By Freya Purnell
HR executives around the globe believes companies must embrace multicultural and multigenerational needs in order to meet ongoing recruitment and retention goals, according to a new survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by SuccessFactors.
The study, titled ‘Values-based diversity: The challenges and strengths of many’, found that 82 per cent of executives agree that a strategic approach to managing diversity can help provide access to a rich talent pool, and 80 per cent believe strategic changes are needed to accommodate younger employees in the workforce.
Offering learning and career development opportunities is used as a key strategy for managing a diverse workforce, with 47 per cent supporting policy initiatives such as mentoring. Other strategies included exposing high-potential employees to diverse business situaitons (45 per cent), and providing flexible working arrangements (43 per cent).
The study also found that having technology to enable these strategies was critical for success, with 35 per cent utilising core HR/HRiS systems, 31 per cent using eLearning, 25 per cent using video conferencing, 21 per cent using cloud-based collaboration tools, and 20 per cent using enterprise social networks.
In the Asia Pacific region, the most difficult challenges for managing a diverse workforce included language issues (cited by 43 per cent of respondents), generational issues (29 per cent) and cultural/religious issues (20 per cent).
“Given the increasing diversity in today’s workforce, both demographically and in terms of values, HR executives must create an environment that allows employees to express themselves individually while maximizing their work skills,” said Gilda Stahl, senior editor, the Economist Intelligence Unit.
“The EIU survey demonstrates that executives in every region recognise the scope of this challenge and understand that support at the most senior levels will be required to adjust and productively move forward.”
