Managing and creating diversity in today’s business world is an essential part of building a successful business. Interpreting diversity programmes and training into a business can be beneficial for growing awareness and providing your employees with knowledge on the issue. However, business leaders need to spend more time on understanding different cultures and their values as there are still challenges of diversity within the workplace.
Diversity doesn’t just refer to a variety of differences between people in a company, but it also involves how people perceive themselves and how they perceive others. The way individuals perceive others can have an effect on how they interact with other people. These interactions can potentially cause conflict within the workplace if certain biases aren’t dealt with effectively by business leaders. Here are some challenges that businesses may face when trying to increase diversity within the workplace.
Negative cultural stereotypes and discrimination
Although having employees from different cultures can foster innovation in your company, it is important to avoid those colleagues from working in isolation due to stereotypes and discrimination. This can be a challenge of diversity in the workplace, particularly if there are underlying issues between cultural differences, making it harder to work together. Negative stereotypes can affect the company morale and can cause a lack of productivity. Although these stereotypes may not be noticeable, they can definitely creep out on occasion which creates an uncomfortable atmosphere in the workplace for all employees. Outright prejudice and stereotyping can cause concern and can be difficult challenges of diversity to overcome in the workplace.
Professional communication can be misinterpreted or hard to understand
Having an environment which accommodates several cultures can increase the risk of communication being lost in translation amongst other colleagues. Language barriers can be an issue in the workplace, even if everybody speaks the same language, it can difficult to understand a range of accents. However, it isn’t just a language barrier that can be misinterpreted and hard to understand but also non-verbal communication can cause diversity challenges in the workplace. Some cultural non-verbal communication can be offensive to some team members from different countries if not understood. For example, things like levels of physical space, making eye contact or having to maintain eye contact and making certain gestures can all be taken differently across cultures. Even a handshake interaction can have cultural implications that should be addressed and considered in the workplace.
Working styles
Working styles can be other challenges of diversity that you may come across in the workplace. Cultural values and difference can have an effect on certain working styles colleagues have and if not recognised, they can have an effect on productivity within the workplace and cause conflict. For example, certain cultures value collective consensus when trying to achieve a goal. Whereas, other cultures believe in individualistic behaviours in the workplace. The difference between the two can have an impact on the workplace if both aren’t valued by their colleagues. Organisational hierarchy can also differ in cultures that can have an effect on colleagues working styles. For example, working hours can cause conflict between workers as some cultures believe that it isn’t appropriate to leave work before their mangers and others are only used to working a specific number of hours a day.
HR challenges
Hiring diverse talent from overseas or employing graduates who only hold temporary visas can be challenging for the HR department and can become a challenge of diversity. Employment laws and visas for international workers can be complicated due to them always changing and regulations are different in every country. This is a challenge of diversity as these requirements can take time and are costly and therefore can put a strain on the expansion of diversity within a company. Along with the requirements, it can also be appropriate for companies to consider diverse individuals needs regarding religions and beliefs.