Human resource strategies for managing workforce diversity

Human Resource as it Relates to the Workplace

Human Resource Strategies to Manage Workforce Diversity

HRM plays a significant role in the development and implementation of organizational initiatives meant to manage workforce diversity. The significance of HRM focuses on empowering a diverse workforce to participate fully in organizational decision making. The inclusion of a diverse workforce in an organization life fosters the realization of benefits of HRM (Crawley, Swailes, & Walsh, 2013). Further, it endeavors to increase the numbers of historically excluded groups in the workplace.HR diversity strategies link the elements of selection, development, recruitment, and retention of a diverse workforce to various aspects of globalization, business goals, competitive advantage, and labor market shifts.

The need for workforce diversity strategies reiterates the benefits of an inclusive approach to all kinds of individuals without bias on their sex, religion, origin, race, and other distinctions. Globalization requires organizations to reflect the elements of workforce diversity in the workplace. The unprecedented economic opportunities accompany globalization. However, it also results in the emergence of deepened social inequalities. For a long time, men have dominated the global workforce. Women have also dominated the 'invisible care economy' that encompasses domestic work and caregiving jobs. In developed countries, women have managed to get part-time jobs. In developing nations, women have delved in home-based work and the informal sector. It is crucial for organizations to establish the main objective of attracting a wider pool of talent. In achieving this objective, placing women and marginalized individuals and groups comes in handy.

Workforce Diversity vs. Individual, Group, and Organizational Outcomes

Individual Outcomes and Workforce Diversity

Today, the society has appreciated of the socially and organizationally unacceptable behaviors of prejudice against minorities and women. Globalization has rekindled the belief in organizations with the view that discrimination occurs as an outdated issue (Chaunda, 2012). However, some individuals referred to as 'modern racists' hold the belief that women and minorities use unfair tactics to demand advantages and favors in the workplace. According to the argument, the unfair tactics utilized work despite the lack of merit of these individuals. Modern racism contributes towards fear, avoidance, and discomfort by majority members, factors that lessen the commitment of minority members to the diverse organization. Increasing workforce diversity results in favorable attitudes geared towards better performance wages and ratings.

Group Outcomes and Workforce Diversity

More diverse groups depict better-quality solutions on brainstorming tasks compared to homogenous groups. Diverse groups display more cooperative behavior, a crucial element in fostering professionalism in the workplace.

Organizational Outcomes and Workforce Diversity

A diverse workforce results in an increase in customer demand for related products and services. Organizations with greater cultural diversity reflect increasingly diverse product markets and complex inimitable social resources.

Aligning and Linking HR to Departmental Planning

Effective alignment of human resources gears towards the achievement of departmental goals and objectives and the sustaining business continuity. It is crucial to employ a five-step approach to the determination of current and future resource needs. The steps in this approach include the determination of business goals, conducting gap analyzes, undertaking environmental scans, measuring, and setting, reporting, and monitoring the progress of HR priorities.

Determination of Business Goals

In determining business goals, emerging changes and trends, HR priorities, a solid understanding of the ongoing departmental and government business, and the impact of legislative reforms occur as significant factors. The step takes into consideration whether strategic partnerships facilitate the realization of accountability requirements.

Scanning the Environment

Workforce Analysis

After the comprehension of business goals, the aspect of understanding the workforce comes into play. It delves in planning for surpluses in specific skill sets, occupations, and projected shortages. Factors to consider in conducting a comprehensive workforce analysis include internal workforce trends such as turnover, vacancy rates, and retirement eligibility. Demographic employment characteristics and data such as average age, sex, competency profiles, and occupational groups also occur as crucial factors placed under consideration.

Internal Scan

Primarily, the internal scan focuses on the identification of internal departmental factors that may affect the capacity of the HR in realizing departmental goals. In this arrangement, each department can identify internal opportunities and challenges. It is crucial that the organization minimizes on its weaknesses and build on its strengths.

External Scan

The external scan gears towards the identification of external factors that may affect the workforce capacity with the known emerging issues and operational needs. It should consider advantageous opportunities that exist within the department. The process facilitates the identification of potential and existing risks in the external environment. With this information, the department can identify the best-placed strategies to manage the potential and existing risks.

Conducting a Gap Analysis

The analysis of environmental scanning, departmental goals, and priorities facilitates the projection of current and future HR requirements. Useful questions in the identification of gaps, determining HR needs, and projecting future HR requirements revolves around various factors such as succession plans, acquisition of new skills, shortage of skills, and conducting risks analyzes.

Setting HR Priorities in Facilitating the Achievement of Departmental Goals

After the examination of gap analysis outcomes, it is crucial for the HR priorities to reflect the need to achieve desired outcomes. Various strategies required to achieve the desired outcomes include retention, workplace well-being, and development of a talent pool, employee engagement, staffing, and skills development (Lawler, 2014).

Monitoring, Evaluating, and Reporting on the Progress

The fifth step in this approach focuses on the assessment of the progress in target areas, determination of future priorities, and organizational learning and improvement. Various factors under consideration in this step include the identification of clear and measurable HR goals, aligning HR performance measures with other existing accountability measures, and the achievement of a specific degree of success. Other factors include the availability of systems that perform a cost-benefit analysis and track performance indicators, and information conveyed from the performance indicators on a yearly basis.

