02/09/2013
Critically evaluate and explain how increasing workforce diversity impacts upon the HR Managers role in any TWO of the following areas:
• Recruitment of employees
• Developing employees
• Rewarding employees
• Engaging employees
• Managing employee performance
Table of contents:
1. Summary
2. Introduction
3. Developing employees
4. Rewarding employees
5. conclusion
1. Summary
The following paper is a critical evaluation and provides explanations of the impact of increasing workforce diversity on the roles and responsibilities of an HR manager in two chosen areas, namely developing employees and rewarding employees.
The HR manager is most often the figure responsible for understanding the importance of embracing the increasingly diverse nature of the workforce of recent times and hence devise and imply tools and methods to accommodate the needs and demands of effectively managing workforce diversity.
2. Introduction
Workforce diversity broadly includes a variety of aspects such as age, s*x, religion, ethnicity and each form of diversity has characteristic effects on the attitudes, values and behavior of an individual at work. Some define diversity in a manner that includes aspects such as the identities and perspectives employees add, such as profession, academic background, location and origin. One form of diversity that is often undermined is that of a widening age range of employees which results in significant differences in their experience and attitudes (Wagner, 2007). Another form of diversity within a workforce is race and in researches has often showed to be of great benefit especially when businesses are global and target markets are on the other side of the globe.
In the 1990s as a result of increasing globalization, a more diverse workforce was evident and had a significant and long lasting impact on the business world. Numerous journals, articles, books and other forms of publications were released which all advised on how to more effectively manage an increasingly diverse workforce (e.g., Cox & Blake, 1991; Fernandez & Barr, 1993; Mandell & Kohler-Gray, 1990; Thomas, 1990, 1991, 1996; Thomas & Ely, 1996). As speculated by many, it has been seen that flawed diversity programs may actually impact the workforce in adverse manners (Clark, 1998; Galen, 1994; Murray, 1993).
In the twenty first century, the most progressive employers have come to realize that the best business sense is to effectively manage and utilize the benefits that are present in a pool of skills brought in by an increasingly diverse workforce and one that reflects the multicultural society we live in.
3. Developing employees
Recent studies have indicated that increasingly diverse workplaces tend to be less integrated and exhibit higher levels of dissatisfaction. If not managed with the most effective tools and methods diversity can cause miscommunication and lead to falling productivity. This goes to show the importance of proper development of employees in the forms of diversity training and sensitizing the work environment to take into consideration the values of each individual employee.
As such the HR manager’s role of incorporating diversity policies and training programs is of utmost importance. The challenges involved with such commitments are often in degree of comprehensiveness, attainability and measure ability of the employee development programs and training tools.
To begin with, it is important to have a measure of the degree of diversity in the workplace. Therefore the HR manager must engage in a workplace diversity survey and possibly a workplace satisfaction survey as well. This will provide a view of the current situation and how that interprets t employee satisfaction and consequentially help tailor development plans and strategies of the workforce.
Developing a workforce is in its essence the process of investing in the employees to build, retain and improve upon a specific skill set that helps improve performance, communication and subsequently ensure that the right person has been chosen for the right job. Developing a diverse workforce is therefore aimed to include those purposes while ensuring fairness, understanding and workplace equality.
The plan of developing a diverse workforce can be implemented with the help of a set of tools and programs include diversity orientation and training, sensitizing employees and workplace.
3.1 Diversity orientation and training:
Providing employee orientation and training into a diverse workforce has been shown to be one of the most significant steps required to create a more integrated and productive workforce. This requires the HR manager to design effective workforce diversity training programs. Managing workforce diversity effectively means to provide an environment which nurtures the individual employee’s skills and assets which helps the organization propagate more efficiently towards its business goals.
The diversity training program itself must therefore successfully address all the aspects of workforce diversity such as gender, racial and age discrimination. Not only must the training program must teach employees to be aware of the differences that each individual employee possess but it must also emphasize to respect them.
Today’s HR managers must also keep in mind to design the training programs and tools to address the aspects of political and religious differences, brought in by the overwhelming level of globalization. Issues such as terrorism, religion and current military actions have shown to be of different emotional values to different employees when brought up in training programs.
The HR manager must therefore keep in mind to base the training program on principles such as integrity, respect, humility, acknowledgement of bias and prejudice, openness etc.
3.2 Sensitizing employees and workplace:
Despite the training and orientation the work environment remains the place where the diversity training shows its results and therefore, the workplace must as well promote diversity. The HR manager again has an important role to play by promoting a work environment that celebrates cultural, racial and all other forms of diversity.
The work environment must not fail to address the fact that different employees have different needs and values. The superiors must be aware of the different cultures, values and backgrounds of the employees. Therefore the training programs should reflect such issues as well. Similar approaches should be practiced on sensitizing the workers. Each worker must therefore know to value and respect the cultural, religious and personal values of his coworkers.
The HR manager’s function of integrating such practices into the work place should focus on different levels such as the group, the individual, the organization and the external environment.
3.3 Non training activities
The HR manager must also establish series of activities that reflect on the effectiveness of the training program itself. This should also provide a measure on the benefits that is brought about the workforce and also the organization by the influence of workforce diversity.
Such activities can be in the form of staff meetings, newsletters, evaluations and even social integration events such as mixed faith gatherings and celebration of different religious occasions.
