Significance of Workforce Diversity Management:

Workforce diversity management is significant for the following reasons:

(i) Ability to Deal with Diverse Market:

Culturally diverse workforce can better appreciate the needs, feedings, and attitudes of culturally
diverse consumers. Thus workforce diversity increases the competence of a corporation to deal with a
market; that consists of diverse consumer groups in respect of age, sex, culture etc.

(ii) Better Decision-Making:

People from heterogeneous backgrounds may aid management in better decision-making, by offering
suggestions from a wide range of perspectives and orientations. In fact, heterogeneous groups of people
may be more creative and innovative; when they pool their knowledge and experiences and agree on a
common solution to a tricky problem; which might aid management in making excellent decisions for
the organisation.

(i) Better Human Relations:

Workforce diversity management aims at developing and nurturing a common organisational culture
and climate; which enable people from diverse culture and backgrounds to co-exist peacefully. Such a
common organisational culture and climate leads to better human relations in the enterprise and
produces all-round organisational and managerial efficiency.

(ii) Preventing Unnecessary Labour Turnover:

When in an organisation there is good workforce diversity management; women and other dis-satisfied
people are prevented from leaving the organisation. In case otherwise, when there is large labour
turnover because of poor workforce diversity management; investment made in manpower may go
waste, with other bad consequences for the organisation. In fact, employees leave the organisation
when they do not feel comfortable and duly cared for by management.

(iii) Building of Goodwill of the Enterprise:

Companies with excellent workforce diversity management build goodwill in the society. As such,
talented people of society with diverse backgrounds and culture get attracted towards it for seeking
suitable employment. Such companies never have a problem of the scarcity of skilled, educated and
talented human capital.
Techniques of Workforce Diversity Management:

Some techniques for successful workforce diversity management are suggested below:

(i) Creating Awareness of Diversity:

Management must create awareness in the organisation that differences among people as to age, sex,
education, culture etc. exist in workforce; so that people may try to understand one another in a more
rational and friendly manner.

(ii) Creating Conditions for Common Organisational Culture:

Organisation must develop cross-cultural training programmes creating conditions for development of a
common organisational culture and climate. Such common culture will create an environment in which a
diversified work force can co-exist comfortably, peacefully and happily.

(iii) Programmes of Special Care for Diversified Workforce:

Management must design programmes of special care, like the following:

1.Care for elderly people

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2.Special work schedules to provide convenience to female workers etc.

(iv) Career Development Programmes:

There must be programmes for identifying each individual’s strengths, weaknesses and potential for
career development; so that the organization can capitalize on the peculiar features of a diversified
workforce. In fact, people should be valued for their difference and variety.

(v) Avoiding Discriminations:

A very significant technique for excellent workforce diversity management is to avoid any sort of
discrimination among people on the basis of age, culture and specially sex. In the most developed
country the U.SA, the Glass Ceiling Commission states that between 95 and 97 percent of senior
managers in the country’s biggest corporations are men.

vii) Committees of Diverse Members:

Committees of diverse members must be formed for evaluating and addressing complaints of people,
regarding their sad experience of working in the organisation.

(The term ‘glass ceiling’ describes the process by which women are barred from promotion by means of
an invisible barrier).
(vi) Prevention of Sexual Harassment:

1. Meaning of Succession Planning:

A succession plan is a component of good HR planning and management. Succession planning

acknowledges that the staff will not be with an organisation indefinitely and it provides a plan and
process for addressing the changes that will occur when they leave.

Most of the times, succession planning focuses on the senior management, however, all the key
positions should be included in the plan. Key positions can be defined as those positions that are crucial
for the operations of the organisation and that will be hard to replace because of skill, seniority and/or
experience.

Whenever the size of resources permit, a succession plan should involve nurturing and developing
employees from within an organisation. Employees who are perceived to have the skills, knowledge
qualities, experience and the desire can be groomed to move up to fill specific, key positions.

Organisation should:

i. Assess their current and future needs based on either their strategic plan, goals and objectives, or
priority programmes and projects.

ii. Match these to the capabilities of existing workforce.

iii. Develop a plan to manage the gaps that will arise when individuals in key positions leave or are
promoted.

The succession plan generally includes a combination of training and developing existing staff and
external recruitment. A succession plan is not a guarantee of a position; rather it represents a
developmental plan to prepare an individual, should opportunities arise within the organisations.

Essay # 2. Importance of Succession Planning:

The benefits of good succession planning are as follows:

(i) A good succession plan ensures that the organisation is prepared with a plan to support service
continuity when the key people leave.

(ii) It ensures a continuous supply of qualified, motivated people (or a process to identity them), who
are prepared to take over when current key persons leave the organisation.
(iii) It involves an alignment between the organisation’s vision and its human resources that
demonstrates an understanding of the need to have appropriate staffing to achieve strategic plan.

(iv) A good plan is a commitment to develop career paths for employees which will facilitate the
organisation’s ability to recruit and retain top performing employees.

(v) A good succession plan involves an external reputation as an employer that invest in its people and
provides opportunities and support for advancement.

(vi) It involves a message to the organisation’s employees that they are valuable.

