Managing Diversity

Many companies in the global economy today have a variety of human resources coming from different cultures. To ensure smooth running of their businesses, they need business environments that are comfortable to all stakeholders. To achieve this, they need to have diversity policies that are appropriately formulated. Such a company is Fogal Inc, a relatively new and small US based consulting firm with projects throughout North America and others in Asia Pacific countries. Over the next two years, the company expects to double in size; this means it will need more human resource, having no formal diversity policy in place, the company needs to adopt one before it expands into a big global company. This paper is going to look at one such policy that should be adopted by Fogal Inc.

Diversity policy for Fogal Inc.

Fogal Inc. should recognize the talent and diverse workforce it has as a very important competitive advantage. The company's business success is a reflection of the skill and quality of its people. Fogal Inc. should be committed to seeking out and keeping the finest human talent so as to attain top business growth and performance. The management of diversity will not only benefit individuals, teams, the company, but also its customers. Fogal Inc. should recognize that each and every employee brings to the company their unique capabilities, experiences and characteristics. Fogal Inc. should values such diversity at all levels of the company, in all of its business activities. As a company it should believe in treating all people with dignity and respect. As a company wishing to expand to the global sphere, it should strive to create and also foster an environment that is supportive and understanding, an environment in which all individuals get to realize their maximum potential within the company regardless of their differences. For better results, Fogal Inc. should be committed to employing the best employees to do the best jobs. It should recognize and consider the importance of reflecting on the diversity of its customers and markets in its workforce. The company's management should understand that the diverse capabilities residing within its talented workforce positions Fogal Inc. to anticipate and therefore be better placed to fulfill the needs of its diverse customer base, both internationally and domestically. This in turn will ensure provision of high quality products and services. As company wishing to expand out globally, Fogal Inc. should be prepared to be diverse in many dimensions. This diversity will encompass differences in ethnicity, language, gender, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic status, religion, thinking styles, physical and mental ability, education and experience. It should understand that the wide array of perspectives emanating from such diversity will go along way to promote innovation and the success of the business. Fogal Inc. should know that better management of diversity will make it more creative, flexible, productive and therefore competitive (Mor Barak, 2010).

Affirmative action plan

Fogal Inc. should come up with an affirmative action plan that will have the following sections; Fogal Inc being a company should abide by all federal and state laws, regulations and rules governing equal employment opportunity. It should closely work with the government in respective locations in carrying out equal employment opportunity obligations and in their review of the company's activities as outlined in their contract. It should put in place the company's equal opportunity policy statement. This should assure that applicants are employed and that during employment, they are treated without regard to race, sex, religion, age, national origin or color. This should include: employment upgrading, transfer or demotion; recruitment or recruitment advertising; termination or layoff; rates of pay and other forms of compensation; and selection for training. The company should prohibit the harassment of any job applicant or employee on the basis of their protected status class.  It should commit necessary time and resources both human and financial so as to achieve the goals of affirmative action and equal employment opportunity. Fogal Inc. should put in place mechanisms that will evaluate the performance of its management and supervisory personnel basing on their involvement in achieving the objectives of affirmative action.  The Affirmative action plan should clearly indicate that any employee who does not comply with the policies and procedures set forth in the policy statement will be liable for disciplinary action. Fogal Inc. should appoint an equal employment opportunity officer who shall have full authority and responsibility to implement all the sections of the affirmative action plan. All members of the company's staff who will be given the authority to hire, supervise, promote, and also to discharge workers, or to recommend or even be substantially involved in such actions, should be made fully cognizant of and so as to implement the company's equal employment opportunity policy and other responsibilities (Managing Diversity, n.d).

Human resource responsibilities

To effectively manage its diversity plans, Fogal Inc. should involve its senior leadership in planning and implementing the company's diversity programs. Rhetorical statements by themselves will not bring the required diversity change. There is need to intensively involve the management in the implementation of diversity programs so that the principles of diversity can diffuse throughout the company into employee attitudes. To ensure that leaders participate actively in diversity initiatives, Fogal Inc. should create a separate senior executive position that will be focused on objectives of diversity. For instance a diversity director will be involved in all the aspects of the company whereby he will make diversity an overall business requirement. Managers should be involved personally in diversity training sessions for personnel at the junior level. Visible and direct leadership participation will set a diversity competent role model for the rest of the company. If Fogal Inc managers commit their own time to initiatives geared towards diversity, they will be demonstrating to the rest that diversity is important to the company and there they will similarly commit to it (Marquis et al., 2008).

Fogal Inc. management should establish a diversity office that will focus on promoting diversity in the company. This should be integrated into the company's mainstream. It should use internal communication programs to support diversity implementation programs. These will allow Fogal Inc. management to effectively articulate diversity policies rationales and objectives and be able to directly communicate them to the rest of the organization. Fogal Inc. should create programs that are focused on recruiting employees that are diverse, advancing minority groups to levels of management and retaining diverse talent. On matters concerning recruiting, Fogal Inc.'s management should create an organizational environment that will appeal to candidate employees from labor markets that are diverse. A company with a diverse workforce and minority executives will convince potential hires that it has a work environment that is diversity friendly. It should use a team of recruiters that is diverse to spearhead the recruitment process. Potential candidates should be interviewed for diversity competency so that when hired they will be in a position to support diversity culture in the organization.  When it comes to promotion, Fogal Inc. should pay special attention to the promotion of minority personnel. This does not mean that minority groups should be promoted with lower credentials or allocated better performance ratings for less work. Candidacy for promotion to leadership positions should have diversity competency. Minority managers should be on promotion panels to protect the promotion process objectivity to ensure that diversity concerns are well represented (Marquis et al., 2008).

In order for Fogal Inc. to retain its talented workforce, the company should provide mentoring and support programs that are effective, an environment that is diversity friendly, and plenty of promotion opportunities. Should come up with policies that will encourage minority employees to stay with the company that include; managerial and skills training, educational cost reimbursement, existence of a large minority employee base, and financial support for initiatives of diversity.  Minority employees should be given special preparation that they will need to effectively do their jobs; these include language and technical training. Give them additional professional development opportunities, the company should determine personal development needs for the minority so that it can give them training opportunities. Diversity programs should be administered at all company levels, from top management to the entry level. Fogal Inc. can employ diversity training to teach employees how to appreciate personal differences so that they can work in diverse groups. At the level of management, training should be designed to teach managers how to maximize benefits of diversity and avoid potential conflict, respect and appreciate differences, and understand other cultures. The human resource personnel at the company should be taught how to use recruiting tools to target minorities and avoid any kind of bias (Marquis et al., 2008).

Diversity management is a very important managerial responsibility that should be shared between all stakeholders. Junior managers and employees have a responsibility to embrace the diversity policy and to develop and implement it effectively while the senior management teams are responsible for designing and maintaining systems that will support successful execution of programs and policies that sustain diversity. For Fogal Inc. to realize this, all these people should work in partnership to make sure that the challenge of diversity is woven into the strategic goals of the company. This will eventually see diversity become embedded in all the company's practices and routines so that even if it expands, the company will experience a smooth diversity implementation.