Diversity

What is “diversity”?

Diversity refers to the range of human perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences as reflected in characteristics such as:

Today’s demographics in the workplace show very clearly that diversity is a major issue.
Consider these statistics:

• By 2008, women and people of color will make up 70% of the nation’s workforce.
  
  
• By 2008, 41% of the nation’s 39 million workers will be members of minority groups.
  
  
• According to the 2000 U.S. Census, nearly 47 million people, or approximately one in every five U.S. residents, reported speaking a foreign language regularly at home.
  
  (Source:  Bureau of Labor Statistics). 

So why does your company need diversity training?

Diversity training helps organizations recognize the benefits to creating an inclusive environment and develops methods to foster and maintain such a workplace.  Managers learn to understand their own inherent cultural biases and develop communication and decision-making skills that demonstrate appreciation of workplace diversity.

Diversity in the workplace is not merely about workforce representation and employee satisfaction.  Rather, it is about ensuring that the diverse talent and skill-sets in a workforce are recognized and utilized.  When your policies and practices benefit all of your employees, irrespective of their cultural, racial, gender, religious, sexual, and age differences, you are enhancing the quality of your organization as a place of work and increasing the ability to recognize the organization’s objectives. Importantly, you are also protecting yourself against discrimination litigation, which is has a significant cost with respect to both financial and human capital.  In fact, studies show that companies with a diverse staff obtain better results than homogeneous companies.  

Moreover, diversity is playing an increasingly greater role in clients and customers’ decisions about whom they will hire and with whom they will do business.  Creating an inclusive workplace positions your organization to improve the quality of its business and increase productivity.  Finally, by providing this positive and inclusive atmosphere, you are fostering employee loyalty and improved morale. 

Training Objectives

Employment Practices Group will meet these objectives during our training session with your employees:

• Affirm the value of diversity in the workplace.
  
• Raise awareness and increase sensitivity.
• Develop an understanding of how recruitment, hiring, staffing, and performance management affects diversity in the workplace.
• Foster effective communication skills that are sensitive to diversity-related data, such as age, gender, religion, sexual orientation and race.
• Create an atmosphere of inclusion.
• Emphasize your organization’s commitment to a workplace where all employees are valued and respected for their differences.
• Encourage appropriate behavior.
• Provide information on legal issues.