Page 124 - DMGT550_RETAIL_MANAGEMENT

Unit 7: Human Resource Management

Step 1 Notes

Confirm that all of your personnel policies from hiring to promotions and raises are based on
employee performance. Avoid allowing tenure, ethnic background or any other kind of category
into your human resources policies. Managing a diverse workplace begins with strong policies
of equality from the company. Once these policies are in place, the company can begin
implementing diversity measures throughout the entire organization.

Step 2

Rate the qualifications of the candidate based on the quality of his experience, not age or any
other category, when hiring. When you hire a diverse but qualified workforce, you are on the
right track towards being able to manage the diversity in your company.
Step 3

Encourage diversity when creating teams and special work groups within the company. If a
manager creates a work group that does not utilize the skills of the most qualified employees,
then insist that the group be changed to include all qualified staff members.

Step 4

Treat complaints of favoritism or discrimination seriously. Encourage employees to report all
instances of discriminatory behavior, and have a definitive process in place for investigating
and dealing with these issues.
Step 5

Hold quarterly trainings for the entire staff on the benefits of diversity in the workplace. Encourage
discussions at these meetings on how the company can better manage workplace diversity.
To address diversity issues, consider these questions: what policies, practices, and ways of
thinking and within our organizational culture have differential impact on different groups?
What organizational changes should be made to meet the needs of a diverse workforce as well
as to maximize the potential of all workers, so that San Francisco can be well positioned for the
demands of the 21st century?

Most people believe in the golden rule: treat others as you want to be treated. The implicit
assumption is that how you want to be treated is how others want to be treated. But when you
look at this proverb through a diversity perspective, you begin to ask the question: what does
respect look like; does it look the same for everyone? Does it mean saying hello in the morning,
or leaving someone alone, or making eye contact when you speak?
It depends on the individual. We may share similar values, such as respect or need for recognition,
but how we show those values through behavior may be different for different groups or
individuals. How do we know what different groups or individuals need? Perhaps instead of
using the golden rule, we could use the platinum rule which states: “treat others as they want to
be treated.” Moving our frame of reference from what may be our default view (“our way is the
best way”) to a diversity-sensitive perspective (“let’s take the best of a variety of ways”) will
help us to manage more effectively in a diverse work environment.

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