Demographic changes and globalization have created an imperative need for diversity management skills. IT managers that fail to recognize and promote diversity in their teams are exposed to high turnover, decreased productivity, and low employee morale.

What Is Diversity?

The concept of diversity encompasses understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing individual differences. These differences can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. Diversity in the workplace refers to the exploration of these differences in a safe, positive, and nurturing environment.

Why Is This Important?

National boundaries no longer define the world of enterprises. Enterprises are increasingly offshoring their operational and support processes. These globalization trends impose diversity issues on IT professionals as they have to learn how to interact with people from a variety of cultures.

Discrimination and lack of diversity awareness in the workplace create unhealthy conflicts that lead to high turnover, loss of talented employees, and decreases in productivity.

According to The Freeman Institute, major race and gender discrimination lawsuits during the last decade cost U.S. corporations $974 million in settlements. This amount does not include other additional costs such as attorney fees and business losses due to negative publicity. These lawsuits could have been avoided through diversity management.

The Benefits of Diversity Skills

By developing diversity skills in the workforce, companies can achieve the following benefits:

• Savings. Effective diversity management reduces costs associated with turnover. In 2001, Nextel established a training program to increase diversity awareness.  A ROI study determined that its training program saved the company $3,204,000 in turnover costs. The ROI in the first year was 163% (source: "Making the Business Case for Increased Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills," from Sage Publications). 
• Increased creativity for problem solving. A diverse team in which a variety of opinions, ideas, and backgrounds are encouraged produces more creative solutions to problems than a less diverse team. People's culture, age, and gender make them see the world in different ways. These different perspectives are crucial for successful problem solving.
• Higher morale and greater productivity. Team members with diversity skills connect at a deeper level. This reduces the potential for conflicts, improves morale, and increases productivity.
• Improved chances of offshoring success. The ability to handle cultural differences is a key success factor for offshoring success.

Key Takeaways

1.Consult HR. Dealing with a diverse workforce is not just an IT challenge. Human resources departments often have diversity programs in place for the enterprise as a whole. Ask them to provide guidance on this subject.

2.Get diversity training. To build effective teamwork environments, employees at all levels need to learn about values, mindsets, cultural motivators, and business practices of people from various cultures and backgrounds.

3.Avoid stereotypes. Stereotypes impede the understanding of what's really going on. Question all assumptions and base employees' valuations on results, not preconceptions.

4.Implement a mentoring program. Be supportive and encourage the team to mentor newcomers from other cultures during their period of integration to the team. This is win-win situation as the newcomer learns how to succeed in a new cultural environment, while the mentors gain insight into other cultures and customs.

5.Use terminology that is understandable to everybody. Avoid using clich s and slang because these are sometimes not comprehensible to foreigners. Remember that some people who seem to understand are simply too embarrassed to ask questions.

6.Use employee satisfaction surveys and exit interviews. Employees who face resistance or some kind of discrimination report these problems in employee satisfaction surveys and exit interviews. Use this feedback in a constructive manner to improve the team environment.

7.Develop listening skills. Taking training in communications and public speaking skills is very common, but companies forget to train people on how to listen effectively. To succeed in the new reality of cultural diversity, workers must be able to listen and respect other points of view. 

Bottom Line

Effective diversity management reduces turnover and provides tremendous benefits in terms of improved employee morale, outside-the-box thinking, and an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect.

Diversity Facts

• Half of the world's population is in Russia, India, China, Indonesia, and Brazil.
• By 2010, the Hispanic labor force in the U.S. is projected to be larger than the African-American labor force (13.3% versus 12.7%).
• Asians will continue to be the fastest growing group in the U.S. labor force (projected to increase by nearly 45% this decade).
• Women currently comprise nearly half of the labor force in the U.S.
• In Canada, less than 40% of the population is native Canadian.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Statistics Canada.