The importance of workplace diversity in the growth of an organization cannot be overstated, and despite the unquestionable importance of workplace diversity, the organization Compass Communications has not been able to incorporate diversity at its place. This leads to the problems of lack of coordination and harmony at workplace, negative workplace culture as well as high rates of employee absenteeism and turnover. Hence, it has become imperative for the organization to implement a series of steps that will help in ensuring workplace diversity in the company (Klarsfeld et al., 2014). Considering the wide value of workplace diversity, the HRM of the company has to take up initiative so as to ensure the successful implementation of the steps that can encourage workplace diversity. In this connection, it is interesting to note that there are various HRM actions, such as recruitment, general management, employee motivation and workforce training, and it is important to understand the scope of the recommended actions in the light of Human Resource Actions.
Retention and Employee Relations: In today’s highly competitive world, it has become indispensable for the HR managers to adopt and implement steps that can enhance the employee engagement, keep them motivated, and improve employee relations, so that the employees can work in a more collaborative way (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). At Compass Communications, the employees belong to diverse sex, ethnicity and age and consequently most of them lack a sense of team spirit or attachment towards each other. A sense of apathy towards the workplace and lack of attachment towards the fellow colleagues has affected the employee turnover rate, and has led to high rate of employee absenteeism problem. Hence, in order to encourage the employees to appreciate each other, form bond with fellow colleagues and make them realize the importance of joint team efforts, the Human Resource Manager must organize different office praties, family get-together parties, picnics and fun activities that can help in bringing together the employees of different sex and ethnicity and create a rapport amongst them. The HR manager can organize different games, and split the employees into different teams, with each team comprising of members of different age, sex and ethnicity (Nieves& Quintana, 2016). This will help in creating a sense of unity amongst the workers. Similarly, the HR manager can also celebrate the birthdays or work anniversaries of its employees that will encourage the diverse group of employees to participate in the celebration.
Workforce Training: An important function of the HRM is to ensure that the workforce working in an organization possesses the necessary skills, expertise and experience required for smooth operation of business activities. In absence of the same, it is the HRM function to groom and train the employees and enhance their skills so as to help them work efficiently. Considering the absence of unity amongst different employees at Compass Communications, the HR will offer cross-cultural training programs for its employees that will help them develop an understanding of the importance of cultural diversity at workplace (Batt et al., 2014). Apart from training programs, the company can also organize a variety of seminars and workshops for the employees to educate the employees how cultural diversity is imperative for successful business operations.
Human Resource Administration: In today’s world, the HR manager plays an important role in determining the organizational culture of the organization, as it is the culture and atmosphere of the workplace that largely determines employee satisfaction. The HR manager of the company should organize different informal meetings and discussionsessions that will help in encouraging the employees to engage in information exchange amongst each other that can also build their team bonding.
Recognition and Rewards: The HR management also needs to keep on motivating its employees, so that they can remain engaged and do not wish to switch the jobs. Hence, the HR manager of Compass Communication also needs to acknowledge and recognize the contribution of each of its employees, for their outstanding share of contribution. Some employees may be rewarded for working more productively within the strict deadline; others may be rewarded for taking lowest number of leaves, and supporting the company during its peak business times. Further, the HR manager should also keep on rewarding the employees, by incentivizing them for the accomplishment of strategic courses of action crucial to the success of the company (Gatewood et al., 2015). The introduction of lucrative incentive schemes that can be formulated to align the organizational strategies with the employee benefits can largely help in keeping the employees motivated.
The employee training and development forms an integral aspect of HRM function, and it is all the more important in the globalized, technologically driven world of today. Often the employees do not possess the right skill expertise or attitude necessary to accomplish a specific task, and hence it becomes indispensable for the HR managers to enrol them in training courses, rather than terminating their services. Often the HR managers working in different organizations fail to realize that the return on investment in employee training is high, and that it supports the employer’s goals for higher profitability. By enhancing the skills of the employees, or changing the employee attitudes, a company can easily improve its productivity rate and create a friendly, positive organizational culture. The function of the HR manager is no longer confined to the duty of staffing and payroll process, as he also need to conduct skill need assessment, identify gaps if any, and determine the kind of training the employees need in order to ensure higher organizational productivity at workplace. The scope and objectives of the training programs are multiple, and can range from leadership training activities, technological awareness activities, change management training classes, communication and soft skill grooming classes to cross cultural communication training courses (Fee, 2014). In any case, whatever be the objectives of the training and development programs, the implementation of the same helps the HR ensure that the company is able to gain competitive edge over the rival companies, and enjoy long-term sustainability. The employee training function is essentially an important aspect of the HRM function of an organization, as it helps in removing the performance deficiencies of the employees, improve individual performance of the employees, motivate each employee and ensure healthy, positive organizational culture at workplace.
