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Human Resource Management-Assignment 01 Workplace Diversity

Name: Jude Shevantha Ranasinghe Student ID: RAJSD183 Unit Code: MAN2145D Lecturer Name: Mrs. Nilushi Sathya Eleperuma

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Executive summary The following report identifies and critically discusses 3 major challenges faced by human resource managers when handling diversity in the workplace. Diversity in the workplace is required for a business to move forward and grow faster, but it also comes with risks of its own. Uptown Liberty Plaza is a retail and fashion industry, and the following report explains how HR managers can tackle these 3 challenges.

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Table of contents

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1.0 Introduction

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2.0 Major Challenges

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2.1 Gender Equality

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2.2 Physical and Mental Disabilities

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2.3 Generation Gaps

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3.0 Literature review

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3.1 Advantages of a diverse workforce

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3.2 Disadvantages of a diverse workforce

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3.3 Advantages of Hiring Mentally or Physically Disabled people

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3.4 Disadvantages of Hiring Mentally or Physically Disabled people

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3.5 Generation gap

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4.0 Best Practices

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5.0 Recommendations and Solutions 6.0 Conclusion

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1.0 Introduction The following report discusses three major challenges related to workplace diversity. Human resource managers are challenged by different tasks on a daily basis, and workplace diversity is amongst the most challenging tasks because of the sensitivity and complexity of diversity. Human resource management is about the acquisition (recruitment and selection), optimization (performance management) and development of the workforce. I have selected Uptown Liberty Plaza to identify and critically discuss 3 major challenges faced by human resource managers. Uptown Liberty Plaza is a clothing/ fashion retailer based in Kollupitiya, Sri Lanka. Uptown sells high-quality apparel at reasonable prices and they also sell other accessories such as handbags, perfumes, branded watches and souvenirs. The apparel industry in Sri Lanka is a highly competitive industry, the apparel industry in Sri Lanka has been steadily growing over the past three decades and it plays a major role in Sri Lanka’s economy, for example, it employs about 15% of the countries workforce, and in 2018 the apparel industry earned 5 billion dollars in export revenue and these garment exports contribute to 44% of national exports. Total employment generated in the garment sector is more than 990,000. (Apparel, n.d.) Sri Lanka records the highest apparel exports per capita of any exporting nation in the region. The apparel industry in Sri Lanka does not use any illegal working practices like using child labour etc., and Sri Lankan garments are "garments without guilt" meaning that one does not have to feel guilty for buying clothing brands that are made in Sri Lanka. (Apparel, (n.d.)) Sri Lanka has a highly diverse workforce, with people coming from different cultural backgrounds, this includes race, religion, in some cases people from different nationalities, age, sex etc. for these reasons the workplace becomes very diverse and it faces a lot of challenges and issues. Diversity in the workplace can be defined as a mixture of people with different group identities within the same social system.

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In this report, I will be highlighting 3 major challenges faced by human resource managers, the 3 challenges I have chosen is gender equality, physical and mental disabilities and generation gaps. (7 Biggest Diversity Issues in The Workplace, (2019))

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2.0 Major Challenges Identified 3 challenges that are faced by human resource managers when working and dealing with a highly diverse workforce. Diversity in the workplace has its benefits and drawbacks, and it’s the human resource manager’s job to make sure that this diversity is managed and kept up to standard to ensure maximum productivity and Employee satisfaction. The challenges that I identified are: 1. Gender equality 2. Physical and mental disabilities 3. Generation gaps (20 Advantages and Disadvantages of Diversity in the Workplace, (2019))

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2.1 Gender Equality Gender equality is the act of treating men and women equally. (Gender Equality, (n.d.)) Gender equality is achieved when men and women enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society including economic participation and decision making. (what is gender equality?, (n.d.)) Gender equality in the workplace deals with equality in recruitment, training, pay and career advancement for men and women. (Sarvaiya, H., & Eweje, G. (n.d.)) Gender inequality has drastically increased in Sri Lanka of the past decade, in 2006 Sri Lanka rank 13th out of 115 countries in 2018 its ranking dropped to 100 out of 149 countries. Please refer to Annexure 1, it shows the gender development index in 2017. (Samuel, K. (n.d.)) As shown in the graph you can see that the GNI (GNI stands for Gross National Income) per capita for males is much greater compared to females GNI per capita. Due to norms and beliefs, women in Sri Lanka are expected to bear the responsibilities of the household, especially after marriage and having children. Results have shown that despite the countries major improvements in education, health care and other HDI indicators, women have low chances to get into the workforce than men and even if they do get hired they are faced with wage discrimination. (Women at Work: The Course for Sri Lanka. (2018)) Why is it so important to close this gender gap? Closing the gender gap will bring a lot of benefits to the Sri Lankan economy. It’s stated that a smaller gender gap in South East Asia could lead to an economy earning up to $3.2 trillion, this increased earnings will benefit the economy immensely.

