What businesses will become the new leaders of the 20’? The ones that are creative, innovative, and flexible. And diversity will play a big role in this process. Just one fact for you to start with: companies with racially and ethnically diverse teams have a 36% higher likelihood of financially outperforming companies with little or no diversity.
So let’s talk about the diverse workforce, starting with what diversity is really about and why it’s so important for any business out there.
What is Diversity in the Workplace?
A diverse workforce means that a company employs individuals that vary by many different characteristics. Diversity can exist across many variables in a company, including race, sex/gender, sexual orientation, culture, religion, age, disability, socioeconomic aspect, and nationality.
By including people from different backgrounds along the above vectors, a workplace benefits from a greater number of voices and opinions. Diverse employees tend to view the world from many various perspectives and contribute their unique knowledge to benefit their company.
What is essential to note here is that diversity isn’t something that you include only for the sake of improving your corporate image or following the inclusivity trend. You should focus on a genuine dialog and constant work that take place in a diverse team, leading to immediate benefits and high-level goals for your business. Read on to learn about all the benefits that diversity brings.
#1 Broad and Diverse Perspectives
The first benefit of a diverse workforce is that it gives a company access to a wide range of backgrounds, skills, and characteristics that can help create an organization that is inclusive and respectful of all people.
So if a company wants to succeed in multiple markets across the world, its employers need to hear and respond to the diverse voices that make up the community they hope to engage with.
#2 Higher Profits
Recent research shows that companies with racially diverse leadership are 36% more profitable than companies without diversity. What’s more, businesses with greater gender diversity perform 15—21% better than companies with little or no gender diversity among staff members.
That’s no surprise. Because workplace diversity and inclusivity help all the employees feel included, no matter who they are or where they come from. People are inspired to be as creative as they can be and are happy to work hard for their company’s success and to achieve higher profits.
#3 Better Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is one of the major goals of most HR teams. It leads to happier and more productive employees, reduced turnover, quality work, and higher profits. As we mentioned before, diversity allows people to feel free to express themselves and engage in the projects they’re really interested in.
#4 Increased Creativity
Employees see the same things in different ways if they come from diverse backgrounds. This means that they are more likely to create a melting pot of fresh, new ideas, thus improving the creativity of the workforce and bringing various solutions to achieve a common goal. For instance, if you work with a particular market (clothing, healthcare, bedroom amenities, etc.), then what could be better then employees that have the same background and know exactly what your target audience needs and wants. Such diverse teams can create the most efficient marketing and sales strategy.
#5 Global Workforce Hiring
With the pandemic that started in 2020, workplace diversity became one of the key trends on the market as many businesses have turned to the global workforce and started hiring more and more diverse teams while working remotely.
Such companies have gained many benefits like having teams work with customers and partners across different time zones, speaking many languages, and having various different perspectives. Furthermore, the increased reliance on global HR strategies has enabled companies to effectively manage and leverage the diverse talents and expertise of their remote teams, fostering innovation and driving success in a rapidly evolving business landscape.
#6 Larger Pool of Talented Candidates
67% of job seekers consider diversity in the workplace a priority when looking for a new job. In other words, companies that fail to prioritize diversity will miss out on (at least) 2/3 of the best talent that their country, if not the world, has to offer. If you’re such a company, you can use automated recruitment tools or post about your HR strategy on social media and attract even more high-qualified candidates.
#7 Company Reputation Boost
Companies that aspire to build and promote diversity in the workplace are seen as socially responsible organizations that truly care about their employees, which ultimately creates a better reputation for the brand.
What’s more, a diverse workforce also makes your company look more sought-after. When many different people can relate to your brand, it opens doors to new clients, markets, and business partners.
A Diverse Workforce Makes the World a Better Place
All in all, when you build a culture of diversity and inclusion, you set an example for the world to follow. It’s not just good for the success of your business, it’s the right thing to do.
