Diversity involves more than just race, culture and gender. It encompasses each person’s uniqueness, experience and personalities that are different but have to be dealt with in the workplace. Diversity affects performance and bottom line, so it is important to manage any issues that may result from personality conflicts. Diversity also determines how an employee interacts with other employees and the type of motivation involved in job performance.
The Process
Communicate to employees the issues that relate to the organisation or company, such as goals and objectives, policies, corporate culture and common practices.
Make any changes that will positively affect the needs of the various diverse groups in the organisation. Discuss all issues related to policy, practice and culture and maximise them to extract the full potential of each employee in a consistent way. This can be done through teamwork.
Create teams of employees to work together. Give each employee her job description and the skills required to complete the project. Mix the teams by involving an employee from each group that fits the necessary job description and skills. This will provide an opportunity for each person to learn from and try to understand one another. Assign a team leader to each group as well as one other person to help the team leader mediate if problems arise.
Create a company employee handbook and give one to each employee to read and sign. Emphasise respect, tolerance and patience and clarify that nothing less should be accepted by any employee.
Make each person accountable to the team leader, supervisor and company. Give each person different responsibilities to complete to finish the project. This means that each person will be able to contribute and feel that he/she is valuable to the company, the team and himself.
Tips
Hold weekly or monthly meetings and invite employees to speak up. Give each employee a confidential survey to fill out about how she/he feels about the company, its policies and practices.
Warnings
Request an open-door policy for every supervisor and manager so that employees will feel comfortable discussing issues that become a concern.
