Being different from the people you work with can be difficult. America has often been referred to as a melting pot because our society is made up of people from every race, nationality and cultural background. Therefore, in the American business culture, diversity is the norm and companies that desire success recognize the need to address this potentially destructive issue in the workplace. While many businesses are not receptive to change, they are finding that in order to retain the best workers and maintain an edge in the market, they need to place an emphasis on accepting and respecting cultural differences and ensuring their employees embrace these values as well. While there are laws dealing with discrimination in the workplace, addressing cultural differences requires ongoing attention to increasing knowledge about other cultures and showing respect for these differences.

Becoming a culturally competent and multicultural organization takes understanding, commitment and persistence on the part of staff, board members and volunteers. Education should be the first step in creating a diversity friendly atmosphere. Businesses frequently lose excellent workers because of a lack of good communication and understanding between different cultures. Improving communication skills is a critical component in any training program designed to increase understanding of diversity issues. Several suggestions for improving relations between diverse groups include commitment, mentoring and networking.

You should first examine and review literally everything about your workplace, the mission and goals; staff and leadership composition; policies and practices; public relations; hiring practices; training; volunteer activities and even the physical facility to ensure commitment to the goal of creating a diversity friendly workplace. Without your commitment to creating a harmonious working environment, your employees are likely to sabotage your efforts.

Mentoring is one creative method of reaching your goals. Assigning current staff members to pass on their knowledge and wisdom to new members of the group can help to enhance relationships and acceptance on the job. One way to accomplish this is to match a new person with someone of a similar cultural background to help understand the cultural climate and allow them to quickly assimilate as a member of the group. Another way to encourage mutual understanding of other cultures is to match people of different demographic origins; men with women, immigrants with the native born or Latinos with African Americans, etc. Any efforts you make toward creating a diversity friendly workplace will pay you dividends. No one wants to work where they feel unwelcome or unappreciated so if you want to retain the best employees, embracing cultural differences is the first step.