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2.2 Physical and Mental Disabilities Physical and mental disabilities are common and come in a range of different forms, for example, physical disabilities would include physiological disorder, cosmetic disfigurement or anatomical loss which can impact one or more body systems. Mental disabilities are usually related to a mental or psychological disorder. (What is a physical or mental impairment? (n.d.)) Employees with any form of disability will most probably require special attention so as to help them go about their work easily and independently so that they not only get their work done, but they do not need any assistance to get their work done. Disabled people will also find it difficult to fit into some organisations, due to their inability to do some tasks. Disable workers tend to get a much lower salary when comparing with normal workers with no disabilities and this is one of the biggest challenges faced when hiring a disabled worker.

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2.3 Generation Gaps Generation gaps can be a big issue because different generations do work in different ways, for example, the way one generation communicates will be significantly different the way another generation communicates. Younger generations can adapt to change much faster when compared to older generations. As a result, employees from other generations may find it difficult to adapt to a workplace culture that the younger generation brings about. Usually, conflict occurs when 2 different generations do not understand what the other is saying or the way one generation said it might have been interpreted wrongly by the other generation. Most conflicts occur between Baby boomers and GenZ (or millennials). (How to Bridge the Generation Gap in the Workplace: Deputy®. (2019)) Larger businesses have more diverse age groups, as a result, different clicks of social circles may be formed within the company. As a result, workers might be isolated or cut out from teams due to the generation gap. This may cause inefficiency in the workplace and might even lead to conflicts within teams and employees. Please refer Annexure 02 to see statistics on preferred communication styles by different generations.

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3.0 Literature review 3.1 Advantages of a diverse workforce (20 Advantages and Disadvantages of Diversity in the Workplace. (2019)) 1. Each team member can direct all their efforts on their strengths, this is because each team member will have different strengths and weakness, and each member will bring a different set of skills to the table. Diversity in the workplace allows for strengths and weakness to be evenly spread out so that the effectiveness of the group can be maximized and minimized respectively. 2. The company, in this case, uptown liberty plaza will have access to more talent, this occurs when diversity has a higher priority when it comes to recruitment and selection for human resource managers. The main objective is to hire an employee based on their talent and skills. 3. Companies can grow bigger, at a faster rate, when compared to companies that do not hire or have a diverse workforce. In the United States, human resource managers claim that having a more diverse workforce helps the company grow faster. 4. It's a way to increase the creativity of an entire team, having a diverse workforce means that it's one of the best environments for employees to brainstorm this is because different employees will have different views based on their backgrounds and their different culture.

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3.2 Disadvantages of a diverse workforce (20 Advantages and Disadvantages of Diversity in the Workplace. (2019)) 1. Diversity in the workplace can create too many opinions, diversity can increase productivity, but it can also lead to reduced productivity. This is because the number of opinions that are pitched can cause confusion, disapproval and other conflicts that can slow down the speed of the project. Search conflicts can lead to employees not pitching their ideas because they feel like they are constantly being ignored by the supervisor or decision-maker. 2. There can be communication problems, especially when it comes to people who speak different languages. There also could be issues between people who speak the same language, especially when it comes to workplace jargon. Employees can get very confused with such communication methods, especially if they are new to the organisation. 3. There might be a rise in conflict and complaints due to increased diversity. The problem arises because people come from different backgrounds and as a result, their views on how work should be done will differ according to how work is done in their own culture. For example, some people like to work with music in the background whole others need pin-drop silence to get any work done, and there is a conflict between the individuals who prefer working with music and those who prefer silence. Furthermore, if employees feel like they cannot work together and if they feel that management is not doing anything about the situation they might simply resign from their jobs because they are feeling uncomfortable working in such environments. This adds more pressure on human resource managers because this means that new recruits are needed.

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3.3 Advantages of Hiring Mentally or Physically Disabled people (Hiring Disabled Workers - Top 12 Advantages and Disadvantages, (2019)) 1. Tax Reductions: Governments encourage businesses to hire disabled people so that they will have better and more employment opportunities, government organisations can reduce direct taxes on salaries or they might subsidise the equipment and machinery needed to make a business more disabled people friendly. 2. Company image and goodwill: recruiting disabled workers can boost the companies brand image by a huge margin. Hiring disabled people should not be taken as a method of improving brand image. Customers and even internal workers will feel a sense of pride when shopping or working with disabled people because they are shopping or working for a company that does not discriminate. 3. Loyal employees: disable people are most likely to be more loyal to their employers because it's difficult to them to find job vacancies due to discrimination, so when they find a job they will usually be very loyal and they will do the best to meet deadlines when compared to the counterparts.

