Diversity Management in HR

This article explores diversity management in HR, specifically focusing on the challenges and strategies for managing migrant/ethnic workers. It discusses issues related to workplace culture, learning barriers, and discrimination, and provides recommendations for HR development and rewarding systems.

Running Head: Diversity Management
DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT

Diversity Management 1
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Human Resource Development.......................................................................................................2
Issues................................................................................................................................................2
Practices...........................................................................................................................................3
Strategies..........................................................................................................................................4
Rewarding System in Human Resources.........................................................................................4
Issues................................................................................................................................................4
Practices...........................................................................................................................................5
Strategies..........................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Recommendations............................................................................................................................7
HR Development.............................................................................................................................7
Rewarding Systems in Human Resources.......................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Diversity Management has become an integral part of HRM (Human Resource Management)
(Underhill & Rimmer, 2016). A diverse team with people from different races, ethnicities, age,
and gender brings more in terms of multiculturalism which helps develop each member
individually thereby attaining collective growth of the team as a part of Human Resource
Management (Wyatt-Nichol & Antwi-Boasiako, 2012). A migrant worker refers to the person or
workers who migrate or move from one part to another part of the globe in the search of getting a
job or employment. A migrant worker can work on the seasonal or temporary basis. They are
important in meeting the abrupt rise in the demand of the worker in a particular section of the
working economy. They are helpful in the seasonal basis operating sectors. This report aims to
study diversity management of migrant/ethnic workers with respect to recruitment and selection
processes in Human Resource Management. The issues that come along with diversity
management in case of workers with migrant or ethnic backgrounds like legal issues and hiring
processes will be discussed further in the report. Inclusive teams containing diverse backgrounds
can face issues of discrimination in terms of races, ethnicities, age or gender and human
resources has a long way to go in such cases (Cascio, 2015). Multiple strategies are undertaken
to address these related issues like developing healthy and inclusive workplace culture, flexible
HR policies and practices for effective diversity management. The purpose of this report is to
learn best practices in a large organization which would be implemented by the Human Resource
Department both at a strategic level and organizational level to address issues related to workers
with migrant/ethnic backgrounds with respect to diversity management.
Human Resource Development
Issues
Improving the case for ethnic/migrant members of the minority worker section is a vital issue for
human resource development. It is often seen that workplace culture is unable to be inclusive for
a diverse group of team members as they are quite rigid (Rechelet al., 2013). As there are
existing legal and racial factors which may cause a minority employee to succumb to the

Diversity Management 3
pressure of the organization and bring stagnancy in the development, HR has a big role to play
here – they can help in the development of an healthy workplace culture without any
discrimination. They must concentrate on the formulation of strategies based on the removal of
discriminating legal and racial factors. They have to pay heed on the role and closely monitor the
execution of the strategies in the existing organizational framework. They need to address the
needs and issues of the employees and should empathize them (Cascio , 2015). In such cases,
employees are often exposed to a workplace culture that is out of their comfort zone, especially
in the case of minority workers. Apart from this a hostile learning environment can also turn out
to be a big issue for HR development (Noe et al. 2017). It is important to have a dynamic
learning environment in place to ensure that every employee gets the chance to develop new
skills and are exposed to a healthy competitive spirit within the organization. Learning
opportunities in an organization are often limited for minority workers as it takes more time for
ethnic/migrant workers to mingle with the local employees in a manner to voice their opinions
and try new ways of individual and collective development (Vidal et al., 2013). The barriers do
exists due to the underlying reasons:
 Difference in language
 Lack of communication
 Behavior toward these employees in a different way(maybe harsh and discriminating)
Lack of emotions
This barrier also brings in the issue of innovation where migrant workers are often seen to
participate less than their colleagues (Nelson, Poms & Wolf, 2012).
Practices
One of the best practices for HR development for migrant minority workers would be to make
information accessible when and where necessary (Stone & Deadrick, 2015). Communication at
an initial stage for seeking advice can pose a threat to the development of the diverse group of
employees, it is hence essential to ensure the basic set of information to get the job done is made
available to the new recruits (Stone, & Stone, 2013). This would be an effective approach to
address the issue of learning barrier. For the development of new skills which is an essential part

