Achieving More With A Diversified Workforce

Having a diverse workforce isn’t simply about showing a rainbow of faces on your company website or at an all-hands meeting. Diversity can make your team stronger, more cohesive, and higher-performing to boot.

And maybe your office, and company at large is made up of an assortment of backgrounds and equal parts men and women. But, if your company isn’t looking quite that diverse, we’ve got some ideas for laying the groundwork to create a more diverse workforce, and therefore a stronger team.

1. Broader Ideas

One of the reasons people encourage younger generations to travel abroad is so they are immersed in different cultures that they might not ordinarily be. Learning about different beliefs and mindsets through relationships with people of a variety of races and religions helps you break free from homogeneous thought and positively impacts your worldview.

The bottom line is that when you bring new ideas, different viewpoints, and communications styles to the workplace, you’re not just creating a diverse team, you’re engineering a diversity of thought one that is agile and can tackle unique problems. We all have our own unique perspective that we bring to the table, and a diverse workforce can reduce a company’s blind spots.

Plus, diverse teams are also more creative because employees are exposed to different attitudes and means of expression, essentially creating a laboratory for new ideas and innovation. Now that’s a win win.

2. Higher Retention

Retention is key. When your organization promotes diversity, you’re not just saying that you’re a progressive company. If employees know that a company values diversity and has the comfort of their employees at heart, then chances are they’re going to be more fulfilled because they can bring their whole self to work not distracted, regardless of race or sexuality.

3. A Stronger Brand

Have you ever really looked at your company’s, or any large brand’s, annual diversity report? What is it really saying?

For brands, it’s not all about optics. It’s a real tool for human resources to create stronger teams and better companies overall.

If diverse teams create better products or solutions, and they’re producing those things for people all over the world that has a far-reaching effect. Don’t let it be a negative one due to lack of diversity.

SO, HOW DO YOU DO IT?

There’s no guaranteed silver bullet to recruiting diverse hires, but there are a few steps any organization can take to improve their chances.

Develop a strategy and stick to it. Don’t just say you’re going to make diverse hires a priority, draw up a company-wide commitment that has buy-in across the board, and measure how successful the plan is.

Show unconscious bias the door. Maybe even consider having recruiters take names off of applications, or implement gender-blind applications.

Ensure that there is greater diversity in leadership and management positions: When job seekers see themselves represented not only throughout the company but in leadership positions, they know that it’s an organization that prizes diversity and inclusion.

Attend conferences specifically for diverse job seekers. You can find conferences through college job fairs and alumni groups.

Think about what kind of benefits you are offering. Does health insurance extend to all employees irrespective of who they are? What about increasing paid parental leave or offering time off for everyone’s religious holidays, not just Christmas and Easter?

Part of the journey is actually getting there, and you have to walk before you run, but there are concrete steps you can take now to diversify your recruiting pool. If your organization can develop a meaningful strategy, you’ll not only improve your brand’s reputation, but you’ll increase retention, and your company will thrive.

Source:The muse