Embracing a Diverse Twenty-first Century Workforce

This article discusses how U.S. organizations are making an ongoing commitment to diversity initiatives and getting involved in education initiatives to help ensure that the twenty‐first century workforce is qualified to deal with the diversity issues that are coming in the future. Organizations are leveraging the similarities and differences of their team members in order to attract and maintain quality employees and to understand the diverse needs of the community so they can respond to them in a flexible way. The article discusses the changing cultural landscape, how the percentage of U.S. public school students considered to be part of a racial or ethnic minority group has changed over the last 25 years, and gaps between ethnic groups concerning education and the unemployment rate. Several strategies for achieving diversity goals are provided.