In the past couple of years, people across the country are finally having tough conversations about inequality in pursuit of rectifying this problem at all levels of society, regardless of one’s race, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, physical abilities, mental abilities, or sexual orientation. One essential element of this conversation is the discussion of diversity in the workplace, as this brings a multitude of benefits for not only the individuals in the work environment but also for the corporation as a whole.
Several studies conducted in 2017 showed that having a diverse population within the body of a company has a significant increase in the overall performance of the business. Some of the major findings consisted of:
- Teams that were more inclusive in the demographic of team members showed that it benefited the business by making better business decisions 87% of the time.
- These diverse teams were able to make faster decisions with only half of the meetings needed.
- The decisions that were made and implemented by diverse teams found that these decisions provided 60% better results.
Some other note-worthy impacts that diversity in the workplace brings forth are boarded creativity/problem solving, enhanced employee engagement, employee retention, and a better overall company reputation. According to a Harvard business professor by the name of Francesca Gino, the decisions that are made in business are at times clouded by one’s biases. Because of this, it can be incredibly hard to rewire our brains to a different context of what a workplace should be. However, Gino makes the point that it is possible to alter the way that corporate America looks and feels into an environment that is diverse and inclusive for people of all walks of life. In order to make this notion a reality, several sources point to the importance of working from the top and allowing the change to trickle down throughout the company. Sources like Forbes discuss how there needs to be a diverse leadership team at the top of the company that has the power and influence to change a company’s culture and thus embrace the work towards diversity throughout the rest of the company.
Company culture looks at the different behaviors or attitudes that the company and its employees have. This can be noticed through the way that the employees interact with each other, the pillar values that are put into practice, and the way that decisions are made. According to Balance Careers, a company culture includes a variety of moving elements such as the work environment, the company mission, the style of the upper-division leadership, values, ethics, and goals. This is not something that is new for a lot of companies and there are already several companies that are taking big action towards becoming more diverse and inclusive. These are just the first steps that corporations in many industries are both considering and acting with to become stronger together. Claudia Brind Woody, who is a business executive along with being the Vice President and Managing Director of intellectual property at IBM, once said, “Inclusivity means not just ‘we’re allowed to be there,’ but we are valued. I’ve always said: smart teams will do amazing things, but truly diverse teams will do impossible things.”