5 Tips for Managing Diversity in the Workplace

Diversity in the workplace is becoming a bigger and bigger locus of discussion among professionals, and for good reason. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are crucial values for the modern business to uphold, but for many teams, it can be daunting to implement. Read on to learn more about the importance of maintaining diverse organizations, and what you and your team can do to make that happen. 

Why is Workplace Diversity So Important?

Workplace diversity is crucial not only because it reflects the societies in which we operate, but also because it drives innovation, creativity, and business growth! Diverse teams can bring together a myriad of different perspectives, experiences, and problem-solving approaches, leading to more informed and holistic decision-making for your company.

Moreover, diversity fosters a richer company culture where employees learn to appreciate different backgrounds and viewpoints, promoting unity and improved collaboration! In an increasingly interconnected world, workplace diversity is not just a moral imperative, but a competitive advantage. 

A Diverse Workforce Can Bring Many Benefits

Diversity in the workplace is not just about checking a box to prove you’ve done your due diligence; as stated above, promoting workforce diversity can actually have a wide range of immediate benefits in terms of your company’s productivity, problem-solving, and company culture!   

Increased Productivity

Diversity engenders a huge increase in productivity, whether it’s diversity in lower or upper management. There’s a number of reasons why this is the case, but primarily, a wide array of perspectives allows your team to introduce new ideas and methods of problem-solving that they’ve gathered from their vast array of life experiences. Additionally, more diversity in the workplace increases comfort for those who may be part of minority groups, which can also promote employee productivity. Research shows that even a 1% increase in organizational diversity can increase productivity by over $700 per month per employee! 

More Creative and Effective Problem Solving

When we come to the workplace, we all bring with us our own unique perspectives and ways of thinking, all of which are impacted by our life experiences and our identities. Too much of one sort of point of view on a problem can stymie growth and lead to gridlock. 

The antidote to this? A diverse set of perspectives on your team! Members of your team with new, refreshing ideas about common issues may be able to show alternative paths to your company’s goals that you might not have seen before. 

Promotion of an Inclusive Work Environment

Members of minority groups may feel more comfortable, supported, and valued when they see that their company features other employees who look, act, and live like they do. When we don’t feel included, our work can suffer, and continual exclusion in the workplace can contribute to longer term issues like stress, anxiety, and depression even outside of the workplace. 

5 Tips for Managing Workplace Diversity

Effectively promoting diversity in your workplace may seem like a daunting task, but these five tips can help you develop a diverse, inclusive work culture in no time! 

1) Embrace Diversity as Part of Your Hiring Process

Cultivating workplace inclusion starts in the hiring process, and as a result, diversity should be a primary value guiding your hiring team and HR department. Aim to cultivate a workforce that has team members from many different backgrounds. Further, keep an open mind when considering diverse candidates with strengths or skills you may have previously overlooked – they might be able to bring these skills as major assets to your team. 

2) Treat Each Employee as an Individual

No matter what identity group an employee comes from, they are always going to be their own person, with unique feelings, perspectives, and goals. It can be deeply disheartening to feel as though you’re being treated as a representative of your identity group, a process which is referred to by experts on inclusion as “tokenization.” Instead, be sure to treat each of your employees as an individual, and honor their individual experiences and diverse backgrounds. 

3) Prioritize Communication Within Your Workforce

Keep lines open between all members of your workforce, from upper to lower management as well as between members of different groups. If your employees have suggestions for ways to improve your company’s efforts towards inclusion, having clear and open communication can help facilitate trust between your staff. Additionally, clear communication can help avoid misunderstandings and tensions that may arise as people from different backgrounds work alongside each other. 

Encourage Employees to Work in Diverse Groups

People have a natural tendency towards working with and befriending those who they see as “like” themselves. If possible, try to encourage your staff to work alongside those from groups they may not be so familiar with. This can improve understanding and even promote bonding among all members of your team!  

4) Organize Diversity Training for Your Employees

Promoting diversity in your company needs to be a holistic effort – meaning that it can’t just stop at a few members of upper level management! A good way to educate your entire workforce, and to make those members of diverse groups feel more valued, is to institute diversity training sessions for your employees. These sessions can help your team members learn more about what diversity actually looks like and how they can be supportive coworkers in an inclusive environment. Sessions like these typically happen during onboarding, but it can be helpful to offer periodic workshops and training sessions throughout the year in order to help build essential skills in tolerance, communication, and understanding. 

5) Keep an Open Mind as an Organization

In order to keep your efforts towards diversity continuing long after inital onboarding is done, consider keeping an open mind as an organization. Consider alternative perspectives when members of lower or upper management mention potential problems within the company culture that may hamper inclusion, and allow for flexibility in terms of making adjustments to long-standing company policies and methods of completing tasks. There may be ample value in these alternate perspectives which you haven’t yet considered.

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