Achieving workforce diversity and inclusion encompasses such basic HRM activities as recruitment, selection, orientation, training, performance management, and compensation/benefits.88

Improving workforce diversity requires managers to widen their recruiting net. For example, the popular practice of relying on current employee referrals as a source of new job applicants tends to produce candidates who have similar characteristics to those of present employees. So managers have to look for applicants in places where they haven’t typically looked before. To increase diversity, managers are increasingly turning to nontraditional recruitment sources such as women’s job networks, over-50 clubs, urban job banks, disabled people’s training centers, ethnic newspapers, and gay rights organizations. This type of outreach should enable an organization to broaden its pool of applicants.

Once a diverse set of applicants exists, efforts must be made to ensure that the selection process does not discriminate. Moreover, applicants need to be made comfortable with the organization’s culture and be made aware of management’s desire to accommodate their needs. For instance, at TGI Friday’s, company managers work diligently to accommodate differences and create workplace choices for a diverse workforce; so, too, do companies such as Sodexo, Johnson & Johnson, EY, Mastercard Worldwide, and Procter & Gamble.89

Orientation is often difficult for women and minorities. Many organizations, such as Lotus Development and Hewlett-Packard, provide special workshops to raise diversity consciousness among current employees as well as programs for new employees that focus on diversity issues. The thrust of these efforts is to increase individual understanding of the differences each of us brings to the workplace. A number of companies also have special mentoring programs to deal with the reality that lower-level female and minority managers have few role models with whom to identify.90

Finally, organizations must be aware of providing appropriate training, performance management choices, and compensation/benefits to its diverse workforce. Obviously, this does not mean that everyone be treated equally, but instead that the needs of diverse employees are considered.