Importance Of Diversity And Inclusion For Business Growth Diversity and inclusion are important assets for any organization's growth and success

Companies with functional workplace diversity tend to outperform their competitors and achieve greater profits. Thus, today I shall focus on the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Diversity and inclusion are important assets for any organization's growth and success. It is a hot topic among many global companies to achieve international recognition. Indeed, a diverse workforce and inclusion in the workplace is a sign of egalitarian work culture.

Workplace diversity is not only about factors such as hiring people of different genders, ages, races, ethnicity, cultures and backgrounds. It is not only about creating the right male-to-female ratio, but it is about employee engagement, teamwork, collaboration and increased productivity for achieving organizational goals.

Even if employees have commonalities, they still are different and bring their personalities to work. As managers and leaders, you must hire people with varied personalities because it garners creativity and offers an array of ideas and innovation.

Importance Of Implementing And Upgrading Diversity And Inclusion

A diverse and inclusive workplace has many benefits like such as greater revenues, increased innovation and creativity, ability to recruit diverse talent pool from all spheres of the society and higher employee retention.

If you do not appreciate employees' ideas, presence, or contributions to your organization, they will eventually leave.

Emphasizing diversity and inclusion has led many companies to succeed. And you must practice this, too, by upgrading and improving your D&I programs.

It is imperative to do so because it helps to:

Attract more talent: Hiring and recruiting talented people from various racial backgrounds and other spheres is a sign of progressive company culture. Make sure your company is not focused heavily on financial gains only. If that happens, then under-represented employees may question your integrity and might attrite themselves thinking you value profits over their existence and rights.

Attract millennials: According to Gallup, Gen Z and Millennials make up 47 per cent of the US working population, and they actively look for inclusive companies to work with. And, you must attract a young and energetic workforce to increase productivity and diversity.

Young employees focus on equal opportunities irrespective of race, gender, caste, and any other differentiation. Thus, they tend to inquire about a company's D&I programs in interviews. So, you must have a diversity and inclusion program to attract young people from various racial and other minorities for excellent company culture.

Retain employees: Employee retention has become a challenging task, especially when the pandemic has hit the world. With the economy sliding downwards, it is vital to maintain a balance in productivity and performance.

This is the time you must show your support to every employee. Not only the star performers but every employee. You must encourage and elevate everyone's motivation irrespective of their racial identities and designation.

A diversity and inclusion program will help you do this, and you can use this to your advantage to retain your employees. This is important because having diverse employees fosters a true sense of belonging and improves employee experience as a whole.

Boost company reputation: Here, I would like to mention something about the World's Most Admired Companies (WMACs), and they receive this title because they prioritize diversity and inclusion in their work culture.

Whenever we talk about equality and equity in the workforce, racial equality hits our minds at first. Countries like the US and India have people from various racial backgrounds, and we must recognize them and provide them equal opportunities.

So, you can start by socially recognizing your employees. This creates a sense of belonging and enhances employee advocacy. By doing so, I believe we all can improve company reputation with customers, clients, and prospective hires.

Increase creativity: Recruiting a diverse team will help your business flourish with diverse people bringing in their creativity to work. When you have a diverse talent pool, they get their regional and ethnic experiences to ideate on projects. This gives the team options and spaces to become creative. As a result, you can witness increased productivity and highly engaged employees.

I would always advocate hiring people from all sorts of backgrounds. This is a great way to innovate and create something extraordinary for the success of any organization.

Improve employee wellbeing: According to Psychology Today, a strong relationship exists between a diverse/inclusive work environment and employee wellbeing. If your under-represented employees don't feel they belong to your workplace, it can impact their sense of wellbeing. This might trigger stress and anxiety. Hence, you must be upfront about your support of racial minorities.

Create a positive company culture: Rich ideas, experiences, employees, inclusivity, equality are signs of a diverse organization. All of these come together to form your company culture, which is crucial for achieving organizational success.

When we care for our employees and give them equal opportunities, we gain their respect and trust. And mind you, we must do it without biases or prejudices. All that matters is work and not their unique identities.

A workplace that promotes peace, harmony, and equity will always create a positive company culture. And that's all you need for your employees to recommend your company. Good company culture is a reflection of fair opportunities without any sort of discrimination.

Final Words

Improving and implementing a solid diversity and inclusion program in your workplace creates a sense of belonging amongst your employees. It promotes harmony and peace. There are multiple benefits of diversity and inclusion programs and it aids in creating an amazing company culture. And, I believe equality is the way to progress.

In our stride towards progress, we must acknowledge, respect, and treat everyone equally irrespective of their identities which might not fit into your mainstream world.