Inclusion in the Workplace
When it comes to diversity and inclusion within the workplace, most recruiters and managers would strongly agree that it is such an important focal point. It is proven that by ensuring diversity, a business will strive, with a team that is able to drive innovation, revenue and business growth.
What is Diversity in the Workplace?
Simply put, diversity within the workplace is achieved when your team reflects the general makeup of the society around you. It makes sense that curating a team with different perspectives and backgrounds will contribute toward newer and more diverse ideas, driving innovation and finding better solutions to problems within your industry. With a workforce built up of people of different genders, backgrounds, races and religions, you will have a team of people that will look at things with different perspectives and think in different ways - as opposed to a team made up of all one demographic, which will inevitably create an echo chamber of the same ideas and thinking, with no one to challenge a mindset or come up with new approaches.
Diversity Recruitment
In order to build a team that is truly reflective of society, it is important to have a strong, diverse recruitment strategy in place. This will ensure that your hiring process maintains an intentional focus to overcome systemic and individual biases, which previously resulted in the marginalisation of many segments of society.
Diversity can fall into two categories; Inherent Diversity and Acquired Diversity. Inherent diversity focuses on different demographic factors, such as the race, gender, age and health of the candidate - characteristics that are natural to someone as a person. Acquired diversity refers to things that a person can develop or earn over time, such as education, experience, values, skills and knowledge - these are more fluid traits that can develop and adapt through a person's career.
Diverse recruitment is a merit-based approach, seeking out the best possible candidates. It ensures that every applicant that is suitably qualified for the role receives an equal opportunity to be selected, regardless of their background, race, gender or sexual orientation.
Why is a Diversity Recruiting Strategy Important?
Diversity within the workforce is, rightly, becoming a more and more important part of many companies' focus. Not only is it the more moral approach when hiring, but the benefits to companies' performance, innovation and productivity are tangible. You will curate a team that can boast a broader range of skills and experience and increased language and cultural awareness.
It is proven that diverse workforces are better at solving problems. With increased creativity and innovation within your team, they will make better decisions and produce stronger results. A team with varied viewpoints will be better able to debate and challenge each other to produce better work, coming up with different methods to reach the best possible conclusions.
In fact, statistics show:
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Companies with a diverse management team have 19% higher revenues.
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Diverse companies are 1.7 times more likely to be innovative leaders within their industry.
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67% of job seekers are looking for a workplace with diversity.
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85% of CEOs say that curating a diverse workforce improved their bottom lines.
Creating a strong diversity recruitment strategy will inevitably improve your team's performance and ability to drive innovation within your industry. If you want to talk more about how we can help you build diversity into the focus of your recruitment strategy, get in touch - we'd be all too happy to help. This week’s Red Talks podcast featured Emma Walker of Auticon - a unique, multi-national IT consultancy and social enterprise, which exclusively employs autistic adults as IT consultants. Listen to the podcast to hear what more hiring companies can do to be do more Neuroinclusive, or head to Auticon’s website and learn all about their Neurodiversity Inclusion Service training they have on offer too.