BUSI 644 INDIVIDUAL PROJECT PART 2 DUE 12/1/2019

Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Diversity Training 4 Importance of Diversity Training 6 Diversity Training Program 8 Diversity Training Lesson Plan 9 Conclusion 10 References 12

Diversity Training

In the contemporary world of business, the concept of need assessment remains an integral part for most organizations. Need assessment is used as a key tool that helps to drive change in an organization through performance improvement and deficiency correction. Notably, businesses strive to refine and improve their products and processes in the bid to address the need of highly dynamic corporate world –with a main aim of remaining relevant and competitive in the market. According to Ram, Singh & Laishram (2017), needs assessment is a logical process that used to determine and address business needs by identifying the gaps that exist between the current and desired performance. Generally, needs assessment is a process of scanning the organization to identify areas of need and develop mechanisms of addressing them in order to enable the organization to achieve its set goals and objectives.

Moreover, needs assessment is used to identify problems that hinder organizational growth and development for the purpose of developing appropriate solutions or interventions. This model helps the organization to direct all its efforts and resources towards developing and implementing practical and result-oriented solutions to the identified needs. Needs assessment is essential in improving the quality of programs and policies that guide employees in the day-to-day operations. Thus, needs assessment process helps to identity performance issues and gaps with a main aim of making effective and informed recommendations meant to propel the organization to success (Muma, Iravo & Omondi, 2014).

Notably, modern-day world of business is characterized by various ethical regulations that organizations are required to adhere to. Work Diversity Law is among the few business regulations that have gained a lot of popularity in today’s corporate sector. This law calls for inclusivity at workplace whereby people are treated equally regardless of their background. This ensures an all-inclusive and accommodative working environment whereby each employee is valued and appreciated –including his or her ideas, opinions, and contributions. According to Hunt, Layton & Prince (2015), embracing workplace diversity is crucial since helps businesses to create a better and united workforce while striving to obey civil right. This paradigm shift has forced many organizations to consider workplace diversity a need that should be addressed in the bid to ensure compliance, improve employee satisfaction, and maintain brand image –hence guaranteeing the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. Thus, businesses have adopted diversity training as the best strategy to address the gap in workplace diversity in order to build a culture that is inclusive, respectful, and accommodative.

Thesis: The purpose of this to explore the concept of diversity training, its importance, as well as the process of developing a diversity training program within an organization.

Nowadays, organizations are striving to attract and employ staff from diverse backgrounds in the bid to bring on board various skills and competencies that are necessary in helping businesses to achieve their set goals and objectives. Notably, the diverse workforce is characterized by unique features including: race, ethnicity, age, color, gender, nationality, religion, language, sexual orientation, behavior, physical and mental capability, and socioeconomic status. In most cases, managing diverse workforce fronts a major challenge to the organization due to varying ideas, perspectives, and opinions regarding the organizational operations (Dhuppar, 2015).

Embracing employee differences is essential in accommodating valuable inputs from diverse workforce. Notably, diversity at workplace can be achieved if proper diversity training strategy is developed and executed by the organizational management. Considerably, diversity training adopts a learning approach for the purpose of teaching employees on the need to tolerate differences in opinions, behaviors, and ideologies. This helps to create an inclusive rather than divisive culture within the organization –an approach that calls for respect, consultation, and accommodation of varying ideas. Consequently, better understanding can be built through diversity training whereby each employee feels included and appreciated –something that improves motivation and job satisfaction leading to enhanced performance and productivity (Von Schrader, Malzer & Bruyère, 2014).

Diversity training is a very complex and demanding process that require proper planning, management, and evaluation. The management should hire competent experts who are able to gather constructive content and pass it to employees in a very efficient and effective manner –something that facilitates the process of easy understanding. Remarkably, employees are supposed to learn all the concepts regarding diversity and be able to apply that knowledge in real-life scenarios, that is, during day to day interactions within the working environment. The learning process should be structured in such a way that it becomes interesting and engaging for the purpose of avoiding any possible cases of cognitive dissonance that occurs when people resist an idea because it creates discomfort (Sheehan & Anderson, 2015).

Diversity training should focus on broadening the minds of employees and help them understand the importance of inclusivity as far as individual and organizational growth is concerned. Moreover, diversity training helps to promote good attitudes and positive enthusiasm at the place of work. Diversity training experts should strive to eliminate personal biases without pointing fingers at any employees (Hall, Mills & Lund, 2017). This approach would help to preserve and protect unity within an organization. Additionally, diversity training should include both employees and managers –though managers’ training should be long and deep. Managers are expected to be at the forefront in driving the culture of diversity within an organization –hence the need to equip them with exceptional skills that are necessary in managing diversity effectively. Diversity training process should be highly engaging and interactive whereby communication is given a top priority. Best practices and approaches should be deployed in order to ensure that the process attains the desired outcomes. Trainers can also make use of exceptional learning software like Lessonly when training both employees and managers on the need to embrace inclusivity within the organization.

