Diversity in the Workplace: Why it Matters in Direct Selling?

Diversity in the workplace is an essential aspect of many businesses. The more diverse a company is, the better it can represent its customer base and stay on top of trends that may affect the industry. However, instituting diversity in the workplace takes time and effort from management and employees. Diversity in an organizational setting refers to equality of opportunity and employment free from discrimination based on characteristics including gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. In order to promote diversity among distributors, direct selling companies should offer culturally competent training programs for distributors so they can effectively collaborate with their team.

How to improve your cultural competency?

• Build awareness of different cultures and diversities, among your distributors.
• Encourage communication across cultural boundaries.
• Introduce company policies that are flexible to adapt to the cultural diversity in your workplace.
• Support culturally relevant initiatives among distributors.

What are the benefits of cultural diversity in business?

• Establish an inclusive environment in the workplace.
• Promote equity among employees.
• Create more innovative solutions for problems with diverse viewpoints.

Organizations that prioritize diversity offer a wide range of thoughts, viewpoints, and training opportunities. Diverse employees can combine their unique skills, experiences, and skill sets to produce innovative solutions, as opposed to another group consisting of very similar skill sets who could choose to approach a problem in the same manner they always have. An increase in innovation and creativity within a culturally diverse group can foster a sense of progress for the group and the company.

A good administration welcomes people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. As we know, direct selling products span across various industries in various countries worldwide. Direct selling organizations must prepare themselves to embrace diverse cultures and ethnicities. Managing this diversity well will go a long way towards ensuring that your organization succeeds while creating an inclusive environment for all members to thrive.

Despite having several benefits, workplace diversity comes with certain challenges.

People across different cultures differ in their way of speech and expression. Certain employees can be polite in their way of interacting with others. Some employees can be very reserved and may hold themselves back from expressing or contributing ideas, especially if they have just been exposed to their new work environment. Whereas, certain employees are eager to have their voices heard by actively participating in the day-to-day decisions in their workplace.

When people from different cultures have to work together, prejudices can get in their way, blinding their good judgment, and forcing them to be irrational and unfair to their coworkers. Preconceived notions like certain cultures have higher intelligence and certain others don't work hard, can lead to discrimination, leading to internal disputes.

Communication is key to the growth of a team. Language is a barrier among multicultural distributors. Even with every distributor speaking a common language such as English, there can be misinterpretation while communicating with native speakers. Such events can lead to severe misunderstanding and even offense.

Not everyone organizes their routines in the same way. But there can be a lot of similarities in the work culture of people who belong to the same culture. When people of different cultures are mixed together, there can be a conflict of interests. Colleagues from other cultures may also bring with them diverse workplace attitudes, values, behaviors, and etiquette. Different work styles can affect the collaboration among distributors, leading to mediocre teamwork.

Even though many of these challenges seem very difficult to handle, with proper education and training, these can be brought under control. Compliance training has to be a critical part of the distributor onboarding process. This helps distributors to understand the importance of diversity in the workplace and its impact on the growth of the team. Hosting cultural events can create an inclusive environment where distributors from different cultures can interact and embrace their differences.

Workplace diversity is crucial to 67% of job seekers when considering employment possibilities, and more than 50 percent of current employees want their workplace to do more to boost diversity. Just over half of American workers agree that they have diversity and inclusion in the workplace; while this is a majority, it indicates that nearly half of the workforce is employed by organizations that do not create safe and inviting workplaces for their employees. This has an impact on employee safety, well-being, and retention, as well as a company's economic success.

A Culture Amp study shows that the majority of working women feel undervalued in decision-making, uncomfortable speaking out about their thoughts, and doubt their capacity to accomplish. Direct selling is among some of the industries that had actually established equality in the work. Regardless of their culture, gender, or race, a lot of people have shown interest in the direct selling business; It is important for the organizations to take initiatives that celebrate these diversities.