Human Rights Code
1 November, 2022
A take on- unlocking and building a diverse workplace
In the globalization era of the modern economy, diversity is a norm and not just an aspiration that all companies need to be checked out. It is a company-wide effort to bring together people of different races, genders, ethnicities, religions, and so on to promote a company culture where individual differences and opinions are respected. Organizations looking forward to embracing a diverse population in the workplace hold critical advantages when it comes to getting things done and solving problems.
Through this article, we intend to explore the greater advantages of workplace diversity, along with essential tips, ideas, and mediums to achieve and maintain a diversified workplace. But first, let's dive into understanding what diversity entails.
What is a diversified workplace?
The word diversity holds much more meaning than just building noticeable heterogeneity in the workplace. Diversity exists at the junction of different characteristics and attributes individual employees hold which make them unique. It includes understanding, recognizing, and respecting differences in age, sexual orientation, culture, language, racial ties, educational qualifications, experience, skill sets, abilities, standpoints, and more.
The benefits attached to effecting a diverse workplace are enormous. Better company goodwill, enhanced productivity, boosted morale, creativity,
lower employee turnover, and increased revenue are some of the rewards that allow your business to expand in practice.
Below, we have listed 5 ways to commemorate diversity and welcome distinct talent in your workplace:
1. Educate and discipline your managers and employees
The first basis for creating a diverse environment is to include diversity training at least twice or thrice per year. Unless the current team is fully versed with the dos, don'ts, and hows of diversity policy, the overall objective of a diverse workforce can never be achieved. The leaders, must especially, be trained to conduct and guide initiatives, people, and programs around the workplace. HR will have to structure diversity training in a manner that benefits the actual, upcoming workforce and the community at large.
Our tip- The relationship between managers and employees is an intricate one. People leave jobs because of differences with their managers. Don’t let such a thing happen so empower managers to hire, support and coach a diverse group of employees and subordinates. One way you can enact this is through employee surveys. It aids you in assessing the vertical integration of communication, reporting, and feedback mechanism between managers and employees.
2. Revamp the recruitment process
One of the biggest challenges associated with recruitment is being unbiased, even for the most experienced recruiters. On the other side of it, new hires face difficulty in joining a company wherein the top management and leadership team is comprised of people from either the same culture or similar background. To avoid both of these situations, we recommend you implement strategic human resources strategies to recruit from a wide pool of resources. For a more natural result, you can:
Adjust your talent acquisition plan to recruit applicants from staffing agencies, universities, educational institutes, professional groups, or job posting websites.
PCS believes in workplace flexibility, and provides job seekers with flexible working arrangements and remote work options to choose from!
Have a diverse interview panel, which ensures that interviews are not punctured with unconscious bias, personal beliefs, and disparity. Interviewers should not dodge any personal questions as to marital status, religion, disabilities, etc. as these are off-limits.
Treat and approach underrepresented communities and women applicants etc. with more caution and solicitude.
Write inclusive job descriptions to highlight what jobs are to be done and not by whom particularly it should be done.
3. Celebrate differences and humanize the workplace
The best way to build a diverse culture from the inside out is to be more open-minded, have tough conversations, and start taking initiatives to solve diversity problems.
Ascertain what your company culture is, evaluate and fix inequalities about benefits programs, hiring, interview etiquette, performance appraisals, gender-pay ratio, etc. A little self-examination can go a long way in eliminating any exclusive practices that are hindering the success of your organization. Here are some tips to help you acknowledge and improve diversity in your company:
Organize events targeted at honoring employee differences. You may celebrate different holidays and traditions in this regard.
No voice must go unheard. Give your employees opportunities to write blogs, essays, or articles to describe what diversity and inclusion mean to them.
Design and print diversity magazines, journals, photos, and quotations to mark a diversified workplace.
Our tip- If you find yourself stuck or in disarray, consider simply asking your employees how they want the workplace to be! Let them be in charge. You may also assemble an inclusion council that resolves disputes, makes recommendations, and creates strategies to recondition diversity.
4. Accentuate diversity on your company website
The modern approach to celebrating diversity in the managerial context is to simply highlight it on the company website so that it doesn’t go unnoticed. Your allegiance and commitment to a genuinely diverse workplace should be focal on your career site. It will attract and employ a variety of candidates. Even so, you should always use inclusive language for job descriptions, in your vision statement, and on your About Us pages.
Our tip- A zero-tolerance policy must be enforced to refrain employees to pass off-colour and indecent jokes about nationality, gender, or religion. Also, employees have the right to be addressed however they want, and not according to your inclination.
5. Leverage diverse niche job boards
Creating a diverse, inclusive job board will welcome more candidates and increase your company's reputation. Write the job description in all- inclusive language. It should focus more on the job roles, responsibilities, and skills and not much on personality traits. Your aim must be to abolish all biases.
For example, remove any gender-coded words, welcome disabled workers, and avoid exclusionary words. You may consider hiring a diversity expert to write more inclusive and diverse job descriptions for you.
Searching for jobs with PCS is easy and reliable. We offer impartial, career advancement opportunities to workers.
Words matter…
The single greatest shift in the employment arena is to honor individual employee differences and treat people as a whole. Your effort to create a safe, unprejudiced workplace where employees are benevolent will all be worth it. What comes out of the mouth cannot be taken back, so take a look at the language used around the workplace and avert misunderstandings.
PCS is the best platform to find the right jobs. We believe that diversity is here to stay. All individuals, irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity, or disabilities, who fulfill the job descriptions have a place in PCS!
