Businesses who focus on adding diversity to their workforce by attracting and hiring a variety of different people find that their businesses succeed year after year.
Hiring a diverse workforce includes hiring people with diverse ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds (to name a few). Diverse teams that include many people with a wide array of backgrounds helps a business produce better results, attract and retain top talent, foster a positive work environment and company culture, and helps to keep you competitive in your respective market.
Beyond just workforce diversity, it’s also important to focus on organizational diversity. Organizational diversity means ensuring your employees come from different backgrounds and have different characteristics, skills, viewpoints, and real-life experiences that create a more robust work environment.
So what does diversity do to improve your business?
First, it helps your business continue to compete.
Diverse companies can be up to 15% more likely to outperform their competitors. Studies show that workplaces that prioritize diversity are twice as likely to meet and/or exceed financial goals and generate upwards of 30% more revenue per employee. A workforce that is diverse and that works well together can increase innovation, acceptance, and problem-solving capabilities. This adds an extra edge to a business that may not be present in their competitors. Innovation, collaboration, and a greater ability to problem solve makes businesses able to take on high- level challenges, retain customers, and continue to grow their revenue. All great things for businesses big and small.
This leads to our second point – a diverse workforce also becomes a powerhouse for innovation. While it appears that diversifying your workforce will get you a more representative group of employees, many businesses don’t take into account the innovation that stems from different minds thinking together to solve problems. And these problems can lead to new solutions, new products or services, and new ideas overall.
Diversity in your workforce also leads to a happier customer and a better customer service experience. Customer expectations about the way a company should work are different and diverse, and a great way to showcase this diversity is through your employees. Improving customer satisfaction and opening up new opportunities can happen with a diverse workforce in your organization. Markets are constantly changing and having the right people working for you, collaborating on ideas and making your business better can increase your customer experience.
So now that you know what you can gain by having a diverse workforce, what can you do to create a diverse workforce?
Nurture your culture to be as inclusive as possible.
Make it easy for women, minorities and young people to remain loyal to you and your business by empowering them and making sure to include them in any discussions surrounding inclusion and inclusive practices. And make sure your diversity and inclusion starts at the top. A clear mission statement that outlines how you’ll be diverse in your workforce is a great step and the next best step is to ensure your leadership is living this mission in what they do, what they say, and how they act at work.
Foster a workplace culture where every voice is heard, welcomed, and respected.
This is a good move for any business no matter their current levels of diversity. Fostering a culture where diversity is encouraged and all voices are welcomed and respected can increase your employee retention as well as attract new candidates.
Not only can you showcase this in open door policies and clear organizational communication procedures, you can also show your employees their voices are heard and valued by including diversity in different groups and departments all over your organization. Mixing up teams can help your employees listen and learn from different voices, experiences, values, and cultures.
Encouraging collaboration from people who are not the same or have the same values can push innovation, problem-solving, and and build camaraderie.
Build a multigenerational workforce too.
It’s important to also consider hiring for different generations another way to diversity your workforce. Attracting and hiring millennials is it’s own separate topic to dive into, but on the surface level it’s a good business practice to hire all ages and backgrounds and work on ways to hire based on skills, experience, and attitude.
Millennials make up a significant portion of the workforce now, but don’t forget about the Generation X workers who are 45-59 years old are still eager to work. Creating generational diversity also helps mentorship in a few ways – and not how you would traditionally think. Yes, there are benefits to having someone more experienced mentor someone newer and younger, but Millennials are tech-savvy and able to ingest a lot of information in a short amount of time and then begin to put it into action. Having a workforce that spans generations means growth and an increase in skills across the board.
Personalize communication and one-on-one discussions to get to know your employees on a personal level.
This can tie right back into making sure your employees are feeling like they are heard and their voices are respected. One-on-one communication and conversations let supervisors and managers get to know the people that work for and with them on a deeper level.
You’ll also notice that your supervisors and leaders can learn more about a person and how they work best with others this way. While diversity is so important for businesses, keeping track of your individual employees can help to make sure they are being utilized to the best of their abilities and are working in a more harmonious and productive way.
Secure that top talent.
Partnering with a staffing agency that has a large pool of talent that has been cultivated over 17 years is a smart choice. GTR can help you find the top talent you need. Build a Workforce That Works with our help. Contact us today so we can assist you with our holistic and customer-focused process to help you Build A Workforce That Works.
