How NOT to Manage Workplace Diversity—and What to Do Instead

Do your workplace diversity initiatives work better on paper than in the office? It’s no wonder. Diversity is about a lot more than just hiring people of different races, backgrounds, etc. You want people to be comfortable to do their best work.

If you’re going to harness the profit-boosting rewards of workplace diversity—like a larger employee skill-set, diverse perspectives and capabilities, better retention rates, and the ability to tap newer markets—while also lowering your risk of harassment complaints and lawsuits, you need to stop using the “traditional” methods of inclusion.

These methods rarely work, because they don’t take into account the very real needs of your company and unpredictable human factors, like how we perceive ourselves and others and resistance to change.

This eye-opening and accredited HR diversity training introduces you to real-world, practical ways to make diversity work in your workforce—and how to reap all the rewards. Using the study of gender inclusion (i.e., how men and women work together), this conference discusses truly effective methods of inclusion that are applicable to all areas of workplace diversity.

This training helps you avoid the most common mistakes that other companies make in their diversity plan. Are you focusing too much on “fairness” and not enough on your business needs? Are you alienating the people who aren’t the focus of the inclusion initiative? Do you expect and assume that people will support each other automatically if they are of the same “type?”

There are more realistic—and more productive—ways to make diversity work. In this HR diversity training, get the simple and effective strategies you need, like gauging and starting from where people are mentally and emotionally, and communicating in terms that will resonate with your employees at all levels, to have true diversity that really pays off.

Breakdown cultural barriers, enhance productivity, expand your community and global reach, and create a workplace where everyone is comfortable to do their best work. Sign up today for this enlightening, accredited HR diversity training, and really get the full benefit of the diversity in your workforce.

Learning Objectives:

• How can you build a diversity plan that supports your business needs?
• How can a real culture of diversity help boost your retention rates?
• How can you sell management and staff on the profitable benefits of diversity—in terms each group will understand?
• What are the realistic short-term goals that you need to identify and define to get you started towards your long-term vision?
• How can you reduce the impact of bias (obvious or subtle) where it will have the most damaging effect—on teams?

Presented By:

Alice Adams, Vice President and gender inclusion expert at Common Ground Consulting, offers a new, exciting perspective to this area of workplace diversity, a perspective based on solid science that shows men and women have a lot more in common than the pundits admit. On that basis, Alice helps organizations move toward a gender-balanced workforce and improve their recruitment and retention efforts. She is a frequent speaker at corporations across the country about gender, gender stereotyping of men and women, and how they relate to organizational effectiveness. Alice holds a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa and was formerly a bye-fellow at Cambridge University, a Rockefeller Fellow at the University of Minnesota, and Director of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Maine, Farmington.

Alice is the author of Playing to Strength: Leveraging Gender at Work (Praeger, 2010), a convention-busting examination of gender in the workplace and a very practical management guide to creating a gender-inclusive workplace. Alice is also the author of two other books on gender and systems.

Who would benefit from this program:

• Managers
• Directors
• Executives
• Supervisors

Product Options:

• Audio Conference CD Only: $229.00 (includes S&H)
• Audio Conference CD with Communication Briefings Newsletter: $299.00 (includes S&H)

Communication Briefings is a monthly newsletter that provides subscribers with down-to-earth communication ideas and techniques they can put into action to persuade clients, influence peers and motivate employees. The advice offered in each issue will help readers earn approval, command respect, spur productivity, gain recognition and win public support.

Length: 1 hour 30 minutes