Diversity: Keeping a Diverse Workforce
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Source: U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). (Reviewed 2004). Diversity:
Keeping a diverse workforce. Retrieved August 19, 2004 from www.opm.gov
Achieving a diverse, high-quality workforce
by successfully attracting and hiring the desired employee
mix is only the first step. Having made investments to
recruit and hire high-quality employees, companies risk
wasting those efforts without a strong retention strategy.
The next objective is to ensure that valuable employees
stay. One way to do this is to have a broad model of rewards,
which sustain employee commitment. These rewards include
support for: |
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- a flexible and supportive work environment,
including the quality of the supervision and leadership
employees receive
- an emphasis on learning and development
- effective
rewards and recognition systems
These aspects of work and working conditions
are clearly becoming at least as important to employees'
decisions to stay with an organization as their direct
pay and benefits levels. A company that commits to cultivating
these broader rewards will be far better positioned to
retain the diverse workforce it builds.
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A Supportive Work Environment
A supportive work environment is one that provides
employees with the direction and tools they need to perform
their work to the very best of their ability. Actions to support
employees include:
- Ensure that supervisors and managers
are provided leadership and diversity training. Their understanding
of the benefits and rewards of a diverse workforce helps
create a supportive work environment that enhances the potential
of
all employees.
- Emphasize existing quality of work/life initiatives
as effective policies that advance the interests of a
diverse workforce.
These initiatives include programs such as:
- Alternative Work Schedules
- Family-Friendly Leave Programs
- Part-time Employment and
Job Sharing
- Telecommuting
- Dependent Care Support Programs
- Employee Assistance Programs
- Develop a process to provide reasonable accommodation
to job applicants and employees with disabilities. Companies
are required to make reasonable accommodations to the physical
and mental limitations of an applicant or employee who is
a qualified person with a disability, unless the accommodation
would impose undue hardship on the agency. In addition, competitive
companies would do well to include reasonable accommodation
language in job announcements to inform applicants with disabilities
that they will consider reasonable accommodation requests.
- Ensure
a safe and productive work environment. Employees spend a
significant portion of their lives in a company's
surroundings. Keeping them pleasant conveys a sense of pride
and respect that helps keep employees on board.
- Foster a community
spirit and a sense of belonging by offering employees a
vehicle for becoming involved outside the formal
workplace in a variety of recreational and volunteer activities.
 Learning
and Development
Professional development and training opportunities
are important reasons why valued employees choose to stay with
an organization. Companies can use a variety of approaches
to establish a climate that supports continuous learning and
development, including:
- Establish clear paths for acquiring
the skills, knowledge, and experience for learning and
career development.
- Establish tuition reimbursement programs.
- Develop
formal and informal mentoring programs. In particular,
senior managers should be strongly encouraged to mentor individuals
from different cultural, racial, or academic backgrounds.
- Provide
training opportunities for all employees. Through investments
in training, agencies reflect the value they place on
employees and support employees in their own interest in
keeping their
skills updated in order to remain competitive. Use CD-ROMs
and other interactive and online training technology.
Use internal and external training courses.
- Widely publicize developmental opportunities
for employees, such as detail assignments and leadership
training, to give
everyone interested a chance to participate in assignments
that prepare them for higher-level positions.
Rewards and Recognition
The systems that reward and engage employees
are key to maintaining a diverse, high-quality workforce. All
people desire to see their efforts acknowledged. Companies
must be vigilant about ensuring that merit and results serve
as the drivers of differences in rewards. Use awards to recognize
significant contributions. These can be lump sum awards or
accelerated pay provided through quality step increases. Companies
should continually monitor their use of awards, incentives,
and recognition to ensure that individuals and groups all receive
their fair share based on transparent criteria and well-understood
processes for nominating and granting awards.
About MINES & Associates
For over 25 years MINES & Associates has
been a nationally recognized business psychology firm that
provides a variety of services to corporate employers including
employee assistance programs (EAP), managed mental healthcare,
organizational development and psychology services, wellness
programs, behavioral risk management, disease management, PPO
services, and a number of other technology based services.
MINES & Associates is divided into two main divisions,
Organizational Psychology and Health Psychology, and currently
serves a diverse portfolio of clients in all 50 states, Canada,
Mexico, and the UK.
Please log on to http://www.minesandassociates.com for
the latest news and information on MINES & Associates.
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