We are fortunate that we get to work in companies that typically are very inclusive to their diverse staff. Companies happily offer professional development in areas like writing and speaking so that their staff, who speak English as a second language, are more effective in their roles. But sometimes, it isn’t so easy.
In some cases, a company might be looking at a service such as accent reduction not to make their workplace more inclusive, but to help their workers conform to some unattainable standard. In these workplaces, there may be all kinds of different ethnicities, but they aren’t working well together and management is not respecting or including their differences in its day to day operation.
I recently met a speaker who works in the HR department at CBC radio. CBC radio has a very diverse staff and intentionally looks to showcase diversity as a Canadian value through its programming and its staff. She explained how one newcomer that was on her team was included. Her team regularly recognizes milestones in staff’s personal lives, so when one lady was pregnant, it was common practice to have a workplace baby shower. In this case however, the organizers went to extra lengths to research how baby showers are done in this person’s culture. By doing this, her staff not only got to learn more about their co-worker’s culture, but the co-worker was very moved by the effort made to make her feel welcome. This is just one example of how you can make your diverse team come together and be effective.