Your human resources department stresses a diverse workforce to better represent your company’s consumer base and build a welcoming team for all employees. Your creative departments need diversity to produce the innovate work that further attracts that varied audience of consumers.
Increasing Diversity in the Workplace
Of course, diversity has many forms. Yes, we’re talking about culture, race, ethnicity, religion, age, and gender, but also education, professional experiences, working styles, talents, personal interests and all those quirks that make us who we are. Together, these differences create harmony.
Here’s why increasing diversity in the workplace is so important for inspiring creative minds and driving business results:
Bringing More Innovative Ideas to the Table
When teams have a broader range of employees, they have a more dynamic repertoire of experiences, interests, and backgrounds from which to draw ideas, inspiration and information. As such, diverse teams tend to be more innovative. They break down problems with more out-of-the-box, groundbreaking solutions. Research points to this connection. In an interview with Fast Company, Richard Warr, a finance professor at North Carolina State University and co-author of a study on diversity in business, summed up his team’s research this way:
“There is a business case for diversity. It’s not about trying to be nice. It’s good for business. It not only helps in terms of perception. It actually produces better outcomes.”
Warr went on to say that more diverse companies tend to handle problems in unexpected ways, attract and retain more diverse talent and create reputations as more “enlightened” businesses.
Reaching Audiences with Authenticity
Remember when Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi ad was met with all that backlash? As consumers groaned, marketing and advertising professionals emphasized the importance of diversity and relevant research to avoid such communication failures. According to Marketing Week research, 42 percent of marketers believe that the companies they partner with aren’t diverse enough in their marketing and advertising.
With more diverse backgrounds and experiences in the room, there’s a better chance of someone speaking up and explaining why a particular idea may not resonate or sit well with certain audiences. From there, teams can develop ideas that work for all audiences. Better still, those ideas then come from a place of authenticity rather than blind assumptions.
Attracting More Diverse Talent
If there’s a homogeneity to your team members, whether they’re predominately white men over 40 or millennials with college degrees, then you’ll continue to attract those who fit that description. Even unconsciously, your decision to keep the status quo may be unattractive to candidates with other backgrounds, making them feel as though there isn’t a place for them within your company. As diversity can inspire such powerful creativity and innovation, missing out on these employees can have a truly negative effect on your brand’s performance and reputation. The more diversity in the workplace, the more favorable that company becomes a wide pool of potential talent.
If you’re looking to add or enhance diversity in the workplace, Contact Profiles. Our expert recruiters can find you a diverse set of resumes, but they can also guarantee those candidates have the chops to perform well in their positions.
