Diversity in Workforce
Francine Costa
October 9, 2011
Saint Leo University

Accommodation workforce diversity is a necessity in today’s workforce. With the way that the workforce has changed over the years we need to keep diversity a priority. “No longer dominated by a homogenous group of white males, available talent is now overwhelmingly represented by people from a vast array of background and life experiences” (McInnes, 1999). There are more women and different ethnicity in the workforce that need to be accommodated. We also have to be accommodating to the age of the workforce because there are more and more employees that are working past retirement age now. The amount of women in general has risen over the past decade is astonishing. Not only the amount of single women but the amount of married women has risen as well. Although women are supposed to be treated equally to their counterparts that is not always the case. “By diversifying our workforces, we can give individuals the “break” they need to earn a living and achieve their dreams” (McInnes, 1999). The facts of discrimination are hard to argue with. Reports have shown however that there will be more women in professional jobs that require higher education. The circumstances for ethnicity roles in the workforce have changed quite similarly as it has for women. The number of African Americans, Hispanics, as well as Native Americans has changed although they are still being employed in the low-skill and low-paying jobs. “Many groups of people who have been excluded from workplaces are consequently reliant on tax-supported service programs” (McInnes, 1999). These groups are still being pigeon holed into jobs that do not require them to get an education but thankfully they are trying to change the stereo types by getting an education. “If you pigeonhole an employee in one job, he will have nothing to gain by working harder” (Pace, 2006, p. 96). The older workforce that should be thinking about retiring has decided that they can’t afford to be retired and have remained in the workforce. Which is in the grand scheme of things is too bad for the up and coming generations. The “Baby Boomers” are not taking advantage of retirement but instead remaining in the workforce which is causing the younger generation to resent them. The “Baby Boomers” are staying put and are not giving up the positions the younger generations have got the education to take over. There have been a lot of changes in the career paths which is another reason we need to accommodate for diversity. There are more and more people entering the medical field and the information technologies field. There is a more diverse group of people becoming medical assistants, physicians assistants, home health aides, medical records transcriptionists, physical therapists aides, as well as, physical therapists assistants. In the information technologies field that has been a rise in who is becoming network systems analysts, data communication analysts, computer software engineers, as well as, systems software engineers. In the past, the location of an organization pretty much dictated what type of employee they were going to hire. This day in age people are willing to travel to get the kind of job they want and that is another reason we need to accommodate diversity. When an organization is located in an urban area they were use to not having someone that might be able to speak more than one language as an employee. Now there are people that can speak multiple languages that are will to go wherever the job is just to be employed. In my opinion, I think it behooves an organization to have a multiple of ethnicity within the organization because you never know when you might need someone that could interpret or someone that might not know how to speak English. In my organization we have people on “contract” just for this purpose. We have people coming in looking to get a higher education or just learn English as a second language. I wish I could speak a second language well enough to be of some use to the college but high school French isn’t going to cut it, besides here in Florida, Spanish is the better language to know. I truly believe that in today’s world it is a necessity to accommodate diversity in the workforce. It not only helps an organization stay in compliance with the government it creates a diverse work place which enhances all employees knowledge of other cultures. It’s necessary to stay diverse to help women climb the “professional” ladder. “Getting to know your employees shows that you respect them as individuals who have lives outside of work” (Pace, 2009, p. 96). Although there are some people that believe that men are the better executive, women are rising as executives everyday proving that we can do it too.

References
McInnes, R. (1999). Workforce Diversity: Changing the Way you Do Business. Diversity World, Retrieved October 9, 2011 from http://www.diversityworld.com/Diversity/workplace_diversity.htm
Pace, J. (2006). The workplace: Interpersonal Strengths and Leadership. New York: McGraw-Hill