Human Resource Management - Workforce Diversity - Report Writing Assessment Answer

Human Resource Management Assignment

Assignment Task

This assessment task will synthesise your understanding of workplace diversity and concepts with your theoretical and practical knowledge of human resource management. The focus of this activity is determining how the practice of HRM must be adapted to the needs of different employee groups in order create organizational value from diversity. In completing this assessment, you will develop and demonstrate your ability to translate theoretical concepts into management practice by

1. a) Identifying the implications of employee diversity for the performance of a specific aspect of the HRM function, and
2. b) Determining how the performance of that functional element must therefore be amended to generate value from employee diversity.

To complete this task you must select a form of employee diversity( please see the attached file instructions for report and PowerPoint slides of forms of diversity ) and prepare a report recommending how one (1) HRM practice should be performed in order to be effective and appropriate to the needs of the employee group.

For example, you might consider how training materials need to be adapted to employees with literacy or numeracy problems or employees from non-English speaking backgrounds. Your report should include:

? Discussion of how the purpose and performance of the HRM practice; in order to be as effective as possible (drawn from relevant HRM literature);

? Discussion of the relevant needs and circumstances of the identified employee group.

WORKFORCE DIVERSITYIn their research Soldan & Nankervis (2014) provided the idea that today's workforce is changing drastically with a projection of changes in the next decade being ranked high. One key aspect that defines the current workforce includes diversity in different ways such as culture, sexuality, age, gender, disability and religion among other forms of diversity. However, different researchers have consented on the idea that diversity enlargement in organizations helps in creating value, representation of specific groups as well as reducing the workforce homogeneity. Workforce diversity represents the aspect of the workforce being derived from different groups with particular personal characteristics that meet the organizational need (Hughes, 2015). The diversity of the workforce is often associated with the significant positive impact such as enhancing the ability of an organization to operate in different regions or introduce products to different markets easily as well as shaping the reputation of the company (Scott & Byrd, 2012). Different factors have influenced organizations to enhance equality and diversity programs such as labor shortages and globalized markets. Many research studies on workforce diversity such as Soldan & Nankervis (2014) asserts that the potential benefits of employing a diverse workforce is high based on the idea that the marginalized people introduce unique perspectives to the workplace. Additionally, they provide insights into the collective knowledge of the organization thus improving efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness of the organization. The paper introduces two forms of employee diversity which include sexuality diversity and gender diversity in the workplace as well as the rationale of enhancing the participation of the selected group in the organization.

Forms of Employee Diversity and Rationale of Inclusion

There exists different types of workplace diversity; however, the research focuses on sexual diversity which incorporates the employee's sexual orientation and the second form as gender diversity. According to Soldan & Nankervis (2014), business forecasts have enhanced the knowledge of most organizations on the need for diversity in the workforce prompting a rise in the programs or strategies aimed at increasing the diversity of the workforce. The authors further state that there has been a proactive leverage of difference competition among different organization as they seek to achieve or cultivate an environment that capitalizes on diversity as well as addressing associated challenges. The participation of the above forms of workplace diversity (gender and sexual diversity) promotes the ability of the organization to achieve a competitive position as well as shaping their image as an organization that values the diversity of the workforce. In most situations, workplace diversity is influenced by the need by the business to expand or maintain competition rather than the desire to have a workforce that is all inclusive (Findler, Wind & Mor Barak, 2007).

According to Ajaya & Pinto (2011), the increasingly global economic integration have forced organizations to expand across the globe; hence, the need to implement workplace practices that guarantee performance. Gender and sexuality have often been used as a form of discrimination in the workplace since the majority of the working environments lacked. The lack of employee diversity regarding gender has mainly affected the female gender due to poor human resources practices. The issue of gender diversity also falls under the social category diversity that captures the differences in demographic characteristics based on Ajaya & Pinto (2011) research on diversity management. In this regard, the majority of the workplaces recorded a lower number of the female gender in their workplace which affected the morale of the employees as well as the productivity levels. Today majority of the workplaces comprises of different people and sex as well as sharing different needs, attitudes, values, and behaviors due to the ability of the current businesses to embrace diversity. Female participation in the workforce has for a long time been a major problem in most organizations (Scott & Sims, 2016).

Research indicates the problem is associated withheld perception regarding the female gender as having an inferior position. Additionally, the diversity of women gender participation is evident in the level of leadership help by women in the organization. Until the rise of workforce diversity, women struggled to achieve leadership position and have always held lower position and at times received less compensation compared to their counterparts. However, globalization and rise in the new form of revolutionary thinking have influenced changes and the need to promoted diversity about gender in the workplace (Dahanayake & Rajendran, 2013). Organizations are progressively turning to be diversity-friendly to achieve a competitive advantage in the global marketplace as well as improve their image. Female participation in the workforce is now evident in different leadership positions and the general labor force. As Ajaya & Pinto (2011) suggests, most organizations are now accepting celebrating and valuing gender differences enhancing the co-existence of employees from different backgrounds and gender within the company. Their inclusion brings with it organizational effectiveness in the current competitive world as well as shaping the reputation of the organizations primarily in the global field (Kapoor, 2011).

Sexual diversity is an also an essential form of employee diversity and can be associated with individual employee sexual orientation such as transgender persons. Such groups face discrimination during organization hiring processes leading to their low numbers or presence of diversity about sexual orientation. According to Soldan & Nankervis (2014), organizations had less or no commitment to diversity management as its evident today which influenced the gap in workforce diversity. The sexuality diversity, in particular, was evident in most organizations due to the failure of the companies to employee candidates aligned to selected sex such as the transgender community which was significantly affected. According to research by Soldan & Nankervis (2014), majority of the strategies and policies associated with sexuality form of diversity were dependent on ideological concerns, and it's against this backdrop that the research sheds light into some of the human resource practices that limited the workforce diversity regarding sexuality.

