Thursday, January 30, 2014

Tapping The Full Potential Of A Diverse Workplace

By Franklin Skribbit


Diversity in the workplace is like going to a buffet - much better than a constant diet of porridge. Diversity offers choices and appeals to multiple audiences. Expansion and success tend to be at the top of every company's to-do lists and diversity is an important step to getting there. Just like a person can survive on an unchanging diet of porridge, a company can get the basic job done with a non-diverse workforce. However, if a person wants to grow in strength, health, and happiness, multiple nutrients, textures, and tastes are required. The same goes for a company. Especially as the world gets smaller and more companies are going global, diversity is the nourishment that will give a company the strength and support it needs to thrive.

What can create diversity?

Observation is one of the key strategies to stop violence before it happens. Noticing changes in behavior, attitude, mood, and speech can be telling indicators of how an employee or client is feeling. If an employee begins snapping out, yelling, punching walls, or talking violently, there is a good chance that that person may resort to violence soon. Other common changes in behavior that precede violence include excessive drinking, verbal approval of other violent actions, decline in personal hygiene, and stress about family or financial situations. If an employee or client begins acting in such a way, it is important to get them help.

Much like the way the constitution serves to explain the expectations for the United States government, a code of conduct serves to explain the expectations for those working within a company. As such, these documents should be an accurate reflection of your company's principles and values.

Additional Security

Another reason diversity is important in the workplace is the range of ideas you will have access too. People of different backgrounds and perspectives grew up learning to deal with the world in many different ways. These different styles of thought and problem-solving skills will give your company access to more innovative ideas, especially if parts of multiple ideas are brought together into one.

Finally, in a global market, companies that have made an effort to diversify their workforce are more widely respected. Foreign clients or markets will feel more comfortable entrusting their business to a company that has proven its ability to accept and handle diversity because companies that are diverse are more likely to understand and respect the client's thoughts, opinions, goals, and ideas.

Precautions

Another helpful practice is to conduct background checks or screenings for every new employee and annual updates on current ones. While some may find this invasive, certain companies would be considered very irresponsible if they were to entrust access to their company's facilities and information to just anybody.

If you are unsure of how to write the code of conduct for your company, you should look into code of conduct training, so you can create the most effective code of conduct possible.




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