HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGIES

Workforce diversity refers to the vital change in the workforces composition and is
now becoming a common practice in most organizations across the world as the populations
and cultures are becoming more and more diverse. This diversity in terms of demographics is
seen to be accompanied by pressures in the economy as globalization and technological
advancements of the economy are increasingly enhancing the need by employers for a highly
trained workforce. Furthermore, political pressure posed by women, immigrants, older
workers, and persons living with disabilities have brought about legal changes in the rights of
employment for several groups that were previously excluded by customs or law from
technical jobs and desirable professionals (Kossek, Lobel & Brown, 2006).
Given such changes, it is of essence for organizations to design and implement
diversification programs for the workforce. Such changes involve changes that are delicate
but sweeping in how business is conducted: changes in the mission, values, culture, practices
and policies of organizations.
Workforce diversity arises as a result of societal changes that have effects on
organizations and thus the organizational changes brought about by workforce diversity
cannot be isolated. Somewhat, they relate to other upcoming trends in the management of
public personnel including employee and development, targeted recruitment, non-adversarial
conflict resolution and Total Quality Management. However, they also contradict with other
upcoming trends in the human resource management brought about by the same pressures:
temporary employment, alternative service delivery methods, and simplification of jobs (Pitts
& Wise, 2010).
The changes brought about by workforce diversification results in changed
expectations in roles for all groups especially in the public agencies: managers and
supervisors, elected and appointed officials as well as public personnel managers. Due to the
fact that the underlying assumptions and objectives of diversification strategies contradict
with the ones for other trends in management, programs or strategies for workforce
diversification results in conflicts which make effective performance by groups more
demanding and difficult (Hendry, 2012).
There are numerous successful as well as unsuccessful workforce diversification
strategies in the public sector. And there is sharing of common characteristics for successful
programs as well as unsuccessful ones. The objective of this paper is to discuss the strategies
that human resource managers undertake so that the workforce is diversified.
To be able to understand such strategies and how successful or unsuccessful they are,
it is of essence to have a clear and elaborate understanding of workforce diversity and its
impact in an organization. Successful diversification programs will see the mission or vision
of an organization being achieved in a step by step process, all workforce involved,
productivity as well as efficiency and effectiveness of the workforce (Kossek, Lobel &
Brown, 2006) without any discrimination. On the other hand, ineffective strategies become
unsuccessful because their long term impact on the culture and mission of the organization is
inadequate (Pitts & Wise, 2010) and this is mostly associated with cases of insufficient
commitment from the top level management.
To be successful in the creation of workforce diversity programs encompasses being
able to attract and retain individuals of the highest quality in the talent pool (Kochan et al.,
2003). This means looking beyond the methods of recruiting and venues for such quality
people and then acquiring knowledge on how to manage sensitively the human potential
(Hendry, 2012). It calls for an ever-increasing awareness of how diverse people from
different environments are able to deal with communication, authority, overall etiquette in
business and relate them to their communities of affiliation (Tompkins, 2002).
Promoting the diversity of the workforce is a process that cannot take place in a day
but rather takes place in many stages and on numerous levels (Kossek, Lobel & Brown,
2006). First it requires for the human resource professionals to recruit qualified and
competent staff and then be able to accommodate individual needs within the context of the
work team as well as the organization.
In todays world that has seen globalization take effect at an advanced level, with
technology moving faster that most organizations pace, businesses cannot thrive without the
implementation of a workforce diversity culture. We have seen workforce move from one
country to another, companies have expanded and the number of multinational companies has
increased significantly, business is being conducted online in all corners of the world and
talents are really being outsourced across the globe irrespective of the countries of origin.
Because of this, it would be mad to assume that organizations can operate effectively without
workforce diversity initiatives. Besides being able to tap talents and abilities of individuals
from diverse backgrounds, organizations can enhance and improve their image by opening up
opportunities for business to any person regardless of gender, colour, race, sexual orientation,
ethnicity and disability (Pitts & Wise, 2010).
Strategies used in Diversifying the Workforce
There are so many strategies that human resource personnel use in order to ensure
workforce diversity from hiring and recruiting to retaining the workforce. Diversifying a
workplace which involves defining of the organizations initiatives and strategies for doing so
is one strategy. Generally, any initiative aimed at diversifying a workforce should be able to
realize some of these goals, if not all: maximizing the satisfaction of all employees across all
groups in an organization, retaining a workforce that can be termed as world class and
sustaining an environment that is able to foster understanding and learning (Hendry, 2012).
Leadership is another strategy that is significantly fundamental to ensure diversity in
the workforce. The success of any initiative in an organization is in most cases assessed by
the commitment shown in the process of achieving that initiative (Kochan et al., 2003). An
initiative to diversify a workforce can be put in writing and even signed with each individual
swearing to uphold the initiative, but without commitment it is just as good as not dreaming.
In this case, the senior managers including the CEO, evidently support in all ways (financial,
emotional, physical) and promote the initiative for diversification. Most senior managers
employ this strategy as it is easy to lead by example (Tompkins, 2002). In this case diversity
is fused into the processes of the organization and ensures that it is integrated into the
companys values and objectives (Pitts & Wise, 2010). Thus, all the employees would just
follow suit as the processes requires them to do so. In this case even a new employee in the
organization is absorbed into the system that is already diversified and is committed to
diversity.
