Workplace Diversity

Managing a diverse workplace can be difficult if you let it.

Over the past few years, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging have become common words and phrases companies have been using. Organizations who are truly focusing on these words have had to really sit down, with a diverse group of people, to dissect their true goals for the company.

This is difficult and scary. The probability of going against everything you have been taught, the norms that you thought were normal and really take a step back to look at things in another person’s point of view. I know this is painful, but as I heard someone say the other day, sunshine always comes after the rain.

Look at your company’s mission, (what is the purpose of your company?), the company’s values (what do you value as an organization?) and the company’s goals, (what is the reason you are in business; [besides making a profit])?

Leaders should ask themselves, why? Why is diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging so important for you? Is it because your competitors are doing it? Is it due to your reputation? Can this be a reality? Is this the politically correct thing to do?

Training on being aware of multiple experiences and perspectives can help.

Closely evaluating these questions allows the organization to truly know what it looks like for them to have a diverse, equal, inclusive and belonging organization. Each organization will look different. But, each organization will know what it means to them and work toward these norms and work with each other to get there.

This will be an effort from all levels of the organization. Each level will have a different perspective of what diversity looks like. Lower level will have a different mind-set, culture and idea than middle-management and the C-Suite will need to lead them all.

Working toward a diverse workplace allows an organization to have different perspectives, creativity as well as increase profits. Additionally, this helps with retention. Employee engagement and inclusivity are key factors in retaining employees. Often, employees suffer from low-trust, stress, low-job satisfaction, communication is difficult and frequent absences.

Collaborating with a diverse workforce may impede organizational growth. The collaboration will be hard when there is no understanding of other’s perspective on the way work should work. Adjusting incrementally will help the organization grow into the desired mindset, such as hiring, mindset and training.

Having a diverse team for your specific niche in the marketplace helps you to have inclusive decision making. Having a diverse leadership team that fully understands the company’s mission, values, and goals is essential.

Managing a diverse team can be difficult. Having conservative team members can lead to slow or no growth for the organization. Conservative team members may have experiences that contribute to them being conservative in their thought processes.

This could be due to the number of years experience in seeing that this idea just won’t work. Or, it could also be where the team, having few years of experience and making mistakes that could have been avoided if the right team member(s) could have been on the team for guidance.

Conversely, team members who are willing to take risks, may still lead to slow or no growth if the team has members from one gender/race. However, incorporating diverse team members with different background experiences can help the team achieve their desired goals.

Awareness of others’ differences is a critical skillset.

Being consciously aware of employees’ life experiences, race, gender, socioeconomic background, culture, religion, education, language, abilities and geographical differences allows management to have diverse teams that make better-justified decisions. Training on being aware of multiple experiences and perspectives can help.

Training that puts the trainee in the “Day-In-The-Life-Of” can help bring home the experiences of employees in the workplace. Training that allows one to take on the persona of a different race, gender, socioeconomic, religious, culture, educational, ability and geographical helps one to walk in a person’s shoes.

I attended a socioeconomic “Day-In-The-Life-Of” training. Having to juggle stressors associated with the socioeconomic life I portrayed helped me to understand points of view that I was not aware of.

Awareness of others’ differences is a critical skillset. Just as important as soft and hard skills, awareness helps employees feel connected to the organization. Understanding communication whether verbal or nonverbal via body language and facial expressions is important.

As we are now in the middle of the pandemic, it has become harder to read facial expressions to get a non-verbal clue of what’s being communicated. People with different backgrounds have different ways of interpreting and perceiving information. Management can appropriately communicate to all groups to help avoid misunderstandings.

Example, many stores have made rules of wearing face masks in their establishments. However, there is a miscommunication. Although they indicate “wear” the facial mask; and people may wear them, it does not indicate where to wear them.

The miscommunication comes with, is the person really following the requirement of wearing it, but not covering their nose and mouth. Therefore, the understanding of ‘how’ to wear the mask should be communicated.

Leadership makes the difference in any organization. Whether they are strong or weak, organizational diversity starts and stops with them. Evaluating your attitude, values, and skills to manage diversity to promote effective working spaces helps to bring the change you are seeking.

Being aware of how important employee engagement, the right hires, the experiences employees bring with them and clear communication all help make diversity in the workplace a better place to work and a better organization.

Genola Johnson MY WHY: To help passionate people with the foundations of their life’s purpose. She lives with her husband and two super model daughters in Atlanta. You can find her on GEBJohnson.com and her podcast