Hello Colleagues,

We've been hearing a lot these days about this thorny issue - Should Indian companies encourage diversity among its workforce?

In my observation, Indian MNC's - Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Videocon, Tata Motors etc. do not have a formal policy to encourage workplace diversity. A few companies have a policy to encourage women employees - but nothing beyond that. Infosys has made a good start in having a concentrated efforts to hire from US & European universities - but the rest of the Indian companies have not. Tata Motors has a substantial non-Indian workforce - but they are mostly working overseas.

So I raise the question: Should Indian companies have formal plans to increase cultural diversity among its workforce? Do Indian companies belive that having a diverse workforce improves the competitive advantage?

Seniors & esteemed professionals, please discuss on this issue....

Regards

Prof Tandon

Diversity does not refer to hiring foriegners, it deals with hiring different people from different social backgrounds. So just revert back to your observation and let me know, if diversity is encouraged or discouraged.

And as an answer to your question, I would say, Diversity needs to be encouraged, but not like the reservation system that we have in india. so long as the people are hired based on their merit, diversity can enhance the image and performance of any company. And formal plans of launching diversity, is not required after the advent of GLOBALISATION.

But a nice question to put up.

Cheers

Ruchi

Hello,

I do agree with prof. Tandon that MNC in India should be more open to 'foreign' staff. As such it is already the case in Europe where the staff is quite mixed , not only on the cultural level but on the international level. In fields where 'creativity and innovation' is required it's only an international team that will have an advantage over an 'national team' will have as identities will clash and will be catalysator for new ideas , usable some of them, unusable most of them.

Guy Baeyens

As the business model are changing day -by- day , workforce diversity has become important concern to each and every businees. In the so-called information age, the greatest assets of most companies are now on two feet (or a set of wheels). Undeniably, there is a talent war raging. No company can afford to unnecessarily restrict its ability to attract and retain the very best employees available.

Dear All,

I agree that Diversity is one of the important aspect that every Indian Inc has to work towards so as to make it global realistically.

Diversity does not just mean to have a workforce on Gender, it also means to have diverse workforce in Culture and Differently abled as well. Very few company's in India have started to focus on this aspect however, there is a long way to go to make the workplace more diverse.

Regards,

Gayathri