Human Resources Diversity in Organizations

Workforce diversity recognizes the truth that people differ in many ways, noticeable or unseen, mainly age, gender, marital status, social status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, personality, ethnicity and culture. HRM is a set of distinct actions, tasks and procedures that are aimed at drawing in, directing and continuing an organization's human resources. The HR function has grown considerably over the past few decades and now covers the whole range of people management processes. There are dissimilar views about the nature of HRM and there exists a massive variety of HR practices accepted by various organizations. Nonetheless, it is broadly accepted that the key practices of HRM include recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management and pay (Shen, Chanda, D'Netto & Monga, 2009). In order for a company to be successful they must have a workforce diversity program in place (Kramar, 2010).

Recruitment and Selection

Human resource managers typically bring people into the company and promote workers who fit or have values like those of the decision makers. Human resource professionals and line managers who recruit and interview job seekers in a multicultural workforce need to be conscious of the ways in which the interviewers' viewpoints, attitudes, and stereotypes influence interview behavior (Shen, Chanda, D'Netto & Monga, 2009). To facilitate the external recruitment of diverse employees, Peoples Bank of Quebec proposes the following processes:

Set up a process to facilitate recruitment and selection of employees from minority groups

Improve the visibility and image of the Bank in minority groups

Train managers on the staffing and recruitment policies as well as the selection tools which promote diversity (Panaccio & Waxin, 2010).

The banks plan is very good in that they are proposing to train their managers in regards to the recruitment policies and the selection tools that they will have access to. An additional training that needs to take place is that of actual interviewing techniques and processes. It is very helpful if those people who are conducting the interviews actually know who to conduct one.

Training and Development

High quality diversity awareness training is one HR function that improves the effective incorporation of diverse group members. Awareness training builds a widespread understanding of the value of diversity, assisting in building social unity so that it improves individual...

There needs to be a common understanding of what diversity its and how it can help to enhance a company. They need to make sure that everyone attends this training, not just managers and supervisors. This needs to be mandatory for all employees including new hires.
Performance Management

Effectual performance appraisal practices in the area of diversity management should be objective not subjective, pertinent to the job and the company, and fair to all workers and offer no special treatment. Including non-traditional managers on the appraisal panels can help to generate objective criteria and fair performance appraisal practices. When carrying out appraisals, the language of appraisal should center on the worker's performance and not on the personality or race of the person. Therefore, the aim should be to make the appraisal as culturally unbiased as possible (Shen, Chanda, D'Netto & Monga, 2009).

To facilitate the training and development of diverse employees, Peoples Bank of Quebec propose the following processes:

Set up a mentoring system for employees from minority groups

Develop a succession plan which provides promotion opportunities for certain categories of employees from minority groups (Panaccio & Waxin, 2010).

This plan is just a start in what really needs to be done. There is no mention of how diversity will be addressed in regards to performance appraisals. There needs to be specific training on how to conduct performance appraisals and standard forms developed so that all appraisals are carried out the same way.

Pay

Pay equality adds to effective diversity management and organizational performance. Diversity management in payment requires complete application of the principle of equal pay and a performance-based pay system. Empirical evidence has shown that the compensation structure, the wage determinants and the benefit schemes should be intended not only on common principles but also considering individuals in terms of their capability, knowledge and skill (Shen, Chanda, D'Netto & Monga, 2009).

The Peoples…