What HR Thought Leaders Have to Say on Employee Diversity
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Employee diversity or diversity at the workplace is a
term that is used to refer to inclusion of people from diverse
backgrounds, gender, race, ethnicity, abilities, etc. with equal rights
at the workplace. Enterprises today are waking up to the significance of
employee diversity and realizing how a diverse workforce can bring a
plethora of benefits to the organization.
To
begin with, organizations with a diverse workforce are reportedly more
productive and high on innovation. The people from diverse backgrounds
bring innovative and unique ideas to the table, based on their unique
experiences, which often works wonders for the organization. However,
even today, there are people out there who consider a diverse workforce
to be no more than another fad and just a social responsibility on the
part of the organizations.
In
order to understand employee diversity a little more closely, let us
try to understand what some of the leading HR experts have to say on
this. So, let’s get started…
Tiffany Edwards, global head of diversity and inclusion at Droga5,
talks about how employee diversity should be a priority with
enterprises today. She says it’s time to address the elephant in the
room and take some concrete steps in the right direction in order to
make workplaces more inclusive of people from different race, gender,
ethnicity and other factors.
2] It’s Important for Enterprises to be Free of Bias
Franklin Reed, Director of diversity and inclusion at TEKsystems,
insists on how enterprises should make it a priority to be free of bias
of any kind when bringing employees on board. He explains how the
success of an organization is dependent on the success and happiness of
its employees. Moreover, diversity brings its own advantages too.
3] Diversity is Absolutely Essential
Tony Prophet, Chief Equality Officer at Salesforce,
insists that diversity is something no workplace can do without. It
should not just be a priority but also mandatory in order to get the
best out of every employee in the organization. It’s all about making
the employees feel valued.
Tony says,
“Diversity is absolutely essential, and we have work to do that, but
once you have diversity you’re not done. Then you have inclusion where
you’re really getting the very best out of every employee. When you have
an inclusive environment you feel seen, you feel included and you feel
value. You feel like you can bring your whole self to work. That is a
competitive advantage to have a larger pool of talent. When you get
ideas from people with different perspectives, the result is the beauty
and the melding of their ideas which adds to the complexity of the
mosaic.”
So, that was
what the experts have to say when it comes to diversity at the
workplace. Des your workplace focus on diversity? How diverse is your
workplace? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.