The best practice that is likely to affect HRM in future is the practice of addressing diversity in every aspect of talent management. Nowadays, the HR managers of the organizations are not merely recruiting employees from diverse ethnic groups, nationalities, age group and sex, but also ensure diversity at every step of management. Hence, the entire practice of employee promotion has to be changed. It is not enough to hire employees from diverse backgrounds, as it is equally important to offer them access to equal opportunities so that they can also assume managerial responsibilities. The workplace diversity practice should also include hiring employees as well as promote them, involve them in managerial decision-making process, and hire them as members of corporate governance boards. An organization needs to address both individual and collective differences throughout the entire employee lifecycle. Otherwise, it is needless to state that an employee may not like to consider a long career at a company if s/he doesn’t see anyone like herself in management positions (Marchington et al., 2016).
As a management function, the role of HRM was initially confined to the duty of hiring, maintaining the workforce and terminating the service of the employees as per the needs of the organization. However, the role of HR has largely evolved given the present scenario. Nowadays, in a competitive world, the HRM function has become more dynamic and inclusive, as a result of which there are multiple roles that the HR managers have to embrace in today’s world. According to Armstrong, traditional role of HRM has been replaced by the strategic HRM function, whereby the HR manager of an organization helps it gain competitive edge over rival firms (Snell et al., 2015). The HRM function is no longer confined to the act of hiring and terminating employees, but it plays an unquestionable important role in ensuring the long—term sustainability of the organization by maintaining the workforce most effectively. Thus, Armstrong has rightly pointed out that the HRM is currently entrusted with a strategic role, whereby it develops, trains, motivates and retains employees. By enhancing the skills of the workforce, the HRM function is to encourage increasing rate of employee participation that in turn contributes to the organizational success of the company (Barak, 2016).
In case of Compass Communications, it becomes evident that the company lacks workforce diversity, and this does impede the future growth of the organization. There is no point in stating the simple fact that diversity does improve the quality of managerial decisions, and in fact information sharing and constructive task-based conflict management are the keys to the ‘value in diversity’ argument. Besides, employees feel more motivated to work in a diverse culture, and workforce diversity also adds to the brand reputation of the concerned organization as well. Hence, it becomes indispensible to adopt strict HR policies that can help Compass Communication incorporate workplace diversity at workplace.
As far as the HRM functions are concerned, it should be remembered that the HR manager of an organization usually has three kinds of functions stated below:
As far as the immediate problem is concerned, the first and foremost function of the HRM to be utilized is recruitment and appointment of employees. As it is evident that the employees of Campus Communicationdo not enjoy a very intimate bond and this is primarily because of the fact that the organization does not employ a largely diverse workforce. Hence, the HR manager will have to hire employees not merely regardless of the ethnicity, sex or nationality, but also by reserving a few seats essentially for the minor group of people (Wilton, 2016). A balanced workforce must be hired over the period of next 6 months, and further the HRM will develop a hiring strategy to make the organizational workforce resemble the community the company operates in. Further, the company can also ask the existent employees for referrals, so that the people belonging to minor groups can be called for an interview. The company may also seek help of the community organizations to find out employees who are eligible to apply for selected vacant positions of the company. Next, the workforce planning is another key HRM function that deserves special mention here. There is no point in stating the fact that the HRM also determines the job role that is being assigned to an employee at a specific point of time. In terms of job allocation and workforce planning, the HR manager must ensure that at least 2 women and 2 people belonging to the minor ethnic group is being elected as members in the corporate governance board. Further, it is equally an important function of the HRM to ensure that the diverse group of employees hired by the organization does not continue to serve the organization in the same position, but are also offered sufficient career growth opportunities as well. The selected qualified and resourceful group of employees, belonging to the minor group, must be offered the chance to be promoted to the managerial designation (Rees & Smith, 2017). In case it is necessary, the company may also keep a reservation system whereby a few seats in the managerial designation must be reserved for the minor section of people, who lacking the skills, must be trained by the company. There is anecdotal evidence showing diversity training and management development are receiving considerable attention from organizational management, and in fact critics like Maxwell