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Let’s be honest. There’s no way any business can doubt the significance and effectiveness of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Deloitte found that businesses with a diverse workforce had a per-worker profit 2.3 times greater than others. According to research by Gartner, inclusive teams boost productivity by as much as 30% in highly diverse workplaces.
Surprisingly, there are many ways fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment benefits your company. It’s a competitive advantage to be inclusive.
In this post, you’ll find 10 benefits of inclusion in the workplace and how it can improve company culture.
Summary of Inclusion Benefits
Here’s a summarized list of inclusion benefits:
- Increased Creativity and Innovation
- Boosted Productivity in the Workplace
- Better Problem-solving Capabilities
- Lower Employee Turnover
- More Effective Products and Services
- Access to a Larger Pool of Talent
- Improved Global Reputation and Company Branding
- Better Understanding of Your Customers
- Increased Knowledge of the Local Market
- Increased Company Profits
Now, let’s dive into the top benefits mentioned above.
1. Increased Creativity and Innovation
The terms creativity and innovation are sometimes used interchangeably, but they mean different things. To be creative, one must be able to think of something fresh. In contrast, innovation expands on original thought to produce something truly groundbreaking.
The key to long-term success and expansion is innovation. Globalization has caused many changes in business culture, and new ideas and perspectives can come from a more diverse team. Diversity helps level the playing field, but it also spurs development in a company.
Diversity in the workplace encourages the inclusion of people with a wide range of experiences, perspectives, and expertise in the problem-solving process. Studies show that teams with diverse backgrounds and experiences are more likely to come up with unique solutions to problems.
2. Boosted Productivity in the Workplace
Employees, supervisors, and everyone else in the workforce contribute to company productivity.
When you value and respect employees of different backgrounds in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and ability, the workplace becomes more diverse.
This causes the team’s morale to rise, and as a result, output increases. The team will work together and commit to the company’s goals. Employees are more eager to take on new challenges and improve their abilities.
Employers also gain from the perspective and expertise of a more varied workforce. A team with a wide range of experiences and viewpoints is good for everyone. Employees’ various life experiences and perspectives might also shed light on specific customer subsets.
While it may be tempting to form homogeneous teams, doing so risks becoming dull and discontent. On the other hand, a team with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences may be better able to push each other to their maximum potential through friendly rivalry.
A company where all 25 employees are of the same sex, ethnicity, culture, and race is an excellent example of this phenomenon. This situation will likely limit the workers’ thinking about issues and achieving solutions.
Workers will likely take a one-sided stance when it comes to finding answers. But, the overall productivity of the same company would rise if its employees reflected the population at large.
3. Better Problem-Solving Capabilities
Harvard Business Review research shows cognitively diverse teams — which are groups where members have different perspectives or information processing styles — may solve problems considerably faster than teams made up of people with comparable levels of intelligence.
This makes sense in the business world, where new problems require employees to work together and use what they know while also learning what they don’t know. With this information, they can promptly discover a solution.
Business leaders can use these findings in the hiring process and take the initiative to discover cognitive diversity in job applicants. Hiring people with distinct viewpoints and information processing styles to their new team members can result in speedier problem-solving.
The ‘Getting Real About Inclusive Leadership’ research from Catalyst found that inclusive environments benefit people and businesses. For instance, they linked a 49% boost in team problem-solving performance to employees’ reports of feeling included.
4. Lower Employee Turnover
Workplace diversity and inclusion increase employee engagement and productivity. A diverse and inclusive work environment creates a community where everyone feels valued. If employees feel valued and appreciated at work, they are more likely to stick around for the long haul.
More workplace equality inspires and encourages workers to realize their full potential. Plus, teams with a wide range of people working together tend to be more creative and productive.
On top of that, organizations with a greater variety of employees are more open to different perspectives and skill sets. As a result, turnover rates are lower in these businesses.
A bad work environment, however, can breed a toxic corporate culture that drives away talented employees. High employee turnover increases the cost of recruiting new workers, and it’s clear that inclusion in the workplace is the better decision.
5. More Effective Products and Services
Employing people from a wide range of cultural backgrounds is advantageous for businesses. Hiring a more culturally and racially diverse workforce could help a company provide a broader range of services.
Having a wider variety of products and services and a more diverse set of skills could give your business an edge in the marketplace. Flexible and adaptable companies will fare well in the current unstable and uncertain worldwide economic environment.
One of the hallmarks of flexibility is the ability to make rapid and effective course corrections. A business with a varied staff is likelier to spot an opportunity in the marketplace before its rivals.
Organizations might benefit from a global or market-specific viewpoint and knowledge when creating or modifying products to satisfy customers’ evolving needs.
For example, Americans with disabilities will have approximately $544 billion in discretionary money this year. In theory, including people with disabilities in the workforce could help businesses meet the needs of that demographic.
