Diversity Over the Last Several

Diversity Over the last several years, the diversity of the American workforce has been changing. Part of the reason for this, is because of globalization, as it is helping to change the way a number of business will interact with customers. This is causing shifts in the workforce, as many organizations will hire a variety of employees. Where, they are attempting to address the needs of the changing customer demographics. A good example of this can be seen by looking no further than Coca Cola's 2020 Vision Program.

This is when the company is focusing on a number of different aspects to increase diversity in the workplace to include: providing leadership, values, integrity, passion, collaboration, quality and accountability. As a result, Coke would hire a wide variety of employees from a number of different nationalities / ethnic backgrounds to include: 23% African-Americans, 7% Hispanic and 5% Asian-Americans. Inside this number the company has an even amount of men and women, with 50% representing each gender group.

("Diversity," 2010) This is significant, because it shows how diversification is a necessity for any business that is selling: different products and services in a variety markets. To fully understand this need, we will examine various ways that diversity is helping an organization to adapt to current and future challenges. The biggest challenge that all business will face is: an aging workforce. This is because the largest segment of the population (the Baby Boomers) will be approaching retirement age in the next 10 to 20 years.

At which point, an increasing number of people will try to reduce the number of hours they are working or they may retire completely. This will depend upon the financial status of the individual and the economic conditions when these people are retiring. Where, high unemployment and various economic challenges could require more Baby Boomers, to work longer than they had anticipated. This is problematic, because it means that at the very least, a certain amount of these people will not be working full time.

Instead, more will probably work part time or on a contractual basis. (Mason, 2009) Once this begins to occur, it means that many employers will face labor shortages, in a number of skill sets and positions. In the case of the Baby Boomers, they represent 76 million people. (Reeves, 2005) For many organizations, this is troubling, as they have no way of being able to replace the loss of talent that they are facing.

When the workforce is more diverse, these kinds of effects are not as big of an issue, as the company can be able to hire new employees to replace those who are retiring. This will allow the business to be able to adapt, to the different challenges from the retirement of Baby Boomer employees. As those organizations that embrace diversity, will continue to innovate when many of their key competitors, are losing talented employees to retirement.

Clearly, those companies that can be able to embrace diversity in the workplace will be able to respond to various changes that are taking place, because of globalization. Where, the competitive pressures have become so extreme that all organizations, must embrace diversity to survive. The reason why, is a large segment of the population (the Baby Boomers) are continuing to become older. As they approach retirement age, this places an increasing amount of pressure on a variety of businesses. With.