Unit 1 Business Culture and Responsibilities _Learning Outcome 02 (GC01042)
Unit 1: Business Culture and Responsibilities
Learning Outcome: 02
Task 2.1 Explain what is meant by ‘diversity in the business context
With the ever-changing business environment, business owners are adopting diversity policies and strategies that appeal to their employees, clients, vendors, and suppliers. Diversity in the workplace brings with it a host of potential benefits, as well as potential conflicts for business owners to manage (Alcázar, 2015).
Diversity has to do with more than race or ethnicity. Diverse workplaces are composed of employees with varying characteristics including, but not limited to, religious and political beliefs, gender, ethnicity, education, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, and geographic location. Tesco finds ways to incorporate diversity into their workplaces without causing major changes to the way their companies operate. Incorporating diversity practices in a workplace can include recruiting from diverse talent pools to make the company open to employees from various backgrounds. Diversity may be infused into advertising practices to ensure products and services are targeted to all consumers who represent the target market, whether through print, online, television, or radio (Bjerregaard, 2016).
As workplaces in Tesco embrace the idea of diversity, they often realize benefits that help improve their companies, from new ideas to increased international opportunities. Diversity can add varied ideas and perspectives to the workplace. Research compiled by the Journal of Small Business Management suggests that employers who recruit diverse workforces open their businesses to a wide range of ideas. Businesses compile these varied opinions and ideas as they make decisions about how to start, run, and finance their operations and market their products or services (Boone, 2017).
Tesco set out to recruit a diverse workforce, rather than settling for a homogeneous environment, open their businesses to a larger pool of applicants. As a result, they increase their ability to access candidates who are most qualified for the positions they’re looking to fill. While diverse workforces aren’t limited to employees from different countries who speak more than one language or have varying ethnic backgrounds, employees with these characteristics are beneficial to companies looking to expand or improve existing operations in national, regional, or local markets. The belief is that expansion will drive profits for companies, though Sullivan cautions that profitability as a result of a diverse workplace depends on location and target market (Brabet, 2016).
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As workplaces in Tesco become more diverse, employers are encouraged to take note of communication, training, recruiting practices, and management. Diverse workforces may be plagued with problems if employees aren’t equipped with the knowledge they need to communicate effectively with their coworkers, regardless of their differences. Diversity training can help reduce interpersonal conflicts within a company. As a result of efforts to train employees on diversity issues, management may see an increase in training and development costs.
Task 2.2 Recognise the benefits of having a diverse workforce
“Diversity” isn’t a politically-correct buzzword that’s thrown around. There are concrete, real advantages of diversity in the workplace. Many companies know that they should try to hire diverse employees, but the benefits of a diverse workforce might not be obvious at first blush.
A key to keeping in mind when working toward a diverse workplace is that diversity is not a bingo card with squares Tesco can check off. Diversity doesn’t just mean racial diversity either – it can include national diversity (employees with green cards), women (especially in male-dominated fields), LGBTQIA employees, religious diversity, disabled employees, and even just employees with varied and diverse work experiences. In short, diversity comes in all shapes and sizes. Put away any idea of meeting ‘quotas’ and focus instead on keeping an open mind (Fujimoto, 2018).
Among the advantages of diversity in the workplace are:
Increased Productivity
Diversity and Inclusion bring in diverse different talents together working towards a common goal using different sets of skills that ignite their loyalty and increases their retention and productivity.
Increased creativity and Problem solving
With so many different and diverse minds coming together many more solutions will arise as every individual brings in their way of thinking, operating, and solving problems and decision making…………