What does 'diversity' mean?
Before we explore the benefits of having a diverse workforce, we must first establish what the word 'diversity' - so often thrown around without very much thought - actually means.
If a group of people is diverse, this means that those people come from a variety of different backgrounds and experience life differently from one another. A diverse workforce should contain an assortment of ethnicities, ages, beliefs, sexual orientations, genders, economic classes, and levels of ability.
A diverse workplace is inclusive and provides equal rights and opportunities for all workers, regardless of their personal characteristics. Employers are responsible for implementing measures that overcome employment disadvantage and discrimination in the workplace, and cultivating a more diverse workforce is one way of doing that.
How diversity benefits businesses
Improving the diversity of your workforce can benefit your organisation in a number of different ways, including the following:
Enhanced brand reputation
Nowadays, it's often not enough for a business to simply provide a competent service. If you want your organisation to thrive and grow in this day and age, you will need to develop and foster a positive brand reputation amongst your target audience.
A diverse workforce will reinforce the notion of an inclusive brand, showing you as a forward-thinking employer and a brand that people from all walks of life should want to work with. This can have very positive effects, such as boosting business growth and making it easier to recruit new talent.
Which brings us to the second benefit of diversity...
Wider talent pool to choose from
Prioritising diversity allows you to choose from a wider pool of talent. If you're only picking from one section of the population, you automatically limit your access to a wide choice of highly talented individuals with all sorts of skills that could have enhanced your company's performance and reputation.
By choosing to adopt a more diverse approach to recruitment, you open the door a wider talent pool and a greater chance of finding the right candidate for any given position.
Increased productivity
A concern for many employers is that hiring a diverse group of workers could generate more arguments and disagreements, leading to a reduction in overall productivity.
In actual fact, though, diversity usually improves productivity because it equips businesses with a broad range of skills, backgrounds and experiences to draw from.
Within an inclusive environment, co-operation and teamwork among your employees can thrive, leading to better results for the whole company.
Improved creativity and innovation
Effective problem-solving often relies on communicating and working with others. When the people involved in this process all come from different backgrounds with varied experiences and educations, it can lead to new and innovative solutions that might not have occurred to a more homogenous group.
With a diverse workforce that's made up of many different people working together, one person can make an improvement and others can improve on that improvement - leading to better, more rounded solutions.
A better understanding of your customers
By having a more diverse workforce, you can market your business more effectively to a wider audience that includes different races, ethnicities, sexualities, age groups, economic backgrounds, etc. For example, a company that employs both women and men would likely find it easier to attract female customers than an entirely male organisation would.
Employees with varied backgrounds can help to promote a better understanding between your business and your customers, especially if you're targeting a fairly diverse customer base. They can also help your organisation to better understand cultural differences that might otherwise have hampered your business's growth.
