Cultural Diversity in the Workplace

As a Woman Owned business, firstPRO is particularly sensitive to maintaining and growing diversity among our staff. I believe that a diverse workplace makes good business sense and it encourages a more culturally diverse client base. By embracing this, we can better understand the culture of more companies and ultimately bring new ideas and new perspectives to our own business. There have been studies that prove that a more diverse workforce does in fact contribute to the bottom line. When you think about it, we all like to do business with people we like and are comfortable with, so a diverse company naturally appeals to prospective customers.

At firstPRO, we bring in outside firms to conduct “sensitivity training” with our staff, and we keep an open door policy for discussion and follow-up. This is very eye-opening in training, because we are asked to leave our comfort zone and listen to the views and experiences of others.

In terms of communication, men and women do this very differently. Men tend to be short and to the point; they view communication as a means to solving a problem. Women, on the other hand, are more detail oriented and ask more questions. We have also found that men make decisions more quickly, but women tend not to change their mind once they have been made. Men talk more about facts, whereas women talk more about people, relationships and feelings. It is everyone’s personal responsibility to continue to evaluate their own views and biases while still maintaining their own ideals and moral compasses. Our true values don’t generally change, and we need to stay true to ourselves. At the same time, however, it is a big and ever-changing world, and those who don’t recognize that will be left behind, especially in business. As a working professional, we must understand our own perceptions, behaviors and communication styles because it is these things that will contribute to your overall growth and prosperity.