The element of diversity training should be supported, reinforced, and allocated all the required resources due to several benefits attached to it. Diversity training helps to foster the aspect of appreciation for various factors that make up a diverse workforce. Training employees and other stakeholders on the importance of diversity helps to turn individual differences into advantages that support organizational growth. Companies that recognize workforce diversity benefit from constant innovation and progress that helps them to gain a competitive advantage in the market (McCann, Sparks & Kohntopp, 2017). Benefits of diversity training at discussed below:

Organizational growth and prosperity

Diversity training offers a room for free expression that allows individual employees to give their suggestions, opinions, ideas regarding business processes and products. When pooled together, these ideas can give deep insights on key areas of improvement that enables the company to develop and execute growth strategies.

Innovation

Diversity training forms the basis for inclusivity whereby an organization can employ workers from diverse backgrounds hence bringing to the company unique talents and skills. Consequently, this can facilitate innovation since when given a chance to express themselves, people from different background might come up with various innovative ideas (Lambert, 2016).

Motivation and job satisfaction

Diversity training calls for an inclusive rather than divisive organizational culture whereby personal differences are tolerated. In such cases, employees feel included and part of the company –leading to happiness and consequent job satisfaction. This results into employee motivation that improves performance and overall productivity.

Builds confidence and understanding

Diversity training focuses on the idea of being accommodative by simply respecting other people’s ideas, opinions, and contributions. This means that self-confidence and self-esteem of each single employee since their inputs is valued and appreciated thus ensuring that people are free to express themselves, listened to, and understood without any fear of being ignored. This led to a friendly environment where there are diverse ideologies regarding various organizational operations and processes –hence leading to the desired improvement and performance (Falender, Shafranske & Falicov, 2014).

Diversity training is a systematic process that require proper planning aimed at adopting a logical approach in the bid to educate employees on the need to treat people in a proper way –with a main goal of creating a positive work environment (Hunt, Layton & Prince, 2015. The program is aimed at upholding unity and allowing people to work together to achieve a common goal. Diversity training program involves the following steps:

Stakeholder identification: This involves the process of identifying various stakeholders who will facilitate the whole process of diversity training. This may involve the top managers who will sponsor the program, diversity training experts, and employees.

Defining the objectives: This involves the process of stating the goals of the objective in a clear and concise manner. These objectives may include: creating cultural awareness, recognizing and valuing personal differences, among others.

Design: This involves the actual process of designing the program, that is, a breakdown of the events that will take place during the training process.

Implementation: in this stage, diversity training experts will engage in actual training process which include teaching employees and managers on the importance of this concept. This will include PowerPoint presentations, discussions, handouts, and much more.

Evaluation: This involves the process of evaluating the effectiveness and success of the program, that is, whether employees have changed their behaviors to accommodate other people’s ideas and opinions.

Needs assessment is a very essential tool for every organization in the contemporary world of business. Notably, organizations are involved in constant improvement efforts that are aimed at enhancing their operations –a move that is geared towards achievement of the set goals and objectives. Business strive to review their products and processes in the bid to identify discrepancies or gaps that exits. This guides the process of developing improvement mechanisms meant to address the gaps or key areas of weaknesses identified during needs assessment. Once the organization identifies its needs, the top management embarks on the process of identifying resources required to address those needs. In modern days, managing diversity has become a major concern for most organizations –hence fronting a need that should be addressed. Diversity training has been identified as a strategy that can be used to address the issues of workplace diversity since it helps to equip employees and managers with skills and knowledge required to tolerate differences and value the input of each single employee. The paper has deeply explored the concept of diversity training, its importance, and diversity training plan. From the analysis of the literature related to the topic and content of the paper, the recommendation is that businesses should a diversity training policy –ensuring that the process is continuous. Moreover, organizations should consider recruiting in house trainers rather than relying on external consultants and experts. Finally, the training process for employees should be different from that of managers since the latter require deep skills and expertise needed to manage diversity effectively.

Dhuppar, S. (2015). Managing Workplace Diversity Challenges and Strategies. International Journal of Research, 2(3), 346-351.

Falender, C. A., Shafranske, E. P., & Falicov, C. J. (2014). Multiculturalism and diversity in clinical supervision: A competency-based approach (pp. xv-296). American Psychological Association.

Hall, A. K., Mills, S. L., & Lund, P. K. (2017). Clinician–investigator training and the need to pilot new approaches to recruiting and retaining this workforce. Academic Medicine, 92(10), 1382.

Hunt, V., Layton, D., & Prince, S. (2015). Diversity matters. McKinsey & Company, 1, 15-29.

Lambert, J. (2016). Cultural diversity as a mechanism for innovation: Workplace diversity and the absorptive capacity framework. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, 20(1), 68.

McCann, J. T., Sparks, B. H., & Kohntopp, T. F. (2017). Leadership integrity and diversity in the workplace. Leadership, 2(5).

Muma, M., Iravo, A., & Omondi, M. (2014). Effect of training needs assessment on employee commitment in public universities: a case study of jomo kenyatta university of agriculture and technology. International journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 4(9), 233.

Ram, D., Singh, M. K., & Laishram, J. M. (2017). Training Needs Assessment of Poultry Farmers in Imphal West and Imphal East of Manipur, India. Int. J. Curr. Microbiol. App. Sci, 6(9), 2218-2227.

Sheehan, M., & Anderson, V. (2015). Talent management and organizational diversity: A call for research. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 26(4), 349-358.

Von Schrader, S., Malzer, V., & Bruyère, S. (2014). Perspectives on disability disclosure: the importance of employer practices and workplace climate. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 26(4), 237-255.