Workforce Diversity a Diverse Workforce

Workforce Diversity A diverse workforce can benefit almost any company. The shifting demographics of America almost demands that firms wishing to sell to a broad spectrum of the American populace must embrace workplace diversity. One example in my past experience clearly illustrates this. The company I was working for at was a wholesaler selling a wide range of household products throughout the state. We were located in an area that one would describe as fairly normal America, and the demographics of our company reflected that.

We had a proportionate gender mix, but the company was largely Caucasian but for a few Latinos and African-Americans. Our demographics were consistent with our immediate area, but not with those of the entire state. The problem the company had was that while our sales were growing, they were not growing in proportion with the state's population, which we took as a reasonable estimate of the growth in the market since we were marketing everyday items. Thus, we determined that we were losing market share.

The sales team was struggling to figure out why this was. It was speculated that maybe because we were losing share to Wal-Mart or other box stores. Ultimately, we learned of the reason through experience. One of our more talented reps, a woman we'll care Mary, went to go visit a fairly large new store in an inner-city neighborhood.

She returned from an unsuccessful visit and reported that the store's buyer did not, as she put it "give her the time of day." This happens in sales, so little was thought of it until a few months later. A territory shift put the store in the territory of a new rep who we'll call Ron. Ron had not demonstrated much success in his short time on the job, but he was able to sell a good range of products the store.

He reported that the friendly buyer and owners were Arabs. They had specifically commented on the fact that Mary had been sent previously and how they were unimpressed. While we were able to land that account, it clued us into something that we had failed to notice before. As a company, our accounts generally reflected the demographics of our sales force, rather than the demographics of our target market. We had very few customers from the wide variety of ethnic communities in the larger centers of the state.

It was costing us market share and profit. We determined that the company would be better able to capture that lost market share if we understand the demographics of the target market better, and reconfigured our sales force to those demographics. Ron won the account because Arabs are hesitant to do business with women. Mary had not failed at all -- she had not been given a chance.

Nobody within the company liked the idea in that circumstance, but we realized that the scenario translated across a wide range of ethnicities. We simply had little knowledge of the business practices of many of the different groups that exist in our state. In order to better reach our target market, we realized that we needed to develop cross-cultural competencies in our sales group. This was not something that was going to be easy in a workforce that was relatively lacking in diversity.

Aside from the rudimentary information available on the Internet, we had no basis for building this crucial knowledge. In order to do so, we would need to improve the diversity of the workforce. This would not necessarily need to be within the sales team, but anywhere within the company so long as the knowledge could be disseminated to the sales team through our internal communication channels. This is not a guaranteed solution. There are drawbacks.

For one, it is difficult to enact a wholesale change in the demographic makeup of the workforce. Our company has low turnover, so new positions are not that common. When they do arise, we like to hire the best people. There is a risk in enacting a mandatory policy of hiring minorities we lack that we may be taking on inferior candidates. They may allow us to reach some ethnic communities, but at the expense of overall efficiency and productivity (Pfeifer, 2009).

There could also be a backlash amongst our current workers if they feel that we are no longer hiring on merit. The third drawback is that we may have difficulty finding the appropriate ethnic candidates in our home geographic area. We could significantly increase the cost of brining on new people if we begin offering relocation allowances to attract ethnic candidates from other towns and counties.

Lastly, the existing sales force could feel slighted in that their talents as sales people may take a back seat to their ethnicity or gender. They may not see increased diversity as an enhancement but rather as a threat, since the sale depends on factors beyond their control. These disadvantages hint at the number of different obstacles we might face in increasing diversity. Many members of the company may resent the idea because they do not see the benefits.

The culture of the business may not be amenable to the type of rapid shift that will be seen if we increase diversity quickly, for example (European Commission, 2003). Moreover, identifying qualified prospects and accommodating different cultures could place too strong a burden on our human resources department. That said, there are a number of advantages. The most obvious is that improving our cross-cultural knowledge will unlock new customers, an important consideration for a sales organization that is losing market share.

The second is that the company as a whole can benefit from perspectives -- we may open up new product lines and new geographies if we can gain more knowledge about the customer base. This enhanced creativity in the workplace was cited as one of the most important benefits of diversity in a study by the European Union (European Commission, 2003). The third advantage is that we may be able to gain.