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The need for diversity in the workforce
Importance of understanding workforce diversity
Impact of diversity on employee performance
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Recommended: The need for diversity in the workforce
Workforce diversity is taken more serious today than 20 years ago. Before women were not allowed to work, and when women did start appearing in the workforce they were usually overworked making lower wages than men. 20 years ago white males dominated the workforce and that was considered normal for any company. Before companies even thought of becoming global or internationally known, workforce diversity was affecting companies around the world.
Benefits of a Diverse Workforce
There are a lot of different and unique people living in the U.S. today, so it is important for companies to support workforce diversity to be successful. There are many benefits for companies that support and uphold diversity within their business and a lot of companies could not survive without it.
Creativeness
Creativity is important to battle with competitors, in order for companies to have more to offer and bring more to the table for their customers; they need to have a wide range of opinions, thoughts, and ideas starting with their employees. Employees bring a lot of uniqueness and creativeness to a company. Employees is what keeps a company thriving and changing every day because they are the ones that are helping to achieve the best for the company and for the customers. Creative ideas are what attract customers and clients to a company; it is what sets a business apart from the billions of competitors in the market. Each person can give more to the company than before, for example: different aged people working in the company will allow the company to understand and reach out to different aged customers and their needs.
Global Companies
Having a variety of employees from all different cultures, sexes, backgrounds, race, etc. will broaden the range of which a company can reach out to. Companies that move overseas must have employees that understand the new environment, bring more creative ideas to the new location and instill the same traditional core company values and beliefs. The most important thing about a company becoming internationally known is that what is considered normal or acceptable in one country may be insulting or offensive in another. By including different nationalities and cultural differences within a company you can achieve greater things by going global. Another example is that if you are opening up a division of your company in Mexico with only English speaking employees the language difference will be an automatic failure for your company.
America’s workforce is continuously changing. Businesses today hire and retain culturally diverse employees to compete in the globalize market. Companies are developing ways to tap into and capitalize upon the talents of their workforces. They are discovering how to value the diversity of their workforces and the potential that diversity brings in flexibility, ingenuity and problem solving are helping them achieve their goals.
A diverse workforce more closely reflects the global marketplace that the organization competes in. With the growing number of Asian, Hispanic and other minority populations, it makes sense for companies to promote and strive for diversity in the workplace. By doing this, businesses create the very conditions needed to produce more creative outcomes to the problems and challenges they will be faced with.
It improves understanding of your customer’s needs, a recent research suggests that customers differ in their value to a firm, this means customers may value a firm by its discounts, warranty and customer service and so on. The more diverse the workforce is the more understanding of customer needs, an employee with the same background as a customer may understand the customer which is employees empathizing with customers. Different ways of thinking increases productivity, employees may handle a problem or situation in different ways since every individual has their own way of thinking and handling a situation. With the different ways of thinking brings solutions that will get the company going. When an employee is good at something for example presentation skills, he or she may help someone which is not so good at it. Learning from each other and supporting each other leads to high morale and employee satisfaction. Greater Innovation and creativity, new ideas and skills are brought by different employees into the organization which increases employees to practice what they are good at such as talents; drawing for example. This will create creativity and production as well. When there is an increase in skills it enables an individual to master something in the organization. When there are challenges they can be overcome with the mastering and increase in skills. There will be a lot of opportunities due to the ever increasing growth in the market. A greater diversity within the workforce increases your company’s ability to succeed regardless of what may come
The importance of diversity, advantages and disadvantages/problems that arise in the workforce will be discussed, as well as the key tools and strategies supervisors need to know about managing diversity in the workplace.
As companies began to offer workplace principles of independence, out of the box thinking and open-door policies; wouldn't it be even more important to have a cultured workplace. Workplace diversity is the here & now and also the wave of the future as markets expand into global territories. Setting the legal obligations asides a company should want to maximize its potential by reaching out beyond its current marketable persons and into other bodies of people. The cause of having such a diverse foundation shows growth and understanding to support the "changing of the times" of the modern workforce. The effects are how diversity impacts the company's personnel, economy, and global markets.
