We live in a highly connected and diverse world today; and the corporate environment is no exception.
People from all generations, industries and walks of life are moving around the globe to expand their careers, and in doing so, bringing with them an exciting opportunity for businesses to explore some bigger-picture benefits.
This diversity should be embraced, as it has been shown to improve a business’ culture, creativity and innovation, and overall revenue success. Diversity is not just a passing fad or popular ideal; it can create a competitive advantage for those willing to encourage it in their own workplace.
Here is why workplace diversity is important for business and how to get the most benefit.
What is diversity in the workplace?
An organisation with a diverse workplace is made up of a wide range of different people with different personalities, characteristics, skills, genders, ethnicities, education, backgrounds and so on.
It’s quite a relevant subject with HR professionals and Management today, especially due to the current gender debate. There is merit to this, as one study showed that having a more even split of genders could increase revenue generation by around 40%!
However, the ratio of males to females in an office isn’t the only diversity that businesses should explore. All types of diversity across many aspects can offer your business real advantages too.
1. Collective knowledge
Having a group of people who all have the same approach can lead to a very narrow vision from the company. This can stifle innovation because there’s little difference in opinions or ideas. Whereas a diverse team can widen everyone’s perspective when it comes to making decisions and these fresh suggestions can take the business into new territories.
2. Greater capabilities
When you have a workplace full of different generations, backgrounds and experiences, then you’re bound to have a good mixture of expertise that the business can tap into collectively.
For example, Millennials understand and are far more familiar with social media, and Gen X have strong business acumen. Putting these together can combine the strengths of each group to produce effective social media marketing strategies that help the business communicate better across digital channels.
3. Encourages growth
Business culture is a very important aspect of overall business performance, and it changes over time. When a group of people with different ideas, philosophies and views come together and collaborate on projects, there is a natural progression towards evolution and change. If the balance is right, the culture can become conducive to improving productivity.
4. Drives customer reach
With technology’s influence today, organisations are becoming far more global and are accessing different markets like never before. To get the best out of each location or niche, the business must adapt to local customer tastes, cultures and ideas. This requires a diverse workforce that is more in touch with the unique demographics of each market.
5. Improves financial success
Having a diverse workforce has been shown to have a positive impact on productivity and revenue generation. For example, a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has found that diversity can be attributed to around 19% higher revenue due to innovation.
This is because organisations that understand the value of diversity, from ethnicity or background, gender and sexual orientation, experience, age and gender are likely to produce profitable competitive advantages and differentiation.
There is a growing number of research studies confirming the link between diverse workplaces and the above five business benefits. For example, in one McKinsey & Company study, public companies with ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry average.
However, just like in anything, there must be harmony when working as a collective of people. Significant disruptions can arise when cultural conflict occurs. This makes the role of employee feedback crucial to the success by encouraging staff to identify what is working and where there are concerns.
So, how can you effectively tap into the knowledge of your team to get the most benefit out of workplace diversity?
How VibeCatch can help you improve and manage diversity in your workplace
Vibecatch can help companies take advantage of diversity and inclusion because every organization needs to find an approach that aligns and improves their internal culture. But as with anything, progress here begins with a shift in mindset, an openness to change, and of course, the willingness to listen to your people.
Average employee surveys are great, but they provide basic information at best. That’s because they are ongoing and underappreciated, and therefore largely ignored.
Using these can lead to incorrect insights which end up being a waste of time in the first place.
However, what does work is active, scientific-based listening and learning of our internal workforce to yield better (and trackable) results.
This is where the VibeCatch platform can help you
VibeCatch is a Human Resources platform based on 15 years of proven research, offering you the opportunity to make a positive difference not just for everyone around you, but your business and customers too.
It’s simple and automated, which makes checking on your culture easy to ensure that your business is optimised.
How can your business benefit from a science-based approach?
We’d love to show you, so you can see it in action for yourself.
Book an obligation-free consultation and we’ll discuss your options to demonstrate how VibeCatch can help you help everyone.