Introduction
This final project requires that I develop a Training and Organizational Development (OD) proposal aimed at improving diversity training at Cape Coral Hospital. It is important to note that many organizations see the management of diversity programs as not being limited to HRD programs and processes, but expanded to include special needs of the new employees. Therefore as the HRD manager for Cape Coral Hospital, my task is to propose new training programs and processes to senior management, and explain how HRD methods can help manage a culturally diverse workforce.
Benefits of Cultural Diversity
Embracing and supporting cultural diversity comes with a lot of benefits. First, having a diverse workforce is critical for any company that is focused on reaching its true potential. Cultural diversity helps organizations experience strong appeal on the global canvas as well as improved innovation (Kamales & Knorr, 2019). As for Cape Coral Hospital, cultural diversity mean more engaged workers coupled with high retention and quality patient care. Other benefits of diversity in workplace include promotion of varied perspectives, improvement of profits and revenue, attraction of best talent, boosting of global reputation and easy troubleshooting. An organization that ignores cultural diversity may end up encountering a lot of problems such as employment discrimination lawsuits. In a nutshell, by supporting a more diverse workforce, Cape Coral Hospital will support variety of perspective.
As the HRD manager for Cape Coral Hospital, recognizing and valuing employees is of great benefit, especially when they come from diverse cultures. This is the case because it leads to high innovation—when different cultures work together, there are more opportunities for increased creativity (Kamales & Knorr, 2019). Similarly, valuing workers makes them feel appreciated and empowered to work. Based on these issues, the recruitment process of new employees for Cape Coral Hospital should be approached in a holistic manner to ensure the minority employees do not feel left out.
Some Key Demographics
Currently women account for approximately 47 percent of the overall workface. This number is projected to remain constant until the end of 2022. While the projections do not give the exact percentage, it is expected that the number will rise due to sudden increase in single-parent families. Additionally, about 20 percent of those living with disability according to ADA are in the workforce (Sprong et al., 2019). This number is expected to increase in a few years to come. Lastly, the average age of workforce is increasing every day.
New Training Programs
For the senior management at Cape Coral Hospital, there are important new training programs that I would propose in an effort to develop effective recruitment and selection methods to attract more minorities. The new training programs for consideration will start at the top of the organization. The success of the programs will require the organization to have a chief diversity officer to steer the training in the direction it needs to go. Most importantly, Cape Coral Hospital should put in place a diversity leadership council to help identify areas that require more attention.
Ethnicity and Race Identity Program
This training program will be aimed at helping the senior management differentiate between ethnicity and race. They need to understand that ethnicity is a learned behavior while race is biologically determined. The aim of this training program is to help identify the different categories of people that are known to face discrimination. This program will guide the development of effective recruitment and selection method because it comes with unconscious bias course. This course will help employees understand their own biases and, in return, reducing the gap and encourage diversity in workplace.
Disabilities and Physical Abilities Program
This training program aims at helping senior management to train employees the importance of working together—it improves employee engagement. Therefore, the program is important as it instructs senior management on why and how to ensure the workplace environment is ADA compliant (Stevens et al., 2018). As indicated earlier, about 20 percent of those living with disability according to ADA are working. This means that Cape Coral Hospital should support their needs. The program also strives to remind the senior managers the benefits of hiring people with diverse disabilities.
Gender-based Training Program
This program is intended at reminding senior management that gender is an internal diversity—a characteristic that people are born with. The training program also strives to show them how discrimination among sexes occurs in different workplaces. Therefore, gender-based training program will train senior management how to remove biases linked to gender, thus making workplace more diverse and inclusive. If followed through, the program will help the organization keep the employees at work while, at the same, attract more minorities and women. The advantage of this program is that it removes discrimination.
Age-related Training Program
This program is intended at informing the management the fact that the hospital, regardless of time and period, will have a composition of workers from different generations. These groups have their own ideals and belief which can lead to biases, ageism. According to Zaniboni et al. (2019) ageism “is a tendency to harbor negative feelings against employees of different age” (p. 453). This training is necessary because age discrimination can occur at any age. This program will encourage inclusion within the workforce, thus making the company attractive to employees of all ages.
Citizen Status Program
This training is necessary because there are high chances of finding immigrants at any place of work. The problem these individuals face is that despite having their citizenship, there is always a rift with those who grew up in the area. Therefore, it is imperative for senior management to implement this training program because it helps remove unconscious biases in the workplace. In essence, citizen status training program will improve the organization’s overall diversity. This, in turn, will bring diverse ideas on the table thus attracting more workers, especially the minority groups.
The role of senior management
Cape Coral Hospital’s senior management has the authority to implement the aforementioned new training programs alongside other advantages such as flexible work schedules, onsite daycare and childcare subsides. This will attract new hires and, at the same time, make them feel at ease working for the organization. The senior management should specify how they value cultural and religious traditions including holidays. The new programs should motivate the management to focus more on forming affinity groups that will empower staff on how to work in teams in order to meet patients’ needs.
New Training Processes
The new training processes that I propose to senior management include: making their commitment clear, encouraging objectivity, screening and interviewing and inclusive interviewing. With regard to making their commitment clear, the senior management will receive training on how to ensure the images on career pages represent their commitment to diversity. Similarly, they will be trained on how to communicate their values and dedication to diversity and inclusion. It is important to note that potential recruits are interested in knowing where the organization stands on some issues before opting to work for it.
