Each day we step through the doors of our organisation to share our tasks with different personalities, thoughts, values, origins and purposes. We are in the presence of diversity!
Diversity in itself, however, is neither positive nor negative for the company. If it is managed properly, it can contribute to the exchange of differences in order to create common projects.
Human Resources trends aim at managing diversity as a corporate strategy intended to encourage and integrate the plurality present at the organisation and thus translate it into economic and social benefits. Understanding that companies are social groups made up of unique individuals that must collaborate based on the same goals.
In this sense, Human Resources should also promote collective intelligence (understanding the contribution of micro-knowledge) in order to develop creative projects; not waste employee knowledge; promote seeking better solutions; generate inclusion and rely on the work team’s experiences in order to obtain better results.
How can we manage diversity?
The response seems much simpler than what it entails, but a true leader focuses on discovering what motivates each team member, their opportunities for professional development, identifying their purpose and creating conditions so that each collaborator is able to maximise their potential.
According to IE Centre for Diversity Director Celia de Anca, the keys to managing diversity are:
- Integrate differences: ensuring that each individual feels accepted and valued on the team.
- Identities of origin, growth and aspiration: our identities of origin allow us to be connected to the past, those of growth will help us to relate and those of aspiration will help us to find people with whom we would like to further our development.
- The value of companies: it is necessary to consider how to create the right context so that the organisation’s members can collaborate on common projects according to their aspirations. In this context, it is possible to create an organisational structure where positions are not permanent. Google was the first to implement the policy that their employees spend 60% of their time in a fixed position, 30% in a position of their choosing and 10% free time to create.
It is clear that if a company does not understand the individualities of their talents, it is impossible to integrate those differences to the point of achieving innovation, flexibility, motivation and commitment. Create a company that everyone can be a part of!