Other forms of such non training activities often include events geared at building a more supportive workplace, events on woman abuse, s*xual and family violence awareness programs. These not only educate the employees on being supportive towards their coworkers but also provide important resources for the individuals themselves and assist them to ensure a better environment not only at home but also the workplace.
4. Rewarding employees
Today’s workforce in most cases not only include multiple generations but also a range of nationalities, religious and ethnic backgrounds and even s*xual orientations that need to be taken into consideration and as such keeping motivation high in more of a challenge than ever before. This requires critical and effective methods of rewarding and consequentially engaging employees.
For HR managers of multinational corporations the process of effectively rewarding employees is made even more complicated and difficult by the idea of equity over geographies. Ensuring equity means taking into account the range of standards of living across the different nations the organization functions on top of the currency exchange rate differences.
One issue introduced by diversity is the idea of collectivism, which is gaining significance at a fast pace due to the rapid growing nature of the biggest economy in the world, China. Rewarding in most cultures often are often on an individual scale while that Chinese economy is based on a practice of group rewarding due to the collectivist nature of their workplace.
The HR manager must keep in mind that the rewarding methodology must be flexible enough to accommodate such differences while still adhere to the philosophy and guidelines that are specified by the overall program objectives.
4.1 Designing effective reward program:
While the rewarding methodology might vary from one organization to another, the underlying principles must always address the diverse nature of the workforce with the aim to consequentially engage the employees in better performance, increased efficiency and integration. Hence the HR manager faces the task of incorporating the most important underlying factors into the rewarding system. These factors most often include
1. Sticking to the objective
2. Timely manner
3. Reward of choice
4. Equality.
4.1.1 Sticking to the objective:
The HR manager must always remember that the rewarding methodology must adhere to the specific goal set by the organization. No matter how appropriate the reward may seem, it will be more of an unwanted overhead if the reward does not stimulate developments in the desired aspects of the workforce as set in the overall organization policy.
4.1.2 Timely Manner:
One of the most significant aspects of strategic recognition is speed. The reward should be on time, closely following the effort that it recognizes and ensure that the recipient of the reward fully understands and accepts the reasons behind the appreciation of his actions. Continuous and frequent nature of the rewarding process often helps to instill a sense of competitiveness amongst the workforce regardless of the degree of diversity that exists in the workforce. The frequency of rewarding ensures visibility and maximum participation as well.
4.1.3 Reward of choice:
The very essence of workforce diversity means that the same reward may not be of the same level of incentive to everyone and hence fail its purpose. As such the HR manager must be able to understand the different forms of rewarding that prove to be of most effectiveness. Non cash awards in the form of gift cards and vouchers help fuel the non tangible income of the employee. These often stimulate increased social acceptance, increased self esteem and enhanced performance. On the other hand the rewarding process might allow the employee to earn points that in turn allows him to exchange for rewards the employee might see to be of interest and value to them personally.
4.1.4 Equality:
The HR manager’s most important role in deciding the rewarding methodology is to ensure equality. For instance, if the program only rewards the top percentile of elites it will be least effective. The reward must acknowledge the performance changes in the entire workforce and not just the top 10 percent. Most studies show that it’s the middle 80% of the workforce that exhibit the highest level of engagement and as such the reward program must address them with equality.
It is therefore evident that to be effective, an organizational reward system must be true to the philosophical motivation of people at work. One of the more popular methods of reward systems that are based on this understanding is gain-sharing.
4.2 Gain Sharing:
Gain sharing programs are commonly incentive plans aimed at improving the organizational performance of the employees in a common effort. The principle of gain sharing is that the economic benefits brought about are shared amongst the employees and the company (Joseph Boyett, Jimmie Boyett, 2004)
In most cases the workers voluntarily participate in management roles that involve making key decisions regarding reforms and the reward is based on the factors that are directly under the control of the employee (costs and efficiency). The gains are measured and the rewards are given out on the basis of a predetermined formula. The nature of the gain sharing program means that the rewards ae only distributed when the gains are achieved and hence do not add to company costs (Paulsen, 1991)
5. Conclusion:
The effects of increasingly diverse of workforce are undeniable and are evident in most cultures and economies. Regardless of the degree of diversification, it is of utmost importance that business practices not only accommodate methods of diversity management but also celebrate and promote diversity because of the benefits brought about by it. Under such circumstances the role of an HR manager in addressing these issues and introducing changes to manage and promote diversity while staying true to the organizational philosophy
is more difficult than ever before.
Appendices:
Korte, R.F. 2007. A review of social identity theory with implications for training and development. Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 31 No. 3, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Lorbiecki, A. and Jack, G. 2000. Critical Turns in the Evolution of Diversity Management. British Journal of Management, Sep2000 Special Issue, Vol. 11 Issue 3.
Thomas, D.A. and Ely, R.J. 1996. Making differences matter: A new paradigm for managing diversity. Harvard Business Review 74:5, 79–90.
Tomervik, K. 1995. Workforce diversity in Fortune 500 corporations headquartered in Minnesota: Concepts and practices. Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD) Conference Proceedings, St. Louis, MO.
Rynes, S. & Rosen, B. (1995). A field survey of factors affecting the adoption and perceived success of diversity training. Personnel Psychology.
Wheeler, M.L. (1995). Diversity: Business rationale and strategies (Report #1130-95-RR)
Joseph and Jimmie Boyett (2004) The Gainsharing Design Manual
