Workforce diversity is gradually catching the wave in India as organizations are discovering how diverse voices can be fruitful for business growth. Although gender disparity has been a longstanding topic in organizations, several multinationals are now investing in workforce diversity by bridging the gaps with equal pay, leadership roles for women, and creating jobs for cross-culture communities, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ groups. The result of which has stemmed from high and positive outcomes, as it led to gender balance in the top management, encouraged innovations, competitive strategies, increase in revenues and high job acceptance rates.
However, implementing diversity in the workplace is just the first step. Along with eliminating workplace biases and hiring people irrespective of their gender, caste, creed, and sexual orientation, the HRs must make inclusion efforts too. Considering how diversity and inclusion work in close association, the failure of the latter can make diversity a redundant policy in the organization. For example, an employee not well-versed in the native language or from a cross-culture background should feel included rather than left or unappreciated in the workplace. All cultures, religions, and orientations should be respected and attended to; to avoid demotivation, low performance, or decrease in employee retention.
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Hence, top management is now encouraging HRs to increase workforce diversity and inclusion at both leadership and employee level. Given how diverse voices can stem innovative ideas and new perspectives depending on their personal experiences, this flexibility can help both the organization and individual prosper and grow concurrently. Here’s how HRs can implement diversity and inclusion measures to foster innovations, improve decision making, generate high revenue, and increase employee satisfaction.
The HR must:
- Encourage diverse thinking amongst the team leaders and executives to promote the same through their teams
- Eliminate prejudices while evaluating the employees to promote fair opportunities
- Include gender-friendly activities and workspace areas including, separate rooms for prayers and nursing mothers
- Let all voices be heard and attended to, irrespective of their backgrounds. Several employees end up leaving the organization because they feel invisible or prejudiced due to cultural differences
- Maintain a multigenerational workforce in the organization. Considering millennials are hailed as future leaders, they should encourage top management to welcome employees and leaders from different generations to appeal to consumers of various ages groups
- Respect and honor every employee’s needs during events, holidays, and pious days
- Hire employees who are well-versed in more than one language to increase diversity, add a global appeal to the organization and also make NRIs and cross-culture employees feel inclusive
Today, workforce diversity is hailed as one of the driving forces for organizational progress, growth, and innovations around the world. Creating space for employees from different backgrounds to come and explore new opportunities; it also helped the businesses gain novel perspectives and create holistic solutions. So, are Indian organizations ready to establish workforce diversity as one of the primary steps in business growth? Only time will tell. Though several companies have normalized gender equality by fostering women leaders and equal pay, it’s still a long way from prioritizing workforce diversity as a stepping stone to organization’s success.
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References:
- How organizations can enable workplace diversity and inclusion | Anjali Rao | March 30, 2020
- 15 Ways to Improve Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace | Charong Chow | September 24, 2019
- Diversity And Inclusion: A Complete Guide For HR Professionals | Somen Mondal | October 1, 2020
- Why Is Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace Important? | Matt Bush | August 26, 2020
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