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Diversity in the Workplace
Kristina Vonderhaar
Personnel Management
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Diversity in the Workplace
The 2016 Presidential Election has shown us one major thing, that the United States is
full of diverse people. What that means for Human Resource Managers is that now they have a
large task in handling more diverse applicants, more statutes and offering more training to make
sure that everyone is being treated equally within the workplace.
What is Workplace Diversity
Diversity is defined by the Webster’s Dictionary as the condition of having or being
composed of differing elements: variety; especially: the inclusion of different types of people
(as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization[ CITATION Mir \l 1033 ]. A
Human Resource Managers (HRM) job is to incorporate all races and cultures into one
workplace environment and offer inclusion for everyone. Diversity offers many benefits to a
company and it keeps a company from incurring any violations do to not hiring a diverse staff.
Diversity Laws
July 2nd 1964 the United States Government outlawed discrimination based on race, color,
religion, sex or national origin. Yet, in 2015 class action settlements topped out at over $2.48
billion dollars in cost do to violations of standard hiring practices, workplace discrimination and
violations of the Equal Opportunity Guidelines (Annual Workplace Class Action). The Age
Discrimination Act, Equal Pay Act, American’s with Disabilities Act, Pregnancy Discrimination
Act, all of these laws were put in place in order to protect the worker and provide the employer
with a diverse workforce. HRM’s need to be armed with the knowledge of how to deal with
diversity in the workplace and be well versed in the laws surrounding diversity and employment.
Diversity Training
Diversity training has been introduced into the workplace to not only allow HRM to be
familiar and knowledgeable of the law but so other members on staff can be informed of
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workplace diversity and be more successful in the workforce. Many large corporations such as
AT&T, US Bank and even Coca-Cola have mandatory diversity training. Coca-Cola even takes
it a step farther by offering suppliers diversity training to help ensure that associates selling their
products understand the need for being open to all cultures to ensure successful sales experiences
[ CITATION Coc \l 1033 ].
Training consists of an organization’s planned efforts to help employees acquire job-
related knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors, with the goal of applying these on the job
[ CITATION McG16 \l 1033 ]. Diversity training helps people work productively in teams
regardless of ethnicity, gender or other qualifying differences. These trainings can be one on
one, offered through virtual classes or even done in groups. The training usually consists of
