Workforce Diversification Strategy

Abstract

In this paper I am going to describe the business and geographic location, plan of diversification, proposal for recruitment and selection of employees, proposal for training and professional development, restructure pay and incentive, performance management and appraisal and recommendations for policies and procedures that need to be added, updated or changed

Description of business and geographic location

The business I have been hired by is North America based IT Services Company that operates across all states of America and Canada. The company employs people from south East Asia and mostly from United States. As an IT services company it deploys teams at client locations and in these teams one can see people from multiple nationality. They have in house development centers too which are in India, Sri Lanka and in the USA. Currently the company does not have enough diversity, for example, there is a lack of presence of women in the work force. There is a lack of diversity in management and leadership.

Description of the overall plan for diversification that makes sense given the business itself and where it is located

First of all, across the organization all the leaders and managers should understand why diversity is important, how that will help the organization in long run. So, we will need to set up a training material and with help of HR set up sessions with leaders and managers to inform them about the need of diversity.

Then HR and leadership team can work closely to find out where diversity is required and to what extent. Moreover, what diversity we need to introduce, for example, gender diversity, racial diversity, cultural diversity or something else.

Based on level of diversity required, the organization needs to tweak hiring policy and hiring managers and HR needs to work on that mainly. The company needs to hire locally so that the team can communicate with client better and client feel comfortable with the team.

Supervisors and managers along with all employees need to go through diversity training. And this training will include gender diversity, cultural diversity, racial diversity training. So that everyone feels welcome and respected in the organization.

While HR needs to work on hiring policy, they might need to tweak other policies too to accommodate all religions and cultures.

Proposal for recruitment and selection of employees

To introduce diversity the company will have to hire employees with diverse background. HR needs to recruit over a broader geographic area. By expanding the geographic scope of recruiting, HR will reach more potential candidates (Miller,2016).

 For example diverse religion, more women in workforce, different race etc. While HR needs to figure out how to reach to all these potential employees, hiring managers will have to be onboard with what kind of employees to hire.

There is a thin line to maintain, hiring manager cannot hire just about anyone to fulfil the hiring quota or meet diversity target, the employee has to be worthy of the position and role. Once the selection is done, HR will need to make sure with policy and training that these new recruits feel respected and welcome in the company, so that the company can retain these talents.

Proposal for training and professional development

The HR needs to arrange training for hiring managers, supervisors and employees. According to Professor Erin Meyer, the vast majority of managers working across borders and cultures have little understanding of how culture is impacting their work. But negative situations often arise because of it (Maurer,2014). Leadership team and HR should set the direction for hiring managers to recruit from diverse background without compromising the standards.HR needs to help recruitment managers here, by reaching out to enough potential employee from diverse backgrounds.

Supervisors needs to be trained to handle employees and subordinates from different backgrounds. Especially how to motivate them and how they differ. The goal is to get the best performance out of every individual and to retain the talent. HR can arrange classroom training for supervisor and managers, which I believe a expensive option when compared with web based training which is another alternative.

The employees need to be prepared to for the diversity in company. HR needs to arrange training program, mainly web based for all employees, mainly to explain why diversity is required, how everyone will benefit because of better company growth and culture. And the program should explain how to make everyone feel welcome and respected. Moreover all employees needs to be educated about any policy change HR comes up with to promote diversity.

Proposal for restructuring pay and incentives

The HR and finance needs to revisit current pay and incentive policy, and make sure that employees are treated equally regardless of their gender, race, religion age nationality. To celebrate diversity, pay and incentive is crucial. We hear about gender pay gap all the time. Any such pay gap or discrimination is absolutely intolerable in the organization. Moreover if there is any discrimination then it will be hard to retain employee and maintain diversity.

Proposal for performance management and appraisal

As part of training supervisor and managers, they need to be informed that they will have to set goals at beginning of the year for employees that is regardless of their gender, religion race and they will have to check in on each employee regularly. May be they can set up recurring meetings with employees to check the progress and help them with impediments. At the end of the year, each employee needs to have their performance appraisal done with feedback that should focus and emphasize on how they can improve their productivity and performance. And how they can progress in their career. Supervisor and managers should help employees with their aspirations too by being mentor to them.

Recommendations for policies and procedures that need to be added, updated or changed

First of all, there should be a new policy to recruit and maintain a diverse employee pool. Diversification has to be done across races, gender, religions and even disable employees. But all recruitments should happen strictly based on merit and nothing else.

There should be a policy to encourage mutual respect and should make diversity training mandatory for everyone.

There should be a policy update to discourage any discrimination to any employee because of his or her race, religion, disability or nationality.

The raise, bonus and promotion policy should be same for everyone and there should not be any scope to discriminate based on personal preference. Respective policy should be updated.

References –

Maurer, R (September, 2014). Navigate Cultural Differences to Succeed Across Borders. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/global-hr/pages/navigate-cultural-differences-succeed-across-borders.aspx

Miller, B ( November, 2016). 8 Ways to Improve Diversity in the Workplace. Retrieved from https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2016/11/28/8-ways-improve-diversity-workplace/