A report published by the United Nations in the year 2020 revealed that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ranked 6th among the nations that have the highest number of immigrants. According to studies, around 80% of the country’s total population consists of migrant workers and around 90% of the total employees are foreigners.

With such a diverse workforce, it has become a necessity for companies and organizations in the UAE, and particularly, in Dubai to have HR departments that are especially focused on diversity and inclusion (D&I).

Significance of D&I in HR Departments

The human resources department or HR is held accountable for the management of the entirety of the employees and their experience within a company. Their primary activities include finding, screening, and recruiting new employees, managing training and development programs, overseeing employee relations, administering payroll, fostering a safe work environment, managing compensation and benefits packages, and much more.

Training HR management candidates to be more specialized in diversity and inclusion is not only important for maintaining a diverse work environment but also to be able to utilize the perks that follow a diverse team.

It has been argued by many researchers over the years that having diversity in their employees is healthy and beneficial to the companies as well. Businesses that have welcomed diversity, have surpassed their rivals and pulled in a broader range of stakeholders. A rapid increment has been witnessed in employers of various companies prioritizing the recruitment of diverse work applicants.

As a result, many human resources (HR) management training courses are also formulating and or reconstructing their training programs to focus more and more on educating their candidates on workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Here are four of the effects that HR training is having on workplace diversity and inclusion in Dubai:

1. Wider Viewpoint

HR management courses are training candidates to utilize the wider perspective that comes with a diverse team. Having a workforce consisting of people from different cultures, nationalities, gender, races, and ethnicities provides a company with a wider standpoint of demands and needs in products and services. This, in return, provides the company with an opportunity to fill in these demands and hence expand their businesses with the ability to reach a wider range of customers.

The diversity of perspectives also provides the company with broader standpoints and approaches towards problems and their ability to solve them increasing the overall performance and productivity by a great deal.

Many people have shown concerns regarding the rise of disputes between two different opinions or against unpopular opinions which can therefore lead to a decrease in work efficiency, but research has shown that with the help of a solid HR department, companies with a diverse workforce show massive improvement in decision making.

2. Improved Performance

An employee may feel suffocated and left out if surrounded by coworkers of a different ethnicity. Employees will have a hard time and be less productive if they feel unable to be themselves while working. This could even lead to forming unconscious biases. The feeling of being the odd one out and not accepted by coworkers will drag down their overall performance and will likely have a negative effect on the entire department or even the company.

Meanwhile, employees of varying ethnicity are more likely to feel comfortable and accepted in a work environment where they find their coworkers also belonging to different backgrounds, cultures, races, and religions. This encourages the employee to feel safer being themselves and hence have a healthier and happier mindset while working, and perform better at their tasks, resulting in the benefit of the whole organization.

This also reduces employee turnover as the workers feel valued for their individuality and uniqueness.

3. Higher Profitability

Studies have shown that companies with a diverse workforce make more profits than companies with a homogenous workforce.

In a 2020 survey conducted by Glassdoor, it was found that about 67% of job seekers considered a diverse workforce to be important while looking for a job, while around 57% of employees wanted their company to be more diverse.

A report on 366 different companies made by McKinsey in 2015 also stated that companies with racially and ethnically diverse teams were likely to outperform other companies by yielding around 35% more profit. Companies with gender diversity were also noted to have an increased 15% likelihood of returns above industry norms. Another McKinsey study revealed that public companies with diverse executive boards yield 95% more returns.

A study by the Boston Consulting Group also found that increased diversity lead to an increased bottom line.

4. Positive Reputation and Marketing Opportunity

Job applicants search for employers that are acceptive of all ethnicity and treats all their employees equally, this builds a reputation for the whole company.

Potential customers are also more likely to choose to buy products and or services from companies with a more diverse team as they may feel more accepted to find employees of their own category.

Conclusion

Having workplace diversity and inclusion in an organization can be a challenging task for the HR department. However, with proper planning and management, which can be achieved through proper training, a company can harness a wide range of benefits from having a diverse team.

With more and more HR training courses focusing on diverse team building, the impacts are also becoming increasingly clear. Embracing diversity provides the company or organization with the fruitfulness of having a wider and varying perspective, increased creativity, better problem-solving, improved employee engagement and performance, and higher profits. It also reduces employee turnover and improves the allover reputation of the company.

Frequently asked questions

4 Impacts of HR Training on Workplace Diversity and Inclusion