Challenges Brought on by Increasing Workplace Diversity

In the business world, employers are admired for increasing diversity in the workplace. This is an admirable trait of a company for sure, considering all the challenges that come with maintaining a diverse workforce. If not properly addressed, those challenges can definitely turn into multiple disadvantages to the company. Nevertheless, these issues should not discourage employers to strive for diversity. As long as there is enough preparation on how such issues should be addressed, the company can benefit from its diverse workforce.

Common Issues Related to Workplace Diversity

1. Mandatory Staff Training – In a diverse workplace, there always have to be the so-called diversity training in which managers, supervisors, and employees together learn how they should all deal with clients, customers and staff members with varying backgrounds. Although the intention of such trainings is for the betterment of everyone in the company, they can have some negative effects as well. For instance, employees who are required to be part of diversity training may feel that the company doesn’t focus much on other types of employee development programs and training. Thus, they can have this perception that maintaining harmony within the workplace is more important than developing the employees’ capabilities and skills.

2. Pressure to the Hiring Manager – In trying to maintain the diversity in the workplace, hiring managers are the ones who are pressured to employ individuals coming from different groups. The problem with this is that hiring recruiters will likely have to skip the more qualified applicants to favor those who fit the category of diverse. This will not only be a burden to the hiring managers, but this can cause the company to miss the chance to hire talented job candidates.

3. Employee Relationships – In a totally diverse workplace, it is inevitable that some employees would feel less valued, especially those who don’t seem to represent a common diverse group. In addition, knowing that the company is all for diversity, these employees may have the wrong impression that those workers from diverse groups are more likely to be given promotions and other opportunities to advance their careers. These presumptions can easily cause damage to the relationship among employees.

4. Diversity Management – Perhaps the biggest challenge that workplace diversity brings is to the management. The leaders in a diverse workplace are responsible for keeping all its employees happy and satisfied. In a normal setting, this is already a challenge. What makes this even more difficult to do is the fact that the workers have different needs and concept of satisfaction. It is, therefore, important for supervisors and managers to figure out what could make each group comfortable in the workplace. In countries like Canada, companies have long learned the key to maintaining diverse workforce considering the increasing amount of foreign nationals coming to work in Canada. But then again, no company is perfect, and so it takes a lot of commitment on the part of the employer to keep its workforce diverse.