Measuring The Effectiveness Of Programs

Diversity is a wonderful asset to an organization and brings with it many benefits. Employees bring in their own personal experiences and knowledge to the team (Burns & Kerby, 2012). Having diverse teams allows for the possibility to fix a problem or perfect a process by using different employee’s experiences and past knowledge to find solutions. A diverse workforce can drive economic growth and capture a greater share of the consumer market (Burns & Kerby, 2012). With diversity as a core value, the recruitment pool is widened to find the most qualified candidate and reduces employee turnover as a result. An organization can be highly competitive with a diversity initiative by adapting to a changing environment (Burns & Kerby, 2012).

The purpose of this paper is designed to introduce, educate, and promote diversity within your company. Your company will be shown the merits of diversity and how diversity within your organization can be a benefit. This paper will be broken down into three main areas: Benefits of Diversity, Challenges of Diversity, and Recommendations for an effective diversity within your organization..

As Shen, Chanda, Netto, & Monga (2009) point out, "workforce diversity acknowledges the reality that people differ in many ways, visible or invisible, mainly age, gender, marital status, social status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, personality, ethnicity, and culture," (p. 235.). These differences will vary from place to place, and from organization to organization. Therefore, the human resources management must respond to the situational variables, not making generalizations about the needs of the organization to promote diversity and the strategies that can be implemented. The human resources manager risks wasting valuable resources on procedures, policies, and programs that are not fruitful in promoting genuine employee integration without understanding the specific variables impacting the organization at the moment. As the organization has already seen, hiring a diverse workforce is an insufficient action. Having an organizational culture that supports and promotes total team integration is a process requiring the support from every level of management. Management needs to play an active role in ensuring that diversity is represented in senior positions, if it hopes to see a productive and diverse workforce of subordinate personnel.

Throughout the book The Loudest Duck by Laura A. Liswood, we learn about what it means to be truly diverse and how to obtain this diversity. The book gives many examples of how and why it is important for companies to be diverse. Through this paper I will be outlining the main points the other made and share some of the lessons I feel are important.

Diversity has been a hot-button topic for many of today’s companies. Diversity programming and initiatives are regularly implemented by organizations of all types and sizes. As it relates to an organization’s human resources operation, diversity will continue to be an ever-changing term as the work towards equitable treatment for all continues.

Diversity in the workplace has always been an interesting topic to explore. When studying the topic, one is able to see how minorities and women do not get the same job opportunities at career growth as non-minorities. The lack of diversity in the workplace can definitely keep a company from reaching its full potential. Our guest speaker Patrick McKay explored different topics dealing with diversity in the workplace that shed light on why trying to diversify the workplace occasionally fails. McKay also mentioned how it is important to be mindful of the location you choose to live when beginning your career. In the article Doing Diversity Right, Derek R. Avery and Patrick F. McKay explain how “managing diversity” in the workplace is vital in today’s workplace. Over the years there has been a greater emphasis put on insuring diversity within the workplace. McKay and Avery explain the importance of creating a diverse environment in which companies promote. It is not enough to solely recruit minorities or women but also the environment of the workplace must allow the individuals to thrive. In the article Warning! Diversity recruitment could Backfire, Patrick McKay and Derek Avery explain how companies should implement diversity into their company programs. Having a company culture that embraces diversity is the key to successfully diversifying a company.

Organizations who make a commitment to diversity can see a significant impact on business in many ways. Diversity “requires a significant commitment for change to occur” (Delong, 2007, p.9). It is extremely important that leaders understand the commitment and embrace it in order for a positive impact to occur. Employers with diverse cultures and leaders can build positive and successful relationships with customers, suppliers and vendors. They can better attract and retain top talent. All of these equal more financial gain for the company.

The City of Grande Prairie HR Department differs from most organizations in its role of recruitment. Managers are responsible for their own recruitment, interviews and orientation. During the recruitment and selection process, the right type of applicants is far more important than the number of applicants. If hiring managers do not support or understand the importance of diversity or rush the process it can has negative impacts, both short and long term. Often a variety of factors including financial constraints, stiff competition for talent, mandates for efficiency and effectiveness and the decision making structure make service delivery and recruitment challenging. To ensure that a diversity policy and program becomes a part of the organizational culture management will need to be educated and supported in regards to the importance of hiring and effectively managing a diverse team.

Many organizations are beginning to view diversity as an organizational change. This could possibly mean changes in the power dynamics and organizational structure, the way decisions are made, and the way an

The general line of reasoning is that if we learn to incorporate each other’s diverse traits and characteristics in the workplace, we can then use these differences to foster an innovative environment, which will give the company a competitive advantage over the competitors that do not accept workforce diversity. According to the Allied Academies International Conference, “Diversity is rapidly becoming a common practice among companies due to the increasing number of minorities entering the job market today. As these groups become more prevalent throughout companies, upper-level employees are facing numerous challenges when determining what changes must take place to create a positive working environment for everyone. Management is responsible for the development and implementation of effective policies directly relating to diversity to ensure the acceptance of minorities into the workplace and to aid in minorities’ success through equal opportunities and treatment.” (Marcia L. James, 2001, Academy for Studies in International Business Proceedings)

For instance, BMO is a leading organization that emphasizes on “diversity and learning from our differences” to pursue a vision of great customer service in the future and to do this, they are transforming the organization’s culture by selecting candidates that identify with this value.3 This focus on diversity in BMO’s workforce has led to an increase of executive representation of women in the workplace from 36.5% in 2014 to 40.7% in 2015 and an increase of executive visible minorities from 11.4% in 2014 to 11.9% in 2015.4 In fact, the organization requires a minimum of one in three individuals who are pursuing an executive level position to have same diversity objectives as the organization.5 With an emphasis on BMO’s values, the organization can develop a unique selection process that improves its ability to find the perfect candidate with the right credentials and one who is willing to commit to see the company grow. Should BMO continue to select the right candidates, the statistics of the number of minority representation in the organization is expected to rise and workplace diversity will continue to

The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult. In the U.S., where the dialogue of inclusion is relatively advanced, even the mention of the word “diversity” can lead to anxiety and conflict. Supreme Court justices disagree on the virtues of diversity and the means for achieving it. Corporations spend billions of dollars to attract and manage diversity both internally and externally, yet they still face discrimination lawsuits, and the leadership ranks of the business world remain predominantly white and male.

population. Companies need to focus on diversity and look for ways to become totally inclusive organizations because diversity has the potential of yielding greater productivity and competitive advantages (SHRM, 1995). Stephen G. Butler, co-chair of the Business-Higher Education Forum, believes that diversity is an invaluable competitive asset that America cannot afford to ignore (Robinson, 2002). Managing and valuing diversity is a key component of effective people management, which can improve workplace productivity (Black Enterprise, 2001).

With the changing demographics of the U.S. workforce (Ng & Burke, 2005) and the need for organizations to continually innovate their products and services to remain competitive, embracing diversity and the benefits its brings is going to be key to driving a successful organization

Businesses are recognizing the need and importance of investing in diversity and addition as part of their inclusive talent management practices and to frequently challenge their organizations to make the connection between those values and their group performance.. Diversity is especially fundamental in today’s global marketplace, as businesses cooperate with