The study focuses on the formation and effective implementation of diversity policy within the given organization, Australian hardware. The company is engaged in the sale of tools, house ware, outdoor, paint and hardware. The store was initially established as Percy’s home goods by founder Percy Greenwright with 4 stores in Sydney. It was later developed as a hardware store by his son Eric Greenwright. The business currently has expanded to 138 stores across Australia and has a good expansion and development rate. In line with the rapid development of the business it has become necessary to implement an effective diversity policy. The intended diversity policy of the company will be focused towards achieving greater work life balance for diverse group of employees.
The existing employment and diversity policy of the company is good and provides essential opportunities for growth to people of diverse backgrounds. The company has in place an anti-discrimination policy and a remuneration policy. The policy of the company for anti-discrimination has to some extent been able to control instances of discrimination. The remuneration policy is unbiased and recognizes the achievements of people from all backgrounds (Australian Hardware 2014). The company has a counselling program for providing assistance to the employees and the families. There is also an educational study leave to incorporate those employees that are students. Apart from this there is an employee share plan to help employees to take part in the business share of the company.
A similar company to the Australian hardware is Masters Home Improvements. Masters Home has a large number of employees from diverse backgrounds. The diversity policy of Masters is focused towards providing opportunities to local communities. They want to develop a diverse workplace that consist of the people belonging to the local culture. Hence, this can contribute to the greater development of community identity in the workforce (Lambert 2016). Moreover, the company provides greater emphasis towards providing equal employment opportunities for all. The company also engages in minority engagement programs. Through these programs the company visits the various fairs and events organized by minority groups and provides opportunities to minorities to join the organization. Masters have been able to particularly engage the local communities like the aboriginals and the Torres Strait islanders in their organization.
The key stakeholders of the company are the CEO, the board of directors, the CFO, The COO store managers, the operations general manager, the sales assistants, sales consultants, checking staffs, staffs from administration and all other employees. The local communities in the vicinities of the stores are also the essential stakeholders. Moreover, the banks are very important stakeholders of the organization providing support in regards to the financial activities. The suppliers are also significant stakeholders of the organization. It is essential that all these major stakeholders are consulted when making the strategies for better diversity plans for the organization. This will help in the formation of better policies. The opinion of stakeholders will be key in determining the effectiveness of the diversity policy.
|
Key stakeholders |
Diversity requirements |
|
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) |
The CEO wants the company to grow and diversify into newer markets. According to the CEO diverse workforce is the only way to achieve this and maintain harmony as well as operational stability. |
|
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) |
The chief financial officer wants more people from diverse backgrounds as this will greatly contribute to the effectiveness of the organizational financial processes. |
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Chief Operating Officer (COO) |
The chief operating officer thinks that the large number of stores at various neighbourhoods requires the local communities to be involved. This will definitely require the organization of diverse groups of people. |
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Store Managers |
The store managers view that better diversity will contribute towards better inflow of knowledge from the diverse range of people that they recruit. |
|
He is of the view that more people from various cultures will help to make the stores more culturally rich and effective in catering to the multicultural people. |
|
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Sales Consultants |
The sales consultants want more people from different backgrounds to contribute to the production process as Australian society is greatly multicultural. |
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General Staff |
The general staffs are looking forward to the recruitment of more people from various cultural backgrounds for making the store culturally rich. |
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Contractors |
The contractors are of the opinion that all businesses should use diverse cultural people for their greater benefit. |
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Suppliers |
The suppliers think that cultural communication will greatly contribute to the effectiveness of the entire processes. |
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Customers |
The customers want more culturally diverse staffs as they believe that they can help the customers better. |
The need for workplace diversity is more as the Australian society is greatly multicultural. Hence, the organizations essentially need to provide a clear image of a multicultural society. This will essentially contribute towards the growth of the organization. The benefits that the organization will receive will include a larger more skilled customer base. The multicultural customer base of the organizations will be greatly motivated and attracted to businesses that boast of employees from diverse background. The organizations will acquire a diverse range of skills in this way. This helps towards effective talent management.
