With the strength of many

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/07/2016 (3406 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada Day was a smash success. Canadian flags were flying at many homes and street corners, people proudly wore Canada T-shirts and painted little flags on their faces. Music and fireworks filled the air while people walked about the many venues enjoying the celebratory activities.

Imagine, 149 years as a country. And many years of growth prior to this as newcomers joined our aboriginal people to inhabit this land. I value Canada’s diversity. It’s often been said Canada is a nation of diverse residents resulting from those early waves of immigrants from Europe as well as the U.S. joining in populating our land.

We also need to be proud that Canada was the first country to recognize the importance of diversity and protected this value in our official policy on multiculturalism in 1971 and later through the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Today, we need to be proud that Canadians are much more aware of and respectful of their history and the challenges and contributions made by indigenous people.

What has this got to do with the workplace? How does diversity fit in? How does it benefit us and what challenges does it create? What can an employer do to ensure diversity contributes to being the best place to work?

In my view, diversity has everything to do with the workplace! That’s because diversity is all about people. As people, we are a multi-faceted group. Initially, diversity was defined in a rather narrow fashion, dealing only with race and gender. Over the years, diversity came to include race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation and nationality.

It includes citizenship, socioeconomic status, religion, ability, age, job tenure, one’s personality, learning and decision making style as well as educational background.

Diversity is also about how we see ourselves and others and these perceptions guide our interactions and communication.

So, what are the benefits of workplace diversity? One of the key benefits is the ability to collect a variety of different viewpoints in order resolve complex problems in all areas of a business.

Recognizing, respecting and encouraging differences as well as commonalities will enable our organizations to reap the benefits of diversity and be successful on the world stage.

In a global marketplace, diverse skills such as different language capabilities and the understanding of different cultures allows organizations to tap into and appeal to the unique interests of a wider variety of customers. This serves to increase an organization’s competitiveness.

Another benefit is the increased respect for individuals in the workplace through cultural awareness and sensitivity training. Not only do employees learn about other cultures, but they also learn that indeed there is a real Canadian culture, one they often take for granted. This validation of individuality increases individual self-esteem and contributes to a higher level of morale.

Notwithstanding the many benefits of a diverse workforce, successfully managing it does have its challenges. One of the challenges is employee resistance to recognizing and accepting we are living in a global workplace and the makeup of the workplace is changing. Should these employees fail to adapt and encounter the resistance of others, you will see a lack of teamwork, conflict between groups of employees, fear and low morale.

Communication is often a key challenge especially when interpreting body language such as nodding one’s head, using too many acronyms or when employee fluency is insufficient for the level of language being used.

In addition, employees may have grown up in a culture where discussing issues, managing conflict and coming to a decision is different than how this is managed in Canada.

What can an employer do to ensure diversity contributes to the office? The following eight steps will assist you to create a successfully diverse workforce where individual respect, employee morale and productivity are at its highest levels.

• Gain executive commitment – prepare a business case for diversity in your workplace and gain executive commitment. After all, your senior team are the leaders who not only make policy, they need to support these policies and act as role models. Select a diversity champion to oversee diversity within your organization.

• Assess your workplace – take time to assess your employees. Investigate all elements of diversity, build a diversity map or grid to give you a complete picture. Use this to build your diversity strategy.

• Revise your policies – review your policies and determine if there are any elements of discrimination. Revise policies when needed. Prepare policies related to your diversity philosophy and requirements and then train your managers on these policies.

• Recruit for diversity – deliberately look for and recruit individuals from varied backgrounds and who are culturally aware and accept diversity. Use your job ads and interview questions to target, attract, assess and screen applicants who value your philosophy and diversity goals.

• Orient for diversity – be sure to include diversity as a key part of employee orientation programs. Help new recruits to understand your organization culture and how diversity plays a role. Clearly outline your expectations.

• Provide diversity training – most Canadians don’t realize they have a unique accent and culture. Provide training to help employees understand the elements of culture and how it affects our behaviour. Focus on group experiences that allow for the interchange of ideas and communication.

• Implement conflict process – use the diversity champion as the key lead on resolving cultural conflicts. Establish a resolution process that not just finds a solution but helps to mend hurt feelings. Work with the human resource manager as facilitator and mediator to provide valuable insights and help working toward an agreement.

• Track your Trends – knowing where you are and where you want to be from a diversity perspective is critical. Take your employee assessment survey, set diversity hiring targets and benchmark your progress against industry standards. Incorporate these targets within each department.

Diversity in our workplaces is a necessity. That’s because our communities are so diverse that our organizations must reflect who we are, who we work with and who our customers are. Not only that, with diversity protected through legislation, organizations have a legal responsibility. If you haven’t thought about developing a strategy for your workforce, now is the time.

Barbara J. Bowes, FCHRP, M.Ed., CCP, is president of Legacy Bowes Group and an author, columnist, professional speaker, executive coach and career consultant.

barb@legacybowes.com.