Challenges Faced by Google in Managing a Diverse Workforce

This presentation discusses the challenges faced by Google in managing a diverse workforce, including generation gap, language and communication barriers, building culture without biases, ethnic and cultural differences, gender equality, acceptance and respect, and accommodation of beliefs. It also provides recommendations for successful implementation.

Personal and Managerial
Effectiveness

 Introduction
 Discussion and Analysis
 Conclusion
 Recommendations
 References
Index

A diverse workforce refers to various means through which a company bills
human resource in such a way which consist of different type of people. This
differentiation between people can be due to their ethnicity is, social economic
status, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age and so on. This basically means
that people working in organisation have different personalities and will also
approach to different situation in different manner. Some can be introvert and
some can be extrovert.
Introduction

Below mentioned are the challenges faced by Google:
Generation gap: It is often seen that there are a number of employees working in
similar organisation who have different ages. It has been assumed that by 2025 most of
the percentage of employees in an organisation will consist of Millennial. This is stating
that the changing work culture in organisation will effectively have a great impact on
business structure. When taking Google into consideration most of the employs are
young as Google needs innovative and creative minds. Due to this the people of other
generations usually find it difficult to adapt with the changes in the organisation and it
leads the organisation towards various problems (Conway and Monks, 2017).
Discussion and Analysis

 Language and communication: Language and communication methods are one of the major barrier which are
present in every company according to research. It is often seen in Google also when diverse workforce
communicates with each other the barrier of communication and language always appears. In United States
and United Kingdom there are a number of people with their native tongue and their first language is not
English. Due to this it is difficult for employees in the organisation to communicate effectively with each
other..
 Building and acknowledging culture without biases: One of the major challenge that an organisation with
diverse workforce have to face is building a culture in the organisation that is acknowledging everyone’s
believes and values without any bias between them. It is often seen that consciously or unconsciously there are
a number of cultural barriers built between people working together who belong to different culture and
background. It is also a great threat for the managers in Google who are trying to apply diverse workforce
within the organisation. There are a number of talented and capable workers present in the external
environment who belong to different cultures and backgrounds.
Cont. …

 Ethnic and cultural differences: The ethnic and cultural differences in today’s environment
and organisation are very common. There was a report generated by New York Times which
stated that there are only five African American CEO in all of the Fortune 500 companies. It is
often seen that the African-American are less likely to receive a call back when looking for a
job. Google is working on this and making sure that they are including African American
people in their organisation as far as possible. The issues due to ethnic and cultural differences
are always present in a diverse workforce.
 Gender equality: It is often seen that a number of organisations are usually hiring men over
women. It is a common believe that men work better in corporate sector when compare to
women. However Google is taking a number of steps when hiring women and providing them
equal rights in the on salary there are equal opportunities and promotion provided to women.
Cont. …

 Acceptance and respect: When there are a number of people with different backgrounds included
in the same organisation it is often seen that the acceptance and respect for each other cannot be
generated. It is necessary that every employee is contributing towards respect among workers and
employs successfully. Due to this lack of acceptance in a diverse workforce believes of a number of
employs are disrespected due to which conflicts between employs arises.
 Accommodation of believes: As Google tries to include diverse workforce in the organisation it is
often seen that there are a number of people who belong to different cultural, spiritual or political
believes. Due to this difference in believes and values there are a number of conflicts taking place
between the employees in the organisation. Employees tries to impose their own believes and
spiritual thinking on other employees due to which grievances between employs occur.
Cont. …

With the help of the above mentioned report it can be clearly
concluded that organisations need to make sure they are specifically working
upon diverse workforce which will help in bringing a number of benefits to
the organisation. There are a number of different challenges that
organisations have to go through which include generation gap, acceptance
and respect, accommodation of beliefs, ethnic and cultural differences,
gender equality, physical and mental disabilities, language and
communication barrier, acknowledging culture without any bias and so on
which are resulting in barriers for managers to adopt diverse workforce.
Conclusion

There are a number of ways in which Google can successfully implement diverse
workforce meeting all the challenges. Some of the recommendations are mentioned below:
 It is necessary for managers in Google’s to train and develop employees specifically
upon cultural knowledge. It is required that employees are provided with knowledge
about different cultures which will help them in understanding and valuing beliefs of
others.
 Strict policies and procedures must be adopted in the organisation in order to make sure
that any bias towards a culture or certain diverse group of people can be neglected.
People in organisation practising such actions should be legally punished in order to
stop their behaviour.
Recommendations

 Putman, H. and et. al., 2016. High Hopes and Harsh Realities: The Real
Challenges to Building a Diverse Workforce. Brookings Institution.
 Conway, E. and Monks, K., 2017. Designing a HR system for managing an
age-diverse workforce: Challenges and opportunities. In The Palgrave
handbook of age diversity and work (pp. 585-606). Palgrave Macmillan,
London.
 Chandra, M., 2018. MANAGING DIVERSE WORKFORCE ISSUES &
CHALLENGES. NOLEGEIN-Journal of Human Resource Management &
Development, pp.35-37.
References

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