The Benefits and Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace

Workplace diversity refers to the differences between people in an organization. That sounds simple, but diversity encompasses race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, education, background and more.

Diversity not only involves how people perceive themselves, but how they perceive others. Those perceptions affect their interactions with each other.?

An organization’s success and competitiveness depends upon its ability to embrace diversity and realize the benefits.

When organizations embrace diversity, multiple benefits are reported such as:

Advantages of Diversity in the Workplace

Workers with diverse cultural backgrounds bring unique experiences and perceptions to the table. Pooling this wealth of knowledge and skills can benefit companies by allowing the organisation to adapt quicker to changing market conditions.

Job seekers are drawn to companies with diverse workforces because it is evident that the companies do not practice employment discrimination. Potential employees want to know that employers treat their staff fairly. Not only are such firms able to attract new talent but they can also retain existing talent because of high employee morale resulting from workforce diversity.