“one size fits all” approach does not work for global workforce diversity

Workforce diversity is no longer something that diversity conscious companies would like to achieve in the United States alone. With multinational US companies scrambling to get a piece of international markets, they have become purveyors of workplace diversity both at home and abroad.

But companies that are increasing the diversity of their workforce on the global level face unique obstacles, ones that they may not ever have to face as they build workplace diversity at home. These global obstacles go well beyond the ones that present themselves here in the United States.

One obstacle to effective global workforce diversity policies is language. In the US, the language of business is English, and though people speak with many different regional accents throughout the country, English is understood (for the most part) and spoken in the course of business.

By contrast, in countries like India and China, where many multinationals are expanding into, there are strong regional dialect language differences, and people of different regions who speak the same language may have difficulty understanding one another. As such, companies must adapt their diversity strategies to fit the workplaces, cultures, languages, and dialects in which they are conducting business.

There is no one size fits all approach to diversity, whether here in the United States or abroad. There are a myriad of workplace diversity issues to consider in the US alone, and they only multiply when a company goes multinational. Every country has its own unique business environment, languages, consumers, and marketplace needs— all of which affect the way companies pursue global workforce diversity.

Depending on the region of the world, US companies will have to make unique adjustments to adapt to regional nuances and achieve adequate workforce diversity. In Latin America, for example, people may be focused more on class and income-level distinctions among people, in which case class diversity may be the necessary objective. In Japan, businesses worry about the age and knowledge gap between older and younger workers, in which case age diversity should be the goal.

Achieving diversity on the global level should be tailored to the specific country or region. In the US, where workforce diversity is largely race focused, we seek a variety of races and ethnicities to help achieve workforce diversity. In more homogeneous nations, the goal may need to be adjusted to reflect the country’s diversity profile.

One area that multinational companies must be sensitive to in their pursuit of a globally diverse workforce is that of gender. Gender issues in the workplace vary sharply. Scandinavian nations, for instance, tend to have highly favorable workplace policies for women and mothers, but some Third World countries may treat women workers with little regard.

There are no shortcuts when it comes to increasing global workforce diversity. Because the pace of business is fast and global competition is intense, companies must quickly customize their workplace diversity programs to their host nation’s diversity profile faster than ever before.

As more and more companies enter world markets and try to increase the diversity in their global workforces, there are bound to be some mistakes made. But if companies take the time to learn about the business environment, culture, languages, and people of the nations in which they seek to do business before they expand into a new nation, they can avoid making too many costly mistakes.