A successful company is a diverse company. Without the influx of different ideas from different cultures, a workforce can become stagnant and in desperate need of fresh impetus. Nobody should suffer bias based on their race, sex, religion, gender or sexual orientation – especially when there are so many advantages of having many people from different cultural backgrounds within a team.
Here are three quickfire ways that diversity can improve your company:
Increased Creativity
It has been well established that having people from different backgrounds leads to an increase in creativity. A lack of diversity can lead to a lack of innovation. A team with similar backgrounds, interests and beliefs can stifle innovation and lead to no new ideas or challenges in the working environment.
A study by social scientist Adam Galinsky found that teams with less diversity - produced work that was far less innovative than teams with a good amount of diversity.
“Adam's research outside the lab echoes these findings. In one of Adam's favourite projects, he looked at fashion lines presented by major fashion houses over 21 seasons. He found that the time fashion designers spent immersed in a different culture, "predicted their entire fashion line creativity."
Awareness and Acceptability
Unfortunately, discrimination still exists in the job market and although we have come a long way, ignorance can still sometimes rear its ugly head. Ignorance is a lack of knowledge and this causes prejudice as people can be angry and/or afraid of different cultures. This discrimination can then seriously impact someone’s career opportunities.
This is why it’s imperative that we strive towards diversity, not only for societal harmony and company success but to build a more inclusive world.
This can be achieved not only by day-to-day employee interaction but by awareness, acceptance and visibility which comes from the top. Once the leadership team communicate their diversity and inclusion strategy and the organisation takes accountability, collate and utilise diversity data in the right way including their recruitment process – these are positive steps to improve staff retention through diversity.
This can be achieved not only, day to day employee interaction, but also by setting up diversity schemes such as reverse mentoring and internal D&I champions is a great place to start but education should be the ultimate goal.
A Boost to Recruitment
Having a diverse workforce is great for innovation but it’s great for company perception and talent attraction. It’s not enough to just hit diverse quotas, they must be welcomed and have opportunities presented to them past their onboarding stage.
According to HR Daily Advisor – 79% of job seekers say that working for a company with a diverse workforce is important to them whilst job searching.
“79% of job seekers, “say it is important that they work for a place that hires people from diverse backgrounds, with greater proportions among women and persons of colour.”
Diversity makes us a better group of people, inside and the workplace and out. Being able to learn about different cultures is sometimes overlooked however, it’s a wonderful experience that we sometimes take for granted.
The workplace needs different people to help a company reach its full potential - and while creating diverse teams can not only boost the output - it can also positively influence a culture of acceptance and inclusion within the business.