Deakin University HRM Essay: Australian Workforce Diversity Analysis

This essay critically evaluates the ethnic and multicultural makeup of the Australian workforce, exploring the potential benefits and challenges faced by human resource management (HRM) and related HR practices. Drawing on the Victoria’s Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission report, the essay addresses the implications of racial discrimination, highlighting its impact on individuals, HR practitioners, and organizations. It examines the diverse composition of the Australian workforce, emphasizing the contributions of people from various cultural backgrounds, and discusses the benefits of a multicultural workforce, such as increased innovation and productivity. The essay also addresses the HRM challenges, including cultural stereotypes and communication barriers, and outlines HR practices that organizations can adopt to strategically manage a diverse workforce, such as providing cross-cultural training and promoting inclusivity. The essay emphasizes the importance of senior management commitment and creating a supportive environment for effective communication, team building, and employee empowerment, ultimately aiming to maximize the value and benefits of a culturally diverse workforce.

Running head: HRM
Human Resource Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Introduction:
The essay provides critical evaluation of the ethnic and multicultural diverse make up,
potential benefits and challenges faced by human resource management (HRM) and the HR
practices in relation to the Australian workforce. The latest publication of Australian job by the
federal government puts across an impression regarding the present job market thereby
highlighting the major changes relating to the varied occupations and industries. In spite of the
growth in the jobs in the year 2015 certain challenges however persisted for the young and the
matured job seeker. The report put forward by the Victoria’s Equal Opportunity and Human
Rights in the year 2019 showed that there has been close to 90 percent rise in the complaints
related to racial discrimination (humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au 2019). Such kind of racial
discrimination has been found to have significant implications for the individuals, HR
practitioners and the organization. Racial discrimination refers to a kind of discrimination of
people based on color, skin, ethnic or racial origin (Rajendran, Farquharson and Hewege 2017).
Discrimination against any individual within the workplace is against the law. Companies tries to
protect all its employee against recruitment, dismissal and workplace terms and conditions.
Leading thinkers, researchers and practitioners has been found to examine the key factors
that might influence the future of labor market of Australia. The key aspect lies in the difficulty
of predicting the future. Nevertheless it is highly possible to comprehend the key forces that
shapes the workforce. The report identifies the ethnic, multicultural and the diverse make up of
Australian workforce. The report also provides a detailed description of the potential benefits and
the HRM challenges created by diverse and multicultural workforce. Further, the report also
mentions the steps that the HR needed to adopt provided they needed to manage the ethical and
multicultural workforce in a productive and strategic manner while meeting the employee needs.

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Discussion:
Multicultural and ethnic diverse make up of Australian workforce
According to Azizul and Jain (2013), Australia enjoyed a sustained period of economic
productivity and growth during the last decade due to presence of competitive, diverse and an
educated workforce. The cultural diversity within the organization helped in strengthening
innovation, growth and productivity within the Australian workplace.
The workforce of Australia had been remarkably diverse comprising of people from
diverse cultural backgrounds, ages, religion, lifestyle and gender (Davis, Frolova and Callahan
2016). In the year 2011, Australia comprised of a population of close to 21.5 million people
amongst whom 46 percent either had one oversees parent or they themselves had been born
overseas. This diversity gets reflected in the workforce of Australia with 13 percent of workers
born to countries that are non-English speaking and 23 percent of them being born overseas.
Thus, Australia has a workforce comprising of massive range of individual capabilities,
experiences and the perspectives that is yet to be used.
Piquet (2017) mentioned that as far as multicultural make up is concerned, the
workforce of Australia gets progressively enhanced and shaped through contributions of the
people from the linguistically and the culturally diverse background. In other words, population
policy acts as the key consideration to the economic and the employment policy of Australia.
The commercial and economic history of Australia provides stronger evidence towards the
effectiveness of the culturally diverse workforce. The immigration boom in Australia post the
war had a positive and significant impact on economy and in reshaping the nature of workforce
in Australia through using newer skills and in expanding the commercial and the business

