Opinion #HR
Read time: 04'58''
8 April 2023
How workforce diversity can improve productivity
Unsplash © Mike Petrucci

How workforce diversity can improve productivity

Do you want to improve your organisation’s productivity? Turns out the answer was staring us right in the face for so long. Improve workforce diversity.

A single approach that flips things around. It’s more about making your voice heard and adding different employee experiences, perspectives, and ideas into the mix.

Diversity and inclusion are the twin aspects of a workforce that’s high on creativity, innovation, efficiency, as well as flexibility.

Diversified companies offer a greater deal of job satisfaction as well as performance.

However, implementing diversity can be challenging and understanding how to get this right helps you incorporate diversity into the workplace.

Does diversity increase productivity?

Diversity and inclusion aren’t always measurable and tangible. The effects of diversity on the bottom line are quite apparent.

Research shows us that organisations improve their performance when they have diversity across the board. One reason behind this is that diverse thinking perspectives promote fresh ideas and give us insights into blind spots.

As you listen and work with what’s common and different, you become wiser and more inclusive as an organization.

How does diversity increase productivity?

Increasing diversity at the workplace means hiring employees with assets like drive, enthusiasm, and soft skills not mentioned in the resume. They need to consider applications with diverse backgrounds that may not necessarily come with diverse backgrounds but help improve the company’s creativity. You can also use a CRM to manage hiring activity and actively highlight diversity in profiles.

Here are ways that diversity increases productivity.

Diversity drives innovation

Diversity is a catalyst for innovation and creativity. Diverse teams boost innovation by bringing in perspectives, insights, and new ideas to decision-making and solving new problems.

This value and knowledge expand growth by adding new possibilities and helping break into new markets.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion report, organisations with diverse workforces enjoy 20% more creativity and 19% higher revenue from innovation.

Diversity increases productivity

Diverse workplaces provide a better working environment by providing a better environment for increasing employee motivation, engagement, and job satisfaction. A diverse and inclusive workplace promotes the open exchange of ideas helping people from different backgrounds learn together and become more innovative and productive.

Diversity reduces high attrition

There is a link between diversity at workplace and higher employee engagement. According to studies companies with a more diverse workforce report higher engagement levels.

This reduces absenteeism and keeps employees happy and on the job for longer. Those who feel included at work are more likely to show up and give their all.

Those who aren’t engaged don’t feel involved and don’t believe their opinions are heard and perform their bare minimum. In addition to having a diverse team, open up avenues in your workplace like time for painting, gaming, or sculpting so that people can relax. You can also give them space to create art with the help of the best procreate painting brushes. These activities coupled with a diverse workspace will keep your employees engaged.

Improves talent acquisition

There’s a misconception that disengaged individuals don’t feel included because they don’t care.

When people don’t feel engaged they don’t have much choice left but to stop caring. Companies attract and retain talent with a diverse hiring workforce and hiring processes in place.

Diversity boosts company’s profits

What’s the result of an engaged workplace? Improved bottom line. Enhancing workplace diversity improves creativity, engagement, and innovation. This translates to a competitive advantage that translates to higher revenues.

According to a report from McKinsey, the most diverse companies and more likely to outperform non-diverse companies on profitability.

At the same time, it’s wise to regularly conduct employee satisfaction surveys to understand and improve yourselves in core areas.

Here are the top five ways to increase diversity at your workspace:

  1. Conduct diversity training. Develop and implement a training program for our employees, especially for those at leadership levels. This training can be to eliminate workplace discrimination and that would directly result in higher job satisfaction. Diversity training doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Here’s how. The HR manager only has to create a document that outlines the company’s diversity goals and best practices to achieve the same.Hire a third-party training provider to organize training sessions( in the form of webinars, or something else) to make diversity training successful. Make sure the training includes engaging and informative resources. A video tutorial would be the best training resource to use for the sessions.
  2. Create more inclusive workplace policies. According to the report from Center for Workplace Inclusion, a flexible workplace is more likely to favour women. Female employees with children may love working remotely for far longer than attending the office regularly. Diversity and inclusion go hand in hand and you need to figure out how to manage remote teams to effect cultural change and demonstrate you’re making an effort to accommodate people from diverse backgrounds. Moreover, there are many ways to offer safe remote access and therefore protect your company’s data, no matter what workplaces your employees prefer.
  3. Acknowledge Cultural Differences. Another way to promote diversity in the workplace is by recognising and appreciating cultural differences. Encourage employees to discuss and share aspects of their traditions and customs during workplace activities. You could plan culturally diverse events like day visits to festivals. These gestures can make people feel valued improving engagement and retention rates. Even if you have a social media team of people with different backgrounds, you should be confident in diversity. It is what we come in contact with in our daily lives because as individuals we have different tastes, preferences, and lives.

Diversity shapes our world. There are new restaurants, designers, books, and magazines. All businesses exist because humans seek new and fresh experiences.

Diversity hiring results in a well-rounded team

When hiring a team made of people from different cultures, your organisation can capitalise on a diverse set of skills that each team member has to offer. This includes people from diverse backgrounds and brings in new talents that these people have acquired over the years. This new team is ready to take on challenges, and do what it takes to meet goals.

Culture of equity helps you source talent on merit

When companies can remove their biases that results in sourcing talent on merit rather than on some particular nationality. This creates better human resources at the company.

Diversity encourages better decision making

Oftentimes, a company has to make a difficult choice. The stakes may be high. A diversified workforce can bring in a variety of ideas, notions, and perspectives that can contribute to good decision-making. Such a level of creativity can bring new ideas to the mix that minimizes risk-taking.

Focus on equity to build positive relationships

Relationship building is equally important for both internal and external clients. External clients are your customers. And that makes internal clients your staff and workforce.

It’s important to manage these groups to ensure your company is profitable and sustainable for the longer term. It improves your organization’s success and improves the team spirit and the ability of the department to overcome conflicts and deal with confrontations positively and constructively.

As you can see, a diverse workforce can help you build positive relationships within the entire company and encourage a new level of productivity, creativity, and new thinking. Ultimately, this boost productivity.