Increasing or enhancing participation of the sexual diversity aspect such as including people with different sexual alignment can play a significant role in the organizational performance as well as global expansion. Individuals from diverse groups such as members of the transgender community commonly experience exclusion from working opportunities despite having proper qualifications. The exclusions further affect issues such as organizational commitment and sense of well-being. Hence, there is a need to promote workforce diversity among the workgroups to ensure the composition reflects the society needs to promote positive outcomes as well as shape the organizational culture. According to the social identity theory which provides understanding on the connection between the social structures and the personal identity ensures the excluded people attach meaning to their identity groups such as gender or sexuality (Sikalieh & Mkoji, 2012).

HRM Practices

It's critical to understand that diversity is dependent on the organizational culture that promotes the ability of the workforce to enhance their career objectives or aspirations. The HRM practice that can be applied in the case of workforce diversity includes employee hiring practices which determine the workforce was joining the organization. The recruitment and hiring practice can select the desired employees within the organization and reject others based on the existing values in the group such as diversity. Hence, organizations that have less or no understanding of the concept of diversity may fail to uphold the expected grounds of hiring such as addressing differences diversity forms among the candidates. Recruitment and hiring practice are performed through advertising of available positions in the organization and selecting the willing and qualified candidates for the posts. However, hiring practices that fail to acknowledge and accept the differences among individual may limit or influence diversity problems leading to the exclusion of different workgroups. The HR training may also affect discrimination of the select group in the event the leaders hold negative perception towards the group such as the sexuality diversity or gender diversity. Hence, quality HR practices demand organizations to have proper diversity management practices which involve the willingness to recruit and select a diverse workforce. According to research by Soldan & Nankervis (2014), diversity establishes heterogeneity that must be nurtured and appreciated as a means of enhancing the organizational effectiveness.

The recruitment and hiring practice have the potential to create value for the organizations by enabling it to take advantage of the diversity aspect and employee individuals from different backgrounds. A diverse workforce provides a chance for the organization to achieve its full potential within the working environment. Additionally, the presence of a diverse workforce helps organization promote teamwork, improve morale, profits, and productivity building the skills and policies to support best practices. As earlier established, workforce diversity can be influenced by a variety of factors such as globalization and liberalization promoting competition among organizations. Organizations must learn to value workforce diversity to achieve the associated benefits as well as address challenges in business. Research by Soldan & Nankervis (2014) further states that diversification of the workplace serves as a necessity for enhancing the workplace creativity and innovation. The argument is based on the idea that the diverse workforce promotes the ability of the organizations to engage in the international arena since a diverse workforce has easier chances of interacting and serving people better. A diverse workforce also ensures the organization can meet competition demands and offer superior services that can help the companies to tap in new market segments. For example, including the gender and sexuality excluded workgroups promotes the chances of the company appealing to the market segment (Syed & Kramar, 2010).

Recommendations for adapting HRM practices

HRM practices provide the basis for organizations ability to meet the diversity needs by recruiting and hiring people from different backgrounds. Effective diversity management reduces the costs such as employee turnover as well as resolving poor communication issues in the organization. Managing workforce diversity is often challenging in modern organizations which demand the management to have appropriate HRM practices. Organizations can apply different recommended ways to perform the methods or adapt them to meet the need of the groups better as well as reduce discrimination. The first approach includes ensuring the recruitment and hiring process is free and fair to reduce the chances of discriminating against a selected group of people such as the female gender. However, the success of the first approach includes the ensuring the organizational members acknowledge differences in people, understand the value of the differences as well as promote inclusiveness in the recruitment and hiring process within the organizations (Fernando Martín Alcázar, Pedro Miguel, R. F., & Gonzalo Sánchez Gardey., 2013).

Additionally, the managers should be empowered with the ability to make effective decisions in regards to discrimination and addressing complaints in the group. According to research by Thomas (2011), managing the workforce representation is another key aspect that can be practiced by the HRM department to promote positive outcomes such as improved performance. The approach incorporates making amends for past mistakes such as the exclusion of individuals based on gender or sexuality. Such actions help in convincing the public on the organizational commitment to addressing workforce diversity issues and ensuring all members are well represented irrespective of their backgrounds. The mistakes can be rectified through increasing the labor force within the excluded workforce with a focus on achieving proper representation (Ajaya & Pinto, 2011).

The HRM practices should be adapted to pursue harmony within the workforce based on the golden rule perspective which implements different tools such as training organizational leaders and employees on cultural competency, how to leverage differences, valuing differences and ensuring management accountability. The corporate management can also establish systems and policies aimed at empowering the leaders during recruitment and hiring to ensure all personals are represented. Training and development programs also serve as key aspects that can help the organizations deal with the diversity issues within the HRM practice (Thomas, 2011). Communicating on the concept of diversity, its impact and how it can be achieved helps the leaders maintain a balance between the needs of the excluded groups as well as the business objectives. Promoting healthy and safe workplace environments to communicate is also useful in ensuring the practices uphold diversity. Managers should also mentor other employees on the concept of workforce diversity and the need to manage it in the workplace. Additionally, diversity concerns should be related to the HRM decisions such as succession planning, rewards, and performance management to demonstrates the positive response to diversity. Adapting the HRM practices to accepting diversity promotes the chances of improving organization productivity as well as attracting new innovative and creative talents.