In this leadership strategy, leaders or senior level management are seen to embrace
diversity. A diverse workforce is generally a competitive advantage. Being able to promote a
culture that can value employees because of their uniqueness in terms of skills, perspectives
and experiences irrespective of their disabilities, gender, race or colour makes a distinction to
an organization that is all-inclusive, relevant and sincerely understanding of the needs and
wants of their customers. In essence, it is a great asset to customers as well as business
intelligence (Kossek, Lobel & Brown, 2006). Internally, the more understanding and
respecting the senior management is of their employees diversities, the easier it is to be able
to make challenging conversations more at ease. This is especially critical when dealing with
culturally, religiously or otherwise diverse group of people including customers (Hendry,
2012).
Promoting participation and representation of all groups of people in the organization
is yet another strategy. This is usually done through increased minority representation
through recruitment, promotion, firm diversity climate and residual benefit from such
initiatives (Kochan et al., 2003). The first step of ensuring diversity in the work force is
through effective recruitment. This involves being proactive and expanding the outreach to
target candidates who are qualified and this will enhance the expansion of the talent pool
(Kochan et al., 2003). This could also be done through mentoring and internship activities
that target college students who are qualified to work which can help in cultivating future
talent. Promotion should also be done across the firm on basis of merits without any
discrimination. Equal opportunities for promotion should be given to everyone irrespective of
their gender, colour, disability or race so that all employees feel empowered and this could
increase productivity as employees are aware that it is their hard work that is used as a
selection criteria and not any other factors (Pitts & Wise, 2010). Residual benefit can result in
an organization as a result of diversity. This is because when such initiatives are aligned to
the business practices of a firm, it is difficult to separate business performance with the
initiatives goals as they are integrated. Tompkins (2002) argues that diversity initiatives that
are in line with the management practices would not only realise improvement in
performance in the area of diversity but also realise improvement in performance of the broad
management practices (Tompkins, 2002).
Communication of diversity strategies, mission and aims is yet another strategy that
has proven to be successful if properly used. Communication is very critical to the success of
diversity in any organization and should not only be done during the initial stages of
diversification in the company but throughout the organizations life and should be integrated
as a culture of the organization. They say managers do manage change but the best in class
leaders create change through their inspiration to their employees (Hendry, 2012). It is
therefore important to promote dialogue, effective communication to improve awareness and
remove all barriers. Effective communication needs across and within departments needs to
be multidimensional and no individual should be left out (Kossek, Lobel & Brown, 2006).
Training on diversity and its importance is also a strategy used to enhance diversity in
organizations. Training instils knowledge to the employees so that they can better understand
their position and roles in the organization in terms of promoting diversity (Kochan et al.,
2003). Training also enhances competence, expertise and confidence among employees as
they gain an understanding on the importance of diversity and why they should embrace it in
the culture of the organization. This encourages a culture that is able to use diversity to its
competitive advantage in the business market (Pitts & Wise, 2010).
Unsuccessful strategies
Unsuccessful strategies can only be analysed in terms of being able to achieve the
long term diversity goals and objectives as well as impact positively on the organizations
efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, job satisfaction across all individuals and employees
motivation to work in the organization regarding factors of race, gender, colour or disability.
There are various ways in which employers could reach their target audience. They
include, mentoring and internship programs for college students who could later be absorbed
in the organization depending on their performance and what the employers want. Another
way is setting expectations in terms of diversity with recruiters whereby employers ask for a
diverse set of applicants and samples of high quality recruits the recruiters have recently got.
Employers could also emphasise diversity in their job advertisements. Another way may be to
place advertisements in avenues where their target groups are (Hendry, 2012).
Retaining workers is an organization could be a challenge especially where minorities
feel discriminated against in terms of colour, gender, race or disability. After recruiting,
interviewing and hiring diverse talents, employers could take several measures to ensure
success in the workplace as well as retain the workforce. Such measures include effective
communication without discrimination, accommodating all people with their differences and
having a safety and emergency preparations especially for disabled persons. Providing a
working environment that is conducive will enhance their productivity and motivation. To
ensure retention, employers could invite employees to inner circle where they can feel valued
and feel that they are part of the organization. Mentoring and shadowing employees would
also see them embrace diversity and understand its importance. Career development which is
every employees dream should also be considered and leaders are encouraged to know each
employees career direction so that in case of any opportunity for promotion they can be
considered (Kochan et al., 2003).
In summary, diversity has seen businesses grow because of globalization and
technology advancement. It is important for organizations to develop initiatives for
diversification of the workforce as this is the only way to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and
productivity of the employees in the working place given the nature of todays working
environment. There are various strategies employed to enhance workforce diversity including
embracing diversity, leading by example, commitment, training and effective
communication. The success of these strategies is determined by how committed the
management is in ensuring diversity remains a culture in the organization. This is evaluated
in terms of whether the long term goals and missions of the organization associated with
diversity have been achieved or not. It is essential for todays organizations to use diversity to
their competitive advantage.
References
Hendry, C. (2012). Human Resource Management. London: Routledge.
Kochan, T., Bezrukova, K., Ely, R., Jackson, S., Joshi, A., Jehn, K., ... & Thomas, D. (2003).
The effects of diversity on business performance: Report of the diversity research
network. Human resource management, 42(1), 3-21.
Kossek, E. E., Lobel, S. A., & Brown, J. (2006). Human resource strategies to manage
workforce diversity. Handbook of workplace diversity, 53-74.
Pitts, D. W., & Wise, L. R. (2010). Workforce diversity in the new millennium: Prospects for
research. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 30(1), 44-69.
Tompkins, J. (2002). Strategic human resources management in government: Unresolved
issues. Public Personnel Management, 31(1), 95-110.