How Diversity Is Changing the Workplace

Diversity in the workplace has become more than a reality – it has transformed into a mentality. Individuals and entire companies who embrace and utilize the differences of those around them are those which have witnessed the highest rates in growth and prosperity in the twenty-first century.

This one word – diversity – has become more than a strategic business imperative. It has become an essential mindset to have for not only business leaders, but also everyone involved in the company in order to sustain and scale a business.

The Importance of Diversity

Having a diverse collection of individuals of different genders, ages, cultural backgrounds, experiences, and sexual orientation has been shown to have a positive effect on three separate, yet interlinked parties: employees, customers, and business partnerships.

1. The Employee

A diversified workforce has the strongest impact on your staff members. At the most basic level, having a selection of individuals from all walks of life instils mutual respect and helps individuals come together and build an effective team. Conflict resolution in companies which encourage diversification is much more effective, and as a result, employees are more engaged, more productive, and deliver a higher quality of work. This may be because, as according to a Harvard Business School study, multicultural networks tend to promote creativity and out-of-the-box solution solving.

2. The Customer

Your customers have a lot to gain from having a diversified workforce. For starters, they will benefit from having a staff which works as a team. Having a staff of diverse individuals also means that your customers will have an easier time being able to find someone to relate to. This enhances a brand’s reputation with the customer.

There are two key benefits to this:
a) The customer will share his or her positive experience with others, which will help build up your brand.
b) Working with a positively-viewed company will boost staff morale and help keep them engaged.

This produces a cyclical effect: the employee works hard to make the customer happy, the customer is satisfied and promotes the company, and the employee feels rewarded and remains engaged and encouraged to provide superior customer support.

3. Business Partnerships

Much like a company’s customers, this too relies heavily on how individuals will be able to relate to your company. Diversity is the bottom line in leveraging a company’s full potential. Having a staff and leadership team full of diverse individuals makes you more approachable to a variety of other businesses. In fact, a recent McKinsey study revealed that companies with diverse executive boards enjoyed far higher earnings and returns on equity than those which neglected to include diversity into their workplace.

The Positive Impacts of Diversity on a Business

Positive impacts of having a diversified workforce are vast. For example, a Forbes study recently identified how workforce diversity and inclusion were both key drivers of internal innovation and business growth. Some other major benefits include:

• An increase in market share: A recent Deloitte study showed that diversifying the workplace will help a business increase their market share. Having a diverse selection of individuals from different backgrounds and experiences allows businesses to more effectively market to their consumers from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds, genders, ages, and sexual orientation.

• Attracting and attaining top talent from a diverse talent pool: It has been estimated that from 2000 to 2050 immigrants and their offspring will account for 83 percent of the growth in America’s working-age population. Having the best minds working for your organization can give you the competitive edge and drive it successfully into the future.

• Increased exposure: Working with people of diverse interests means that you will attract the attention of different sets of customers, businesses, and potential employees.

Are Diversity Hires Getting More Jobs?

As diversification in the workplace is being lauded as a solution to developing a more productive and innovative company, many are asking the question: but are ‘diverse’ individuals getting more jobs? Many would say, ‘No’.

Google recently came under fire for having a mere 18 percent of its technology workforce being female going into 2015. Another analysis by USA TODAY showed that Black and Hispanic computer engineering and computer science graduates were graduating at twice the rate that they were being hired.

While these numbers are increasing and getting better by the year, it still shows that even global giants are lacking when it comes to diversification. Despite how the media may portray this difference, this is not necessarily due to discrimination. In fact, a lack of diversification in the workplace is often due to lack of access.

How Recruiters Help in Diversifying the Workplace

More companies worldwide are choosing to use national and international recruitment or research firms to take care of their hiring woes for a number of reasons: these companies save time, give businesses a greater peace of mind, and often come with cost saving benefits.

But that’s not all. Other reasons why more companies today are choosing to employ recruiters to take care of hiring their diverse global talent is because of:

• The recruiter’s knowledge of the marketplace.
• The recruiter’s extended reach.
• The recruiter’s ability to source key strategic skills globally.
• The recruiter’s ability to source the absolute best candidates available for the job.

Top quality recruitment firms streamline the entire hiring process by taking care of the sourcing and screening of great talent. They are able to draw from multiple global sources with which they have often already established great relationships and are able to provide qualified candidates to a company.

From adaption and remaining competitive to economic growth and scalability, choosing a recruiter to source your diverse globalized workforce is the quickest and most cost effective way of growing your team and your business today.