Having a diverse mix of employees – a blend that includes a diversity of age, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and ways of thinking – can help businesses succeed. Diversity and inclusion represent opportunities and fairness for groups that had been discriminated against in the past.
Hiring a diverse workforce and offering opportunities to all can give companies advantages over those who don’t have a diverse mix of employees at all levels in the organization.
Benefits Of Diversity and Inclusion
While diversity and inclusion carry more benefits than these, we’re highlighting why businesses should do more about diversity and highlighting five ways businesses that pay attention to diversity and inclusion have an edge over those that don’t. These advantages pay off in the short term and over time.
Diverse Companies Succeed Financially
The research and advisory firm Gartner found that 75 percent of firms with diverse decision-making teams surpassed their financial targets. Companies with inclusive teams outperformed those that did not have diversity in their ranks by 50 percent, according to their study. Profitable operations should be an incentive to hire a diverse workforce. To achieve this, a number of successful companies rely on technology, which includes diversity indices software. With such tools, companies are able to bring about meaningful change, inclusion as well as growth.
Diversity Results In Better Decisions
Having a diversity of experience and thought results in a greater variety of viewpoints. This leads to better decisions in business operations and product development. A diverse and inclusive team of decision-makers is less likely to make offensive missteps that will damage the public’s perception of the company.
Innovation Is Fueled by Diversity
Forbes, among others, reports that companies with diversity among all levels of employment have greater levels of innovation. A 2018 BCG report shows that innovation income is 45 percent of total revenue for companies with diverse workforces compared to 26 percent for companies with less inclusion. Diversity of opinion, thought, and experience results in innovation.
Diverse Companies Understand Their Customers
Companies strive to serve a wide audience of customers – an assortment of people of different ages, incomes, backgrounds, genders, races, and ethnicity. Businesses that embrace diversity and inclusion tend to serve their customers better and have wider audiences of buyers and fans. Diverse decision-makers can relate to a diverse world of potential customers.
Company Morale Benefits From Inclusion
The culture, employee morale, and employee engagement thrive in an environment of diversity and inclusion. A Harris Poll from 2017 shows that a company culture that values diversity can attract and help retain the best talent. Inclusion results in happier employees who are more productive and loyal. These employees are more likely to feel their workplaces are fair and value their input.
Diversity And Inclusion Pay Off
We live in a diverse world that is increasingly smaller and better connected. Companies that want to reach a diverse customer base, have greater innovation, or attract and retain the best talent must be inclusive.
