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Workplace diversity is a term thrown around a lot, but what does it really mean?  The Society for Human Resource Management released the results of a survey about diversity in the workplace yesterday, and found that managing diversity in companies can be difficult, especially when there is no common definition of what diversity means or when companies solely focus on ethnicity and gender.

Some notable findings from the survey:

– Small companies–99 or fewer employees–are the least likely to have an official definition of diversity– Public/government organizations are more likely than private non-profit and for-profit organizations to define diversity.

– Some 75 percent of HR professionals said that, from a strategic perspective, leveraging the diverse talents of the workforce was extremely important to their organization; they would like to see greater emphasis made on the positive relationship between diversity and business results.

Furthermore, the study found that many diversity policies focus more on compliance, and are therefore more likely to be reactionary rather than be borne of a true desire to capitalize on the special skills and characteristics that each employee brings to the company. 

To read the entire article, click here.