Having a bilingual or multi-ethnic workforce is also a great way to spot potential globalization roadblocks in your products or services.
6. Access to a Larger Pool of Talent
A better recruitment process is another one of the benefits of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Avoid missing out on talented individuals due to their gender, race, or other characteristics by removing prejudice and bias throughout hiring teams and the upper levels of your company.
You can also invest in an inclusive job description tool like Ongig’s Text Analyzer. This tool ensures that your job descriptions are unbiased. The software also makes sure to flag any inappropriate or offensive phrases that may put off diverse talent.
This will create a larger pool of qualified applicants to select for open positions in your company.
A positive reputation for diversity and inclusion increases the likelihood that qualified job seekers will choose your organization over others.
According to a 2017 PwC survey, 54% of women and 45% of men investigated potential employers to learn more about their diversity and inclusion practices, while 48% of male respondents and 61% of female respondents evaluated the diversity of the company’s leadership team after obtaining a job offer.
A 2018 Randstad study found an even higher number of 78% of workers placed a high value on inclusive work environments.
These numbers are only expected to rise as new generations enter the workforce, especially since a 2015 PwC survey found 86% of millennial women viewed diversity and inclusion policies in the workplace as necessary.
Glassdoor found in 2017 that 59% of hiring professionals said poor investment towards the approach hindered hiring efforts in their organization, so it’s clear that many companies are aware of the importance of diversity and inclusion in the recruitment process.
7. Improved Global Reputation and Company Branding
It’s hard to ignore the growing trend of organizations fostering a more diverse workforce. As a business owner, you can’t afford to ignore the competition.
Companies that fight against discrimination are more likely to win public praise and support.
The reputation of an organization benefits from having a varied staff. The company and its employees enjoy more profits and greater fairness as a result. Businesses can boost their international standing by publicly committing to diversity.
Companies that actively promote diversity are more visible internationally. So, businesses can improve their reputation and attract more customers by being ethical in their hiring processes.
8. Better Understanding of Your Customers
We have a very diversified population, and they all contribute to our economy. But, a failure to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace can lead to significant underrepresentation of groups of people.
In the UK, for instance, the ‘Purple Pound’ represents the purchasing power of the country’s 13.9 million disabled people, who account for £249 billion in GDP.
Only 3.7 million individuals with disabilities are in the workforce, but this represents a vast untapped market for businesses that take the time to learn about the needs of the disabled community and tailor their offerings accordingly.
Plus, there is no denying the moral and ethical benefits of investing in employing people with disabilities and meeting their needs, as doing so improves the functioning of society as a whole. This is not limited to any particular underrepresented group.
Fortunately, many companies are starting to listen. 49% of those polled for LinkedIn’s 2018 Global Recruiting Trends study prioritized diversity to enhance customer representation.
9. Increased Knowledge of the Local Market
When trying to break into new markets, it helps immensely if the organization has a diversified workforce. It’s common practice to change a product or service for use in foreign markets.
Businesses that take the time to learn a region’s customs, laws, and economic climate tend to do better. Factors like familiarity with local customs and markets, fluency in the target language, and an appreciation of cultural nuances can often hinder or aid global expansion.
You might not immediately associate a worldwide expansion with the benefits of a more equitable and inclusive workforce. Making contact with a possible buyer is the first stage in closing a deal, and customers are likelier to patronize businesses that hire a wide range of people.
Companies can better serve customers worldwide if they staff diverse groups of workers. Team members may do their jobs, interact with local clients, and make sales from any location globally.
Profits for businesses might rise with a competitive advantage. Each year, Diversity Inc compiles a list of the top 50 most diverse companies and evaluates how they stack up against the competition.
According to McKinsey’s 2015 analysis, a diverse staff is good for business. Inclusive companies with a wide range of employees from different cultural backgrounds are 35% more likely to achieve profitability above the median for their industry.
10. Increased Company Profits
Many studies have shown that diverse workplaces have better financial success, which makes sense given the correlation between diversity and increased team performance.
According to a study by the Boston Consulting Group, new product and service revenue is higher for inclusive organizations.
Compared to the 45% innovation revenue reported by organizations with above-average diversity ratings, the 26% innovation revenue recorded by firms with below-average diversity scores is striking.
Josh Bersin’s study found inclusive businesses have a 2.3 times greater three-year increase in cash flow per employee.
And McKinsey research shows businesses with racial and ethnic diversity are 36% more likely to achieve financial returns above the national industry median. They also found that organizations in the top quartile for diversity in gender were also 25% more likely to generate economic returns over their national industry medians.
Why I Wrote This
Ongig’s mission is to build accessible, high-performance tools for recruiting, like Text Analyzer. Our software guides you through the process of writing an inclusive and unbiased job description in minutes. By requesting a demo with Ongig today, you can tick one benefit of inclusion off your list immediately.
