A diverse workplace includes people from many different backgrounds. It encompasses a balance of workers who vary in culture, ethnicity, gender, age, lifestyle, and religion. Creating this type of environment, though, isn’t easy. It requires intentionality, but the effort is always worth it. Developing a diverse workplace—where employees feel included—results in multiple benefits, which is why you should consider reshaping your hiring practices to attract diverse candidates.
The benefits of workplace diversity
When workplace diversity becomes your priority, you’ll notice tangible advantages, and that’s not a boastful statement. Multiple reports suggest that diverse teams help businesses grow in many ways, including the four below.
1. Diverse workplaces are more engaged and collaborative
- According to a study published in People Management, diverse teams make better decisions 87% of the time compared to individuals.
- A recent report found that 83% of millennials actively engage at work when their companies focus on developing an inclusive environment.
2. Diverse workplaces are more profitable
- Businesses with diverse teams are 35% more likely to perform better than competitors.
- Diverse brands notice 2.5 times higher cash flow per worker.
- According to Boston Consulting Group, diverse management teams help companies experience a 19% increase in revenue compared to businesses with less diversity.
- A 2013 report indicates that companies with diverse workplaces are 70% more likely to gain new markets.
- When Boston Consulting Group surveyed 1,700 companies, they discovered that businesses with higher levels of diversity had 19% higher innovation revenues.
3. Ethnically and racially diverse teams are more profitable
- According to McKinsey, ethnically diverse teams are 33% more likely to outperform the national industry mean on profitability.
- When teams have significant levels of ethnic and racial diversity, they’re 35% more likely to perform above national industry returns.
4. Gender-diverse teams are more profitable
- McKinsey recently found that brands with high levels of gender diversity are 15% more likely to experience financial returns that exceed their national industry medians.
- Executive teams with high levels of gender diversity are 21% more likely to outperform the national industry mean on profitability.
- If workplaces globally increase gender diversity equally by 2025, global GDP could grow by $28 trillion.
The numbers speak for themselves. Workplace diversity can catapult companies to new heights. But if you want to experience the benefits of a diverse work environment, you need to take the proper steps.
How to increase diversity in the workplace
Building a diverse workplace takes time, energy, and, more importantly, strategic actions. The last thing you want to do is approach this effort inappropriately or inaccurately and offend someone in the process. So, if you want to increase diversity at your company successfully, here are five steps you should take.
1. Analyze your current culture and composition
First things first: examine your company’s culture and composition to see whether it’s diverse. You can do this by analyzing your brand’s ethnic, racial, and gender makeup and comparing it to your local community. Then, you can use your local community’s demographic features to create your company’s diversity goals.
However, before setting out to achieve those goals, consider ways to improve your company culture to ensure it’s inclusive and comfortable. Think of ways to accommodate people with different traditions, lifestyles, and cultures and implement those strategies if you don’t already have them in place.
2. Examine the diversity on your executive team
As you try to increase diversity, keep one thing in mind: your diverse workforce will want to see a diverse executive team.
Do you have managers and c-suite team members who vary in ethnicity, gender, age, culture, and more? If not, you’ll want to increase the diversity amongst your executives. Doing so will prove that your company is determined to foster diversity at every hiring level and is taking serious steps toward building a workforce where everyone is valued.
3. Revisit and update your workplace policies
When was the last time you looked at your company’s workplace policies? If it’s been a while, you’ll want to revisit those, especially if you can’t remember whether your policies focus on inclusion.
Achieving a diverse company requires you to have policies that build and foster an inclusive work environment. Some of those policies can focus on the following:
- Decreasing rules about hairstyles and tattoos
- Creating a more relaxed dress code
- Ensuring employees can observe cultural and religious holidays
- Providing maternal and paternal leave
- Offering a flexible work schedule, which may especially appeal to candidates with families
With inclusive work policies, you’ll provide diverse candidates with a tangible example of your company trying to accommodate people with varying backgrounds. You’ll also give diverse candidates confidence that they’ll feel comfortable at your company and experience workplace satisfaction.
4. Implement diverse hiring practices
Building a diverse company doesn’t mean filling in the gaps here and there with a diverse candidate. It means taking intentional steps to ensure people from varying backgrounds can become a candidate for any position at your business. Achieving this will require you to revise your recruitment process. For example, some diverse hiring practices you may want to consider implementing are the following:
- Seek and utilize referrals from diverse employees
- Find and reach out to diverse candidates through LinkedIn
- Advertise jobs to minority groups
- Create partnerships with multicultural professional organizations
- Mandate unconscious bias training for recruiters
These are just a handful of hiring practices you can use to increase diversity at your company, but they’re enough to get you started in the right direction. By incorporating them into your recruitment process, you’ll put your brand in a great position to attract and hire diverse candidates.
5. Recognize and celebrate differences
One of the hallmarks of any great diverse company is the recognition and celebration of differences. Employees are more than the knowledge, talent, and skills they bring. Your workers also have unique parts of them that are worth acknowledging and appreciating.
As you create a diverse workplace, focus on what makes each of your team members distinct. Notice their unique perspectives, religious practices, and cultural habits and honor them. If you know an employee who celebrates a specific holiday, don’t ignore it during your next interaction—instead, ask how they plan to celebrate and develop a game plan if they need to take days off work.
The work is worth it
Developing a diverse workforce isn’t the most straightforward task. It might be the hardest goal you try to accomplish, especially if it’s something you’ve never done before.
Fortunately, implementing the above steps will put you on the path to success. And if you need additional help, you can always hire a small business coach to assist in enhancing diversity at your company. Doing all this may sound like a lot of work, and that’s because it is a lot of work. But you’ll notice the benefits if you maintain the course and refuse to give up.