Careers and Diversity Management essay

In the world, all human beings have certain features that make them vary from one another. As the society consists of many people, it is made of a wide variety of backgrounds, difference in age, ethnic belongings, religious beliefs, family responsibilities and sexual orientation (Gravel, 2014). These are some of the reasons which make working in the United States a very unique experience. The company in question through the application of the principles of workplace diversity should be committed towards creating a reflection of the unique and diverse composition of all individuals irrespectively of their differences. This organization has to understand the fact that workplace diversity is concerned with recognition and celebration as well as utilization of the distinctions among the people in order to benefit the business and its clients. Basically, the firm has to provide the equal employment opportunity (EEO) with the apprehension that workplace diversity is all about developing and creating strategies which recognize and accommodate the differences that individuals have in terms of perspectives, backgrounds and even responsibilities. Paludi (2012) asserts that the mentioned concept upholds the principles of equal employment opportunity which is the area in which the company has been filled against a number of cases. Through adoption of a diversity policy, the organization will be better positioned in terms of attracting, selecting, developing and retaining a diverse and motivated group of workforce hence boosting its public reputation while, at the same time, avoiding litigations against it.

 

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Outline of an HR Strategic Plan that Includes Diversity Training for all Employee Levels

This human resources strategic plan establishes a foundation through which the organization will be able to address the challenges and opportunities that it currently faces in relation to diversity. It focuses on the elements of inclusion and diversity and creates a framework that is highly comprehensive in relation to the two aspects (Nair & Vohra, 2015).

This should act as a companion document to the company’s strategic plan on human capital. The main aim of this initiative is that it will help the firm in terms of gathering and maintaining a workforce that is diverse and highly skilled. This inclusion and diversity plan sets out the strategies, goals, and items of action that will ensure that the company is able to recruit, hire, promote and even educate and retain a workforce that is highly diverse (Byrd & Scott, 2014). This document should help maintain a culture that encourages elements of collaboration, fairness and flexibility that will guide the employees in terms of participation to the fullest potential.

The key aspect of the plan that has to be considered by the company relates to diversity training. According to Bobatoon (2009), this firm has to make all the efforts to implement this instruction in an effective way. The training program that should be adopted by this company involves bringing a diversity expert to the organization or taking the staff to an offsite location where they can go through a teaching session that is spread across several weeks or it can as well be done all at once. When diversity professionals are employed, they are at a position to share valuable information in relation to issues of diversity, yet the only dark side of such programs is that they are at times very expensive (Jones, King, Nelson, Geller, & Bowes-Sperry, 2013).

When employees are taken out for a weekend retreat at an offsite location example of which can be a lodge, it provides a setting through which staff members will have the opportunity to understand and know each other in situations that are not related to work. The company has to ensure that the facilitator at the retreat is able to gather workplace diversity resources and help the personnel go through the issues that have been outlined (Nair & Vohra, 2015).

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Specific Diversity Training Segments to Address Management’s Perspectives

This company just like most other firms has a mono cultural background where the leadership is predominantly made up of men aged around 30 to 40 years and from the dominant nationality of the country in which the business is located. This means that there is a risk that the analysis of the environment for training will be handled in a manner that is highly restrictive. Such situation means that any educational sessions concerning diversity will be taken up from a perspective that is very narrow (Hobson, 2014).

The main segment for the management must be created with an understanding of the scenario for the future. During this training session, the top management as well as the key stakeholders and representatives of the employees will have to come up with a scenario of building a workshop (Babatoon, 2009). The rule of thumb is used by them to look at how the business world will look like from the inside and outside in 20 years. The analysis should be conducted placing an emphasis on how diversity will be impacted within the period under consideration.

The aim of the above strategy is to come up with several alternatives which will help the management deal with the diversity aspects in the long run. Gravel (2014) opines that such approach dictates that the management should always be prepared to handle the future-term issues and not only short-term problems. The main idea is that the management must be well-trained for the various alternative situations that could arise. The scenario that the management has to focus on has to be developed. This is an exercise that has to be done with the help of external facilitators.

The other segment that the management ought to be educated on is the management and implementation of diversity. During the implementation process, the steering committee has a crucial role to play as its members make up a huge representation of the management. The committee has to be prepared in terms of how they will be able to steer, oversee and carry out the various activities that are related to training of the employees in the organization (Jones et al., 2013). The steering committee which is the most important part of diversity teaching sessions will be tasked with;

1. Ensuring that the top and middle management are able to develop and communicate programs of diversity training and management;
2. Making certain that there is diversity team building in each of the business unit (Byrd & Scott, 2014);
3. Carrying out training sessions that involve large teams of the workforce and concern management of diversity;
4. Ensuring that there is change in the performance management tools as well as training appraisal approaches which confirm that there is fostering of the element of diversity management and making it measurable to establish what was created through formal system of benchmark (Gravel, 2014);
5. The management should also be trained on how they can change the human resources management tools when it comes to recruitment and retention of the employees in a diverse workforce (Bobatoon, 2009).

The areas mentioned above are very important for the management of the business especially when it comes to making sure that the management is able to withstand the future changes in the area of human resources (Babatoon, 2009). The pace with which globalization is taking place is so fast that the management of human resources has to be in line with such alterations. The above training policy caters for such requirements.

