Diversity Management is a topic that is becoming increasingly important for companies. Indeed, almost all organisations find themselves in heterogeneous situations in which the workforce consists of individuals of different cultures, ages, social status, sexual orientation, religions and other ideologies. It therefore becomes essential to create multimedia courses in Diversity Management, in order to integrate all the entities with each other and render diversity an opportunity for personal and professional growth. How can this be done, though? Below are two simple steps for implementing a process for the integration of diversity.
- Start with a Diversity Audit, a series of questions to help define your company’s situation and which steps to take first. The Diversity Management Checklist, a tool drawn up by the European Commission that allows the assessment of an organisation’s status, is a great help to this end.
- Decide which solutions to adopt from those available, for example:
- Work-life balance initiatives, to support employees with the demands of everyday life. They include benefits and services provided free-of-charge by the company
- Flexible working, for example authorising hours that take into account the needs of employees and allow them to organise their work independently, working smart from home and the option of part-time hours
- Training on diversity, for example through email campaigns or online courses that make workers aware of the major differences between the various cultures and communication styles, providing the opportunity to manage everyday life at and away from the office.
Since there is no best practice in this field, whichever solution is chosen is fine as long as it is adhered to.
Once these two steps have been taken, you can create eLearning paths on the management of cultural diversity that are both effective and consistent with your training needs. This topic was discussed in posterLab no. 16: “eLearning on intercultural issues and diversity management”. Valeria Scarlato