Managing a Diverse Workforce Successfully Inside Public Administration
In Diversity United! Three words that are extremely important for life and work in the EU. For business and administration, the diverse and different skills of employees are an important basis for meeting the needs of customers and citizens in a way that fulfils service expectations, and for demonstrating positive performance.
The consequences of demographic and social change, digitisation, globalisation, European integration, increased requirements on environmental protection, and New Work – as well as increasing diversity in the population and the workforce – pose challenges for innovative and modern HR work. The complexity of these topics is constantly expanding, thus demanding proactive responses and virtually simultaneous action. In addition to traditional administration and care of personnel, HR management has an active role to play in supporting the (digital) transformation with appropriate tools and programmes, and in advising and supporting managers and employees.
Equality and equal opportunity are important levers in promoting employee engagement. Diversity needs an organisational culture characterised by value orientation, respect, tolerance and appreciation. Diversity management, which helps to shape an employer brand, should be accompanied by organisational development and HR development accordingly.
Longer professional lives, older, more female and diverse workforces as well as clientele, an increasing shortage of talent (young talent, managers) demand integrated concepts and approaches. There is a need for demographic diversity and digitisation to be ‘thought out together’ and to be strategically anchored in the respective business and HR policy. For example, multiple generations will increasingly work and learn together, intercultural openness will be promoted, men too will increasingly ask questions about the compatibility of professional and family/private life within the context of different partnership life models, and the younger generation has different expectations when it comes to life balance. On 11 November 2020 the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020–2025 was adopted by the European Commission. The European Strategy against Racism and the Gender Equality Strategy also underlines the potential need for internal action within public authorities.
Public administration must present itself as an attractive employer to attract and retain new, qualified employees – and thus talent – with diverse and varied skills. Successful diversity management will therefore also depend on the extent to which recruitment, qualification, HR development and management development are strategically and conceptually linked. This should drastically increase the organisational performance.
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