A Change Model to Persuade Management to Implement Needed Modifications to the Organization’s Practices

In most cases, diversity at workplace may end up facing huge resistance from employees and even some members of the management. In order to ensure that diversity is able to thrive, the management should be in a position to spot the slightest sign of resistance and deal with it. Therefore, the proposed model that will assist to persuade the management to implement the change is the McKinsey 7-S Model (Gravel, 2014). Accordingly, the method appreciates elements of collective alteration including shared values, strategy, structure, systems, style, staff, and skills. It would be effective because it offers the guidance for organizational change besides integrating parts relating to the nature of the personnel and skills (Paludi, 2012).

A Brief Training Outline of Diversity Content

Training is a process, and it is not simple. When creating a program for diversity training, it is important to move beyond conducting a sensitivity session. The management has to get outside the frames of the most common approach that is problem-oriented and check out for the method that goes further than just the aspect of organizational change. The best diversity training program has to be more concerned with the goal of raising awareness (Jones et al., 2013). It is the start of the organizational process that builds understanding and cultural competence as well as skills that will help the employees as well as managers at all levels to apprehend their roles in attainment of the concept of diversity in the company.

The best diversity training program has to be aligned with the strategies of the organization. Such sessions will be able to improve the level of relationships within the personnel. The training manual should not just be used to address problems such as sexual harassment and discrimination (Babatoon, 2009). There is the need to develop a program that creates skills and knowledge which will lead to higher business opportunities and optimization of employee talents.

The process of coming up with the programs takes into consideration the diversity needs of the organization and the necessity to collect materials that reflect the training requirements. The teaching program is developed in a step by step mode. For the benefits of this organization these phases can be divided into six important ones as discussed below.

The first step involves the creation of the project and finding the real sponsors to carry out the initiative. These individuals must be interviewed in order to determine the input of such stakeholders in the process of creating the diversity program. In the views of Nair and Vohra (2015), the common topics that will be proposed to the sponsors will involve the management of change, the process of effective communication, and the creation of the aspect of cultural awareness.

The second step is to define the objectives of the training program. The goal of the latter must indicate the facts it aims to eliminate, for example, some business is intending to displace the aspect of miscommunication and recognize value differences. The training has to actually indicate such elements.

The third step is to come up with the design of the workshop. The presentation materials have to be created in line with the needs of the diversity training program (Gravel, 2014). The content of the teaching session has to cover all the relevant topics such as review of the federal laws that govern the prevention of discrimination and the provision of the office of civil rights.

The fourth step is about the creation of the team meeting, which will be structured in the sense that it must demonstrate how long the diversity meetings will last, and this will be dependent on the topics that must be covered. The fifth phase looks at the creation of the quiz that will test the employees on issues that are related to the diversity concept. The completion of the quizzes will help the participants recognize their self-biases and will help assist them in terms of dealing with such biases. The last step is related to determination of the effectiveness of the program (Babatoon, 2009). During the training, the team leaders have to talk to the managers and see whether the team members have been able to adjust to the requirements of the session.

Recommendation Concerning a Comprehensive Method of Evaluation to Ensure the Training Will Create the Needed Changes

It is understandable that at times resistance to change can be very strong, yet it is significant that as a company makes great efforts to deal with such cases of resistance. There are several ways that can be used to deal with forms of resistance to diversity, and such methods can be important to make the alteration in this organization (Paludi, 2012). The training module that is created above has to ensure that educational sessions focus on more areas than just race and sex; these two factors are not the only issues of diversity that have to be addressed.

During the teaching sessions, it is always important to make certain that everyone’s distinctions are put at the same level which will help the team of the company understand that each and every person is different and unique in one way or another. It is also significant to ensure that before training plans are implemented, they are communicated to the staff of the organization (Babatoon, 2009). The moment each and every member of the team is in the loop, this aspect will help the management in terms of dealing with any incidence of resistance.

Diversity training can be simpler and more effective if the people who are crafting it ensure that the entire management is on board. When only the upper management is keen on diversity education, the lower level employees may not find it compelling. The most important thing is that the management of the training program has to make use of an open door policy. The employees have to understand that during the process of learning and training, they can talk to the management about some of their concerns in relation to the teaching sessions (Hobson, 2014). This will help in terms of ensuring that issues are raised on the table and solved, and not discussed during breaks without any progress.

When creating diversity training, it is important to confirm that consistency is maintained. It is significant to ensure that regular diversity meetings are carried out and that different issues are kept fresh in the mind of each and every individual. This can be easily facilitated through conducting regular exercises related to team building.

Conclusion

Carrying out diversity training at the workplace is an investment in the employees and, therefore, it can generally be taken as investment in the organization as a whole. Cultural awareness can be seen as a bridge between staff members who may have various ideals which can lead them in different directions. Diversity education benefits the business in the sense that it allows the employees to drop the hard-line stances and create healthy relationships that are very advantageous for the organization. The above training program is very important for the firm as it will ensure that there is cultural sensitivity and improvement of the quality of output of the workers. In general, the aim of the diversity educational sessions is to make certain that the business has happier and accommodative employees who are ready to take part in proper and effective running of the organization.