Diversity Increases Success and Returns

Why is hiring a diverse workforce critical? Simply put, diversity is good for business.

Why pledge?

Diversity and inclusion is better for business, increases
investment returns, lowers volatility, drives innovation
and flat out outperforms.

Diversity matters and The Startup Diversity and Inclusion Pledge is a roadmap for building a diverse company and inclusive culture that will increase success and returns.

• Diversity increases profits: Diverse teams lead to hire profits. Research from McKinsey & Company shows that companies are 33% more likely to experience above-average profitability when they have ethnically-diverse executive teams, and 21% more likely when those teams are gender-diverse.
• Diversity drives innovation: Diversity across teams and leadership drives innovative new products that better meets the needs of a broader cliental. Findings published by the Center for Talent Innovation show that diverse teams are as much as 158% more likely to understand the needs of their diverse clients, increasing the likelihood that they’ll innovate to meet those needs.
• Diversity decreases mistakes: Individuals with different backgrounds and styles approach problems differently. Research published by an MIT professor exploring past literature, found that diverse teams tend to be less susceptible to groupthink, which can drastically reduce the likelihood of making avoidable mistakes.
• Diversity attracts great people: People want to work at companies where they’ll feel a sense of belonging. Data from Glassdoor shows hiring decision makers are finding nearly one in five candidates are heavily influenced by diversity and inclusion initiatives in their decision to take the job.

Why not just say we run a meritocracy and leave it at that? That could work if you could attribute anyone’s success solely to their own smarts and hard work. But, opportunities, connections, socioeconomic status, race and gender matter. In practice, meritocracy is a myth and that is why being intentional around diversity and inclusion is important.

Ready to start? Take The Startup Diversity and Inclusion Pledge today.