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Individuals |
Individuals will be greatly benefitted by the large number of people from different cultures with whom they will interact in the workplace. The individuals will get to learn newer skills and develop their cultural understanding. Cultural communication will increase which will contribute further towards their development. |
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Teams |
The culturally diverse teams will be able to provide better performance. There will be greater scope for them to develop essential understanding of the processes. The culturally diverse teams will be able to understand the culturally diverse customers in better ways. In all, the support functions of the teams will increase and an environment of acceptance will be created. |
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The workplace |
The workplace will develop essential cultural diversity. The employees will be able to develop better cultural understanding of the cultural communications. In essence better cultural diversity will create a safer and more inclusive workplace with better opportunities. |
The purpose of the policy is to ensure the equal treatment of all people that are connected with the organization.
The company will be safeguarding diversity in the workplace with respect to:-
The policy covers all employees, contractors, suppliers and stakeholders of Australian hardware.
The responsibility for the implementation of the policy is vested with the management, employees and contractors of the organization
The relevant legislature that affect the policy are
Inclusion of safe workplace strategy for the LGBT community.
Procedure
To make complaint-
Level 1 complaint to manager, Level 2 complaint to senior manager, Level 3 complaint to the HR head
To receive complaint-
The complaints can be received directly or through email
Investigation of complaint-
The investigation of complaint will be done by the managers, senior managers and the diversity management team.
Outcomes-
|
1 |
Key Initiatives |
Formation of diversity plan, introduction of cultural communication |
|
2 |
Commencement of Policy |
From 2019 |
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3 |
Policy Application |
Across all levels of the organization and stakeholders |
|
4 |
Responsibility for Policy |
The leadership across various organizational levels |
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5 |
Compliance Requirement |
Each employee is to commit towards the diversity requirement |
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6 |
Accountability |
All employees are to be individually accountable for upholding the diversity policy |
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7 |
Overriding Caveat |
The people will get right to maintain dignity of their culture |
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8 |
Variations |
The variations will be in regards to the specific type of rights being addressed |
Diversity objective-
Achieving zero discrimination throughout the organizational levels.
Measures/ performance target-
The performance target will be to recruit people from more ethnicities at all the significant positions of the organization.
Actions-
Diversity awareness sessions, formal introduction of employees, communicating diversity strategies
Responsible personnel-
The CEO, The COO, The store managers, the operational managers, the store managers, the diversity management teams.
Timeframe-
The first phase will be 6 months, the second phase will be 12 months and the third phase will be 18 months
Review of policy for diversity- The policy will be reviewed in accordance of its significance in regards to the development of the organization post the implementation.
Progress report- The progress report will be viewed in accordance with the achieved targets with regards to diversity.
Reporting of the action plan- Action plan will be implemented across the hierarchical divisions of the organization.
The evaluation strategy will be through the creation of data charts that will put the achieved targets against the expected achievements. The evaluation will be done through gathering essential data regarding the diverse number of publics that have been recruited and the elimination of any case of discrimination.
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be said that the diversity policy that has been formed by Australian Hardware can only be properly implemented through better strategies. This will require the optimization of the leadership in accordance of the strategies. The success also depends on the essential participation of the workforce. Hence, the policies and the strategies need to be better established through the organizational framework.
Reference
Australian Hardware official website, viewed 17 July 2014
Guillaume, Y.R., Dawson, J.F., Otaye?Ebede, L., Woods, S.A. and West, M.A., 2017. Harnessing demographic differences in organizations: What moderates the effects of workplace diversity?. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(2), pp.276-303.
https://simulations.ibsa.org.au/australian_hardware/
https://simulations.ibsa.org.au/australian_hardware/ Wollongong_General_Operations_Manual
Lambert, J., 2016. Cultural diversity as a mechanism for innovation: Workplace diversity and the absorptive capacity framework. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, 20(1), p.68.
Ng, E.S. and Sears, G.J., 2018. Walking the Talk on Diversity: CEO Beliefs, Moral Values, and the Implementation of Workplace Diversity Practices. Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-14.
Rice, M.F., 2015. Diversity and public administration. ME Sharpe.
Student Workbook 2010 BSBDIV601A Develop and implement diversity policy, Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd, Australia
Wollongong General Operations Manual, Australian Hardware, viewed 17 July 2014
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