Diversity training reduces prejudice at workplace
THE WORKFORCE today is diverse and comprises of people of different ages and varied ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds. With increased globalisation, the workplace is no longer an insular and homogeneous environment, diversity has become intrinsic to the workplace and employees need to recognise, manage and learn how to maximise the benefits of a diverse workplace. They must also make others in the organisation aware of the differences among individuals so that they can interact positively with each other.
This is no doubt a difficult task but with diversity training, employees of different backgrounds can be trained to work effectively with each other. Such training can help the manager in understanding the differences in abilities of each employee and the unique contribution and quality of each person. This knowledge can benefit the organisation as a whole.
Diversity training trains employees to view diversity as an opportunity to work in co-operation and productively with people from different backgrounds and contribute collectively to the organisational goals. Such training is more than a campaign to urge employees to remove the stereotypical prejudices they have of people from other backgrounds. It has moved beyond informing employees of their duties to improve relations and discrimination based on race and laws. Diversity training aims at teaching employees to be more open to the views of others. It also includes educating employees of issues that may arise because of the different ethnic and social backgrounds their colleagues and customers/clients belong to.
Training can be effective if it is designed based on the employee composition. It has to include developing a diversity strategy and policies especially those regarding recruitment, because this is where most conflicting issues originate.
A typical training module uses real work life situations to make the trainees aware of the issues that may come up and how to deal with them. Another method is to create a forum where people from different backgrounds can discuss issues and arrive at universally agreeable solutions.
Yet another approach is to give examples of organisations that run successfully with a diverse workforce and depict them as role models. Employees will thus become aware that diversity is not unique to their company but commonly prevalent and needs to be dealt with prudently for the success and growth of the organisation.
Questionnaires on discrimination laws and a general knowledge test on different cultures and religions will help in measuring employees' awareness levels of diversity issues both before and after the training. More importantly it will make them accept the differences.
Diversity training is beneficial to employees because it improves interpersonal and communication skills besides improving the potential for teamwork. Moreover, it helps minimise conflicts and enhances employee efficiency.
The training will help managers tackle diversity issues and personal bias among their team members better. It will also improve their team building skills and relations with subordinates.
With businesses growing internationally, diversity and negotiations has become more interrelated. Managers who are diversity sensitive will be able to visualise different perspectives and appreciate cultural differences. This will make them better negotiators.
Diversity training is becoming essential in today's workplace because each one of us has certain prejudices and views based on individual experiences and backgrounds. Such training makes one aware of how such views can affect one's work, business decisions and even personal styles and ultimately the success of the company. If one learns to work effectively together in spite of differences then both individual and organisational success is ensured.
HEMA SWAMINATHAN
faqs@cnkonline.com
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