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Human Resource
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Human Resource and the Organization
The importance of human resource diversity in today's work place cannot be ignored. The simple reason for this is that the world is dramatically and rapidly changing and evolving all around us. More and more women and minorities are now entering the work place and the need for a diversified work environment is becoming more and more evident. Today is it estimated that in the US minorities represent over 50% of American society. This figure in itself is quite staggering considering that over two decades earlier minorities made just 25% of the population.
The reason why diversity is now such a hot topic and is given so much significance is that the world has realized how important diversification actually is. Diversification celebrates the differences in people and is now important to a healthy and non-prejudiced society. By being able to understand and celebrate the differences between ourselves and others, we not only achieve success in our personal lives but in our professional lives as well. At the moment many large multinational corporations and business are aggressively promoting human resource diversity in the work place as they now understand that this results in a higher employee retention rates, fewer complaints and grievances, and provides much easier access to newer markets. Diversity initiatives not only improve the quality of an organization's workforce, but are also the mechanism for a better return on investment in human capital.
So what does diversity actually mean? Well to be honest there is no one correct definition of diversity, but in the work place however a commonly agreed upon definition by many is that diversity encompasses gender, race, culture, age, family/carrer status, religion and disability.
It is very important that today's work place be diversified as it mans that a business can adopt and develop new and creative approaches to managing people to ensure a high level of work performance.
Advantages of Human Resource Diversity
The importance of human resource diversity in today's work place cannot be ignored. The simple reason for this is that the world is dramatically and rapidly changing and evolving all around us. More and more women and minorities are now entering the work place and the need for a diversified work environment is becoming more and more evident. Today is it estimated that in the US minorities represent over 50% of American society. This figure in itself is quite staggering considering that over two decades earlier minorities made just 25% of the population.
The reason why diversity is now such a hot topic and is given so much significance is that the world has realized how important diversification actually is. Diversification celebrates the differences in people and is now important to a healthy and non-prejudiced society. By being able to understand and celebrate the differences between ourselves and others, we not only achieve success in our personal lives but in our professional lives as well. At the moment many large multinational corporations and business are aggressively promoting human resource diversity in the work place as they now understand that this results in a higher employee retention rates, fewer complaints and grievances, and provides much easier access to newer markets. Diversity initiatives not only improve the quality of an organization's workforce, but are also the mechanism for a better return on investment in human capital.
So what does diversity actually mean? Well to be honest there is no one correct definition of diversity, but in the work place however a commonly agreed upon definition by many is that diversity encompasses gender, race, culture, age, family/carrer status, religion and disability.
It is very important that today's work place be diversified as it mans that a business can adopt and develop new and creative approaches to managing people to ensure a high level of work performance.
Some of the reason why diversity has become such a key word in human resources is that:
- Women and minorities are now playing a significant role in society. Women are now major bread winners for the family as they takeover roles of leadership and decision making positions
- A large majority of the working population now balances career responsibilities as well as dependent children.
- Here are an increased number of dual income families.
- There have been a number of changes made to the 'conventional' family structure with single parent families.
- The current workforce is ageing.
Advantages of human resource diversity
The advantages of human resource diversity include:
- More efficient and effective personal and interpersonal communication between employees as well as with the general public.
- Improved team work performance.
- Increased creativity and innovation in the work place.
- A more enhanced problem solving capacity.
- A greater opportunity for equality in the work place.
- Overall staff well being.
- Higher staff morale.
- A wider talent pool to choose from.
- Improved customer service and satisfaction.
- A positive community image.
Besides these basic advantages of human resource diversity, other advantages include:
- In an increasingly global market place, diversity increases cultural awareness and sensitivity, thus making it easier for a company to ease into a foreign market. If your firm does business with multilingual communities such as Hispanic, Italian or Japanese communities you are able to understand their customs, traditions, language and culture much better, therefore making it easier for you to do business with them.
- A diverse staff also helps to bridge cultural differences, so that a business can better establish itself in a foreign market.
- Diversity also helps to capitalize on new markets.
- Human resource diversity provides a more sensitive customer relationship environment where consumers from all over the world are understood and appreciated.
