DEVELOPING A CULTURE OF DIVERSITY significant rewards. Young millennials often help older baby boomers with new technologies while baby boomers can model appropriate career ladders and behaviors for advancement. These situations provide a“ win-win” scenario for everyone involved.
The best HR teams understand that in today’ s workplace, there are groups who feel marginalized or may at times feel left out or as if they don’ t belong. When employers make an effort to create diverse teams, these employees feel included and supported and are likely to be happy and more productive.
How does a company that has always had a fairly homogeneous workforce begin to embrace diversity and integrate it into the company culture? The answer is that it is not easy and requires buy-in from the executive suite to be successful. Management must show commitment, taking a deep look within and assigning their company a“ diversity grade.” Where does your company fall in terms of welcoming in diverse personnel? Do you provide accommodation for those with unique religious observances, work / life situations, or physical abilities? Do groups tend to cluster within like demographics rather than integrate inclusively throughout the team?
After analyzing your situation, it may be time to adjust your hiring practices. Take a hard look at whether your workforce composition matches both your target market and geographic location. Figure out what areas are lacking and reach out to employees representing these diverse groups for referrals, contact appropriate cultural institutions and religious organizations, and use the web to find the right outlets to“ market” your company. Make it part of your company brand message that yours is an open company that welcomes people of diverse ethnicities and backgrounds. encourages them to do their best work. When you have a team of happy achievers all working toward a common goal, your company will attract outstanding job candidates and customers.
If you would like to learn more about introducing a culture of diversity and openness, contact Marcotte’ s HR Consultant Denise Christiansen at( 402) 970-3361 to get the ball rolling. +
Denise Christiansen is a Human Resource Consultant within Marcotte’ s Employee Benefits division. She brings over 25 years of diverse human resource and leadership experience including positions with fortune 100 firms as well as independently providing HR Consulting Services to a number of local businesses. Denise assists Marcotte’ s clients across a wide range of HR challenges including compliance, benefit enrollment and HRIS systems analysis, employee handbooks, personnel file and I-9 audits. Denise attended the University of Nebraska at Omaha studying HR Management. Denise believes Human Resources is the foundation which serves the people, from managers to employees, and that the evolution of the HR function gives credence to the fact that people are an organization’ s most important resource. She believes that people are an organization’ s asset and that employees must be hired, satisfied, motivated, developed, and retained. In her spare time, Denise enjoys spending time with her family at the lake, hosting Sunday family dinners and watching the Huskers and Cowboys!
Company-wide acceptance and internalization of more diverse values takes time and may require managers at every level to enroll in diversity training programs. These programs teach participants to become more socially aware of people of differing backgrounds and suggest ways to promote a spirit of inclusion throughout the company. This can be done by developing written diversity policies, promoting the concept of strictly merit-based pay and advancement opportunities, and establishing a central resource to answer questions about your company’ s diversity culture.
Finally, don’ t forget about retention. It takes a lot more work to recruit a new individual to your team than it does to retain a current one— regardless of ethnic considerations. Be sure that your diversity policies extend to current employees just as it does new employees. In order to be long-lasting and effective, policies should be reevaluated and modified based on continual feedback.
Through the power of social media, everything your company says and does— or maybe just even hints at— becomes public information instantly. Keep in mind, job seekers evaluate your company long before the first interview. They are conducting internet searches, looking for feedback from job candidates, customers, and ex-employees.
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Ultimately, the goal of a corporate diversity program is to ensure that your firm’ s culture attracts the top available talent and
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