Businesses that promote diversity in today's global marketplace are better able to attract and retain the best talent. Employing a diverse workforce allows a company to utilize the potential within the job market to its fullest and contributes to overall economic growth and prosperity. Differences among co-workers should not divide a workplace. Rather, differences among co-workers should be used to foster creativity and innovation, thereby driving profitability and business success.
The focus of this paper is to elaborate on the changing landscape of work in America during the twenty-first century. According to the researchers, as the economy continues to slowly recover from the recession and economic crisis, more of our baby boomers are reentering the workforce. In addition to the introduction of automation and computer technologies into the workplace, this has dramatically changed the nature of jobs for the older workers (Czaja and Sharit 2009). As stated in the Government Accountability Office in 2006, the number of workers over age 55 is projected to increase significantly over the next 20 years. Evidence shows that ageism, stereotypes, and misinformation about our older population continue to be major issues across
International businesses are also finding new ways of increasing diversity abroad. Instead of using expatriate employees as management, they are starting to hire locals. Companies that operate abroad are realizing that using expatriate employees is not a permanent solution. They are often expensive, and are not capable of translating their skills into the new environment. In a company that operates globally, it is important that the company knows how to relate to the local markets, and a great way to do this is by hiring local talent. Hiring locally is cheaper, there is not a language barrier, and they are accustomed to the business environment in the area(5). They can also help the business by providing a new perspective into international markets, and offer ways that the company can improve their diversity abroa...
The emergence of diversity in organizations can be traced to the 1960s when legislation was enacted to prohibit discrimination against ethnicity, gender, national origin, race, and religion. Even though workplace diversity origins began in the aftermath of World War I, it was not until 1961, when President John F Kennedy established the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), which was to end discrimination in employment by the government and its contractors (Cañas & Sondak, 2011). Workplace diversity continued to be advanced through the years by Presidents Johnson and Nixon administrations.
Living in a country where it was founded by immigrants, diversity is everywhere you go especially in the workplace. There are many types of diversity; ethnicity, gender, religion and age just to name a few. Working in a diverse organization it can give you a taste of the real world, and what you will deal with wherever you go. There is so much diversity in the world today so it is a benefit to experience it in the workplace as well. You are given the chance to learn so many things from different cultures, why wouldn't you want to work in a diverse organization?
Diversity in the workplace is important for employees because it manifests itself in building a great reputation for the company, leading to increased profitability and opportunities for workers. Making sure all members, students, parents and guarding’s are welcomed at all times in a well-mannered environment Workplace diversity is important within the organization as well as outside ensuring all different are put aside and everyone can come together and work well as a great team.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (n.d.) defines diversity as “the condition of having or being composed of differing elements; especially, the inclusion of different types of people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization”. In general, diversity is often only related with differences in race and gender. In actuality, numerous elements can determine diversification in the workplace. Elements such as skills, abilities, experience, values, age, and education could be part of a diverse footprint in an organization. Other important attributes related to diversity include disabilities, religion, sexual orientation, and marital status (Guillame et al., 2013). The adoption of diversity in the workplace has the potential to increase organizational effectiveness in many ways. Organizations that practice diversity tend to increase their capacity to innovate and make better decisions.
The researcher believes, in this fast-changing era, any kind of company or organization should be able to improve the quality of workplace diversity by having some important main factor to boost the new paradigm of a diverse workplace, such as:
America is often referred to as “The Melting Pot” of the world. With this appellation, it is not wrong to assume that the U.S. has one of the most diverse cultures. Conversely, a majority percentage of people in America would disagree with this sentiment and argue that the U.S. is comprised of many subgroups. These subgroups vary based on race and skin color and are hardly “melted” together. This apparent racial divide is very common in many American corporations as well. Management researchers have found that maintaining a racially diverse workforce has been proven to have many important benefits within a corporation. For example, having a racially diverse workforce can help match the culture of the customers in the economy to build trust, provide new and differing insights, and right some of the wrongs caused by racism and sexism in our society. Facilitating diversity is not easy, and many organizations have encountered challenges from attempting to do so. Fortunately, there actions that organizations can take to overcome these challenges in order to make diversity a reality.
The importance of diversity in the workplace that it can aid in a competitive framework