Utah work-force diversity grows

Pierce said promoting a healthy and diverse workplace also helps enhance the overall strength of a company.

"In Utah, we tend to try to put a changing work force into our definition of what a work team is or how you get synergy within a team," he said. "You can't do that. You've got to listen more to what the dynamics are of what that work force team is telling you."

He said employers should try to get away from the "cookie-cutter" image that many may have had over the years and embrace the positive attributes that diversity brings.

As workplace diversity has increased in recent years, a number of companies have used numerous strategies in an effort to increase productivity, said Northrop Grumman human-resource specialist Al Cain.

"I talked to one employer who had 17 different languages spoken in his workplace," he said. "A solution might be to bring English as a second language into the workplace or even training managers in other languages."

He said managers have to realize that what feels good to them in a workplace may not feel good to someone from another culture. Those managers should work harder to relate better to those employees for the good of the company and for the good of the morale of its work force, he said.

"Walk in their shoes, understand what it's like to be in a situation where you are not the dominant individual," Cain said.

"If people in an organization see that the senior leaders are actually taking the time to learn more and gather some tools to help overcome the challenges of diversity and inclusion, then it drives the issue down to the lower levels to actually do the same."

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