STEPS TO A HARMONIZED DIVERSE WORKFORCE

The consensus states that diversity in the workplace leads to increased levels of creativity and innovation in terms of problem solving, team productivity and openness to transformation. Individuals are no longer living or working in an isolated environment and thus expect their offices to reflect this fact. The challenge thus falls upon organizations to be able to bring together a diverse workforce, differing in culture, education, religion, etc.

Diversity in the hospitality sector is even more pertinent, especially in countries with an active tourism market. In order for guests to be comfortable when dealing with a customer service representative, he or she must be able to relate languagewise and demographically with the client.

Workforce diversity implementation creates a challenge for the HR department, since they are the first to recognize this change and must act proactively in managing the multicultural workforce. They need to accept and understand the differences among employees and be able to create and develop new strategies that can relate. Here’s what to keep in mind:

1. Understand the differences

Communication is the means for understanding and understanding is the key for successful relationships, especially in business. For HR to create a successful diverse workplace, the first step is to understand the differences in employee backgrounds, traditions and values. Accordingly, a set of rules and regulations should be created to ensure fairness between all employees and eliminate any discrimination.

2. Train the managers

Managers need to ‘walk the walk and talk the talk’; how else would employees understand the company culture? A training program tailored to the managers will help in managing and integrating multicultural employees.

3. Recreate the recruitment process

A specific recruitment process needs to be created. The new process has to be based on a balanced quota that provides a clear job specification for each position, while clearly showing the number of employees needed from each gender, nationality and language; including the experience levels required.

4. Break the ice

After providing orientation sessions for the newly hired, you as an HR department, have to provide ongoing training to be able to fully grasp and understand the company’s culture as well as the ethos of their country. This should be accompanied with ritual social and team building activities that break the barriers and allow employees from different backgrounds to communicate with each other freely. Such activities provide the workforce with a chance to get to know each other outside of work. This helps employees understand and accept their differences, which reflects positively on the workplace.

The HR department plays a major role in making a diverse workplace succeed. A wellmanaged heterogeneous workforce can lead to a safe, open and innovative environment, where all employees can benefit from their differences and learn how to think independently yet together, in order to face any upcoming challenges.

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Diversity in the workplace leads to increased levels of creativity and innovation