Organization's Lose Out By Not Implementing Effective Diversity Initiatives

It is blatantly obvious to state but all organizations are made of individuals who basically go to work to fulfill their basic needs and more. The amount of effort, thought and pride that employees put into their work is proportional to how they feel within the organization. i.e how valued do they feel, are they able to voice their opinion, do they have a bearing on the operation of the company and importantly are they able to progress within the organization and fulfill and desire they have to rise up the corporate ladders and in turn have more of an influence on the workings of the company.

Whilst Diversity used to be focused on the 'Women And Men Working Together' issue; it is widely recognized and accepted that Diversity is much more than that. Employees come in all shapes, forms, backgrounds, colors and experiences this in turn leads to us all being motivated in different ways and by different things. We all however, are employed to perform a function within an organization and the better we perform that function, the better the company performs. Adding up small performance improvements we know, leads to significant improvements of the operation of the whole company.

With this in mind and with the makeup of today's company's being multi cultural and multi dimensional, the organization which chooses not to take advantage of the inherent skill set of every employee is by definition not operating at peak efficiency. Many organizations have Diversity initiatives and programs in place yet some may not be fully functioning or, not seen as important enough to devote significant time and energy to. The message for managers and Human Resources is that in essence it is the organization as whole that misses out when Diversity is not fully incorporated into the organizations business strategy and goals.

Yes, there may well be section of the workforce which are threatened by Diversity initiatives and the opening up of management positions to Women, Disabled and the Black And Minority Ethnics however, talent and ability is talent and ability no matter how it happens to be packaged.

It is imperative for company's to fully grasp Diversity and the fact that the objective is to fully release the potential in all employees, no matter what their background, how they are motivated, how they look, walk or talk.

In today's marketplace is has become more and more necessary for management to get to grips with the different mentality, and modes of operations of the employees from the different dimensions of diversity. Their talents must be harnessed and harvested for the good of the organization. For this to happen, Diversity really needs to be something which Human Resources and the management teams fully embrace and incorporate into their day to day activities.

It may be true that managers feel more comfortable by hiring and being surrounded by individuals who are more like themselves but the overriding factor must be the organization operating at its maximum efficiency. Management may have to go through some pain in order to understand different points of view and different ways of doing things but, this must be done for the good of the organization. i.e. some sacrifice of the short term must be made with the long term gain in mind.

In reality, it is the company which loses out by not implementing effective Diversity strategies which pulls in Diversity into all of the company's departments and plans. When effectively implemented Diversity harnesses the talents of all of the workforce and leads to company's which operate more efficiently than it otherwise would be which in turn leads to the company developing a competitive advantage in the marketplace and this is one of the main reasons why the organization is in existence.

About The Author-- Stephen C Campbell (MBA, MSc, MCIM) has worked on diversity programs throughout Europe, Far East & U.S. whilst employed in the corporate sector. He now runs a Business Consultancy and has a keen interest in working with corporations on the link between Diversity and their Marketing Strategies. http://www.CapidHouser.Com

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