As the nation continues to evaluate its relationship with racial equality, employers and employees across all sectors understandably may be looking at their workplaces with new points of view.
The concept of diversity in the workplace is anything but new, yet it has been fully realized. A fresh approach to this topic may benefit companies and individuals alike.
Diversity includes race and more
As Forbes explains, racial equality at work is only one form of diversity. Discrimination or lack of equal opportunity in a professional setting may as well be experienced by persons of different genders, religions, sexual orientations and more. Many employees may encompass more than one factor, such as an African American woman.
Recruiting and hiring is just the start
A report by NPR indicates that simply hiring people of different backgrounds, religious beliefs and more does not completely address the issue of diversity in the workplace. The daily policies and company culture that employees experience can have a direct impact in truly embracing or blocking diversity. A culture may or may not allow a person to feel empowered to dress or wear their hair in a manner in line with their cultural heritage, for example.
Consider new ways of recruiting
When job applications for professional or leadership positions predominately reflect one or two societal groups only, a company may find it beneficial to consider alternative recruitment methods or locations.
When seeking employees for entry-level positions, for example, a company may launch a recruitment campaign targeted at graduating seniors from historically black universities and colleges versus those institutions where the bulk of students are white.
