What is a diverse workplace? Diversity is the intersection of different people in the workplace from different places with different experiences, encouraging cultural diversity, religious diversity, language diversity, gender diversity, different viewpoints, different education levels, and unique abilities. It allows people who act differently, think differently, and look different to work together and solve complex problems. Workplace diversity is essential for any thriving business, promoting employee engagement, encourages creativity and innovation. Every team member across all levels, bring their own unique experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives to the table. Even a digital workplace supports a diverse workforce with features like inline translation.
Actively cultivating diversity in employee engagements and internal communication strategies supports core diversity throughout the workplace, demonstrating sustained commitment to employee connection. When done properly, there are benefits of diversity in the workplace. More diverse workforces are faster problem solvers, more innovative and creative, and better at decision making. Diversity is not only discussed among HR professionals, but creates a better-rounded employee experience, to give companies a competitive advantage. Some ways to improve employee engagement through diversity-focused initiatives and operational processes for your work-force, are given below:
Offer Meaningful Opportunities for Employee Engagement
If your company has different branch offices, you could allow employees to visit these other locations, be it in a different city, state, or ever out of the country. You can ask your workforce with through a quick survey if they wish to volunteer their time, and arrange for both work-centric activities and employee engagement outings. This way, they experience how others deal with similar problems faced by them and handle situations in drastically different ways. This could encourage employees to learn to think outside their comfort zones and strengthen teams. Companies, like Salesforce, permit employees volunteer together in their communities to give back to society and forge deep connections among themselves. This exposure of employees to other environments creates opportunities for your workforce to promote better understanding.
Create Mentorship Programs
Hiring a workforce that is diverse is important, and mentorship programs are an essential component of any sound workplace diversity program, ensuring everyone an opportunity for advancement. Employees with high potential are mentored irrespective of race, sex, age, or other factors. If company-sponsored mentorship programs aren’t feasible, provide similar opportunities, by supporting professional development opportunities and contributing to employees’ continuing education. More Knowledge = More Happiness = More Productive Employees. Connect employees to external resource groups, like the Young Professionals and Women’s Leadership Groups.
Ensure your leadership team is diverse as by hiring, retaining and promoting diverse employees into higher management. While these promote workplace diversity, always set a good example from the top down. CEOs assist their company attract the best and diverse talents by involvement in diversity promotion. Workplace diversity focuses employee engagement programs, and recruitment efforts, improving performance, retention, overall satisfaction, communicating core corporate values, thereby boosting reputation and brand identity.
Motivating a diverse workforce
The best way to invigorate a diverse group of employees is to know everyone reporting directly to you. Develop close professional relationships with team members to more effectively supervise and coach besides securing insights about what drives employees to excel. Workplace flexibility entails giving your employees more avenues about when and where they work. Your team helps make the workplace more accommodating and inviting to working parents, or folks working remotely part-time.