We live in times when global corporations and their reach across the

world bring benefits in terms of innovative HR policies as well as

challenges in terms of managing the workforce composed of diverse
races and ethnicities. Further, the issue of gender diversity in terms
of more women and third gender participating in the workforce has
been a trend that has accelerated in the last two decades in India
and much earlier in the developed countries.
When an organization has people of different caste, creed, religion,
minorities and different genders, then, naturally the question arises
as to how to reconcile the differences between these employees
without causing too much friction in everyday interactions.
Managing diversity is important as otherwise the performance of
the organization suffers and there can be possible lawsuits and
cases filed with minority cells and women’s commission from
disgruntled employees, who feel aggrieved because of instances of
discrimination and harassment based on their ethnicity or gender.
Workforce diversity also means the varied personal characteristics
that make the work force of an organization heterogeneous.
Organization in the past took a “Melting Pot” approach to
differences in organizations. It was assumed that people who were
from different background would automatically want to adjust with
the workforce in organization but now a day’s employees come with
a set life style, values and preferences when they come to work.
The challenge for HR manager therefore, is to make their
organizations more accommodating to divers groups of people by
addressing different life styles, needs, values and work styles.

Workforce Diversity – 6 Steps of Planning: Set

Strategic Direction, Conduct Workforce Analysis,
Conduct Gap Analysis and a Few Others
Step 1 – Set Strategic Direction:
An agency’s vision, mission, and measurable goals and objectives
drive the identification of future functional requirements. In turn,
those requirements drive the analysis and elements of the workforce
plan.
When identifying future functional requirements, focus on function,
not on the people needed to do the job. The overreaching question is
– “What key function needs to be performed in order to accomplish
the goals and objectives set out in the strategic plan?” This may
include many of the organization’s current functions, in addition to
forecasting important future and activities.
Step 2 – Conduct Workforce Analysis:
The key element in the workforce planning process is an analysis of
workforce data. It considers information such as – job classification,
skills, experience, retirement eligibility, diversity, turnover rates,
education, and trend data. This step reviews the work that will be
required for an agency to achieve its goals and objectives, the
knowledge and skill sets, and the staffing levels necessary to
perform that work.
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There are two phases in conducting the workforce

