How to manage work place diversity

 

Workforce diversity can be described as similarities and differences among employees in terms of age, cultural background, physical abilities and disabilities, race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation. (Saxena, 2014)

Some of selected examples related to diversity and elaborate how manage these selected diversities can be identify as below,

Age-based Diversity

Business, particularly marketers, government and academics are interested in common traits of generations. There can be some disagreement with dates, but there is general agreement about the broad descriptors of the generations.

 

As many as 5 generations represent today’s workforce

·       The Silent Generations (Born pre 1946)

-        Born during the depression and World War II

-        Considered cautious, unadventurous, unimaginative and withdrawn

·       Baby Bombers (Born 1946 to 1964)

-        Raised in a time of huge national wealth

-        Expanded the economy more than any other generation

·       Generation X (Born 1965 to 1980)

-        Experienced recession and high unemployment in the 1990s, which made people more cynical, competitive and focused on developing work skills and protecting rights.

-        First generation to have dual career couples, gender roles less important.

·       Generation Y (Born 1980 to Early 2000s)

-        Raised in times of economic security, but some faced economic hardship in the global financial crisis (GFC)

-        Consistently criticized in the media as the ‘me’ generation: selfish, lazy, lacking in commitment and easily distracted.

·       Generation Z

-        Children born after generation Y are being referred to as generation Z. Some categorize generation Z as 1995 to 2009, with Generation Alpha those born 2010 onwards.

-        In a few years, we’ll have generation Z entering the workforce. It will be then that we’ll start to get studies on the traits of this generation as employees.

Organizations do follow actions to manage diversity,

 

·       Train employees to understand the benefits of having diverse age – base and try to recognize and break down commonly held stereotypes.

·       Generation Y is asking for things that everyone else wants tool examine job design, flexible work arrangements, feedback methods and performance rewards and provide a range of benefits available to everyone.

·       Encourage all employees to keep up to date with technology and train employees on how to the social media appropriately and effectively.

·       Read, discuss and act on the Australian Human Rights Commission Age Discrimination report, exposing the hidden barrier for mature age workers.

Gender Diversity

 ‘Gender equality is achieved when people are able to access and enjoy the same rewards, resources and opportunities regardless of whether they are a woman or a man. The aim is to achieve broadly equal outcomes for women and men, not exactly the same outcome for all individuals.

Workplace does follow actions to improve gender equality

·       Address stereotypes, particularly in regard to traditional roles held by men and women.

·       Review recruitment and selection procedures for bias and indirect discrimination.

·       Develop a clear policy on flexible work, and a strategy to support it.

·       Develop a remuneration policy that is transparent and clearly conveyed to staff.

·       Train women in negotiation skills for women, particularly in how to better represent themselves in pay negotiations.

·       Establish and refer women to networking groups, for example, the successful Women in Business Group.

·       Establish in-house mentoring and leadership programs.

 

List of references

Saxena, A. (2014). Workforce Diversity: A Key to Improve Productivity. Procedia Economics and Finance, [online] 11(1), pp.76–85. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212567114001786.