Increasing Cultural Competency among Employees

Workforce Action Plan

Introduction

The workplace is increasingly becoming more diverse, with people from all walks of life coming together to achieve common goals. This is demonstrated in the fact that at Mi-ORG, the older generation of mostly white males is leaving and a new generation of workers, including women and people of diverse ethnic backgrounds is arriving. For example, a Peruvian woman is interviewed during the day for a job at the company. This diversity can bring a number of benefits to the workplace, such as new perspectives and fresh ideas. It can also help to create a more positive organizational culture, where everyone feels valued and included. However, diversity can also create challenges, such as communication difficulties and different approaches to work. This is one reason older generations view diversity with some skepticism—although not every older worker does, as the retiring individual at Mi-ORG shows when he states that he wishes there was more diversity at the organization. It is therefore important for organizations to manage diversity effectively, so that all employees can feel comfortable and supported in the workplace. This paper will discuss the issue of diversity at my office along with what the company can do to promote cultural awareness. It will present a workforce action plan to address these issues.

Background

By promoting diversity and inclusion, organizations can create a more dynamic and innovative workplace that benefits everyone. Ultimately, diversity in the workplace is important for a number of reasons. First, diversity can help to create a more positive organizational culture. When employees feel like they are respected and valued, they are more likely to be engaged and committed to their work. Additionally, diversity can help to attract and retain top talent. In today's global economy, businesses need to be able to compete for the best employees. A workplace that is welcoming to people of all backgrounds and perspectives is more likely to attract top candidates. Finally, diversity can lead to better decision making. Studies have shown that organizations that are diverse are better able to identify new opportunities and solve problems effectively. For these reasons, diversity should be a key consideration in any workplace.

Cultural awareness is another aspect of the workplace that can promote diversity and inclusivity. Cultural awareness refers to an understanding of the customs, beliefs, and values of different cultures. By understanding the cultures of their employees, organizations can create a more inclusive environment that celebrates individual differences. Additionally, cultural awareness can help to prevent misunderstandings and conflicts between employees. By creating a workplace that is culturally aware, organizations can send a strong message that diversity is valued and that all employees are respected. Additionally, cultural awareness can help to create a more productive and innovative workplace. Employees who feel included and respected are more likely to be engaged in their work and motivated to contribute their unique perspectives. Ultimately, cultural awareness is essential for promoting diversity and inclusivity in the workplace.

In today's workplace, diversity and inclusivity are very important. One way to promote diversity and inclusivity is through cultural awareness. By being aware of the diversity of cultures represented in the workplace, employees can be more understanding and respectful of their coworkers. In addition, cultural awareness can help to prevent misunderstandings and provide a more positive work environment for everyone. When employees are aware of the diversity of cultures in the workplace, they are more likely to feel included and valued. As a result, cultural awareness is an important tool for promoting diversity and inclusivity in the workplace.

Diversity at My Office

My office is pretty well diverse, but there are categories of employees that are underrepresented. For instance, there are not many people with disabilities employed at the office; there are also few individuals from foreign countries. Women are well represented, but not many people of various minorities. The organizational culture may play a part in these disparities.

The current culture of an organization can contribute to disparities by creating barriers to entry for certain groups, favoring certain types of employees, and failing to create an inclusive environment. By understanding how the current culture is contributing to disparities, organizations can take steps to change their culture and create a more diverse and inclusive workplace. One of the key contributors to diversity in the workplace is organizational culture, which can be defined as the values, beliefs, and behaviors that shape an organization (Kissack & Callahan, 2010). If an organization’s culture does not value diversity, this can lead to disparities in the workplace. For example, employees from minority groups may not feel valued or included, and as a result, they may not receive the same opportunities or treatment as their colleagues. Additionally, a lack of diversity in the workforce can also lead to a lack of understanding and awareness of the needs of employees from minority groups. This can create an environment where employees from these groups are more likely to experience discrimination or be overlooked for promotions and other opportunities. As such, it is essential that organizations examine their own cultures to ensure that they are promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Another way that our current organizational culture may be leading to these disparities is by creating barriers to entry for certain groups. For example, if the workplace culture values long hours and face-to-face interactions, this may exclude employees who have childcare responsibilities or who live in remote areas. Additionally, the culture might favor certain types of employees. For instance, if the workplace culture values extroversion and independent thinking, this may favor white men over other groups (Hull & Umansky, 1997). Our current culture may also fail to create an inclusive environment if the workplace culture is based on competition and individual achievement, for such a culture can alienate employees from non-dominant groups who feel they do not have a voice or a place in the organization (Frank, 1998).

