“Out of Many, One People” is Jamaica’s motto. This simply means we may come from different ethic backgrounds and have a different belief system but together we are one. That concept should be no different from workplace inclusivity. Here now to discuss how workplace diversity increases productivity we have President of the Civil Service Association, Oneil Grant.

Diversity in the workplace increases productivity

President of the Civil Service Association, Oneil Grant has encouraged more businesses to promote diversity in the workplace, to increase productivity.

According to the trade unionist, diversity has many facets, noting that in the Jamaican context, it relates to bringing persons together from different social classes and geographical locations.

He reasoned that businesses embracing diversity tend to do well as people coming from different backgrounds and experiences in turn lead to experiences and the enablement of internal culture at the organizational level.

He said diversity influences how the organization operates and acts with the experiences of individuals likely to create a dynamic work environment where ideas are freely traded. This situation, he said, can lead to improved processes.

“If people are now thinking about how to market things, young people have a different perception of how you market things, middle aged people have a different perception and so you now get a cross fertilization of ideas as to how you deal with processes,” he said.

According to Grant, young people coming into an organization can help to sharpen skills within the entity as they may be able to give a different perspective to those who may have been employed there longer and likely more resistant to change.

“Young people may be more dynamic and will be accepting of change and that culture again blends well with those who will say, justify to me why it works well and those young people can articulate very well what that change should look like. To bring that into the organisation improves your processes, brings new ways of thinking, new ways of doing things and you can gain a new target audience,” he said.

Grant reasoned that having a diverse staff that’s properly engaged will likely lead to improvements at the organization.

He said those companies that allow staff to express themselves are those that are on the cutting edge as many great ideas come from young people.

“We have this thing that young people don’t really stay in organizations but we don’t really go and look and see why. A lot of the times it’s because we don’t properly engage them and to allow them to express themselves in the workplace “

“Are we allowing our younger people to feel included and inclusive in the decision making process? Do we ask them for their feedback when we’re introducing new things? I think that is how you tap into the diversity of the organisation and it’s not just about age, it’s also about gender,” he said.

Grant said companies set themselves up for failure if they do not motivate people to work and produce. He said Jamaica’s greatest problem has long been social diversity with persons oftentimes being discriminated against because of their appearance.

Meanwhile Grant said companies can portray diversity bias through their staff engagement and retention.

“BPO for example has a strong bias for seemingly hiring young people but there is a demonstration that it can in fact create a lifelong career for persons in a more mature category
On the face it doesn’t appear to be diversified and that’s something persons in that industry will have to look at,” he said

He also called for equal pay for equal value and workplace policies that foster equity among all staff members.

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