Diversity Management 4
of individual and collective development providing training in relevant skills would also be a
desired practice for HR (Noe et al., 2017). It is observed that workers belonging to minority
groups, ethnic or migrant, often lack one or more advanced skill required for the job, this
obstacle can easily be removed with the help of relevant training (Bratton & Gold, 2017). This
ensures that there is enough scope for development for minority workers at an individual level in
a large organization and can effectively remove cross-cultural barriers. Having a self-managed
team is also one of the ways to lay the path for voicing opinions and suggestions (Janssens &
Zanoni, 2014). This practice is able to bring out the leaders in a team. Leading roles are often
portrayed by the majority group in a large corporation which has very little to do with diversity
and hence a self-managed team under a diverse leader would be able to promote the cause for a
large organization (Janssens & Zanoni, 2014).
Strategies
There are multiple strategies that are to be implemented to address the issues related to the
development of migrant/ethnic workers, team building being an important one (Bloch, 2013).
This is necessary to ensure that all other members of the team are welcoming to the minority
section and are able to be inclusive in nature. Racism and other sorts of discrimination can be
addressed through a strong team building effort (Cadotte et al., 2011). This would not only boost
the minority section to gain confidence in their capability of work but also promote a healthy
workplace culture – Now definitely a question arises based on how and what happens in the
process of team building. Different activities of building a team are as follows:
 Organizing of different outdoor activities that involves the involvement of each and every
team members like those of outing, picnic, and fest etc.
 Organizing of indoor activities that can promote getting familiarize among the team
members and avoid practicing discrimination this includes games like Potluck, Battle of
the air bands, and Water balloon toss, egg drop etc.
. This aforementioned strategy can be paired with leadership development. Minority workers,
especially ethnic/migrant workers are viewed as regular workforce and rarely leaders are seen to
emerge from these groups because of the discussed obstacles (Vidal et al., 2013). It is hence of
utmost importance to assist and ensure participation of these workers in the leadership

Diversity Management 5
development program of the organization to bring in diversity at the top levels of management
(Bratton & Gold, 2017).
Rewarding System in Human Resources
Issues
There are multiple human resources rewarding system in place to motivate employees and keep
them longing to be better at their jobs and promote healthy competition in the organization
(Dansby et al., 2012). Monetary rewarding is one to be recognized in this case but falls short in
case of minority employees (Vidal et al., 2013). In most cases, a monetary rewarding system
depends highly on skilled labor and performance that is expected from an employee from the
initial joining days (Berrey, 2014). For migrant/ethnic employees such rewarding systems can be
depressing as they might lack the particular skill required or require more time to get accustomed
to the job (Wyatt-Nichol & Antwi-Boasiako, 2012). Another issue to be addressed here is the
minimum wage (Underhill &Rimmer, 2016). Most migrant/ethnic workers are the ones who are
desperately in need of a job and are ready to work for a payment lower than the standard
minimum wage (Wyatt-Nichol & Antwi-Boasiako, 2012). This gives rise to multiple issues, like
workforce, shifting to organizations offering minimum wage, medical security or more facilities
that these workers strive for (Greene & Kirton, 2011). The strong work ethic that these sections
of workers bring is crucial as because these people or workers can work in a given environment
with a sole aim of earning their living, they definitely not engage themselves in any short of
discriminating or non productive act that can affect their livelihood. They will try to maintain
their integrity in the workplace and in turn help the recruiting company to gain their business
objectives of earning revenue. For any organization and their lot can be used to grow and expand
the business in the long term. To ensure a dedicated and diverse workforce is in place, it is
essential that the payment and reward systems are built to promote diversity in an organization
(Stone & Deadrick, 2015).
Practices
There are multiple HR practices for reward systems which include financial rewards, benefits as
well as professional recognition. Financial rewards depending on the employees performance is’
very important in any large corporation (Dansby et al., 2012). This not only brings financial

