What is diversity?

Diversity means difference, and people's differences can be many and varied:

• Race
• Culture
• National origin
• Region
• Gender
• Sexual Orientation
• Age
• Marital Status
• Politics
• Religion
• Ethnicity
• Disability
• Socio-economic differences
• Family structure
• Health
• Values
• And more …

A successfully diverse workforce is one that contains people at all levels who have a range of different characteristics and who have been recruited on the basis of their abilities and competence to do the job.

Tokenism

There can be a danger of tokenism, which is when individuals are perceived as speaking for a particular group and not having any other contribution to make.

Awareness of diversity and taking action on diversity is not just about individuals representing specific groups. For example, just because you have recruited someone who is Somali, does not necessarily mean they will be able to represent the views of all Somali people. Everyone is different, and everyone is different in multiple ways.

It is important to consider how you know what someone has to offer. Are you judging simply by something visible? What does that actually tell you?

Reviewed and updated by the HR Services Partnership – April 2010.

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