have also affirmed that it is not sufficient to promote the minorities and the female employees, unless the perspective of the employees changes as a whole. Hence, the employees need to be trained, and the HR must organize training courses, seminars and workshops that will demonstrate how an organization can accomplish success by embracing a variety of unique skills, belonging to a diverse set of people. The purpose of these training programs will be to change the norms, values and ideals of the dominant organizational culture, and affect change in the perception of the employees. The introduction of different employee motivation programs is also an important aspect of HRM, and in this connection, it is recommended that the HR manager of Campus Communication must arrange different fun and interesting games, for the employees so that the employees of different ethnic group, nationality or culture get to know each other and form an intimate bond as well. In terms of workforce planning, the HRM should also consult with the higher authority, and create teams, that will consist of employees from diverse ethnic regions, groups and including people of varying sexual orientation. Performance appraisal and employee recognition form an important aspect of HRM function as well (Harvey & Allard, 2015). Most of the companies usually do not involve culturally diverse employees in performance appraisal panels, and hence it is advised that the HR manager of Compass Communication recognizes the performance of the employees in a transparent and non-biased way. A diversity council should be set up that can monitor the diversity policies of the organization and supervise if the employees belonging to minor groups are being granted the equal opportunity or not, in terms of pay, career development and training prospects, within the company.
Workforce diversity is an important concept, and it involves the act of acknowledging, appreciating and respecting the differences that exist amongst the group of different members of a society. Since diversity at workplace is a complex issue, it cannot be achieved overnight, and hence the HR manager of Compass Communication has to adopt a strategic approach, in order to embrace diverse culture at workplace, and accordingly the implementation plan has been discussed below.
First of all, the HR manager has to organize a meeting with the general managers of the organization, the employers and the shareholders, and communicate the scope, purpose and benefits of workplace diversity in the company. Exhibiting discriminatory attitude towards someone because of his or her gender, sexual orientation, family status, marital status, colour, nationality or country of origin, race, ethical belief/religion, political opinion, employment status, age or disability is illegal in New Zealand. Hence, the anti-discrimination laws as prevalent in New Zealand will be discussed with the management authority, and accordingly the diversity policies of the company will be formulated (Wilson, 2014). Next, the HR will organize a meeting with the existent employees of the organization informing them of the new diversity policies, and how the violation of the same will attract penalties for them. While the general managers will be informed about the changed hiring and promotional policies, the employees working at the grassroots level will be informed about the changed organizational culture and the behaviour expected from their end. Next, the HR manager will have to formulate a new recruitment policy in compliance with the approval of the management authority, and accordingly will communicate the same via email to each concerned departmental manager of the organization. The HR will also arrange a meeting with the managers of the different departments, and identify the vacant jobs across the different departments of the organization. Accordingly, 1 out of each set of 5 vacancies will be reserved for the candidates belonging to the minor ethnic group, in terms of ethnicity, sex or nationality, and the employees will be recruited accordingly. The HR manager will also approach the employees as well as the community groups for minor group employee referrals. The next step will be to revise a workforce planning policy and introduce strict HR policies of promotion, whereby a minimum number of employees belonging to the minor group must be offered the chance to get promoted to the upper management position each year. A diversity council will be set up as well, so as to monitor and supervise the activities of the employees, examine the organizational culture of the company. New groups will be created consisting of employees belonging to different ethnic groups, and each team will have at least one team representative (Han et al., 2014). The team representatives of each team will be engaged in organizing different fun and interesting games at least once a month within the office promise. The company will also organize family get together at least once in every 2 months that will encourage employee participation and create different rapport amongst members of different social class, ethnic group or sex. Next, the HR will note down important dates of festivals belonging to different cultural groups, and celebrate the same within the office, and each employee regardless of his or her ethnicity will have to mandatorily participate in the office festival. Last but not the least the employees will be enrolled in training programs that will span for a period of 2 months, meant to enhance the cross-cultural communication skills of the employees.