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interest. The removal of the restrictive immigration policies in the year 1970 exposed the
economy of Australia thus providing newer market and opportunities. In present day, the
presence of market competitiveness, rising demands for labor and financial challenges on a
global scale, encourages Australia in putting across its greatest opportunities through best use of
the resources and the skills of culturally diverse workforce for benefiting the staffs and the
employees. The greatest challenge lies in effectively recognizing and managing the cultural
diversity for maximizing the value and completely enjoying the benefits.
Walsh (2014) put forward that although benefits of culturally diverse workforce is
understood, however the distinct skills, expertise and the knowledge of the linguistically and the
culturally different workers has not been acknowledged appropriately as well as used and
promoted in the Australian workplace. People from multicultural background continues to
experience barriers while seeking employment, has limitation in the recognition of the overseas
qualifications and skills and thereby faces racism, discrimination and intolerance. As employer
adopting any of the strategies of the diversity management mentioned below will aid in
addressing the barriers that will help an employer in using and maximizing benefits of diverse
workforce. The first one includes, providing cross cultural opportunities of training to enhance
awareness across employees for enhancing the expertise and knowledge including the
communication and the language skills. While the second one includes extension of immense
support towards campaign related to national racism that helped in delivering clearer message
that the concerned organization does not tolerate any kind of racism within workplace.
According to Emerson and Murphy (2014), the inclusion of ethnically diverse makeup
of the workforce tends to make people happier. This has been not only been true for people
belonging to the minority groups but also those for whom inclusion had not been harder. The

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Diversity Council of Australia in the year 2017 put forward that people in ethnically diverse team
had been more likely to remain satisfied with work compared to people belonging to the non-
inclusive team (dca.org.au 2018). This will allow them to receive a pay hike and opportunities for
career developments. Ethical and cultural diversity has been beneficial for the business. According
to McKinsey Report of 2017, companies in top quartile with cultural and ethnic diversity on
executive teams had been more likely in generating profitability (mckinsey.com 2018). Companies
in the bottom quartile with cultural and ethnic diversity have likeliness of achieving an above
average profitability.
The data from United States portrays how the reduced racial discrimination of the
workplace results in economic benefits of the society at large. Economist from the Chicago and the
Standford University analyzing the labor productivity in United States between the 1960 and the
2008 found 20 percent in the growth of the productivity over time that is directly attributed to
reducing the racial discrimination. In Australia, migrants have an enormous contribution to the
economy of Australia and helps in providing estimated fiscal benefit.
Mujtaba (2013) put across that Australia has immense support for ethnic diversity in
workplace. Three of the four Australian workers strongly supports the organization in taking action
for the creation of a workplace that is inclusive and diverse with three percent opposing it. Given
the immense support for the ethnic diversity of workplace, many large organizations of Australia
implemented policies that aimed towards increasing diversity of staffs.
HRM Challenges and Potential Benefits of Multi-cultural and Ethnically Diverse Workforce
According to Draghici (2015), embracing the multi-cultural and the ethnic diverse
workforce in workplace has been a key step in business looking for becoming competitive at the
global level. There are ample reasons for a company to promote the ethnic and multicultural

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workplace. However, it can also result in various challenges within organization. Some of these
challenges are mentioned in the following paragraphs.
It has been found that one if the challenges in a multi-cultural and ethnically diverse
workforce is that employees from certain cultures do not want their voices to be heard. Being
vocal is vital for creating an inclusive and open work environment so that the team members
feels the need for contribution. This can particularly be challenging for the employees belonging
to a differential or polite culture. It is difficult to initiate integration across the multicultural
and ethnically diverse team in face of the prejudice or the cultural stereotypes. Sometimes it is
vital in fostering integration amongst the team such that the colleagues from the different
countries did not limit the knowledge transfer or work in isolation. This becomes a key challenge
that needed to be overcome particularly when there have been underlying prejudices between the
cultures making them lesser inclined in working with one another. Destructive cultural
stereotypes put forward a bad example for the employees that has a long term impact on the
productivity. A workforce which is multi-cultural and ethnically diverse might have different
level of understanding of the professional etiquettes. A diverse workforce results in colleagues
from varied cultures who possess different attitudes, etiquette and values. Although this can be
an enriching and rewarding preposition it might also lead to misunderstanding and ill feelings
between the team members.
DeLancey (2013) put across various benefits of multicultural and ethnically diverse
team. The first and foremost benefit of this type of team lies in not only inspiring creativity but
also fostering innovation. The culture of the workplace might have a huge impact on ways
through which employees’ overviews the business world. Despite the difference in the points of
view along with different kinds of professional and personal experience of a diverse team, it

