How to Promote Workplace Diversity
The business world is becoming increasingly global. As networking options become more sophisticated and outsourcing more common, there is no longer a typical workplace or a typical worker. The definition of office is becoming broader and the backgrounds of employees are more diverse than ever. Businesses need to find ways to promote workplace diversity in order to prevent inadvertent occurrences of workplace discrimination.
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Instructions
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Identify the varied populations of employees in your workplace. Diversity refers not only to ethnic backgrounds, but also gender and age.
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Examine what each population needs to feel comfortable in the work environment. In order to promote diversity in the workplace, you will need to have a sense of what will help everybody work together effectively and feel equally supported.
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Create a committee with whom you can discuss these matters and who can help brainstorm strategies for promoting diversity in the workplace. In order to avoid discrimination, explain the committee's goal to your employees and ask for volunteers, as opposed to appointing members.
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Establish a clear equal-opportunities policy, making sure it falls within the guidelines of Equal Employment Opportunities laws set out by the EEOC (see Resources below). Such policies should help to create a meritorious work system, in which employees are promoted and provided raises based on performance, regardless of age, race or gender
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Become an Equal Opportunity Employer and advertise as such when recruiting job candidates. Establish hiring practices that select the best candidate for the position without considering age, race or ethnicity. Begin revamping job applications to remove any culturally skewed questions and delete questions asking for birthdates and marital status.
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Promote workplace diversity by providing diversity training for all employees. Many businesses hire outside corporations to train employees about issues such as communicating effectively despite linguistic and cultural differences.
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Acknowledge that prejudice will exist in the workplace. This doesn't mean, however, that you have to condone it. Set clear consequences for incidents of discrimination and inform employees of the policy.
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Implement diversity-friendly office policies in regard to dress codes and holidays. As long as employees are dressed appropriately for the workplace, allowing them to dress according to their cultural mores can make them feel more supported. Additionally, providing flexible work hours and company holidays allows employees to celebrate the holidays that are important to them, not just those which are celebrated by the majority of the workplace.
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Tips & Warnings
Try building a network of language interpreters to call upon for important interviews and meetings.
