How Diversity and Inclusion Present Business Advantages

Diversity and inclusion are more than just virtue signals. It also provides tangible, measurable business benefits, allowing you to make more money and gain a true competitive advantage. But how do these advantages manifest themselves? And how can you make the most of them?

Diversity and Inclusion Defined

Most people understand what diversity and inclusion mean intuitively, but we must recognise that these are distinct terms with slightly different meanings.

The makeup of your organization’s population is referred to as diversity. An organisation with a population makeup that reflects the natural makeup of the US population is more diverse than one with a population that is 95 percent white men.

The interactive participation and influence of various types of people within an organisation is referred to as inclusion. If an organisation hires many women and people of colour, but those women and people of colour aren’t decision makers and aren’t typically included in important meetings, it may be diverse but not inclusive.

The Advantages of Diversity and Inclusion

Practicing both diversity and inclusion has a variety of benefits, including:

• Participation, candidates, and growth

Increased labor-force participation by women and people of colour can be attributed to up to 40% of GDP growth in the United States between 1960 and 2010. There are several reasons for this, but the most obvious is that when more people participate actively, more things get done. Furthermore, as a business, if you’re willing to consider people from a wide range of backgrounds, your pool of potential recruits will grow significantly.

With more people to choose from, you will have more talent to choose from, allowing you to practise better staffing and increase your overall organisational potential.

• New perspectives and new ideas

People from various backgrounds tend to think in unique ways. They have different historical experiences, values, and cultural concepts. Using the collective power of all these different people allows your company to benefit from new perspectives and ideas. You’ll consistently generate better ideas and competitive advantages.

• Innovation and better products

In many cases, having a gender and race diverse workforce means a better path to innovation and better products than ever before. You’ll be able to accomplish more thanks to the power of diversity of thought and a larger talent pool.

• Productivity and performance

Racially diverse firms typically outperform their non-diverse counterparts in terms of productivity. There are numerous possible explanations for this, but the bottom line is that the right diversity and inclusion strategy will significantly increase your company’s productive potential.

• Reputation and consumer appeal

It’s also worth noting that practising diversity and inclusion can help your company’s reputation. It can make you more appealing to customers, more appealing to other businesses, and it can almost entirely generate publicity on its own.

Practicing More Diversity and Inclusion

What are the best ways to increase diversity and inclusion in your workplace?

• Revisit your mission and core values

If you’re open to changes, start by revisiting your mission and core values. You can put diversity and inclusion at the heart of your business by writing it down.

• Practice targeted outreach

Begin by using targeted outreach to advertise new job openings to the people you want to hire. Increase your community involvement and ensure that each community understands how much you value diversity.

• Instill empathetic leadership

Your strategy will be much easier to implement if you have compassionate leadership in place. Empathetic leaders who understand the perspectives and needs of various groups will foster a healthier and more productive workplace.

• Avoid centralizing your strategy with quotas

It’s tempting to hire certain types of people to meet “quotas.” However, this can be counterproductive; your goal isn’t always to reach a specific number.

• Consider diversity and inclusion at all levels

Practicing diversity and inclusion at the lowest levels while your leadership team is still dominated by white men will not benefit your company. Diversity and inclusion should be practised throughout your organisation at all levels.

• Encourage participation and help people thrive

Encourage the hiring of women and people of colour. Allow them to thrive in this environment by making it easier for them.

If your company does not have a diversity and inclusion initiative, it is missing out on a lot of opportunities. Even small, iterative changes to your strategy can lead to better products, more productive operations, and a competitive advantage.