The absence of a succession plan can undermine an organisation’s effectiveness and its sustainability.
Without a succession planning process an organisation may not have a means of ensuring that the
programmes and services that are crucial to its operations are sustained beyond the tenure of the
individual currently responsible for them.

Essay # 3. Challenges to Succession Planning:

Some challenges to succession planning are:

i. Size of the organisation:

Some organisations have so few positions that they may not have the ability to offer opportunities for
advancement; employees with the potential and the desire to advance their careers may move to larger
organisations as a result.

ii. Lac of financial resources:

Employees may leave for better salaries and benefits offered in their workplaces.

iii. The nature of funding:

As more and more organisations depend on project funding as opposed to care funding, there are fewer
core staff members available to take up positions in the organisations.

iv. Project staff come and go and may not be seen to be part of the talent pool available to
organisations.

v. In some cases, senior leaders are staying on in their positions, despite the fact that the skills needed
for the job may have changed or they are no longer making a meaningful and productive contribution to
the organisation.

vi. Indiscriminate inclusion of employees in the succession plan including those who are disinterested,
unmotivated or lack capacity to advance.

vii. Inadequate training and development resulting in an employee who is not prepared for a promotion.
viii. A plan that does not promote people in a timely fashion, leading potential successors to leave the
organisation to seek new opportunities.

ix. Poor communication resulting in confusion and turmoil within the organisation as staff speculate
about what the succession plan really is.

x. Potential candidates for promotion cannot be guaranteed that they will be promoted; a lot depends
on timing and need of the organisation.

Essay # 4. Components of Succession Planning:

The following steps provide a road map for the organisations interested in developing succession plans.

Different organisations implement these activities differently while there is no right or wrong way to
develop a succession plan; the following are the important components that need to be considered:

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1. Capacity and Needs Assessment:

i. Identify the key positions for the organisation. These may include the executive director, senior
management and other staff members who would, for their specialized skills or level of experience be
hard to replace. The positions which would need to be filled almost immediately should be identified to
ensure that the organisation continues to function effectively.

ii. Review and list the current and emerging needs of the organisation. This will involve examining the
strategic and operational plans to clearly articulate priorities.

iii. Prepare a chart that identifies the key positions and individuals in the organisation. The position
might include those listed in Step I and/or others that are pertinent to the organisation, such as
volunteers.

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iv. Identify and list the gaps by asking questions such as:

a. Which individuals are likely to leave (through retirement etc.) and when?

v. Evaluate/Assess all staff members with the goal of identifying those who have the skills and
knowledge or the potential along-with the desire to be promoted to existing and new positions.

a. The evaluation can be formal or informal and can include (optional) performance reviews, 360°
assessments and informal conversations.

b. The aspirations and the capacity to move up of the employees should be recognized and supported.
c. Effective succession planning should give younger employees a chance. Younger workers will remain
committed to the organisation if their interests are matched with the opportunities provided with the
organisation.

2. Development and Implement the Plan:

Based on the evaluation and on the requirements of the strategic plan, the next step is to identify the
key person or people who need to be developed and nurtured for the future, the position for which they
are to be groomed for and the time frame required to prepare them. Different ways of developing the
employees should be considered like self-development, mentor programmes, special project work etc.

The career path that the selected individuals should be following should be identified. The path should
be customised to fit the individual’s abilities and talents by developing an action plan. The plan must be
dynamic able to be changed as the individuals and the organisation’s needs change. It must also
consider the specific need learning style and personality of the individuals involved in order to be
effective.

The education, training, coaching mentoring and assessment activities should be formalised. The mix of
activities included within the action plan should be linked to timelines and specific outcomes.

If possible, people should be moved into different areas for experience and training, before they are
needed in critical positions.

3. Monitor and Manage the Plan:

As people leave and new people assume their responsibilities, the plan will have to be updated to
identity the next person to be groomed for promotion and the requirements of his individual action
plan. For organisations that engage in regular strategic planning process, the succession plan should be
included in that discussion.

Alternative career paths should be identified to allow all employees who are interested in career
enhancement to be given. Some type of professional development opportunity. Professional
development can include such wide ranging activities as formal education and training workshops and
seminars as well as less formal learning opportunities.

Such as the chance to represent the organisation at a conference or consultation it has to be recognised
that no matter how well you plan, something can still happen which the succession plan doesn’t
address.

For example, the person who has been trained as a successor may also leave. Even though there may
not be anyone to fill the vacancy immediately, but the succession plan will ensure that there is a process
which can be followed in filling that vacancy.

Essay # 5. Tips for Successful Succession Planning:

(1) Secure Senior management and board support for a succession planning process:

This gives the employees and staff an understanding of how important succession planning is for the
organisation.

(2) Review and update the succession plan regularly:

This ensures that the organisation reassesses the hiring needs and determines where the employees
identified in the succession plan are in their development.

(3) Develop procedure manuals for essential tasks carried out by key positions:

Include step by step guidelines. Adequate time should be provided to prepare successors. The earlier
they are identified, the easier it is on the individual to be advanced and on other employees within the
organisation who will know whether certain options are available to them. It has to be understood that
the succession plan would be a unique reflection of the organisation.