Why Diverse Workplaces Outshine The Monoculture

The splendour of diversity and inclusion in the workplace is akin to a lush forest full of countless varieties of trees. Now, imagine a forest filled only with palm trees. Besides being dreary, such a ‘forest’ would never support the profusion of flora and fauna found in natural forests. This offbeat example illustrates why a diverse and inclusive workforce is so crucial for enterprises to thrive in the long term. 

Some elaboration is required regarding both terms. Workplace diversity denotes the creation of a vibrant culture represented by a varied workforce comprising members from various ethnic groups, cultures, religions, genders and abilities. Conversely, inclusion refers to the concept of leveraging this diversity in a manner that recognises and utilises the unique strengths of every employee. 

Accordingly, a diverse and inclusive workplace makes sure that every employee, irrespective of their background or organisational role, always feels equally acknowledged, involved and supported in all aspects of work. This has a substantial impact on the performance and outcomes of the organisation. 

Diverse Benefits of an Inclusive Workplace

A diverse and inclusive workplace environment provides multiple benefits such as: 

Building a bigger talent pool: HR heads must expand recruitment searches to include candidates from diverse ethnicities, backgrounds, age groups, etc. Apart from widening the talent pool, it raises the chances of discovering some of the best hires. A more qualified and diverse talent pool is critical for ensuring better business outcomes. 

Improved enterprise performance: Diversity acts as a competitive differentiator. According to a UK-based study covering 600 business decisions across a wide spectrum of industries made by 200 teams, diverse teams outperformed individuals approximately 87 per cent of the time in business decision-making processes. Diverse teams also made faster decisions compared to individuals. Similarly, gender-diverse teams outperformed individuals 73 per cent of the time against 58 per cent for all-male teams.

Greater employee engagement: Employees who felt included were more engaged and went the extra mile for their organisations, leading to a cascading effect on team morale, retention and profitability. People employed in inclusive workplaces were also inclined to enjoy better physical and mental health and availed of less leave due to health issues. A massive 83 per cent of millennials were actively engaged in work when their companies supported diversity and inclusion initiatives. Moreover, an inclusive work environment helps organisations foster greater trust between employees and the leadership. 

More innovation: The Harvard Business Review noted a significant statistical link between diversity and innovative outcomes. The most diverse organisations vis-à-vis industry, career path, migration, gender, age and education were the most innovative too, as per their revenue mix assessment. Also, diverse teams could identify products and services that were better suited for the needs of emerging customer profiles. 

Tracking and Validating Outcomes

Nevertheless, diversity and inclusion efforts must be tracked and validated to assess and understand their impact on organisational as well as employee performance. Without tracking and measuring, it’s not possible to assess any improvement. Note that annual surveys won’t work. 

Therefore, it’s important to garner real-time insights via the process of continuous listening regarding the feelings of employees. Continuous listening gathers direct feedback from employees and helps prevent potential conflicts that may otherwise have gone unnoticed by leaders. Organisations can use this information to formulate more people-centric measures that establish a trustworthy relationship with employees, facilitating better performance driven by greater diversity. 

On the other hand, it’s more challenging to measure inclusion. However, it can be done by undertaking employee engagement and satisfaction surveys, checking employee turnover rates and the perception of fairness in the workplace. These help in determining whether employees share a sense of oneness and belonging. 

Yet, gathering all this information is only one aspect of the conundrum. The management must then follow up with requisite action to ascertain these insights are used in augmenting the organisational approach to diversity and inclusion initiatives. Shortfalls should be addressed by making the necessary adjustments.

Steps to Diversity and Inclusion 

Outlined below are key ways to build a more diverse and inclusive workforce:

Foster a sense of belonging: To encourage employees to put their best foot forward, companies must nurture a sense of belonging among them. Powerful connections with an organisation promote higher engagement and workplace creativity. Additionally, companies can hold regular diversity workshops and cultural training sessions to eliminate subconscious bias while educating both managers and workers about the significance of inclusiveness. 

Promote empathetic and inclusive leadership: Not just HR heads, but every leader in the organisation must adhere to diversity and inclusion practices via an empathetic and inclusive leadership style. Such an approach will assist leaders in promoting collaboration between diverse staff, providing actionable feedback, holding constructive debates and heeding the advice of diverse employee cohorts. 

Respect diverse denominations and cultures: Acknowledging and respecting various cultural and religious practices at the workplace is the first step towards implementing diversity and inclusion practices successfully. For example, the holidays and festivals of all communities should be respected and commemorated. This will boost the happiness and satisfaction quotient of diverse groups, leading to higher productivity and greater employee retention. 

Integrate inclusiveness into core values: Companies must review and revise core values to embed diversity and inclusion ethos into the organisational fabric. This is possible through periodic employee feedback, creating a dedicated panel of members drawn from different departments to promote fairness and transparency in the process and making sure employees cutting across different races, cultures, genders and ethnic groups are all allowed fair representation in the decision-making procedure. 

Furthermore, an organisation’s best practices and policies should be documented and always made available to employees. This code of conduct must be reviewed and updated regularly to highlight the company’s steadfast approach to diversity, inclusion and non-discrimination. These norms should be considered as part of the annual staff training to reinforce their significance within the company.

Finally, one must frequently recognise and reward all deserving employees with an outstanding record of adhering to diversity and inclusion measures. The company’s rewards programme could be used for this so the workforce publicly celebrates the achievement of their recognised peers. Ultimately, nothing is more gratifying than being appreciated publicly for practising the priceless ethos of diversity and inclusion. As for organisations, they stand to gain from all-round employee loyalty that drives their long-term organisational success. 

Sandeep Banerjee

Guest Author The author is the CHRO, Eveready Industries India