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helps in providing a newer perspective that inspire the employees in overseeing the corporate
world and workplace differently. Diversity in the thought foster innovation and inspire
creativity and helps in solving problems and meeting expectations of customers in an exciting
and newer manner. One of the means of inculcating unique thinking in organization is through
the acceptance of ideologies of the different perspectives, personalities and voices (Meeussen,
Otten and Phalet 2014). In doing so, there is a need for providing a platform to diverse employee
group for sharing greater ideas that goes a long way in benefiting the entire organization.
According to a study conducted by Forbes, the best ways of ensuring development of the newer
ideas is through inclusive and diverse workforce. The multicultural and ethnically diverse team
also acts as great opportunities for ensuring professional and personal growth. The ethnic and
multicultural workforce helps in attracting ambitious, talented and the global professionals who
can appreciate opportunities of the professional and the personal growth. Working across
cultures can be an enriching experience that allow the employees in learning different traditions
and perspectives across globe. The bonding over the differences and similarities assist them in
becoming the global citizens that goes a longer way in reducing the prejudice or the global
perspective. This can also be professionally enriching as varied set of the colleagues remains
exposed to the work approaches and new skills.
HR Practices Organizations Adopted for Managing Multicultural and Ethnically Diverse
Workforce in Strategic and Productive Manner While Meeting Employee Needs
In fact, the key responsibility for meaningful and effective management of a diverse
workforce lies the hands of the senior management. According to Cole and Salimath (2013),
organizational leaders are the most effective people in demonstrating commitment towards
diversity by incorporating mission statements and strategies of the organizations. It is however

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vital to note that evaluation and execution of diverse corporate strategy using planned approach
to change not only value and acknowledge the importance of diverse workforce but also
incorporate diversity into the corporate culture of the organization. It is however vital for the
leaders to not only remain proactive in learning from the diversity and establish climate of
tolerance, equity, inclusion and openness but establish excellent communication, team building
and facilitation skills, honesty, integrity and humor (McCuiston et al. 2004). It has been stated
that the best practices for maintaining a diverse workforce also require the leaders to concentrate
on the creation of an environment that supports the internal communication as this leads to
increased level of openness and tolerance amongst themselves (Lauring and Selmer 2012).
Interaction and communication within workplace improves the performance of workplace
through empowering the employees with resources and information required for self-expression,
decision making, sharing of ideas and promotion of self- esteem (Sabharwal 2014). According to
a conducted research, a big financial institution of Australia with cultural diversity management
practice when perceived by the employees is considered as the sign of the support and care
thereby affecting the commitment of the employees. In order to achieve the objective managers
should invite the employees to participate in the implementation and formulation of the diversity
management policies. Managers might focus on the success of ethnically and multicultural
workforce diversity through maintaining positive behaviors. As per Bertone and Leahy (2013),
some of the longstanding and social attitudes like racial and ethnic stereotyping has been hard to
change. In Australia, some of the senior managers perceives the diversity policies as a threat to
the positions and therefore might fight any type of initiatives related to diversity in spite of
evidence that put across suggestions of diversity benefiting the organizations. According to
Bridgstock, Lettice and Özbilgin 2010), smaller number of companies recognized for being

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competitive in the global marketplace of today they required to have a multicultural and
ethnically diverse set of employees. Managers need to play a key role in building and
encouraging the environment through development and recruitment of the diverse employees.
The organizations that recognized this has enjoyed benefits including huge commitment of
employees, enhanced share of the market and increased level of customer satisfaction. For
example, National Australia Bank shows that it is not only vital to attract, retain and develop
employees but also to retain and develop them.
Therefore, managing a multicultural and ethnically diverse workforce is considered at
heart of human resource policies and practices. The HR practices for managing a diverse
workforce can be demonstrated in three different levels comprising of strategic level, tactical
level and the operational level. The strategic level concentrate on the strategy of human resource
that values the formalized policies, values diversity and measures and audits diversity. The
tactical level concentrates on the training, staffing, development, remuneration and appraisal
while the operational level concentrates on educating the employees, ensuring flexible
employment, ensuring work life balance and networking communication. Babalola & Marques
(2013) put across that managing a diverse workforce represents a systematic and planned
commitment by organizations for recruiting, retaining, rewarding and promoting a heterogeneous
employee mix. However, a successful management of an ethnic and multicultural workforce
includes adoption of number of HR practices by an organization. These generally includes
diverse workforce recruitment, programs related to training of diverse workforce, rewards for the
efforts of a diverse workforce, training program and employee support group for the workforce,
accommodation of the family needs, communication standards, senior mentoring and the
diversity audits. In addition to this, the human resource should look forward to the dimensions

