Importance of Diversity in the Workplace

Diversity in the workplace has been a hot topic nowadays. It is a good business decision that high-performing teams should take note of. Diversity is vital to a healthy workforce that promotes fair and transparent practices.

Diversity has a major impact on the productivity and performance of employees. When paid attention to, it can boost productivity and performance. And if not, it can be vice versa.

What is Diversity?

According to Growthforce, diverse teams in an organization have 19% higher revenue.

In simple words, Diversity is different ways of life. It is more than gender and race. Instead at the workplace, it is about the uniqueness each team member brings to the project or tasks. It can be because of various factors. Such as different geographical locations, career stages, education, thinking styles, and many more.

Hence, when there is diversity in the workplace, it brings a large talent pool. Various perspectives and learnings are exchanged leading to a boost in productivity. This further results in an increase in the performance and motivation of employees. As a result, increased profitability of the company.

Impact of Diversity on Team Performance and Productivity

Creativity and innovation: Creativity and innovation are often used interchangeably. But this is different. Creativity is the mental ability to come up with new ideas and concepts. In contrast, innovation is an extension of creativity. I.e. successfully implementing those ideas.

Diverse teams ensure both by offering new perspectives and thinking outside the box. This leads to solving problems and meeting customers in a new and exciting way.

Suppose, you have a team of four where you have to come up with a pitch about a service. Each of you has your own specialization and educational background. This will not only let you see things differently but come up with creative pitches.

Hence, helping you all grow and sustain in the organization.

Better decision-making: According to Deloitte, diversity and inclusion in a team improves decision-making quality by 20%.

Diversity in the workplace allows you to meet high-performing talents based on their skills, experience, and talent. Hence, bringing a larger talent pool to the organization. It fosters a culture of belongingness. This lets the individuals share their perspectives based on facts. By fact, we mean analyzing data and information carefully before making any conclusion. And as a result, the team come up with innovative solutions and better decision-making.

Prevents grouping: It is easy to form groups based on similarity. This is known as herding instinct. But, when teams are diverse, it pushes them to communicate with each other. They value one another on an individual basis. Hence, breaking down preconceived notions and cultural misunderstandings.

Imagine you have a team of six people. The four of you belong to the same state and share many similarities. While the same is not the case with the other two members. This makes them go sidelined and excluded from you all. But, when the manager ensures that diversity is the major element of this workplace and focuses on it. Team members can interact with each other despite their cultural or geographical differences.

This helps in fighting unconscious bias and improving employee retention rate too. As a result, hiring the best talent for your workplace.

Boost employee engagement: Employees are more likely to be actively engaged when diversity in the workplace is supported. As there is a direct relationship between diversity practices and employee engagement. They feel valued and included at their workplace. Hence, they are motivated to perform their best.

It also allows other members to actively take part and share their ideas. It results in high engagement leading to higher satisfaction and a low turnover rate.

Improves company culture: Workplace culture varies from company to company. It also depends on the size, work ethic, goal, and work environment. It is like the personality of your organization. So, company culture needs to be positive and inclusive.

Diversity in the workplace ensures that the team enjoys working with diverse groups. This broadens their perspective and keeps the culture growing.

As per a survey by Glassdoor, approximately 76% of respondents feel that a diverse and inclusive workforce is a vital factor for considering job opportunities.

Hence, it is vital to set up policies and processes to support diversity. This lets them feel embraced, supported, and valued at the workplace. Hence, they feel happier and more engaged at work.

In a Nutshell

Diversity in the workplace ensures higher productivity and performance. This impacts the company’s work culture as stated in the above-mentioned paragraph. It fosters progressive change and highlights the fact that your company is diversity-driven.