Using Diversity and Inclusion to Develop Products and Services

One way our company could use diversity and inclusion to develop products and services is to feature more diverse people in our marketing and advertising. By framing diversity and inclusion as an important part of the company's brand identity, employees will be more likely to consider them when developing new ideas. Additionally, organizations can provide training on diversity and inclusion, which can help employees to understand the importance of these concepts and how they can be applied in the workplace. By taking these steps, organizations can create an environment that supports diversity and inclusion and encourages employees to create better and more meaningful products and services.

The company could also use diversity and inclusion by surveying different groups to get more perspectives on products and services. By surveying employees and consumers, organizations can gain valuable insights into areas where improvements can be made. In addition, surveys can help to identify people who may be feeling excluded or marginalized. Surveys are a great instrument for gathering data that the organization can use to help enhance the products and services of the company. By taking the time to collect this data, the organization can begin to address issues of diversity and inclusion in the workplace as well as establish a new framework based on understanding that can be used to augment the current organizational culture. Ultimately, the goal is to create a more positive workplace environment for everyone involved—one that reflects also the diversity of the world at large.

Increasing Cultural Awareness

The action plan for my workplace should start with increasing cultural awareness. There are a number of ways to increase cultural awareness in the workplace. One is to provide training that covers the basics of different cultures to help improve cultural competence of employees. Cultural competence is the ability to interact effectively with people from other cultures. Culturally competent employees are better able to understand and respect cultural differences, and learn how to communicate in a way that is respectful and effective. Another way to increase cultural awareness in the workplace is to encourage employees to participate in cultural activities and events. This can include topics like local events outside the workplace that celebrate diverse ethnicities in the arts, music, food, or any other sphere. The goal is to learn cultural values, etiquette, and communication styles. Such engagement helps workers to learn more about different cultures and gain a better understanding of the experiences of people from other cultures. Finally, it is important to create a workplace culture that values diversity and inclusion. This can help all employees feel comfortable and respected, and create an environment where everyone can contribute their unique perspective. This can be achieved by encouraging employees to share their own cultural experiences with others. This can be done through things like brown-bag lunches or cultural fairs. The organization should set a sharing day during the week in which workers get to bring in something about their background to share with others: this can be anything from information about their religion, their culinary traditions, their customs in their native land, or whatever might best help them to celebrate their own culture. Again, the goal here is to open up people’s perspectives so that they understand the world around them and appreciate it all the more with acceptance.

Support

The plan will need to be supported by Human Resources, but there is no need to raise additional funds from the budget as the main goal of this plan is to have employees do the majority of the sharing of cultural ideas on their own as a way to celebrate their own background and inform others. Human Resources will be used to spread the word about the initiative, which will include setting calendar dates for sharing, and helping to celebrate the selected culture through promotional pictures and copies.

In any organization, HR is one of the most important assets. To successfully create and maintain strategic relationships with stakeholders, HR will issue a calendar that provides employees with their date to share their culture in the workplace. As stakeholders with a vested interest in the organization and its success or failure, employees will want to take this opportunity to raise awareness about their culture and to increase their colleagues’ cultural competency. It will also be an opportunity for everyone to take pride in their own cultures. HR can support the plan by providing these calendars, which can be emailed or printed.

The needs of customers are also important and have to be understood by the organization. This is where some training may be required (Williams, 2006). To fund the training, HR may need to adjust the budget, but it also may simply be worked into the existing training for the company’s employees. The point is that the culture of the organization needs to change to support and promote cultural awareness. Employees should be made aware of why others’ culture matters.

Culture is an extremely important factor in any organization because it provides employees with a sense of what values they should align their actions to. Yet when one talks about cultural intelligence, this term refers not only people’s knowledge and understanding from other cultures but also how those beliefs compare across different countries or regions within a single country as well. For example: if one employee is Catholic but works in a cubicle next door to a Protestant it may cause some issues at work due to religious differences. Without understanding the different cultures that make up our society, people will be unable to perform their jobs effectively. This is because they won’t know how best communicate with other employees or which values are important in various situations-and this can lead a workplace full of confusion! It's crucial for leaders and HR professionals alike have knowledge about other languages so as not only do tasks get completed more smoothly but also there isn’t any conflict between coworkers due lack communication gaps caused by misunderstandings based on dialects, religious beliefs, or cultural understanding. To that end, HR may also want to schedule emotional intelligence training to support cultural competence training. As Earley and Mosakowski (2004) point out, “A person with high emotional intelligence grasps what makes us human and at the same time what makes each of us different from one another. A person with high cultural intelligence can somehow tease out of a person’s or group’s behavior those features that would be true of all people and all groups, those peculiar to this person or this group, and those that are neither universal nor idiosyncratic” (p. 139). In short, culture awareness is about appreciating what others are and where they come from, and emotional intelligence—along with social intelligence—is a pillar of support for cultural competency.