Encouraging Objectivity
Another new training process the senior management will be educated on is on how to encourage objectivity. Here, Cape Coral Hospital’s management will receive training on how to make a multi-tier approach part of the organization’s recruitment policy. For example, senior managers should prioritize reviewing every candidate’s resume and preliminary Q&A before the interview process starts (Epstein, 2019). The training will guide them on how and why they should make the first tier of screening mandatory. The aim is to ensure the organization is able to monitor consistent assessment.
Screening and interviewing
This training aims at ensuring the organization has an effective screening process in place to evaluate the potential new hires. This program is necessary as it strives to address the biases, either conscious or unconscious, that interfere with decision making process. In other words, the training aims at ensuring all the resources put in place to attract new hires do not go to waste. The senior management will trained on the need to make the members of the hiring team more diverse—this allows them challenge issues related to affinity bias.
Inclusive Interviewing
The last training process is on how the senior management should conduct inclusive interviewing. The senior management should understand that job interviews come with a lot of anxiety. Therefore, this program aims at training the management on how best to ensure the potential recruits feel they are welcomed and on the same level. For instance, the team will be trained on how to utilize a two-stage interview process to address the issue. Some organizations start their process with a blind phone interview before conducting in-person meeting.
Additional Information
- The management should implement policies and guidelines that support equal employment opportunities: the policies should focus on employment criterion that extends beyond gender, race and age.
- The management should make the candidates’ positions more compelling to potential applicants: consider providing some key details that will attract a diverse range of recruits
- The senior management should ensure the employees understand the decisions for hiring are best on merits: hiring is not based on quotas.
HRD Methods
The HRD methods such as job rotation, assistant to position, committee assignment, and outdoor training can be utilized to manage a culturally diverse workforce. Firstly, the management should ensure job rotation involves all the employees regardless of gender, age and race (Diego-Mas, 2020). This rotation aims at increasing employees’ knowledge, and skills. Secondly, assistant to position method should put into consideration efficiency levels—only efficient workers should be allowed to work under the supervision of a highly qualified manager. The focus is to groom the skills and abilities of employees without favor.
Lectures and Seminars method can be used to manage a culturally diverse workforce. Although it is an old method, it is highly effective when it comes to providing diverse training to employees (Anderson, 2020). Cape Coral Hospital’s employees will be trained on the need to continue working in teams towards meeting the objective of the organization. Outdoor training is regarded as the most effective method of human resource development. The method encourages employees to collaborate in form of teams.
Overcoming Language Barrier and Discrimination
Overcoming language and discrimination issues is never an easy task, especially when it involves employees from diverse cultures. In the effort to ensure complete involvement of employees in the hospital, the management can adopt several measures that prevent issues related to language and discrimination. First, senior management should use a mediator to provide directions or guidance to the staff. The management can opt to work with a staff in hospital who fluidly communicates in both languages: the mediator’s role will be to pass the message to the rest of the staff.
Another measure that can be utilized to overcome language and discrimination issues is by making an interpretation of all documents into the primary language used by the facility. For instance, medical diagrams, charts and graphs should be interpreted to ensure the staff, regardless of their cultural affiliations, is able to understand and comprehend key information. Similarly, the senior management should encourage the staff to get in the habit of communicating in primary language. The staff should avoid using big words or esoteric vocabulary: this may lead to miscommunication.
Introduction of Language Classes
The last measure for consideration is making language classes available to all staff: should comply with the basic requirements of the organization’s language. The management should ensure the employees understand the words, expressions, and signs that allow them perform to the set standards. Therefore, the classes are necessary to ensure employees from different cultures are able to work together towards a common goal: providing high quality and safe patient care. The only time the staff could communicate in their native language is when dealing with patients from their cultural background.
References
Anderson, V. (2020). A digital pedagogy pivot: re-thinking higher education practice from an HRD perspective. Human Resource Development International, 23(4), 452-467. Web.
Diego-Mas, J. A. (2020). Designing cyclic job rotations to reduce the exposure to ergonomics risk factors. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(3), 1073. Web.
Epstein, H. A. B. (2018). Reachout yourself: Resumes, cover letters, and interviewing. Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 18(1), 75-80. Web.
Kamales, N., & Knorr, H. (2019). Leaders with managing cultural diversity and communication. Asia Pacific Journal of Religions and Cultures, 3(1), 63-72.
Sprong, M. E., Iwanaga, K., Mikolajczyk, E., Cerrito, B., & Buono, F. D. (2019). The role of disability in the hiring process: Does knowledge of the Americans with Disabilities Act matter?. Journal of Rehabilitation, 85(4). 44-78
Stevens, C. M., Schneider, E., & Bederman-Miller, P. (2018). Identifying faculty perceptions of awareness and preparedness relating to ADA compliance at a small, private college in NE PA. American Journal of Business Education (AJBE), 11(2), 27-40. Web.
Zaniboni, S., Kmicinska, M., Truxillo, D. M., Kahn, K., Paladino, M. P., & Fraccaroli, F. (2019). Will you still hire me when I am over 50? The effects of implicit and explicit age stereotyping on resume evaluations. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 28(4), 453-467. Web.