Valuing diversity in the workplace means employing people from varied backgrounds and experiences to bring diverse skills, perspectives, and talents to generate creative solutions, ideation and increased profitability. Equity and Inclusion concern the act of creating an environment where every employee feels welcomed, supported, valued, respected, and equitably treated. This is reflected in both organisational policies and in practice.

Hiring people from various diverse backgrounds and valuing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace not only translates to better work culture, happier employees and more productive outcomes, but studies by McKinsey and Company have shown additional benefits. For example, a 2019 study showed “that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25 percent more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile.” “In the case of ethnic and cultural diversity, top-quartile companies outperformed those in the fourth one by 36 percent in profitability.”

The benefits of incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusionary practices into your workforce are real and backed by quantifiable research, proving the importance of investing early on in improving work culture and fostering inclusion.

Link to the research report is here.

A total company approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion means taking accountability across the organisation with a willingness to change from the top executive leadership to employees, contractors and volunteers. Change starts from within, and it is important it is translated across the company for it to be most effective.

A 2016 Harvard Business Review article found that “the problem with current D&I initiatives: not only do traditional diversity programs not work, but recent research shows that they can even have a negative effect on diversity outcomes.” Here at Diversity Focus, we do not take a traditional approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (with tick-box exercises and once off trainings). The reason being is that, doing something for the sake of just doing is inauthentic, both to the people who work for you and your customers. Link to article here.

Rather, we collaborate closely with companies to tailor a focus; first on mindset shift and then on initiatives that instill companywide cultural change. Driven by research and transparency across the organisation, we collaborate with companies to critically examine and find goals and objectives. From there, we explore if and how the company wishes to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion among employees after looking at their own statistics. Change needs to be customised and relevant to each individual company.