• You are here:
• Home
•  / 
• HR Download
•  / 
• Training & Development
•  / 
• Story

Advertisement

HR Download - Training & Development

What's your story idea?

Diverse teams - A valuable asset  (View Comments)

Priya C Nair

Posted On Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 07:24:19 PM

A workforce diverse in terms of gender, language, culture, etc is increasingly becoming a part of every organisation. However, experts say that managing a diverse population at work could have negative repercussions, if not handled well. Here’s how a few people managers are converting their diverse teams into valuable assets for their organisations... 

With organisations going global, diversity at the workplace is increasingly becoming a key HR issue. Have you ever wondered how a heterogeneous mix of people that exist in many workplaces work towards achieving a common goal? Ever figured how a balance is struck during situations when ideas and solutions get generated from different minds? The answer is diversity management. 
  
The credit goes to the diversity management efforts incorporated by many organisations, as they are creating a unity out of diversity. 
  
According to J R Patrick, head –HR, Mando India Ltd, it is vital for an organisation to have a diverse work culture. Organisations must learn to manage diversity for their existence in the future. “We have about 34 per cent women employees in our workplace, especially on the shop floor and young operating engineers from seven states in India including Andaman and Nicobar Islands and a lot of expatriates also work with us,” informs Patrick. 
  
Such is the kind of workforce that many organisations have today. People from different gender, nationalities, languages, cultures, etc form a part of today’s workforce. “A diverse workforce is a mandatory requirement for every organisation today,” believes Anand Talwar, senior VP - talent management, ITC Infotech. “Now, organisations work in a global environment and if we do not have a diverse workforce, our global counterparts may not to be willing to work with us,” caveats Talwar. 
  
The advantages of having a diverse population at work are many. According to Sanjay Kamlani, co-founder and co-CEO, Pangea3 LLC, “A diverse workforce helps in dealing with culturally different clients and organisations can use the skills, traditions and different perspectives of a assorted workforce to find better solutions to an issue or problem.” 
  
“Organisations can attract people from a wider talent pool if it has its corporate policy based around a diversified workforce. A diversified workforce brings with it a global perspective and market intelligence to the strategies that organisations may want to adopt for sustenance and growth,” says Sandhya Joshi, HR head India, NCR Corporation. 
  
“Diversity stimulates innovation and productivity and creates a world class culture that can outperform the competition,” adds Neeraj Paliwal, NXP India country manager, VP & SoC factory global manager, NXP Semiconductors. 
  
Diversity has its own share of challenges too. “The right workforce diversification in itself is a challenge,” says Bhavin Turakhia, chairman, CEO and founder, Directi. “A wrongly managed workforce leads to people refraining from working together, socialising and communicating due to cultural and social norms. Such challenges could be countered with an open door HR policy and maintaining a democratic style of management,” suggests Turakhia. “Balancing the differences without any prejudices and bias relating to sex, religion, language, etc are also difficulties faced by organisations,” says Patrick. 
  
But firms are not put down by these challenges and many have figured out different ways to overcome them. Many have set their own ways of managing their respective diverse workforces, as they do not want to lose out on good talent. Experts say that organisations have a big role to play towards managing diversity at work. “People come with their own culture, background and exposure and it is the responsibility of the organisation to integrate it into the organisational culture and make them work together as a single team to achieve organisational goals,” says Sanjay Shanmugaum, VP HR, CBaySystems.

“The primary challenge faced by any organisation working with a diverse workforce is the need to communicate effectively to its employees. The easiest way to do this is by communicating in a language best understood by the employee and keeping that stream of communication regular, open and transparent. For instance, if you have a presence in a Spanish speaking country, it’s best to have a newsletter in their native language. This helps in reaching out to them more effectively and striking an instant chord with employees,” explains Divakar Kaza, president – HR, Lupin Limited.

Flexibility to deal with different cultures is very essential. It is also important to see the legal framework in which the employment contracts have been signed with people coming from different nationalities. The company’s ability to clearly enumerate objectives and KRAs is most relevant when working with diverse cultures. 

Most Searched Tags

Advertisement

Thought Pool

Here's your chance to be our 'Student Journalist of the Month', a contest for aspiring students to pool in their ideas and views on burning issues in the Human Resource space. It's simple! Post your article here and you could be the winner.

Topics of the month

• The need for CSR
• Role of EQ in a successful career

Terms & Conditions