Today, our world is a global village where we connect, socialize, and do business with people from diverse cultural backgrounds and nationalities. With more nations establishing economic alliances and pacts, having a diversified workforce is becoming a necessary hiring strategy in the 21st century.
Many business owners still do not see the need to promote diversity and inclusion in their hiring strategy. While some entrepreneurs may want to have a diversified and inclusive workforce, dealing with the challenges of a diversified workplace remains a problem for many.
In this article, we discuss the importance of workplace diversity, its challenges, and also the strategies you could use to promote diversity and inclusion in your hiring process. But, before then, let look at workplace diversity and what it entails.
What is Workplace Diversity?
Workplace diversity is a term used for organizations composed of employees with varying characteristics. A diversified workplace is beyond a workforce with varying ethnicities, gender, and racial backgrounds. The term diversity has become far more complex today as it encompasses many other characteristics that include:
- Culture
- Religion
- Race
- Sexual orientation
- Skills and abilities
- Educational backgrounds
- Political beliefs
- Physical abilities and disabilities
- Age
- Socio-economic background
- Geographical orientation
- Language
Why Workplace Diversity is Important
Running an organization with a diversified workforce has more benefits than those organizations that don’t have this attribute. Here are some benefits your company stands to gain by promoting diversity and inclusion in your hiring strategy.
1. Increased Creativity and Ingenuity
Restricting your hiring process to only a tiny pool of talent for reasons other than skillset will only limit your chances of hiring the best talent out there. A diverse workforce is likely to compose of individuals of varying educational backgrounds, gender, culture, race, etc., coming together to exchange fresh ideas and insights in the workplace.
A diverse and inclusive workplace gives your business an edge over your competitors. The Wall Street Journal’s research on diversity and inclusion among 500 S&P companies revealed that a socially diverse workforce is more innovative and productive than homogenous groups.
2. Gives You a Wider Reach and Audience
A diversified workforce is capable of offering you the ability to cater to a broader reach and audience. According to a 2019 Adobe report conducted on more than 2000 consumers, this showed that 61% of Americans find diversity important, and 38% of consumers are more likely to trust brands that promote diversity in their ads.
Hiring individuals from different cultural backgrounds and languages can ensure that your business appeal to a larger audience and market base. Diversity and inclusion are becoming more critical to the average customer, and your business can take advantage of this to reach a more varied range of customers.
3. Enhanced Productivity
A diverse workforce comprises a team from different educational backgrounds. With a diverse set of talents, your organization is far more likely to develop innovative business solutions that enhance productivity.
Similarly, a diverse workforce is likely to have employees who understand your customer needs from a deeper perspective, especially if they share the same characteristics or cultural background.
4. Improved Revenue
Every business thrives on generating revenue, and the need to increase revenue is a top priority for most companies. Based on a report from Mckinsey, a management consulting firm, gender-diverse management teams were 15% more likely to experience above-average products. The report also showed that ethnically diverse management teams are 33% more likely to generate higher than average profits.
5. Higher Employee Engagement
Organizations with a diverse workforce are more likely to experience higher employee engagement, and employees in a diverse team feel an increased sense of inclusion which translates to higher engagement.
Challenges That Come With Creating a Diverse Workforce
Building a diverse workforce is not devoid of challenges and impediments. The following are some challenges that come with creating a diverse workforce and probable solutions you should use.
- Communication Issues: A diverse workforce often has to deal with communication between team members. Language may pose as a barrier for team members to communicate with each other effectively. Hiring employees with bilingual abilities can help reduce the challenge of communication. You can also agree on a common language in the workplace to avoid communication issues.
- Extreme Prejudice and Hostility: Some individuals find it very difficult to work with people from other cultural backgrounds or races. Such a situation causes conflict and may affect productivity. The best way to deal with this is to ensure you instill your company’s values and ideals in all employees and ensure this is promoted at the hiring stage.
- Chances of Recruiting Incompetent Personnel: The need to recruit qualified and skilled talent should not be relegated in a bid to have a diversified workforce. You would be doing your business a great disservice by recruiting and keeping employees who do not measure up but give your organization a diversified appeal. While diversity in your workplace has its benefits, employee competence is of utmost importance.
- Cultural Differences: Every culture has its unique traditions. Many employees experience culture shock in a diverse workplace. In some cases, cultural differences might lead to misunderstandings between employees. To avoid this, ensure you create robust work policies that include respect for the traditions of everyone in the workplace.
How To Recruit A Diverse Workforce
Hiring a diverse workforce is both a 21st century and an intelligent hiring strategy. Here are some tips you can use.
1. Ensure You Have Diversity in Your Hiring Team
Begin by making deliberate efforts to have a more diverse recruiting team. A less diverse recruiting panel may suffer unconscious bias making it difficult for them to hire a diverse workforce.
2. Reflect Diversity in Your Job Ads
Recruiting a diverse workforce requires you to be intentional about it, even in the most minute of things. For example, the kind of language you use in your job ad could determine the kind of candidates you attract.
Ensure you do not use words in your ad that may connote gender or racial bias. Instead, let your job ad show diversity and inclusion to attract a wider pool of talents.
3. Promote Diversity in Your External Communications
Organizations have to ensure they show diversity in their images, videos, and promotional. The image your company put out should be inclusive and also promote diversity.
Final Thoughts
The promotion of diversity and inclusion in hiring strategies has become a top priority for businesses that want to compete and stay relevant in the 21st century. From greater creativity and innovation to increased profits, diversity benefits your company in every area.
If your recruitment procedures are yet to implement strategies that promote diversity, then ensure you start doing so to reap the benefits of a diverse workforce.
Leading companies trust Upstack to hire the tech experts they need, exactly when they need them! What are you waiting for? Get in touch today!
Originally published at Upstack.co on Aug 27, 2021, by Joanna Blomfield.
