Despite efforts made by civil rights organizations and the creation of diversity departments in many corporations, employees still feel that their companies'' diversity efforts are lacking, according to a recent survey by WorkplaceDiversity.com, a job search website for experienced diversity talent.
The survey, answered by people who visited www.WorkplaceDiversity.com in July, found that 83.3 percent of respondents felt that their current employers could do more to promote workplace diversity. Respondents also indicated that there is a disparity between their work workplaces and their companies'' customers with 72.2 percent saying that their companies do not reflect the diversity of the communities that they serve. Fifty percent of respondents, who are diversity jobseekers, said that diversity is a consideration when accepting a job offer. Although the overwhelming majority of respondents felt that their employers could do more to promote diversity, 44.4 percent believed that their employers really care about workplace diversity.
These finding show that companies still have a long way to go with their workplace diversity efforts, said Dan Honig, chief operating officer of WorkplaceDiversity.com. Employers need to understand that although it is an employers'' job market, workplace diversity is still important to current employees and to jobseekers. Employers who do not realize the importance of diversity and successfully implement diversity initiatives could be losing their share of the top talent to their competitors. Added Honig: Employers who are hiring need to focus on making their environments more diverse. Otherwise, when the economy changes, they will lose some of their top talent to companies that value and implement workplace diversity.
This survey also shows that companies may be having difficulty bridging the gap between their desire or intention to create workplace diversity and actually doing it, said Honig.
Companies still lacking in diversity efforts says workplacediversity.com
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