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3.4 Disadvantages of Hiring Mentally or Physically Disabled people (Hiring Disabled Workers - Top 12 Advantages and Disadvantages, (2019)) (Kleinsmit, J. (n.d.)) 1. Low productivity or low speed: usually disabled people will work slower, when compared to people who have no disabilities this is because disabled people have restricted movement or their thinking capabilities can be slow therefore it takes them longer time to complete a task, and as a result, human resource managers think twice before hiring a mentally or physically disabled worker. 2. Discrimination in the workforce: sometimes workers who do not have disabilities might dislike working with those who do have disabilities, because they may not like certain features of a disabled person, or they might not like working with them because they may feel that they are slow and therefore project deadlines will be harder to meet. 3. Infrastructure needs to be disabled people-friendly: companies’ infrastructure should be disabled people friendly, this means that they should have ramps so that they can move around without much help from caretakers. If the office space has more than one floor then elevators will be required so that a disabled employee will not be restricted. Furthermore, special bathrooms are needed for disabled employees because they require a lot more space to move around. All of this is seen as an additional cost to the company and as a result of all of these additional costs, firms might not be too enthusiastic to hire a mentally or physically disabled person.

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3.5 Generation Gaps When comparing the different generations, from baby boomers (born between 1946 to 1964) all the way to Gen Z (born 1996 to present day), the way work is done in each of these generations are very different. For example, the business structure that would be commonly known to baby boomers would be a tall structure, whereas Gen Z employees would be more familiar with a flat business structure. (How to Bridge the Generation Gap in the Workplace: Deputy®. (2019)) Generational gaps bring the following challenges; 1. Varying communication styles 2. Different views and work ethics 3. Different conflict resolving methods 4. Different methods in approaching work life and personal life balance Each generation has its strengths and weakness which bring complicated challenges to human resource managers.

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4.0 Best Practices (Miller, B. (2016)) Best practices can be defined as commercial or professional procedures that are accepted or prescribed as being correct or most effective. Following are some best practices that are done in the apparel industry: 1. Provide diversity training: by training employees to be more accepting to other employee’s views, employees will be able to work with each other's strengths, this, in turn, will help to create a more welcoming environment. 2. Having a more flexible working schedule: having a more flexible working schedule means that employees will be able to balance their work-life and family life much better. As a result, this increases employee satisfaction. 3. Focus on retention: employing a diverse workforce can be difficult and over time it can lead to high employee turnover, therefore it is important to make sure that employee turnover is kept at a minimum so that the business will not lose on training and development of employee skills. 4. Recruit over a broad Geographic area: expanding the Geographic scope of recruitment can lead more potential candidates, and also a possibility of a person with the culture into the organisation (increasing the diversity of the organisation) if the company recruits from another country or a different state. 5. Organisation culture: while it’s important to have a diverse workforce, it's also important to make sure that everyone feels welcome and comfortable at work, sometimes some work practices might make new recruits feel unwelcome or uncomfortable. Such practices must be eliminated so that employees feel more welcome at work.

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5.0 Recommendations and Solutions The challenges faced in 2.0 are not unsolvable, here are some solutions and recommendations to help solve these challenges so that the company can run smoothly with very few diversity issues.

Gender equality To achieve gender equality in the workplace; 1. Companies need to provide equal pay for work of equal value, similar work done by male and female workers should receive the same pay and there should be no gender discrimination when wages are paid. 2. Access to leadership roles and all occupations and industries regardless of gender, it's seldom to see a woman have a high position in most South Asian countries. 3. Employer's need to maintain equality when hiring and promoting employees when giving them opportunities, it's important that HR managers do their job as fairly as possible and that they do not select a man over a woman even if they have the same skill level.

Physical and mental disabilities 1. Disabled people are heavily invested in their work because one of their main goals is to be recognised by their colleagues. So by default, they are very hard working. It's important that colleagues do not treat disabled colleagues differently because they want to blend in just like the other workers. Therefore it's important that workers treat their disabled colleagues just like how they would treat a normal colleague. 2. Disabled people might need assistance occasionally, in this case, Uptown liberty plaza must make sure that their needs are met so that they will be happy and satisfied workers of the company. 3. It is important that managers be honest with appraisal and feedback, what this means is that managers should not show leniency to people who are disabled because it will affect the ability for disabled employees to notice the drawbacks

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and where they need to improve, as a result, they won't be able to improve the performance at work. (Otterson, J., & Otterson, J. (2017))

Generation gaps 1. Avoid stereotyping, stereotyping employees according to age can be unfair some say that older people are unwilling to learn new stuff, and younger people tend not to respect the older generations. 2. Open communicating, it is important that everyone should be given the opportunity to express their ideas and thoughts, concerns and complaints so that better decisions can be made by both the management and employees. This way different generations will be able to understand how other generations work, for example, baby boomers will be able to understand how Millennials work, thereby improving their work-life relationship with each other. 3. Mentoring is important, mentoring is beneficial for both, the person who does the mentoring and the person who is being mentored. By mentioning each other, different generations will be able to communicate and learn more about each other. For example, baby boomers will be exposed to fresh perspectives and creative ideas, whereas millennials who lack industry knowledge will be looking for feedback so that they will be able to improve their working practices.

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6.0 Conclusions In conclusion, this report has critically discussed three major challenges faced by HR managers when working with a diverse workforce. Having a diverse workforce might be challenging, but the outcomes and company gains are much greater compared to the drawbacks. There will be challenges but with suitable solutions, the challenges can be overcome. Uptown Liberty Plaza will be able to expand much faster and grow at a much faster r...