Organizations today are more diverse than they ever were in the past years. And it’s important for any organization to make sure that the workplace is a safe space for people no matter what their race, gender, social class, culture, and beliefs are.
“The best workforce is a diverse workforce.” — Ted Colbert, Executive Vice President of The Boeing Company
Benefits of D&I in the Workplace:
Maintaining a diverse workforce may be challenging. But when done efficiently, your company will surely reap more than just workplace unity. Just look at the benefits of D&I in the workplace!
1. It attracts and retains talent.
Being diverse and inclusive is one step to strengthen your recruitment process and attract top talents. More importantly, a diverse workforce also means that you’ll be more likely to retain your current employees compared to having a homogenous workforce.
77% of Millenials and GenZ-ers said that an organization’s level of diversity affects whether or not they decide to work there.
According to Karen Brown, a consultant on business and strategic transformation through diversity and inclusion, the best way to retain employees is to focus on inclusion, not just diversity. This is because truly acknowledging where your employees are coming from is one essential thing to do to truly value your employees and to ensure their retention.
2. It brings in a variety of perspectives.
People with different cultural backgrounds put so much more on the table when it comes to brainstorming ideas. This is because varying perspectives create a synthesis of multiple ideas that can solve problems in multiple ways.
“Diversity of minds, ideas, and approaches allows teams to find a solution that takes into account multiple angles of the problem.” — Anna Powers, award-winning scientist and communicator
3. It improves business relations and employee satisfaction.
The more diverse your workforce is, the more likely it is for your employees to show empathy towards your diverse customer and client base and cater to their needs. This gives you various insights into your customers’ points of view and pain points. After all, your customers are diverse too.
This will also translate into how better your employees work together. Because when people share their unique experiences and embrace each other’s differences, this allows them to build great relationships with their colleagues.
4. It drives innovation and growth.
A McKinsey report found that organizations with more culturally and ethnically diverse executives were 33% more likely to see better-than-average profits! So, more than just beneficial for workforce harmony, diversity is a key to innovation and business growth.
With the satisfaction of employees, clients, and customers resulting from true inclusion within your organization, you can expect increased ROI and productivity.
Sources: Boeing, SurveyMonkey, HBR, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey
