The Benefits and Challenges of a Diverse Workforce

The Benefits and Challenges of a Diverse Workforce
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The Benefits and Challenges of a Diverse Workforce
Workplace diversity refers to cultural and individual differences in the workplace. Diversity encompasses age, personality, gender, race, ethnic group, organizational hierarchy, education, cognitive style, tenure, marital status and background among others. Diversity affects how people perceive themselves and how they perceive others; in turn, perceptions affect how people interact with each other. Human resource professionals in organizations with a wide assortment of employees need to be effective in dealing with issues such as communication, adaptability, and change. Diversity can be beneficial to an organization by helping it gain a competitive edge, or it can negatively affect the growth and productivity of an organization. Due to globalization, diversity is an emerging trend in organizations across the globe. An example of a company embracing diversity is PayPal where diversity means “to respect and value the uniqueness of each other” (PayPal, 2019, p1)
The Benefits of Workforce Diversity
The ability of an organization to embrace diversity and realize the benefits play a significant role in determining its success and competitiveness. When an organization effectively handles issues of diversity at the workplace, the benefits include:
Innovation and Creativity
The workplace culture greatly impacts employee’s view of the business world. A homogenous workforce tends to have monotonous business ideas. “When directors are too alike, the thinking goes, they look at problems—and solutions—the same way. There is no one to challenge prevailing ideas, or to speak out on issues important to certain groups of customers and employees” (Manzoni, Strebel & Barsoux, 2010, p1). Different types of professional and personal experiences coupled with different viewpoints can inspire employees by providing a new perspective to view the corporate world differently. Diversity fosters innovation and inspires creativity as employees from different backgrounds bring individual talents and experiences. A diverse workforce brings out-of-the-box ideas to solve problems and meet customer’s expectations.
Increased Productivity
An organization can take advantage of the larger pool of ideas and experiences provided by a diverse workforce that feels comfortable communicating varying points of view by drawing from that pool to effectively meet both the business strategy needs and the needs of customers. Diversity in the workplace inspires all employees to perform at their highest ability, executing the organization’s wide strategies thus increasing productivity, profit and return on investment. Research by Forbes Insights revealed that diversity and productivity are directly proportional to each other. An inclusive and diverse workforce encourages a wide range of ideas to drive innovation resulting in higher productivity (Powers, 2018, p1).
Access to Diversified Clients
A diverse workforce provides a collection of skills and experiences that allow an organization to offer its services to more customers worldwide. An organiz...