What is Diversity in the Workplace

For an organization looking to cultivate a more diverse and inclusive workplace, it is important to
understand what constitutes workplace diversity.

Workplace diversity refers to the variety of differences between individuals in an organization. Diversity
not only includes how individuals identify themselves but also how others perceive them. Diversity
within a workplace encompasses race, gender, ethnic groups, age, religion, sexual orientation,
citizenship status, military service and mental and physical conditions, as well as other distinct
differences between people

Benefits of Diversity in the Workplace

 Employees from diverse backgrounds imbue organizations with creative new ideas and
perspectives informed by their cultural experiences
 A diverse workplace will help organizations better understand target demographics and
what moves them
 A diverse workplace can better align an organization’s culture with the demographic
make-up of America
 Increased customer satisfaction by improving how employees interact with a more
diverse clientele and public

Managing diversity in the workplace presents a set of unique challenges for HR professionals.
These challenges can be mitigated if an organization makes a concerted effort to encourage a
more heterogeneous environment through promoting a culture of tolerance, open communication
and creating conflict management strategies to address issues that may arise.

For leadership to effectively manage diversity in the workplace, they need to understand their
backgrounds and how their behavior and beliefs can affect their decision-making within a
diverse environment.

Prioritize communication

To manage a diverse workplace, organizations need to ensure that they effectively communicate
with employees. Policies, procedures, safety rules and other important information should be
designed to overcome language and cultural barriers by translating materials and using pictures
and symbols whenever applicable.
Treat each employee as an individual

Avoid making assumptions about employees from different backgrounds. Instead, look at each
employee as an individual and judge successes and failures on the individual’s merit rather than
attributing actions to their background.

Encourage employees to work in diverse groups

Diverse work teams let employees get to know and value one another on an individual basis and
can help break down preconceived notions and cultural misunderstandings.

Base standards on objective criteria

Set one standard of rules for all groups of employees regardless of background. Ensure that all
employment actions, including discipline, follow this standardized criteria to make sure each
employee is treated the same.

Be open-minded

Recognize, and encourage employees to recognize, that one’s own experience, background, and
culture are not the only with value to the organization. Look for ways to incorporate a diverse
range of perspectives and talents into efforts to achieve organizational goals.

Hiring

To build a diverse workplace, it is crucial to recruit and hire talent from a variety of
backgrounds. This requires leadership and others who make hiring decisions to overcome bias in
interviewing and assessing talent. If organizations can break through bias and hire the most
qualified people, those with the right education, credentials, experience and skill sets, a diverse
workplace should be the natural result.

Tips for hiring a diverse workforce:

 Incorporate a diverse interview panel to ensure candidates are chosen solely based on
suitability for the position.
 Managers should be trained on what can and cannot be asked in an interview. For
example, questions about an applicant’s personal life, such as which church they attend,
their romantic life and political beliefs, are off-limits.
 Get creative when recruiting. For example, if an organization would like to hire more
women in the engineering department, they could reach out to professional groups that
cater to women in engineering and ask to advertise open positions in their newsletter or
member communications.
Diversity Management: Policies and Practices
Organizations that embrace diversity also need to ensure that there are policies and practices in
place to protect employees’ rights and stay compliant with government regulations.

It is essential for an organization to think about the impact that company policies and practices
have on a diverse group of employees. Companies should create a way for employees to give
feedback with surveys and suggestion boxes to gain a better understanding of how employees
feel about diversity policies. Any feedback received, both positive and negative, is valuable.
Companies need to be ready to adapt and change policies that may be interpreted as obstructions
or not helpful for employees.

In addition to the written policies, it is also essential to ensure that the non-official “rules” of an
organization are thoroughly explained to all employees to communicate company values and
culture to all workers effectively.

Documentation of Policies and Procedures

Properly documenting diversity policies is an effective means of communicating an

organization’s stances on diversity. Once concrete plans are ready to be implemented, documents
that outline each policy should be included in the employee handbook. Diversity policies should
be reviewed with every new hire, and when updates to policies are made, they should be shared
with current employees as well.

Employee handbooks should cover diversity in the following sections:

 Code of conduct should outline the company’s policy toward diversity

 Non-discrimination policy lets employees know about diversity
 Compensation and benefits policy
 Employment conditions and termination

Zero-Tolerance Policy

Having a diverse workplace means that off-color jokes about ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation
or religion need to be met with zero-tolerance enforcement. Slurs, name-calling and bullying
employees for any reason has no place in today’s workplace. Policies should be put in place to
handle misconduct and communicate to employees that this type of behavior will not be
tolerated.

