Everyone of every color, culture, gender, and background deserves the same opportunities as everyone else. This is why diversity in the workplace is important. It’s also imperative that policies are put in place to ensure the workplace remains diverse. These policies make sure the employees are accepting and tolerating of all members of the workforce.
Hiring Process
When hiring new employees, businesses and companies must keep an open mind. In the United States, there are federal laws that make it illegal to have a hiring process that discriminates against age, race, religion or ethnicity. These laws make sure everyone has equal opportunity throughout the entire hiring process. Whether or not a person should be hired must be decided by their experience, which is why human resources must submit applications to the hiring team without names or ethnic background of the applicant.
Management Team
Just as the hiring process must remain equal, the same goes for the management team. Companies should hire managers based on their experience and performance, not race or gender. The managers shouldn’t be made up of the same gender, race, or ethnic background. Managers should also be an example of diversity in the workplace and show acceptance. They should not show favor to a specific race or gender. It’s also important managers are ensuring their staff is staying tolerate and keeping the workplace as diverse as possible.
Training Policies
Every company and business should go through diversity training with all members of their workplace. Through diversity training, staff will learn how having many diverse backgrounds is very beneficial to the team. It will also outline and explain the legal implications of diversity in the workplace. This includes discrimination and harassment, which can lead to major legal issues. Diversity training will teach staff about tolerance and promote diversity. It’s important for all staff to participate in diversity training.
Workplace Feedback
Feedback from the staff is important to make sure every member of the workplace is treated fairly. A great way to ensure all staff members feel heard is by collecting monthly surveys. These surveys can address how they’re feeling if they feel they’ve been treated fairly, or if any harassment may have taken place. These surveys can be anonymous which will keep it effective. It’s important for staff to feel heard and address any issues. Employees are the heart of every company and it’s important that it remains diverse and of an equal opportunity.