Diversity in the workplace can have immense benefits for your organization.
It creates a more inclusive and tolerant company culture, which can have an impact on everything from the output of the people you hire and their satisfaction to how much revenue your business can generate.
In today’s market, a positive brand identity is as important to the consumers as the price or level of a service. Hiring people with disabilities, taking on staffers from minorities and making an effort to create a 50/50 gender equal staff all have the potential of re-shaping your whole company.
With that in mind, it’s important to understand how and why your organization should include different social groups, so you can take advantage of the key benefits of diversity in the workplace.
1. Creates More Innovation
Diversity brings about innovation. If you create a team or department of five individuals who have a different background, they are far more likely to think outside the box and come up with fresh ideas.
They are also more likely to put in useful suggestions, insight or feedback based on their past experience. Each employee can collaborate with others, improve their strengths and add to or complement their ideas.
Every individual also has a different approach to a problem. This can drive innovative solutions for various tasks of the business process, which can cut costs or speed up the time it takes to complete them.
2. Helps Attract and Retain Talent
Lowering the gender pay gap and equal worker’s rights are hot social issues modern employees want to get behind. It can be a major selling point for companies to attract all-star candidates from different walks of life, and more importantly, retain them.
Using disability employment services to hire staff, for example, also increases the talent pool you can access. Your organization can source the right people to fit the right roles, so everyone becomes a vital component of the business process.
When each staffer feels like a valuable asset to the company, they are willing to stay on for a longer time and contribute to the success of the company.
3. Opens New Business Opportunities
Hiring employees from different minorities means a company can break language barriers and access different markets both at home and abroad. Your organization is able to market goods to a wider audience and in their language, which increases the overall appeal and opens up new global opportunities.
You are able to target consumers based on their purchasing power and not the location. A global company with a system of multiple revenue streams can create a better balance of the budget and increase its bottom line.
4. Higher Sales Performance
Diversity at the company level can also improve the sales process. With input from individuals arriving from different social groups, you can create better buyer personas and improve the buyers’ journey across the sales funnel.
Marketing and sales teams who share and understand the cultural background of their target audience know their different pain points and can market products and services more effectively. The know-how your organization gains through hiring diverse staff can be put to great use to improve user experience and provide appropriate solutions centered on the consumer.
5. A Relatable Brand Image
Workplace diversity also plays a significant role in shaping brand identity. If your company has employees coming from different backgrounds, it improves how customers perceive your brand.
A brand image that is tolerant, inclusive and diverse reflects traits like open-mindedness, forward-thinking and acceptance. All of these traits are valued by the modern consumer. And aligning them with your corporate culture through diversity makes your brand more appealing and desirable.
6. Better Customer Service
Another way diversity improves user experience is through customer service. The different skills and experience customer support representatives bring to the table of your organization helps them provide better solutions when assisting clients.
Speaking the same language, sharing a cultural background, or coming from the same social group makes them more relatable and improves employee-customer communication. It’s easier for staff to answer questions, give advice, make suggestions or recommend products if they understand the various pains those clients are facing.
For example, women hold most of the buying power in an average household, and female employees can relate to that. Seeing how they share some of their pains, they have a better understanding of the customer’s pains and can usually offer better solutions than their male counterparts.
And, when you have a diverse customer support team, employees can easily switch between customers to provide the best possible solution. Ultimately, that makes the organization more efficient and helpful in the eyes of your customers.
[Tweet “[Tweet “Diversity in the workplace brings about real social changes.”]”]7. Helps Bring About a Real Change
Diversity in the workplace brings about real social changes. The inclusion of different social groups in the workplace helps to remove gender inequality and lowers the pay gap between female and male workers. It gives equal job opportunities to minority groups and helps people with disabilities contribute more to the global market.
In doing so, your company will leave a positive footprint on the society and motivate the others to do the same.
Identity Magazine is all about guiding women to discover their powers of Self-Acceptance, Appreciation, and Personal Achievement. We ask that every contributor and expert answer the Identity 5 questions in keeping with our theme. Their answers can be random and in the moment or they can be aligned with the current article they have written. In that way, and as a team, we hope to encourage and motivate each other, thus inspiring you to Get All A’s.
1. What have you accepted within your life, physically and/or mentally? Additionally, what are you still working on accepting? Now, we’re talking about resignation, rather stepping into, embraced, and owned.
I’m sure many can relate…the challenges of being a single working mom–an entrepreneur.
2. What have you learned to appreciate about yourself and/or within your life, physically and mentally? On the other hand OR in contrast, are there elements of who you are that you’re still working on appreciating?
I really appreciate the freedom my work allows me. Being able to stay at home when necessary, travel and communicate with people from different backgrounds.
3. What is one of your most rewarding achievements in life? Tell us not only what makes YOU most proud but also share the goals and dreams that you still have.
Definitely building my career and raising my kids.
4. Of course, we all have imperfections, or so we think. In truth, we are all perfectly imperfect. What are your not-so-perfect ways? Likewise, what imperfections and quirks create who you are–your Identity?
My Perfectionism and stubbornness for sure.
5. “I Love My…” is an outlet for you to appreciate and express all the positive traits that make you…well…YOU! In fact, sharing what you love about yourself will make you smile, feel empowered, and uplift your spirit and soul. (We assure you!) Therefore, Identity challenges you to complete the phrase “I Love My…?”
I’m lucky and I Love my life as a mom and an entrepreneur.