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for supporting development, building rapport, acknowledging the value and recognizing
individuality into the selection, appraisal and the payment policies. A firm in Australia referred
as Australian Digital, ensured the integration of managing diversity into the management
practice through using the reward system and the performance appraisal that takes into
consideration the means through which the HR managers are able to meet the affirmative action
and the targets for equal employment opportunity.
Thus, organization should adopt HR practice where the recruitment program remains
related to managing a diverse workforce that involves gaining competitive advantage through
recruitment of a diverse individuals (Meena and Vanka 2013). Various organizations have
recruited an ethnically diverse and multicultural workforce for mirroring the increased level of
diversity. Organizations should ensure that HR practices must relate diversity to the selection
program for effective management of diverse workforce. This would allow the HR managers in
making the decisions for selection based on the criteria of sensitiveness towards diversity
(Caligiuri, Lazarova and Zehetbauer 2014). HR practice of an organization should implement
training program related to diversity. This involves a systematic process where a workforce is
provided necessary training about socio economic, cultural, religious and racial differences
amongst the employees. They can however divided into two key categories skilled based and
awareness based training program. The HR practice of an organization should also relate
diversity to the reward program for promotion of workforce diversity. Presently, various
organizations has undertaken initiatives for providing incentives based on the performance
management to diversity management. To ensure effective fulfillment of the employee need
through recruiting multicultural and diverse workforce, the HR practice of the organization
should relate appraisal program to the performance of diverse workforce. It has however been

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found that discrimination and pay inequality in the performance appraisal has been root causes of
the demotivation and the job satisfaction amongst a diverse workforce and is considered a major
issue of the HR diversity. To encourage adoption of multicultural and ethnic workforce, the HR
practice of an organization should create support group in relation to diversity. This considered
as one of the major HR practice practiced by organizations. For instance, in California, the
support group of Apple includes a Jews cultural group, Afro-American group, lesbian or gay
group and a women’s group.
Choi and Rainey (2013), mentioned that irrespective of the particular practice and
strategic focus adopted, maintaining a diverse workforce might be attained through action and
not intention, via interactions of the employees and the mutual understanding. For achieving
such aims, organizations are mostly advised for encouraging employees to communicate and
congregate with one another. The practices that facilities it includes establishment of diverse
teams, creation of cross-functional committees and involvement of the people in ceremonial and
social activities.
In other words, this call for the need of strategic focus on having diversified leaders in the
influential position since evidence puts across that the mentors have a tendency for selecting
apprentices similar to themselves based on the criteria of education, background, race, religion
and ethnicity (Jauhari and Singh 2013). The alternate practice of achieving it includes focus on
the deliberate recruitment of the workforce which reflects ethnic and cultural mix of the
ambience where the firm operates.
Conclusion:

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On a concluding note, it can however be said that a diverse workforce has become a
norm. In the long term, in wake of globalization, it is not possible for an organization to survive
without the workforce diversity. It has been found that through capitalizing on potential benefits
of the workforce diversity organizations has been able to gain competitive advantage in
innovation, creativity, flexibility and problem solving. Effective management of diversity hinges
on the valuation of diversity by the top management and development of the organizational
culture for supporting the diversity initiatives. At the strategic level, the top management
formulates the organizational strategies through critical evaluation of benefits of maintaining a
diverse workforce within organization. The essay also portrays how the HR managers needed to
act as the catalyst in leveraging the diversity through development of organizational culture that
supported and nurtured diversity at the various levels. The essay further portrays that the
diversity management strategies of HR like the diversity related training, support groups, work
life balance, flexible timings and the diversity audit for acting as the mediators between
performance and maintenance of ethnically diverse multicultural workforce.

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