How to Manage Diversity in the Workplace

Diversio DEI Expert Last updated on December 28, 2021

Workplace populations are becoming increasingly diverse across all industries. Knowing how to implement different types of diversity management in the workplace drives collaborative problem-solving and innovation, employee morale and retention, and ultimately, profitability.

What Is ‘Workplace Diversity?’

Diversity refers to how people perceive themselves and how they are perceived by others. Race and ethnicity, gender identity, socioeconomic background, disability, age, sexuality, religion, and other different types of diversity greatly shape a person’s opportunities in life and work. “Workplace diversity” refers to the presence of people from various backgrounds in an organization.

Why Is Diversity Management Important?

Diversity in the workplace brings in a plethora of benefits for your business, including:

• Better recruitment opportunities: The ability to attract the best talent and select from a prime list of potential candidates to fill open positions. Organizations with a narrow recruitment pool miss out on the most qualified candidates, which can raise recruitment costs.
• Increased problem-solving: People from different backgrounds bring diverse skill sets and perspectives to the table. A study by McKinsey found that companies with a high degree of racial, ethnic, and gender diversity are more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. This is because diverse teams, in which team members have a wide variety of skills and perspectives, are better at problem-solving and innovating.
• Higher employee retention: Current and potential employees are also seeking a diverse workplace. In fact, 67% of job seekers take a diverse workforce into consideration along with the job offer. And a whopping 57% of employees polled said their companies should be more diverse. Why? People want to see themselves represented in their workplace. Representation leads to greater employee morale, which in turn leads to retention.
• Improved brand reputation: Just as your employees want to see themselves represented in your company, so do customers. Diversity in the workplace increases customer satisfaction, as customers appreciate the opportunity to interact with company representatives who they feel understand them and their needs. Happy customers mean good word-of-mouth advertising.

How to Manage Diversity in the Workplace

A variety of concerted diversity management strategies are needed to successfully cultivate a workplace that values cultural diversity. The following strategies can be used to elevate your diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) management practices in the workplace:

• Integrate DEI into daily office life. DEI shouldn’t consist of one-and-done initiatives. Instead, make it a continuous process to create a workplace culture where people of diverse backgrounds feel welcome and seen.
• Implement a DEI-centered hiring process. Hiring practices determine what your workforce population looks like and how it operates. Look critically at how you assess and hire candidates through a DEI framework.
• Get leadership buy-in. Without leadership buy-in, your efforts to implement DEI initiatives will be futile. While it may be HR driving DEI initiatives, company leaders should be visible in their support for workplace diversity.
• Address systemic inequality. Marginalized workgroup members may feel penalized by policies that do not account for an inclusive range of lived experiences. Setting policies that reflect equitable treatment requires effort to make the invisible visible. Effective data collection is one method to measure your organization’s ability to set policies and procedures that honor diversity.
• Identify areas to improve. Find your blind spots and look for places to improve your DEI initiatives. Get feedback from your stakeholders or consult with a third party for an outside perspective to learn where improvement is needed.
• Instill a culture that values multiple intelligences. Navigating the discomfort from opposing perspectives is easier in a workplace environment that fosters empathy and tolerance. Encourage practices aligned with diversity management theory that allow different workforce populations to see the value of collaborative lived experiences.

How Can Diversio Help Your Organization Manage Diversity in the Workplace?

Managing diversity in the workplace effectively requires having a system that is efficient without sacrificing the human element of qualitative data. Diversio’s solutions-based software uses language-intelligent technology to gather and analyze employee feedback.

The process of collecting data for and implementing an effective DEI platform is simplified through our four-minute anonymous survey linked to six research-based key performance indicators. Data collection is completely anonymous, making employees feel comfortable responding. Our AI-driven engine generates customized, practical recommendations based on your employees’ responses. A user-friendly dashboard aligns your business with proven follow-up training and initiatives.

Request a demo to find out how our platform helps companies of all sizes manage diversity in the workplace to drive meaningful change.