Dear colleagues!
Since we
had a very interesting lecture on Diversity Management on Monday, I would like
to start a conversation about that topic. I found an article which states that
it is important to improve Diversity in the workplace and it even gives some
guidelines which strategy has to be used in order to get a variety of employees
from diverse backgrounds. I would like to know what´s your opinion concerning
Diversity at work, do you think companies even care about it or do they tend to
ignore this topic?
I´m looking
forward to your comments!
Regards
Tanja
Thanks for this article Tanja, which gives us a good opportunity to "review" the last class.
AntwortenLöschenI think that this topic has to be considered of almost every company nowadays. But reacting to diversity means a long-term view of strategy regarding human resources. So in my opinion it is not suitable for every industry. For example season-workers for vegetables in Austria are coming from the eastern part of Europe and some former countries of Russia. They are only working for a couple of weeks or months and a high attrition/rotation rate is given. There it would make no sense, in my understanding.
Diversity Management in HR is definitely an important topic and in my opinion every large or middle-sized company shoud consider it. For really small companies it might be a bit harder, therefore I don't know if it's the best strategy for them. But otherwise, I think a diverse workforce can only be beneficial for a company. If you have people from different ethnicities and environments working together, you will get a much bigger variety of ideas and concepts than you would get from a homogenous group of people. Especially nowadays where more and more people have a migration background and every company faces the challenge of having customers from different cultural backgrounds, it's essential to have those people as well in your company so that you can benefit from their knowledge and cultural experience.
AntwortenLöschenOf course, it might also lead to some challenges as the working habits from every individual might be a bit different and there is a need for cultural adaptation. But in the end, it will definitely help the organisation in the long run.
I also think that it depends on the company (size, location) and the business sector it operates in. I used to work for a medium sized company, with about 50 people working in the office and around 300 people working in the plant. The company is located in a really remote and rural area and some of the locals still look down on immigrants and give them a hard time even at work. Among the plant workers there are many people from other cultures, but in this company they have not been hired for diversity reasons, but just because they applied for their jobs and were qualified.
AntwortenLöschenAmong my colleagues in the office there were just Austrian people. We all had to deal with customers from all over the world and with the subsidiaries in Europe. But we always expected the others being able to speak and write in German. The company was never thinking of employing people with other native languages or promoting language courses. That is simply arrogant!
It would have been much better to have a more diverse workforce in the office. That would have certainly broadened the horizon of some of my dear colleagues... Also in the shipping department, where people have to deal with truck drivers (especially from Eastern Europe) who do not speak a single word in German, only German speaking people were employed.
I really wonder how long this company can succeed with ignoring the changes in how to manage human resources. Guess why I am not working there anymore ;)
Diversity is an important topic for every company, also for small-sized ones. I think many people relate the term to aspects like foreigners, language, social background, cultural differences or disabled people, but as we have heard it is much more! Diversity management includes aspects like gender, age, marital status, experience or even beauty. Those "normal" factors are the reason why I think, that every company somehow deals with diverstiy anyway. However, in many cases they are not aware of this fact.
AntwortenLöschenI think that every company should deal with the topic diversity. The bigger the company, the more aspects they should try to include.
Lisa´s example sounded very interesting to me, as I am also wondering how long this company will be able to do business with their current mindset.
I also think that today diversity should be an important topic for all companies. People from different backgrounds have different perspectives on how things should be done and they can bring in valuable ideas. This could mean better innovation and therefore also an comperative advantage. So, companies should be open-minded enough to take advantage of the possibilities of employing people with diverse backgrounds. I also think that there is a need for diversity training for all employees and also managers so they can accept the differences and take full advantage of it.
AntwortenLöschenI think the most important thing about diversity is to give people equal chances. I am not a fan of measures like the "women quota", which forces companies to have a certain proportion of women, handicapped people or immigrants. I know that this is sometimes referred to as positive discrimination, but what can be positive about discrimination? The best qualified person should be hired, regardles of sex, origin, orientation or whatever. Of course in reality this is much harder to achieve than said. Not all employees will accept everyone among them. Conservatives may feel insulted by homosexual colleagues and disputes like this should by all means be avoided. So I guess it doesn't only depend on the company's management, but also on the employees. They also might have to rethink. When you have a very tolerant and open-minded corporate culture, however, there's no reason not to include everyone.
AntwortenLöschen