analysis:
The Workforce Demand Forecast identifies the future workforce
needed by an organisation. The focus of this step should be on the
work the organisation must perform and on the staff needed to
perform that work. In this step, identify the current work functions
being performed and on the staff needed to perform that work.
In this step, identify the current work functions being performed,
future or new function that will need to be performed, and how the
work will be performed in order to achieve the goals of strategic
plan. We may also identify current function which will not be
necessary in the future due to changes in technology or
responsibility in providing specific services.
The Workforce Supply analysis focuses on an organisation existing
and future workforce supply. It answers the question, “What is the
existing profile of the current workforce, and what does it need to be
in the future to accomplish the organisation goals and objectives?”
Once the work functions that must be performed have been focus on
defining the staffing, or workforce, needed to perform those
functions, possess to successfully perform the work, determine the
number of staff with these competencies that the organisation will
need to accomplish its functions.
Step 3 – Conduct Gap Analysis:
Gap analysis is the process of comparing the workforce supply
projection to the workforce demand forecast, an analysis should
consider the composition of the workforce, including demographic
characteristics, geographic location, size, and employee
competencies level. The agency will establish workforce strategies
based on the results of this analysis.
Analysis results may show one of the following:
i. A gap (when projected supply is less than forecasted demand),
which indicates a future shortages of needed workers or skills; it is
important to know what critical jobs will have gaps so the necessary
training or recruiting can be anticipated.
ii. A surplus (When projected supply is greater than forecasted),
which indicates a future excess in some categories of workers and
may require action. The surplus data may represent job
classifications or skills that will not be needed in the future or at
least may be needed to some extent.
Step 4 – Develop Strategies:
Once an organisation identifies a workforce gap, it needs to develop
and implement effective strategies to fill the gap. Critical gaps
should be analyzed with care to ensure that timely action is taken
before these gaps become a problem for the organization.
A wide range of strategies to address future gaps and surpluses
exists, Strategies include the programmes, policies, and practices
that assist organisations in recruiting developing and retaining the
critical staff needed to achieve programme goals.
Strategies can fall into broad categories of:
i. Position classification actions, redefining title series, adding new
job classification, reallocating job classes, and rewriting position
descriptions to better reflect future functional requirements.
ii. Staff development strategies to find and hire qualified candidates
from various sources to include other organisations or the
occupations.
iii. Recruitment/selection strategies to find and hire qualified
candidates from various sources to include other organisations or
the private sector.
iv. Retention strategies to encourage employees to stay in the
agency.
v. Organizational interventions such as – redeployment of staff or
reorganization.
vi. Succession planning strategies to prepare to ensure that there
are highly qualified candidates capable of filling critical positions.
vii. Knowledge transfer strategies to capture the knowledge of
experienced employees before they leave the organisation.
Strategies should be kept to a manageable number. They should be
prioritised to allow an organisation to focus its resources on the
most important strategies first.
Step 5 – Implement Strategies:
Implementation brings the organisations workforce plan to life. An
agency may need a separate action plan to address the
implementation of each strategy in the workforce plan.
Before implementing the plan, organisations should:
i. Ensure that there is executive support for the workforce
strategies.
ii. Allocate necessary resources to identify workforce strategies.
iii. Clarify roles and responsibility in implementing strategies. This
includes identifying who is involved in implementing what, and
where coordination among different parts of the organization or
with different agencies is needed.
iv. Establish timelines.
v. Determine performance measures and milestones and expected
deliverables.
vi. Communicate the plan. The basis of the plan, as well as its
elements, should be communicated to all employees, as to why and
how it was developed, how it will be applied, and how it will affect
staff.
Step 6 – Monitor, Evaluate and Revise:
Ongoing evaluations and adjustments are important in workforce
planning and are key to continuous improvement. If an
organisation does not regularly review its workforce planning
efforts, it risks failing to identify and respond to unanticipated
changes.
Organisations should establish a process that allows for a
regular review of their workforce planning efforts to:
i. Review performance measurement information.
ii. Assess what is working and what is not working.
iii. Adjust the plan and strategies as necessary.
iv. Address new workforce and organizational issues that occur.

Workforce Diversity – Strategies for Managing

Workforce Diversity
Strategies for managing workforce diversity or cultural diversity are
four-fold.
1. Individual Strategies:
Individuals with broad minded approach can formulate strategies
based on the situations, ego-state and cultural background of other
persons at the workplace in order to manage the diversified cultural
situations. Individual strategies to manage cultural diversity are not
inclusive. However, we discuss some important strategies.
They are:
i. Understanding the cultural background of others;
ii. Belief that all cultures are good;
iii. Perceive from other’s perspective;
iv. Approach of ‘no-winning-over’ other’s culture;
v. Clear communication.
2. Group Strategies to Cultural Diversity:
Group of employees belong to the same culture can understand the
cultures of other groups and cultural differences between the two
groups. They can also formulated appropriate strategies for
managing cultural diversity.
The group strategies include:
i. Knowledge sharing
ii. Advising and cautioning
iii. Cultural Exchange through Socialization programs
These programs provide a number of benefits like:
i. Understand each other beyond cultural boundaries;
ii. Prevent the possible cultural conflicts at the workplace;
iii. Build relationships among employees’ family members, which
would act as a ‘shock absorber’ during the periods of cultural or
work related conflicts;
iv. Understand and respecting others’ cultures;
v. Practice the relevant or interesting areas of others cultures. This
practice provides immense satisfaction to others, whose cultural
practices are adapted;
vi. Build near uniform culture at the workplace;
vii. Prevent cultural conflicts at workplace; and
viii. These programs act as greasing the hic-up areas in cultural
understanding.
ix. Helps to provide a common plat-form to resolve cultural
conflicts, if some of them can’t be prevented.
These programs suffer from a few limitation like sparing the time
and resources. However, these programs manage the cultural
diversity most efficiently, than other strategies. Now, we discuss
organizational strategies.
3. Organizational Strategies to Cultural Diversity:
Organizations can formulate effective strategies to manage cultural
diversity at work place, in addition to the strategies adapted by
individuals and groups.
Organizational strategies include:
a. Recruitment and Selection Strategies
b. Organizational Policies and Practices
c. Cultural Training
d. Breaking the Glass-Ceilings
e. Formal Socialization Programs
f. Structuring Work Teams
g. Use of Counselors
h. Communication
i. Special Benefits and Facilities for women and Old People.
4. National Strategies:
National strategies towards management of cultural
diversity include:
i. Legislative Approach towards equal employment opportunities
ii. Efforts of the cultural Associations/societies
iii. Efforts of the Diplomatic Missions.

