Employee Recognition Improves Workplace Diversity

Have you ever felt like a green fish in a goldfish pond?

Living in Australia, chances are good that you or someone close to you has been the recipient of inequality in the workplace since:

• 28% of the resident population was born overseas
• 20% of Australians are disabled
• 11% are diverse in sexual orientation or identity
• 2.4% are Indigenous residents
• 45% will experience a mental health issue at some point

Attributes as detectable as age and as subtle as the primary school you attended can cause negative personal reactions in the workplace. Taken to the extreme, they lead to hostility, harassment and discrimination.

In theory, most people agree that workplace diversity drives creativity, innovation, expanded skill sets and personal growth. In practice, it can be difficult to relate to someone with a completely different background. How do you find something in common? How do you communicate? How do you overcome fundamental disagreements about how to live your life?

One way to start is by acknowledging that every one of us is human. And as humans, we all have the same essential needs of belonging, self-esteem and self-actualisation (from Maslow's Hierarchy).

This is where recognition comes in.

• Open up the work environment to allow easy recognition of peers (up, down and laterally)
• Role-model recognition given to people with different perspectives
• Identify behaviours that aren't about 'sameness' or staying in one's comfort zone
• Emphasise the ability to recognise virtual teams, off-site colleagues, and staff who work different shifts
• Demonstrate the accessibility of recognition by those who are disabled
• Reinforce the need for "attitude" at work over "attributes" of an individual
• Empower people to give recognition anytime, anywhere and on any device

An employee recognition program won't solve all of your diversity-related challenges, but designed correctly, it's a fair and ubiquitous vehicle for communicating diversity values, measuring changes in behaviour and rewarding the results.