Cultivating Workplace Diversity – The Key to Building Winning Workforces

Innovation is driven by the core of ideas. Ideas are born out of varied minds that think, breathe, eat and act innovation. To ensure a sustainable and profitable speed for innovation, it’s imperative to have a diverse and rich talent pool.

There may be no better way for your organisation to live the values of a people-first mindset than through a dedication to diversity inclusion. People of different cultures, races, origins, colours, etc. bring in with them dialogue, sheer intelligence and creativity on the table.

Cultivating diversity at the workplace is indeed a success milestone for your organisation.

Diversity makes recruitment easier
We all are aware of the fierce competition for talent that is prevailing these days. Candidates today look at diversity as a major factor in deciding where to work. If diversity is embedded in the DNA of your organisation, it will surely improve your chances of finding the best candidates for a given job role.

Performance at its best
“People with greater intercultural exposure and deeper intercultural relationships become more creative as a result.”
Workplaces that are diverse are sure to stem utmost creativity through regular brainstorming and interactions with people from varied backgrounds.

According to a report by McKinsey, companies with more culturally and ethnically diverse executive teams were 33% more likely to see better-than-average profits. Diverse companies are 70% more likely to capture a new market.

Better connections with your customers/clients
Your clients/customers want to be understood and catered well when they are collaborating with you. Where diversity thrives in your customer base, what better than cultivating a diversified workplace that can represent your client/customers perfectly!

It takes varied thoughts and backgrounds to authentically know the different segments of your own market while having the potential to open up new ones. There’s no better way to do that than by making sure those segments are well-represented throughout your own workforce.

Greater insights
“Strength lies in the differences and not in the similarities.”

Your people spend most of the time of their lives at your workplace. Therefore, a diversified workplace often helps your people to interact in lengths with people and exchange perspectives. By having a diversified workplace, you help them exchange greater insights with people from cultural backgrounds that they are often never even exposed to. This in turn churns out amazing results and reduces negative perceptions and emotions about each other.

So, how do you ensure a diverse workplace?

From MNCs to startups, all firms are now pushing towards a culturally diverse workplace by introducing relevant recruitment criteria. Accenture has a program specifically for employees who refer a candidate who is female, African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, a veteran, or a person with disabilities to improve diversity in their workforce. Through a range of employee “Think Tanks” like Women of Color and Out@L’Oréal, the company has created a welcoming environment.

So, when you plan to hire new talent now, consider making a deliberate effort to hire a diverse range of people. This will make way towards building an inclusive company culture that nurtures the needs of individuals from across gender, age and cultural backgrounds.

Building trust within the organisation, developing opportunities for advancement and celebrating the value of every employee with diverse needs/mind-sets is the right way to attract/retain top talent, reduce employee turnover and improve the acceptability of your organisation’s brand among the jobseeker population.