Understanding Employee Needs and Employer Advantages Teaching Notes by Cynthia Ozeki California State University Dominguez Hills

The Available Workforce in the US Is Rapidly Changing Fewer: Males Mid-career workers Parents in traditional families with a spouse at home Whites More: Women Younger (16-25) and older (55+) workers Workers with family and eldercare responsibilities Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, other minorities The number of workers is declining but number of jobs isn’t dropping to match, so employers will have find ways to use this more diverse group of employees effectively

It helps to understand What these employees need and want at their workplaces What special knowledge and skills they can bring in that should entice employers to try to attract and support them

Group Exercise Choose one of the following groups which fits your personal situation. Groups will have about 7 minutes to discuss: 1) What particular concerns these employees have. What do they need/want from employers? 2) What can they offer employers – what special characteristics should make them attractive as a group? Groups: 1. eldercare givers 2. parents of children under parents of teens and older 4. dual-career couples 5. Grew up speaking language other than English 6. under over strong ethnic/racial identity 9. Strong identity as a working woman

What Do These Groups Want? What Can They Add? Let’s fill this in as a class GroupWantsAdds 1. Eldercare givers 2. Parents of children under parents of teens and older 4. Dual-career couples 5. Bilingual/bicultural workers 6. Single workers under Workers over Working women 9. Workers from minority groups

Conclusions People from ALL these groups generally want their employers to offer them a lot of flexibility in when and how work is done They want respect for their knowledge and opinions – even if expressed with an accent or in different way They bring in a range of new knowledge and perspectives companies need for success Those balancing work with dual-career relationships, elder- and child-care tend to be reliable, responsible, caring and have developed good people skills Even if changing workforce demographics didn’t necessitate it, hiring and supporting these worker makes good business sense

Why Is Diversity at Work Good? At first, it can be tougher to train and integrate BUT: Organizations that welcome and utilize diversity tend to have higher : - Employee job satisfaction - Profits - Productivity It’s easy to see why – different people bring different perspectives and by encouraging them to speak out, you can found new products, solutions and customer s Having these people active in our economy also helps our society as a whole