Conclusion

To conclude, even though a diverse workforce may invite a few challenges and may pose some challenges for the manager, it is the responsibility of every manager to hire a diverse workforce. This is based on social, ethical as well as responsible grounds.

In today's growing economy, especially of Canada, it is almost impossible for a manager to avoid a diverse workforce. This is because a country like Canada is very diverse in its population and contains people speaking different languages such as: English, French, Hindi, Punjabi, Polish, Spanish, Chinese, and many more. To manage a group of employees in such an organization, means managing a diverse workforce. It is almost unavoidable for any manager to ignore a diverse workforce. Therefore, it makes sense for every manager to be aware of the challenges of a diverse workforce and be ready to tackle them while making utmost use of the workforce.

The image provided above shows how happy a diverse workforce is while working together. Cast, colour, gender & disability do not matter. What matters is, their ability and willingness to work!


Managing Increasing Workplace Diversity

Challenges

Even though workplace diversity sounds very attractive & beneficial, there are many challenges faced by organizations for establishing effective workplace diversity. Some of these are:

• Communication: As a diverse workforce includes employees from different cultural & lingual backgrounds, there can be a communication gap between the employees as they may find it difficult to establish a common method of communication. This as a result may hamper the efficiency of an organization.

• Successful Management: Even after a diverse workforce is hired, certain policies & procedures are needed to govern the functioning of the workplace. This can only be done effectively through a successful management team.
• Recognizing & Solving Differences: It is a matter of fact that differences occur between culturally different people sometimes and can be evidently seen in the workplace. The catch here for the management is to help solve these differences and facilitate a culturally friendly work environment.
• Involving Every Employee: If a workforce is hugely diverse, a problem can arise. This problem relates to the involving of culturally diverse employees in a particular plan. The solution here can be to motivate the employees by providing them with incentives. This will act as a driving force for each employee and in turn, every employee will try to get involved as much as he/she can!

As mentioned above, these are the challenges faced by a diverse workforce manager. However, if effectively planned, these challenges can be tackled and the company can function effectively & efficiently. A video is given below which describes the basic tips on how to effectively manage a diverse workforce:

How to Manage Diversity in a Workplace?

Significance

Diversity is a concept which is inseparable from the workplace. This is because a company or an organization requires a wide pool of candidates to choose from who possess a different range of skills. This is where diversity comes into play. Especially in a multicultural country like Canada, people belong to different native backgrounds and speak different languages such as English, French, Spanish, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and many more. In such a country, it is almost impossible for an organization not to have a diverse workforce as the more diverse the workforce, the broader range of talents and capabilities the company possesses.

Therefore, diversity of great significance to the workplace. A diverse workplace is the one which enables an organization to be successful and contribute to the well being of the society- A society which is multicultural and diverse. The catch here is to remember that an organization requires workforce which is capable to perform tasks effectively, not people belonging to specific backgrounds or who follow a certain religion. As long an individual is able to perform the job for the company and contribute to the benefit of the company, the company has nothing more to ask for!

                                            Video link:  Encouraging Workplace Diversity

Pros and cons of an increasingly diverse workforce

Workplaces are increasingly getting diverse day by day. Having and managing a diverse workforce is a major task and has its fair share of pros and cons.

The following are the pros of having an increasingly diverse workforce:

• Having a diverse workforce helps bring in new talent and new ideas. This helps in the growth of the company as well as the employees.  New talent brings with it new ideas which are very useful for a company.
• Gender and race diversity sometimes helps in increasing the sales of a company as the customer may be able to relate in a better manner. This in turn results in increased profits.

The following are the disadvantages of having an increasingly diverse workforce:

• The main problem with having a diverse workforce is that the company must take utmost care that it does not harm the interest or disrespect the culture of any of its employees. It must create an atmosphere of dignity for its employee's.
• Another major problem associated with having a diverse culture is that communication may be hampered if the employee doesn't know the common language that is being spoken. For example if the employee doesn't know how to speak in English, it creates a problem for him in communicating effectively. This may lead to problems as the message may sometimes be conveyed incorrectly or be incomplete.

advantages of having a diverse workforce

Introduction

Workforce diversity is referred to as a workforce consisting of a broad mix of workers belonging from different ethnic and racial backgrounds, ages & genders and different cultures. These days, workforce diversity has become an essential aspect of the workplace. This can be seen in many companies you look around, especially big companies which consist of a heterogeneous mix of employees belonging to different cultural backgrounds, ages and genders. 

I have chosen Increasingly Diverse Workforce as my blog topic because I think this is a topic of my interest. This is because as an international student, I myself have experienced the diversity in the Canadian culture. I have met different people here belonging to different races and ethnic backgrounds who work together in one common work environment. According to me, the increase in diverse workforce is beneficial for any company as it gets a broader pool of candidates to choose from. 

The video provided below gives a general idea of what workplace diversity actually means and what are the different characteristics of diverse workforce. It classifies workforce based on 5 generations:

1. Gen Z
2. Gen Y
3. Gen X
4. Baby Boomers
5. Traditionialists

Apart from these classifications, it also classifies diverse workforce elements as people belonging from different ethnic backgrounds, educational qualifications and disabilities.

Diversity in today's Workplace