Having a diverse workforce will entail to diverse cultural perspectives which can inspire creativity and drive innovations. There are wider local market knowledge and insights which may help business to be more competitive and profitable. These especially beneficial to a technological company like Informational Systems Inc which is always in needs of creativity and innovations while seeking to expand business into different target local market. The cultural sensitivity, insight, and local knowledge means higher quality, targeted marketing. Drawing from a culturally diverse talent pool also allows an organization to attract and retain the best talent with diverse skills base which potentially allows an organization to offer a broader and more adaptable range of products and services.
On the other side, having a diverse workforce requires integration across multicultural individuals which can be difficult especially if there is any issue of prejudice or negative cultural stereotypes. This can cause friction within employees’ relationship and create issue of trust. Besides that, professional communication can be also be misinterpreted or difficult to understand across different languages and cultures as well as different understandings of professional etiquette. This can lead to conflicting working styles across teams and thus may affect productivity and performance.
In order to foster an inclusive organization, key leaders or managers play important role to lead from the top. As a consultant, I will approach these key leaders and advise on establishing a code of conduct to commit to organizational values of inclusivity. Managers must first visibly model respectful behavior and practice organizational values and promote inclusion at all levels and across all departments. This helps with proper and clear communication of company’s goals on inclusivity to the employees and follow up on the progress have to be monitored by the managers.
Secondly, I would propose to the company to provide training to educate employees on the values of inclusivity and cultural differences as well as ethical aspects of respects and embracing diversity. Employees should also be trained on how to harmonize and interpret communication effectively despite the different languages and cultural values. Through the training, employees should also be educated on how to address cultural issues and negative perception or treatments received due to being in minority within the diverse workforce according to organization’s set code of conduct.
Finally, to ensure that the inclusive work environment is maintained and enhanced, I would also recommend to the company to establish a council to periodically evaluate progress, suggest enhancement and discuss solutions on any arising issues related to diversity and inclusivity within the company. To assist the council in gathering data and identify concerns among employee, the company should also create sub consultation groups in every department to regularly and closely assess the issues arises from diverse working environment, gather feedback from employees and to provide immediate consultation for problem solving that may rises from diverse opinions that may disrupt employees’ relationship.
