Tips for creating a corporate culture that values diversity

To develop a corporate culture that values diversity, employees on all levels of the corporate ladder should participate in diversity training. Diversity training often results in increased awareness for each employee who participates in the training, because they begin to notice and appreciate subtle differences that they did not see before. Employees also begin to recognize many of the things that they do and say that may be offensive to diversity employees and which might create communication barriers. They also feel the frustration that comes from the uncertainty about what they can do to actively support diversity initiatives in the company.

Tracy Brown, diversity advocate and President of Diversity Trends, developed a list of things that organizations can do to create a culture that values diversity:

1. Establish an employee hotline to field any diversity questions or complaints.

2. Sponsor dialogue groups to help employees with any of their concerns about workplace diversity.

3. Identify one to three distinct priorities you would like to accomplish as you implement your diversity policies.

4. Recognize positive diversity role-models.

5. Link cultural competence with compensation.

6. Make diversity initiatives fun.

7. Include diversity topics in every meeting.

8. Focus on finding successes through diversity rather than highlighting mistakes.

9. Provide options for continued personal development in understanding and valuing diversity for all employees.

10. Identify and support internal diversity champions.

Teaching employees to welcome and value a diverse and inclusive workforce is crucial to the success of any business.

Editor's note: The contents of this article were compiled from the article “Top Ten Tips for Organizations” © Copyright Tracy Brown, www.DiversityTrends.com.