How Managers May Promote Gender Diversity in the Workplace

Let’s face it; gender diversity in the workplace is still a remote concept in some industries. This is particularly true when it comes to choosing people for management roles in big companies. But it is important that businesses realize the importance of diversity because it is the diverse groups that tend to be more productive than the homogenous groups. Naturally, both genders are resistant to this type of diversification within the workplace, thus, your role as the manager is vital to making the transition go smoothly. Here’s what you should do:

1. 1. Approach it in a personal manner. To be effective in managing gender diversity in the workplace, it must be your personal goal to do it. This should go beyond just hiring and promoting women. Implementing gender diversity should be part of your attitude that would show in the way you communicate with your people and make decisions. Make your team leaders form diverse groups for various projects to make sure men and women don’t separate naturally.

1. 2. Formulate special recruitment and retention methods. Getting the right people who are open to workplace diversity starts in having the right recruitment methods. For the job interviews, designate both male and female interviewers so there would be equal perspectives on the job applicants. As for retaining employees, you may do this by offering employee options and benefits that are attractive to both genders.

1. 3. Educate your people. You may expect your workers to embrace the idea of gender diversity within the workplace after you educate them about how they should deal with different personalities. As you may know, men and women are so different in terms of how they approach their jobs and careers. Thus, it is your job to make them understand that it isn’t impossible to work with and relate with people of different gender. They also need to acknowledge that both genders have unique and significant insights to offer, making them all an essential part of a company’s success.

4. Encourage diversity in making decisions. When it comes to making decisions related to policy changes in the workplace, it is recommended that you encourage people from both genders to participate. It would be best if the group you will form would consist an equal number of women and men in it. This way, no gender would feel outnumbered when it’s time to finalize decisions.

Gender diversity in the workplace is an important first step towards total diversity. Thus, you should make it a priority to come up with a plan on how you will address the gender issues within the workplace. Hiring an executive or life coach would help also, because the sessions they may have with your staff can help them become more open-minded about working with people of the opposite sex.