Work Culture

Diversity through the internet — Diversity in the digital age

Diversity in the workplace is becoming more essential. We live in a global economy. As we expand our digital reach, your business interacts with people from different generations, backgrounds, and cultures daily. Diversity can influence how your employees perceive themselves and how they will treat others. In addition, implementing a diversity plan will help create a healthy company culture and foster workplace unity.

Here are five reasons why diversity is essential to your business:

1) You Will Gain More Talents, Skills, and Experiences on Your Team.

By hiring individuals from diverse backgrounds, your company will have more opportunities to succeed. Each team member brings their own variety of skills and experiences to your business. Therefore, it is essential that employees learn from each other and grow.

2) Creativity and Innovation Will Thrive.

By adding people with various backgrounds, experiences and working styles, you can create a thriving culture of creativity. Innovation thrives in an accepting environment. Furthermore, jobseekers value a company where everyone can be themselves.

3) Diversity Brings New language skills.

Language barriers and cultural differences can act as an obstacle to commerce. In addition, by hiring individuals who speak different languages, you will open opportunities for learning and commerce.

4) Your Talent Pool Will Grow.

Furthermore, studies show that employees are happier and feel more comfortable when inclusivity is a priority. Therefore, companies who embrace diversity attract a wider range of job applicants.

5) Your Employee Performance Will Improve.

The higher your team’s morale, the more productive your employees. It is the “all for one, one for all” mentality. By encouraging workers from all backgrounds to achieve their best, you are increase your chances for success.

Don’t Miss an Opportunity To Hire The Best

Finally, each individual brings something different to the team. Consequently, by hiring a variety of people, you will gain fresh perspectives and ideas. If you are ready to add to your team, consider partnering with Strategic Recruitment Solutions. We have decades of experience working with law firms and technology companies throughout the Gulf Coast region. SRS can show you to add diversity to your team. Give us a call today at 888-366-6508

BULLYING IN THE WORKPLACE

“If you’re horrible to me, I’m going to write a song about it, and you won’t like it. That’s how I operate.”

Taylor Swift –“Why You Got To Be So Mean?”

You probably aren’t a songwriter or a singer but I’ll bet you can identify with being in the position of being bullied Schools are usually the site most people associate with bullying, but the workplace sadly can also be a fertile environment for bullying. I suppose those school yard bullies have to go somewhere when they grow up.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reports that 25% of participating companies reported some degree of bullying had occurred in the preceding year. Bullying occurs at every level, can be hard to identify and even harder to manage. Unnoticed it can have devastating consequences resulting in errors, poor client satisfaction, increased costs and high turnover rates (crisisprevention.com) feeding into the War on Talent I blogged on recently. Companies should be proactive in addressing this issue and realize that is a type of civil rights violation. The Workplace Bullying Institute (yes, there is such a place) notes that during good times abused workers tend to leave positions in which they feel bullied but in a down economy, many feel that they have to stay because their options are limited. (Libertymutual.com/responsibility)

Twelve states currently have 17 active bills which target an “abusive work environment and abusive conduct” in the workplace Louisiana currently does not have such a bill but the initiative is there for all states to join in. These Healthy Workplace Bills give four classes of abusive conduct that are actionable: “1.verbal abuse, 2.conduct that is threatening, intimidating or humiliating, 3. work interference, 4. exploitation of known vulnerability, physical or psychological.”

**Ronald Riggio in February 2010 “Psychology Today” identifies some typical, unacceptable workplace behaviors that are types of bullying: Threats such as docking an employees pay; The Silent Treatment – stopping talking when the victim enters the room or lowering voices and giggling; Rumors –spreading information to tarnish someone’s reputation; Sabotaging work –altering the victim’s work to make it unacceptable. Riggio recommends visiting the site kickbully.com to identify causes and consequences and ways to fight back.

Marilyn Astin Tarlton Partner/Catalyst at Attorney at Work gives some advice on confronting a bully in the work place which can be difficult since the bully is often in a position of power. Some dos and don’ts : Do keep a record /journal of things said or done that you consider to be bullying, choose a time when you can be unemotional and meet face to face. And explain what you want to change. It is less threatening to use “I” language such as “I would appreciate it if you would ____, or I feel ___________ when you ___________. Do be aggressive. Call the bully out but stay calm

Don’t expect colleagues to support you. It would be great to have others express their dissatisfaction but not everyone is prepared to face the possible consequences. Don’t back down and don’t be surprised if a confrontation does not go smoothly and produce immediate and tidy results.

And finally, DO be prepared for consequences that may force you to find another job.

Tom Field in Success Unlimited makes some good points to ponder.

“IT IS THE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OF, OR THE UNWILLINGNESS TO RECOGNIZE OR THE DELIBERATE DENIAL OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE SERIAL BULLY WHICH IS THE MOST COMMON REASON FOR AN UNSATISFACTORY OUTCOME FOR BOTH EMPLOYEE AND EMPLOYERS.

AND

“BULLIES THRIVE WHEREVER AUTHORITY IS WEAK.”