therefore knowledge of each other's culture will help us know what to expect from their way of thinking, engagements, and behaviours. Insight on slight nuisance that may be caused by other people's culture is also covered. Working on a global platform will warrant meeting and interacting with a diverse population. The training will, therefore, enable one to carry out transactions and communicate with the various groups of people for business success. Cultural competence increases after diversity training. There is less lag that is caused by regular conflicts due to misunderstandings. Skill is a catalyst for effectiveness. Change of attitudes helps bring fairness in a work environment. Diversity training shapes attitudes resulting in fair treatment, less bias in processes within the company including hiring, firing, and issuing benefits.

Developing a Diversity Training Program

Initiation of the Training program

Each workplace has different diversity training needs. The initiation stage will, therefore, be used to assess the employees, the company culture and common topics that require covering. Gathering input could be carried out with the primary data collection tools including; online surveys, focus groups, interviews, and observation (Bezrukova et al., 2016). Reference to previous company cases involving diversity-related conflicts should be made to provide insight on the needs. The initial stage of the planning also consists of getting facilities into place for the training. It includes hiring professionals, getting sponsors and stakeholders.

Definition of the program objectives

Depending on the data collected on the initial stage of the planning, the goals of the training are derived. They should be smart and focus on the real issues facing the company. The goals should also cover the minor and significant diversity issues that the employees face.

Designing a workshop and presentation

The workshop is supposed to be a session that is interactive and educative. It, therefore, requires proper planning. Based on the objectives, activities are organized that will ensure continuous and smooth relaying of diversity information. Interactive activities should also be added to intersperse long periods of educative information. Moreover, make the workshop fun (Alhejj et al., 2017. Also, an interactive session should be included where the employees get to have their contribution to the whole matter.

Delivery of the workshop

The result of the planning will constitute of different diversity training methods to cover all the issues. Awareness training will help familiarise with all the cultures, religions and groups included in the workplace. Skills-based training will help equip the workers with effective techniques of dealing with diversity conflict. Mentoring the diverse groups will also help to initiate collaborative competition in the workplace. The workers will get to be motivated based on their skills, behaviour based on their backgrounds, sexes to help them perform best.

Evaluation of the training effectiveness

Data collection methods such as surveys, interviews and focus groups could be carried out to measure the satisfaction and gains of the training sessions. Follow up activities and audits should also follow to see the impact of the training. Talks with managers will expose their level of tolerance to those who differ with them in the job setting

Various Segments to Focus on During Diversity Training

The law

Federal laws govern the Equal Employment Opportunity using the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Therefore, violations of these laws will result in capital offences. The training should cover the legal rights on a diversity platform for the employees. The management should also get informed of the rights of those they govern and therefore learn about their obligations towards them.

Company systems and policies

A previous lawsuit with regards to equal employment charges will require realigning the company policies. The procedures that need to be changed are hiring, training, performance management, company cultural practices and several other systems. The exercise will uncover the barriers that the policies have created. Once there is a proper understanding of the obstacles, the management, and the employees can help devise a method to rectify the policies. An action plan should then be set to ensure they are implemented.

Proper cross-cultural communication and its impediments

The major impediments to intercultural communication are prejudice, irrational assumptions, fear, and misunderstanding. Stereotypes formed due to assumptions should be addressed. Language use with different people should be clarified to help understand intentions. Bias in the work environment at all stages should be covered and fear of change. Proper communication will ensure appropriate interaction within the organisation.

Cultural competence

Cultural competence is the ability to work with people from different cultures efficiently. It is as a result of cultural awareness. Cultural awareness is the understanding of the sensitivity to other people's differences. It is a valuable insight to cover under diversity training as it gives a chance for proper interactions at the workplace, collaborative competition and reduces the numbers of conflicts.

Recruitment and Selection

The most basic view that people have about diversity is the equal opportunities granted in the selection of new employees. Many companies have therefore been evidenced to have a hiring preference for the minority groups to mirror the diversity situation within the current market. There need to be efforts to broaden the scope of the recruitment and reduce bias in the selection process to streamline the process of recruitment,

A proper market survey within the region the hiring will take place should be carried out. It will ensure identification of all the minority and majority groups, and a proper plan to accommodate all of them is set in place before the hiring process. When a specific minority group is a target for a position, an appropriate analysis of the advertising channels to use should be done. It will ensure that they have more access to the advertisement (Ozturk et al., 2016). Use of referrals are the most significant bottlenecks of diversity hiring since peoples networks mostly constitute of those demographically similar to them. Accessibility to the company is a characteristic that will determine the interest of diverse groups. For people with disabilities, it is essential that there are facilities that allow for their integration into the company.

The initial stage of employee recruitment is the job advertisements. It is the area that attracts people from diverse origins based on the method and content of the publication. The job advertisements should, therefore, remove any bias and cater for people of all walks. It could be done by using images and cues that are representative of all the groups within a community. Moreover, technology has advanced and therefore provides websites that can carry out an advertisement's analysis to test for the appeal it has for the minority groups (Barak, 2016). Consequently, to attract a diverse candidature, the company should change the Vision and mission to make a strong statement about diversity to show commitment to the idea. The available policies should further allow for a proper work to life balance to be able to attract female and younger employees.

Blind hiring and AL screening can be adopted in making selections to remove the effect of biases. Al screening is a method of automated resume screening that is based on employee's database to make excellent choices. Blind resumes do not include the applicant's name and therefore renders the recruiter unconscious about the applicant race, religion, and gender. The selection process will, therefore, be more inclined to skills (Guillaume et al., 2018). The previous selection criteria that involved analysis of educational backgrounds and previous work experience could be limited in the selection of a diverse workforce. However, using a personality assessment will give better results. The tool measures motivations, skills and personality traits of the candidate. The advantage of the method is that it does not show any variations across different groups.

Having a Cultural Audit

A cultural audit will be used to identify the cultural situation of the firm; defining the strengths, issues, culture, obstacles, understanding, and challenges. The review will, therefore, provide a basis for the diversity plan. It also includes information for the training needs and legal issues. It covers the management and the employees from a broader perspective. The methods used to collect the data should be both quantitative and qualitative (Barak, 2016). Q...