Diversity Management 6
security to the employee in question but also boosts competition among colleagues. Financial
rewards have been in practice long enough and depend greatly on the overall performance,
leadership skills, time span of finishing a project and teamwork. This can prove to be an obstacle
for minority workers and hence different measures must be implemented to balance the scale.
Benefits are also attractive reward systems that would grasp the attention of minority employees
in an organization. Mainly for migrant workers, health benefits packages are something essential
that would not only help the employee in question but the family too (Armstrong & Taylor,
2014). Medical costs can be a huge dent the pockets for migrant and ethnic employees, in such
cases health benefits packages from the organization can be a great option to retain diverse
employees. To be a strong contender for professional recognition employees often engage in
healthy competition within the organization. As minority workers mostly have a strong ethical
background with basic and advanced training they have the potential to emerge victoriously
(Janssens&Zanoni, 2014). Professional recognition in such cases is vital to these workers.
Strategies
To retain the diversity in the group and promote healthy competition compensation based on
gradual growth must be implemented for minority workers (Berrey, 2014). This would champion
their cause and also motivate to grasp concepts and techniques, as and when required during the
growth process at the organization.(Ashikali and Groeneveld 2015) Financial rewards can prove
to be a great cause but straight up compensation can be a future strategy once the employee has
received fundamental training at the organization.(Berrey, 2014). Benefit systems would work
better for ethnic/migrant workers in such cases. Apart from health packages, company-
subsidized housing, stock options are also great options to address the rewarding system issues
for migrant workers (Rechelet al. 2013). Company-subsidized housing or health benefits are
things that attract minority workers more to the organization as these are aspects of their lives
that they face a challenging issue with every day. Professional recognition in terms of developing
leadership skills, personal growth, and team building efforts are also a great way but for migrant
workers when suchsystems are paired with time-off work, increase of basic salary scale and
benefits they are well appreciated among such workers (Bloch, 2013).

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Conclusion
Diversity management as a part of HR management is crucial to have cross-cultural aspects of an
organization. In light of this, the issues that are faced in HR development for minority workers
belonging to ethnic/migrant workers like discrimination, learning obstacles, and workplace
culture can prove to be a great hindrance in the overall development. These issues are to be
addressed with specific strategies out to practice intrinsically within the organization including
positive workplace culture, teambuilding strategies and leadership development which would
open doors to innovation and development for minority workers. Rewarding systems are vital to
boost individual directly and collective development, indirectly. These reward systems must be
tweaked for migrant/ethnic workers in terms of financial rewards, benefits including health or
medical benefits, housing benefits, time-off of work. The traditional rewarding systems are put in
place for workers who are accustomed to the existing workplace culture and to ensure that the
newcomers or minority workers are not overlooked and can participate equally well in the
internal competition of the organization it is essential to implement HR practices like housing
benefits, cash benefits, increment on gradual growth to ensure that the existing issues that these
communities often face in a new region are addressed (Cadotte, 2011).
Recommendations
HR Development
Development strategies for Human Resources are often rigid for large organizations. This issue
is one that has to be addressed to ensure a diverse multicultural environment is preserved at the
organization. Minority workers mostly lack the confidence to voice opinions and suggestion for
ongoing projects at their job which can be a major hindrance in individual and collective
development. Learning opportunities for basic and advanced training in terms of skill
development must be implemented to ensure that the diverse section of employees is better able
to participate in the productive internalcompetition within the organization (Jose
ChiappettaJabbour et al., 2011). Developing a positive workplace culture that allows the
minority section to mingle with the rest of the employees is also essential; this can be addressed
through team building efforts like working on projects in groups. Another way to incorporate
diverse employees would be through leadership development program which would thoroughly

Diversity Management 8
address the issues of voicing suggestions and opinions and thereby providing opportunities to
innovate and gain feedback for these employees. This would, in turn, help this section of workers
gain recognition within the organization. Leadership development program would benefit these
employees and the organization in the long term as it would help have top roles of the
organization be inclusive of a diverse group of people and provide an edge to the organization
for the cross-cultural aspect (Nelson, Poms & Wolf, 2012).
Rewarding Systems in Human Resources
Rewarding systems on their own are extremely attractive to employees who barely make
minimum wage (Greene & Kirton, 2011). Salary scales for migrant/ethnic workers are issues at
hand which need to be addressed immediately. Once such employees are appointed on minimum
wage, it would be in favor of the organization for its long term goals to boost such employees
(Ashikali and Groeneveld 2015). Such practices would ensure that these diverse group of
employees are retained in the organization for the long term and are able to showcase the strong
work ethic with new skills that they develop at the organization (Berrey, 2014). Financial
rewards like compensation to take home would also be a great option for such employees as the
main motive to have jobs for such workers is mostly motivated, if not entirely, on the basis of
being an income source for the family.(Dansby, Stewart & Webb 2012). Benefits such as health
benefits packages along with subsidized housing benefits are also great alternatives as these are
table incomes and can be a great source of motivation for such workers which has proven to be
more advantageous than simple professional recognition (Groeneveld, 2011). These are practical
solutions that keep a minority employee motivated to retain at an organization rather than
frequently shifting from one source to the other.

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