Organizations will also need to make sure employees feel safe reporting any instances of
inappropriate behavior by co-workers by establishing a formal complaint policy, so employees
know how to report misconduct to the proper authority within an organization.
Sensitivity Training

Employees need to be aware of how to coexist with a diverse range of people, as well as be
cognizant of cultural sensitivity, to achieve harmony within a diverse workplace. Sensitivity
training can help an organization manage diversity in the workplace by helping employees
become more self-aware, which plays a vital role in helping employees understand their own
cultural biases and prejudices.

Benefits of sensitivities training:

 Helps employees examine and adjust their perspectives about people from different
backgrounds
 Employees can learn to better appreciate the views of others
 Shows employees what actions are offensive and why they are perceived as such
 Teaches employees how to calmly communicate that a co-worker has offended them and
how to resolve the conflict properly
 Explains to employees how to apologize to a co-worker if they have indeed offended
them unknowingly
 All employees should be included in sensitivity training; adding specific training for
managers makes it even more impactful. Some companies also offer sensitivity training
online.

Stay Abreast of Diversity Laws

Managing diversity in the workplace means that businesses need to keep abreast of changing
employer-related laws and trends, especially diversity-related changes. Organizations should
regularly review internal policies, especially those around harassment and equal opportunity, and
make sure they reflect the most current laws and regulations.

If an organization has an international or multi-state presence, it is necessary to track regional

changes to laws and regulations as they vary from country to county and state to state.

Types of diversity?

 Cultural diversity
 Racial diversity
 Religious diversity
 Age diversity
 Sex / Gender diversity
 Sexual orientation
 Disability

Here’s a breakdown of these forms of diversity:

Cultural diversity

This type of diversity is related to each person’s ethnicity and it’s usually the set of norms we get
from the society we were raised in or our family’s values. Having different cultures in the
workplace is more common in multinational companies.

Race diversity

Race has to do with a person’s grouping based on physical traits (despite the dominant scientific
view that race is a social construct and not biologically defined). Examples of races are
Caucasian, African, Latino and Asian.

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Religious diversity

This type of diversity refers to the presence of multiple religions and spiritual beliefs (including
lack thereof) in the workplace.

Age diversity

Age diversity means working with people of different ages and, most importantly, generations.
For example, millennials, GenZers and GenXers can coexist in the same workplace.

Sex / Gender / Sexual orientation

Sex and gender can be used in the traditional sense of male and female employees. For example,
you may sometimes hear the term “gender balance” used by companies trying to achieve a 50-50
balance between employees who identify as male and employees who identify as female. But, as
gender is increasingly redefined, the term “gender diversity” may be more appropriate, since
there are multiple variations in gender and sexual orientation.

Disability

There are various types of disabilities or chronic conditions included here, ranging from mental
to physical. Companies often make reasonable accommodations to help people with disabilities
integrate into the workplace, such as installing ramps for wheelchairs or providing mental health
support. Some companies also adjust their hiring process to make sure it's inclusive.
 Socioeconomic background / Class diversity
 Education
 Life experiences
 Personality
 General worldview / opinions
 Rift valley University Harar Campus
Department of Human Resource Management
Assessment of Manage work p/Diversity

Name ______________________________ ID NO ___________ Program _________

Part I for the following write True if statement is Correct & False If not

1. ------ A diverse workplace can better align an organization’s culture

2.------- To manage a diverse workplace, organizations need to ensure that they un effectively
communicate with employees
3. ------Setting one standard of rules for all groups of employees. Ensure that each employee is
treated differently.
4. ------Benefits of sensitivities training: helps employees examine their perspectives about
people from different backgrounds
5--------. Cultural diversity has to do with a person’s grouping based on physical traits

Part II Matching
1.--------- Equal employment opportunity A. ranging from mental to physical
2-----------. Dealing with diversity B. Diversity
3------------. Disability C. Tolerance
4.----------- Pluralism D. Multi cultural organization
5.----------- Multi lingual E. Zero tolerance
F. language diversity
G, Treating every one equal

Part II Give short answer for the following statement

1. Diversity management
2. List down the charectericts of diversity

3. List and explain three types of diversity