The modern corporate world that we see today is largely influenced by globalisation. In the corporate world where multinational corporations are at the forefront, diversity in the workplace is becoming a booming trend. In fact, modern organisations are more eager than ever before to hire diverse talents.
Here we must acknowledge the fact that diversity is not limited to cultural backgrounds or ethnic diversity. Workplace diversity also includes dimensions of working generations, mindsets, experience, skills, talents, and opinions. Hiring a diverse workforce is surely a great way to add greater prospects for business success. To explain, diverse identities will bring unique value to an organisation.
To substantiate, according to InStride, diverse and inclusive organisations are 35 percent more likely to perform better than their competitors. Did you know that? Also, interestingly, diverse organisations are 70 percent more likely to penetrate new markets. This explains why diversity is such an important workplace trend. However, workplace diversity will not succeed on its own unless organisations apply the right strategies.
In this blog, we look at the various strategies that you can effectively use to drive high engagement in a diverse workforce. So, let us get started without further ado.
Actionable strategies to get the best out of a diverse workforce (H2)
1. Embracing inclusiveness and not just diversity
Diversity in the workplace is surely a trend that is thriving at a rampant pace. In this globalised world, organisations are increasingly embracing diversity in terms of cultures, perspectives, and working generations. However, as a leader, you need to know the fact that embracing diversity is not sufficient to get the best out of your diverse workforce.
Celebrating diversity and giving your employees an impression that their diverse identities are respected surely helps. However, what will enable you to drive high engagement in a diverse workforce is inclusiveness. For diversity to add value to the success of an organisation, creating a culture of inclusion is imperative.
Having said that, you need to find ways to promote greater inclusiveness in a diverse workforce. That can be done by including everyone in the decision-making process and asking for everyone’s opinions on any major transformation you wish to bring to the table. You may not implement their recommendations or opinions.
However, when you ask them to express their thoughts freely, it encourages a great sense of inclusion in the workplace. Employees feel valued and this value proposition is offered to them with great equality without any prejudice linked to their individuality. In a diverse workplace, it is important that employees feel equally valued irrespective of where they come from.
The mathematics here is simple, the more valued your employees feel the greater will be their zeal to raise the bar every day. When you create great cohesion in the workplace, employees will exhibit greater commitment.
Besides, the positive impact of this cohesion will also be seen in their effectiveness to collaborate with their colleagues beyond any differences. All in all, a perfect blend of inclusion and diversity will pave the way for an incredibly high-performing culture. On the contrary, a feeling of exclusion can be a major reason for job dissatisfaction and high attrition.
2. Promoting a greater sense of belonging
Another effective way to drive high engagement in a diverse workforce is to foster a greater sense of belonging among your workforce. To explain, your employees should carry great confidence that they belong in the workplace and deserve to be there. A strong sense of workplace belongingness is essential for every workplace. However, its significance becomes far more substantial when it comes to a diverse workforce.
As a leader, you need to acknowledge the fact that in a diverse workforce, some employees may struggle to find their comfort. When employees come from a minority background, they find themselves out of place and it does take a toll on their productivity. However, being a leader, you can address their concerns effectively by promoting a strong sense of workplace belonging.
To substantiate, as per Deloitte, a strong sense of workplace belonging can lead to a 56 percent increase in employees’ performance. Furthermore, it can also increase the net promoter score of the employer up to 167 percent. This clearly explains why promoting a sense of belonging among your employees is salient. However, the real question is, how to foster this sense of belonging among employees?
Listed below are some of the ways in which you can promote greater belongingness among your team members.
- Offering equitable career advancement opportunities
- Creating a culture of respectfulness
- Bringing D&I activities to the workplace
- Encouraging open communication in the workplace
- Asking employees for their feedback
- Enabling systematic knowledge sharing
- Promoting greater transparency in the workplace
3. Fostering a culture of empathy
The modern workplace certainly looks a lot different from how it seemed a few years back. A wide array of paradigm shifts are changing the dimensions and ways of the corporate workplace. Also, a lot of these transformations came into the picture after the advent of the unfortunate COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic made us all realise the importance of being empathetic. It is true that employees have their own share of emotional vulnerabilities and fears. In fact, it would not be incorrect to say that emotional vulnerabilities will be far more prevalent in a diverse workforce. To explain, in a diverse workforce, some employees will carry consistent fears of being bullied, harassed, or pulled down by others.
For instance, let’s say there you have a handful of baby boomers in an otherwise millennial workforce. Or to take another example, let’s say you have a few Muslim employees in a workforce which is largely represented by other religions.
Now, in such an atmosphere where some employees carry the minority sentiment, they will hesitate to express their emotions. Further, because of these emotional fears, they will also be reluctant to ask for assistance or guidance from their co-workers and seniors. Eventually, these emotional influences will hinder their efficiency and the ability to add value to the organisation.
This is where workplace empathy becomes so important in a diverse workplace. Employees will feel much more accepted when you understand and respect their emotions. In a culture driven by empathy, they can put negative emotional influences aside and focus better on their work. In fact, there is a direct correlation between workplace empathy and performance.
To validate, as per the State of Workplace Empathy Report, 76 percent of employees state their employers’ empathy increases their motivation and engagement. In fact, the report also concludes that 83 percent of employees will look to quit their jobs to work for a more empathetic employer.
Having said that, for getting the best out of your diverse workforce, it is essential that you lead the way with empathy. Being a leader, you need to lead with an example. When you show empathy towards your employees, it will encourage the entire workforce to follow in your footsteps. In this way, you can make empathy a natural workplace value that is embraced on a daily basis.
4. Creating strong mechanisms for addressing discrimination
The embracement of diversity and discrimination cannot co-exist. If you aspire to derive exemplary performances from your diverse talents, you need strong mechanisms to address discrimination. As we know, even a small act of bullying or discrimination can result in trauma lasting for years.
Having said that, we need to realise that even the smallest acts of workplace discrimination can affect the overall environment and efficiency of an organisation. You need to create strict anti-discriminatory policies in the workplace. More importantly, these policies need not be restricted to paperwork. The policies need to be enacted on a daily basis and people need to be held accountable for their workplace conduct.
Irrespective of whether an employee is a junior executive or a project manager, discriminatory policies should hold everyone incredible. In fact, all ethical issues in the workplace need to be kept under check. Also, it is imperative that as a leader, you ought to promote the confidence in your employees that they can report instances of discrimination without any hesitation. You should be approachable at all times and there should also be a way that employees can report discriminatory behaviours of their colleagues even anonymously.
5. Create diverse project teams
We cannot deny the fact that working relationships and collaboration hold immense value for business success. In fact, as per SalesForce, ineffective collaboration and communication is the key reason for project failure. In a diverse workforce, the risk of ineffective collaboration will be even higher. However, one great way of promoting effective collaboration in a diverse workforce is to create diverse project teams.
When employees work in teams that have different social-cultural identities, perspectives, mindsets, and ways of working, their collaboration becomes far more efficient. Also, they will be able to effectively address their reluctance to communicate with each other. Of course, you would create teams on merit more often than not and not entirely on diversity. However, whenever possible, you can create diverse teams.
Even if creating diverse teams is not possible for projects, you can create diverse teams during employee engagement activities or other fun activities in the workplace. In this way, you can create a conducive environment for better working relationships that can steer your organisation to greater success.
To encapsulate, it will take a lot more out of you to get the best out of your diverse workforce. However, it is absolutely worth the effort and innovation that you invest in this pursuit. It is a known fact that with diversity, organisations are unlocking new horizons of success. However, having a diverse workforce and creating a high-performing diverse workplace are two entirely different things.