Workforce Diversity – Strategic Advantages

of Workforce Diversity 
Workforce diversity represents both a challenge and an opportunity
for business. A growing number of progressive organisations are
realizing the need for valuing diversity in the workforce, so as to
ensure strategic utilisation of human resources for the
accomplishment of strategic goals.
Business firms that manage diversity enjoy a strategic
advantage in the following manner:
(i) An organisation or a company with well-managed diversity will
solve the conflicts resulting from opposing viewpoints, into a more
complete and inventive solutions.
(ii) An organisation that promotes equal employment opportunity
for diverse groups will generally do better at attracting and
retaining talent from all backgrounds, thereby increasing a pool of
skilled employees. The differences among people lie a wide variety
of talents and perspectives. The broader the range of talents and
sweep of perspectives among the employees, the better would be the
opportunity for the business to succeed.
(iii) Business with workforce from varied backgrounds can more
effectively serve the customers, who are themselves diverse. Such
employees can interact with local customers in an effective manner
and pay careful attention to their customers’ sensitivities and
expectations,
(iv) Companies with diverse workforce are able to present their
product and services in a better way.
(v) Companies with effective diversity programs can avoid damage
to their corporate reputation or costly lawsuits from charges of
discrimination or cultural insensitivity.
(vi) The global market place of today demands a workforce with
language skills, cultural sensitivity and awareness of national and
other differences across the market in order to be successful. For
example, the multinationals operate in different countries, where
the cultural practices vary radically. Workforce which can fit in the
cultural understanding of the country where the multinational is
operating is a must.

Workforce Diversity – Challenges

Some of the challenges posed by workforce diversity are
discussed below:
(i) Problematic Gender Relations – Women often encounter many
problems at the workplace. The difference in gender is used as a tool
to exploit them and, at times, it leads to sexual harassment.
(ii) Cultural Conflicts – Cultural differences may make an employee
feel like an outsider. The other cultural groups may not accept him
as a member of their groups. Such things affect the performance of
the organisation adversely.
(iii) Discriminatory Treatment – Discriminatory treatment of
diverse workforce by the top officials is very common.
For example, in many companies in the U.S.A., whites are generally
given a preference over black in the matters of powers, facilities and
promotions; in Japanese companies, Indian are not treated at par
with the Japanese even if they hold a similar job profile; many
companies don’t give similar wages to women employees as they
give to men for the same work. Such discriminatory practices lower
down the morale of the employees.
(iv) Resistance to Change – Because of diversity, some groups of
workers might resist change proposed by the management.
(v) Religion/Racial differences are also a big reason of quarrels over
petty issues, which, if not resolved in time, assume a bitter feud.
(vi)There is always Resistance to Change by employees. When there
is diverse workforce, then the resistance becomes fierce, at times.
(vii) Where employees are parochial, there is a danger that they may
form close and strong groups having same Carte, community or
religion.