7 Benefits of Diversity in the Workplace

Practising inclusivity in the workplace can produce several significant advantages for your employees and your business alike. 

The more viewpoints represented on a project can result in a greater variety of creative solutions. Harvard Business Review found that a team with multiple perspectives is better able to make decisions more quickly and more efficiently. 

Deloitte Australia interviewed 1,550 employees from three businesses about their perspectives on diversity and inclusion. The research showed that a majority of employees felt more included in an organisation that supports diversity. As a result, they were more engaged with their work and produced higher quality results. 

Research by McKinsey & Company conducted in 2018 discovered that companies with more gender-diverse workforces are 21% more likely to have above-average profits. It increases to 33% with more ethnic and cultural diversity.  

Many high performers are more likely to seek out companies that value diversity in their workforce. Inviting a wider range of viewpoints promotes faster and more creative problem-solving while drawing in more ambitious employees. 

Supporting inclusiveness helps employees feel more accepted and valued within the workplace. In turn, they’re more engaged with their work and their workplace, creating a sense of belonging that makes them less likely to seek other employment.

Promoting diversity and inclusiveness within your organisation makes it more reputable to the public. Acting as a socially-conscious brand can attract top talent to your company, resulting in more customers and potential business partners. 

A focus on diversity draws more potential employees to your business from a wide variety of personal and professional backgrounds. This larger talent pool can increase your chance of finding high-quality employees for your business. 

Diversity in the workplace can mean many things. Each characteristic, which brings its own value and advantages, can be sorted into four broad categories:

• Internal Diversity: These are traits that someone is born with that are difficult or impossible to change. Race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and age fall under this category. 

• External Diversity: These are traits that are more heavily influenced by a person’s environment and can change over time. Traits in this category include appearance, education, hobbies, habits and life experiences. 

• Organisational Diversity: These are different traits assigned to employees by a larger organisation. These characteristics include role within the company, pay, union membership and seniority. 

• World View Diversity: These are traits that determine how a person views and interacts with the world. Establishing an employee's worldview is simpler because these are often determined by traits from the other categories. Characteristics in this category include political leanings, religious beliefs and moral compasses. 

As you examine ways to effectively manage diversity in the workplace, keep these tips in mind…

Make sure your efforts to promote diversity are sincere. 

Establishing programmes and initiatives to increase inclusivity is a good start, but they can become superficial and temporary if not managed properly. 

Benefiting from diversity means enacting meaningful change in how your business treats its employees from top to bottom. Your workforce will likely see through anything less. 

To invite a more diverse range of people into your workforce, make sure your hiring process actively seeks them out. 

It’s common to hire people that share traits similiar to your own, but you can quite easily mandate a more diverse selection of employees before hiring someone. 

Additionally, assess how you determine if someone is good for your company and revamp the criteria. For example, reach out to job boards or organisations which cater to amplifying opportunities for diverse communities.

Reach out to organisations that already promote diversity and establish a pipeline for new, talented employees. The more of these connections you have, the more hiring choices you’ll have available. Equality organisations are a good place to start. 

Take the time to re-examine your company policies to ensure that they’re inclusive to every employee. For example, make sure that parental leave also applies to LGBTQ+ employees.

Additionally, establishing a zero-tolerance policy for offensive humour, stereotypes or slurs can help your employees feel comfortable coming to the workplace. Clearly outline the consequences of that behaviour and encourage a safe reporting system so those confronted with this kind of behaviour can share it without fear of retribution. 

Demonstrate the inclusive behaviour you want to see in your company. 

Most people have blind spots when it comes to their own behaviours, and, as the leader of your organisation, your employees may be too intimidated to address them. 

Open yourself to criticism and work to identify your biases and correct them. Modelling inclusive behaviour can encourage others in your company to follow suit. 

Diversity can provide several benefits to your workplace, including the potential to increase productivity and revenue. 

Supporting diversity leads to a large variety of perspectives within the workplace. Each unique point of view helps devise more creative ideas faster, increasing overall productivity and sales. 

The four types of diversity are:

• Internal Diversity: Traits we are born with.

• External Diversity: Traitsacquired over time.

• Organisational Diversity: Traits assigned by a larger organisation.

• World View Diversity: Traits made from the other three categories.

Creating diversity within your company takes time because meaningful change happens from top to bottom. Broadening your hiring practices, adopting a zero-tolerance policy for offensive comments and personally demonstrating inclusivity are a few strategies you can use. 

The bigger your company gets, the more challenging it becomes to control every aspect of it. But equality and diversity are two factors that you can have a more direct hand in. 

With Personio’s HR management software, you can cast a wider net by posting wide-ranging job adverts and displaying your dedication to diversity on a tailor-made careers page. Book a free demo and find out how Personio can help you today.