As you look around your office, is everyone just like you? Probably not. The demographics of the American workforce have changed dramatically over the last 50 years. In 2000, more than 60% of the American workforce consisted of Caucasians. They expected to retire by age 65 and spend their retirement years in leisure activities. Today, the American workforce is a better reflection of the population with a great mix of genders, race, religion, age and other background factors.

The long-term success of any business calls for a diverse body of skill that can bring new ideas, perspectives and views to their work. The challenge that diversity poses, therefore, is enabling your managers to take advantage of the mixture of genders, cultural backgrounds, ages and lifestyles to respond to business opportunities more rapidly and creatively.

Diversity is no longer just a black/white, male/female, or old/young issue. It is much more complicated and interesting than that. Diversity is many things, a connection between the working aspect and the reality of people's lives, gaining business experience, building relationships between people, a learning experience, a totally new view of the world.

A benefit of a diverse workforce is the ability to capitalize on the many talents which employees from different backgrounds, perspectives, abilities and disabilities bring to the workplace.

Many companies, however, still face challenges around building a diverse environment. Part of the reason is the tendency to classify its employees, placing them in a different group based on their diversity profile. If an employee is male, over 50, English, and an atheist, under what diversity category does this employee fall? Gender, generational, global or religious? In the real world, diversity cannot be easily categorized by those organizations.