Leadership

Effective leadership facilitates employee engagement. Visionary leaders enhance productivity, motivation, and employee engagement within the organization (Rothwell, 2010). Leaders that support employees and model the values of the organization contribute towards an effective employer-employee relationship. It occurs as a central element to organizational success. Leadership results from relationships focused on the interactions of collaborators and leaders.

Today, leadership development initiatives focus on the provision of performance support and real-world application of skills. Methods of skills application include mentoring, coaching, and training programs, development assignments, and action learning. The combination of a real business setting with instructions enables individuals acquire crucial skills that allow organizations to deal with crucial, relevant, and real-time issues. Development occurs as a process meant to provide individuals with opportunities to learn from the activities in the workplace. The integration of workplace experiences with developmental methods occurs as a critical step in the process.

Across all job levels, leadership occurs as a crucial component of jobs at all levels. The emergence of new perspectives on the nature of leadership affects the thoughts on leadership development. Leadership and leadership development occur as inherently relational, social, and collaborative processes. Thoughts on leadership understand it as the collective capacity of organizational employees in accomplishment of critical tasks such as gaining commitment and creating alignment.

Communication

Communication comes as a fundamental building block required for the creation of an engaged workforce. It creates an employee's sense of organizational needs and goals as they fit into a big picture. Employer-employee relationship utilizes communication in building an organizational culture that encourages maximization of the potential of employees. Transparency and timely attributes depict effective communication. Information sharing within organizations occurs through departmental planning, departmental employee newsletters, the intranet, branch and divisional meetings, and departmental planning.

In promoting a communication culture within the organization, the employer may utilize various practices that include:

Presentation of new policies and programs to employees through a mechanism targeting feedback.

Providing orientation to current and new employees. The process entails outlining basic information of the goals of the organization and the setting meant to achieve the set goals.

Providing individual feedback on performance in a constructive, detailed, and timely manner.

Offering employees the opportunities to communicate work-related issues with leaders, managers, and amongst themselves.

Health and Safety

Creating work environments that support individuals in the quest of providing quality public service in a safe and healthy manner contributes towards positive service delivery. An overall satisfaction of health and safety status of employees in the organization facilitates productivity. As a result, measures are taken to establish and preserve a safe and healthy environment delves in the elimination of various elements of bullying, violence, discrimination, and harassment (Strants, 2010).

Health promotion programs in the workplace serve to create a concrete foundation meant to deal with various cultural issues of commitment and trust among others. In doing so, the programs create a high-performance organization. Building trust in the organization by employers entails activities such as feedback, open-door policy, on-going encouragement, and general support in tackling issues. Through these activities, the organization benefits the staff and results in the adoption of a similar culture in other workplace environments.

Organizational Structures, Position Descriptions, and Business Processes and Practices

Development of organizational structures, position descriptions, and business processes and practices focuses on facilitating effective delivery and provision of departmental programs and services. Distribution of work in organizational structures categorizes it in branches, sectors, units, and divisions, amongst other classifications. Effective business practices endeavor to ensure effectiveness and optimal efficiency in the delivery of programs and services. The development of position descriptions ensures identification and clarification of individual goals and responsibilities. Sound HR management utilizes decisions on the assignment of business practices, work, and organizational design. The decisions influence the long-term ability of departments in efforts towards retaining staff, competing for resources, maintaining business continuity, and delivery of programs and services.

The structure and management of organizations depend on the changes in communication and information technologies. Examples of newer design elements include the creation of team-based networks, de-layering of hierarchies, focus on partnerships and alliances, and the creation of interdependent organizational units. The elements result in faster response time in business processes and a broadened span of control over various roles and assignments. Consequently, this leads to increased productivity and employee engagement.

Managing human resources aligned to organizational objectives yields benefits to the organization. The process entails the identification o internal red tape and outdated policies and process. Further, it is crucial to conducting a review and revision process meant to ensure the alignment of the processes with organizational needs and objectives. The internal scan process should engage in the review process of business processes and position descriptions. It ensures the effectiveness of the processes and encourages decision-making and individual responsibility. An internal scan process focuses on enhancing the ability of the organization in effectively and efficiently achieving its objectives. Various questions included in the review process of business processes, position descriptions, and organizations structures include:

Do the existing position descriptions and organizational charts depict up-to-date information?

Do the functions depict clarity and even distribution?

Does allocation of work show balance?

Scope of practice

The concept of the scope of practice occurs as a critical element in the determination of appropriate organizational structure. Further, it encompasses appropriate assignment of work and effective design of business practices. It is crucial that departments facilitate full utilization of employee competencies gained through education processes and experience. The development of a planning initiative in a departmental workforce facilitates the development of strategies meant to address retention and recruitment challenges. Lack of alignment of the creation of the strategies with individual experience and education adversely affects the individual and department within the organization.

Departmental Collaboration

Employees assigned to different departments carry specific skill sets, expertise, and competencies that align to project and organizational requirements. Specific skills have a beneficial value to other governmental sectors unaware of the existence of such skills. Sharing of the skills between organizational departments reduces costs of outsourcing and contracting specialized support. Through collaboration, departments can achieve organizational priorities that entail the participation of various departments to attain preferred measures and outcomes.

Collaboration takes various forms that evolve with the dynamics of organizational priorities such as information sharing, human resource sharing, and joint development programs (Morgan, 2013). The accomplishment of these processes includes departmental assessment of internal talent and establishment of small working groups of the executive that manages the collaboration process. Further, the expansion process targets information, ideas, and resources to stimulate collaboration. It is appropriate to assess the additional talents and skills of the executive and management level employees.