Workplace diversity

 

Workplace diversity: what does this mean? It means to have a diverse workplace regarding race, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, and education. There are probably a few more categories we could name, but you can look those up. Why is diversity important? Studies show that the more diverse your workplace is, the more profitable it is (Mckinsey.com). Also, the more diverse, the more your employees will show happiness with their work.

Diversity isn’t easy. It needs to come from the top down. For much of history, white men were the ones on top. They were the ones who made the decisions about hiring and weren’t always open to diversity. Fortunately, things have gotten better. Thanks to the studies, these executives have been shown that for a better profit and a better workplace, you need to have diversity. So do all companies read these studies and change their ways? No! Including diversity is a hard thing to do. You must completely change your hiring tactics along with your business practices. Not everybody wants to do this, whether because of prejudice or plain laziness.

Let’s look at some numbers. From the most recent Mckinsey surveys, it’s been shown that businesses with gender diversity perform 48% better than businesses less diverse. For cultural and ethnic diversity, the top businesses are 36% more profitable. You would think these numbers would make people change the culture of their companies. There really isn’t one reason why these companies won’t change. We can all make assumptions, but I don’t know if we could ever know why.

So, what can you do if you want to make your company more diverse? First, look at your hiring practices. You need to train your HR department to look at diversity when hiring. Next, the leaders of your company need to be held accountable. It starts with them. You should also have a zero-tolerance policy at your workplace. Any bullying, attacks or discriminatory behavior needs to be dealt with immediately. These are just a few steps that you can take to make your business more diverse.