|
Action |
Month 1 |
Month 2 |
Month 3 |
Month 4 |
Month 5 |
Month 6 |
|
Organize a meeting with the general managers of the organization, the employers and the shareholders, and communicate the scope, purpose and benefits of workplace diversity in the company. |
Yes |
|||||
|
Communicate the employees via email and meetings about the new diversity policies, and how the violation of the same will attract penalties for them. |
Yes |
|||||
|
Arrange a meeting with the managers of the different departments, and identify the vacant jobs across the different departments of the organization. Accordingly, 1 out of each set of 5 vacancies will be reserved for the candidates belonging to the minor ethnic group, in terms of ethnicity, sex or nationality, and the employees will be recruited accordingly. |
Yes |
|||||
|
Arrange training programs for the employees |
Yes |
|||||
|
Organize workshops and seminars for enhancing the cultural sensitivity of the employees |
Yes |
Yes |
||||
|
A diversity council will be set up as well, so as to monitor and supervise the activities of the employees, examine the organizational culture of the company. New groups will be created consisting of employees belonging to different ethnic groups, and each team will have at least one team representative. |
Yes |
|||||
|
Arrange different fun activities within the organization |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
It is evident from the above discussionthat in order to implement workplace diversity, it is imperative for the organization to revise and modify its existent HR policies, and formulate new action plans needed for communicating the changed plans and the policies of the organization. Accordingly, the forms, templates and action plans of the company have been introduced.
Compass Communication believes in encouraging diversity at workplace, and accordingly the company introduces and seeks to modify the existent policies of the organization mentioned below:
|
Name of the Action |
Expected Outcome |
Proposed Timeline |
|
Arrangement of cross-cultural training for the existent employees |
It will help to enhance the cultural sensitivity of the employees |
4 months |
|
Organize workshops and seminars |
These will help in developing the cultural awareness of the employees, enabling them appreciate workforce diversity |
2 months |
|
Organize interactive, fun games within the office premise |
This will help in creating rapport and intimate bond amongst the diverse group of people |
6 months |
|
Create teams with diverse group of members |
It will help in making a diverse workplace a normal thing at the company |
1 month |
Reference:
Ahonen, P., Tienari, J., Meriläinen, S., & Pullen, A. (2014). Hidden contexts and invisible power relations: A Foucauldian reading of diversity research. Human Relations, 67(3), 263-286.
Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bamberger, P. A., Biron, M., &Meshoulam, I. (2014). Human resource strategy: Formulation, implementation, and impact. Routledge.
Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.
Batt, R., Lee, J. E., &Lakhani, T. (2014). A national study of human resource practices, turnover, and customer service in the restaurant industry. New York: Restaurant Opportunities Centers United
Certo, S. (2015). Supervision: Concepts and skill-building. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
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Harvey, C. P., & Allard, M. (2015). Understanding and managing diversity. Pearson.
Jamali, D. R., El Dirani, A. M., & Harwood, I. A. (2015). Exploring human resource management roles in corporate social responsibility: the CSR?HRM co?creation model. Business Ethics: A European Review, 24(2), 125-143.
Klarsfeld, A., Booysen, L. A., Ng, E., Roper, I., &Tatli, A. (Eds.). (2014). 9.78 E+ 12: Country Perspectives on Diversity and Equal Treatment. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donnelly, R., &Kynighou, A. (2016). Human resource management at work. Kogan Page Publishers.
Nieves, J., & Quintana, A. (2016). Human resource practices and innovation in the hotel industry: The mediating role of human capital. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 1467358415624137.
Noe, R. A., Wilk, S. L., Mullen, E. J., &Wanek, J. E. (2014). Employee Development: Issues in Construct Definition and Investigation ofAntecedents. Improving Training Effectiveness in WorkOrganizations, ed. JK Ford, SWJ Kozlowski, K. Kraiger, E. Salas, and MS Teachout (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1997), 2(2), 153-189.
Rees, G., & Smith, P. (Eds.). (2017). Strategic human resource management: An international perspective. Sage.
Snell, S. A., Morris, S. S., &Bohlander, G. W. (2015). Managing human resources.Nelson Education.
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Wilton, N. (2016). An introduction to human resource management.Sage.
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