By: Mariam Khan
Diversity in the workplace is now considered to be a very smart move to be making if people wish to attain the most success in their business. Now, we have been told that having a diverse workforce is ensuring the little things like having a range of different age groups, but it is a lot more complex than that, challenges do arise with having a diverse workforce, but it also comes with a lot of advantages that some people may not be aware of.
Sometimes, people are not ready or open enough to accept diversity and this is something that is going to take time.
The general categories that are widely spoken about are educational backgrounds, skills and abilities, sexual orientation, religion, culture, language and more. Being able to implement all of the different diversity groups within your company will lead to business being able to reach bigger goals and aspirations.
The business world is evolving, and so is the workplace culture. Rising organizational diversity is one of the top priorities for today’s business leaders and managers. By having a diverse group of people, you can get a variety of different opinions and perspectives on particular topics which can lead to great business growth.
It also heightens to creativity and innovation of the company; it allows for a greater pool of minds that can all work together for a common goal but maybe bring a different level at the same time. There is also an increased rate of productivity, with general research showing that there can be up to a 35% boost. A diverse workforce is generally more to understand their customers better so that they can help them more effectively.
The turnover of staff is also greatly reduced, people are happier when they are accepted and valued for who they are and what they can bring to the table in a business. It is not an uncommon saying that happy employees are good employees, it means that recruiting agencies will be spending less money on continuously recruiting staff and that money will be able to be used in a better manner.
You also get a wider range of customers that are available to the business, having a diverse workforce appeals to a bigger market and businesses will be able to connect and bring value to a wide variety of individuals.
Sometimes, people are not ready or open enough to accept diversity and this is something that is going to take time. But the bonus is that these people can be filtered out in the long run and with good recruiting, you can build the diverse team that the business wants. Other issues can be communication, other diversity categories will hold and present themselves differently which can be something that needs to be addressed, please note that we say addressed, not changed. It is simply a lesson to be learnt to be able to understand the workforce and be able to provide an environment where they can function at their best self and bring all of their talents to your business.
Diversity in a workplace is needed for long term growth and it is a learning curve for a lot of businesses to be able to implement this correctly within their workforce.
The writer is the Founder/CEO of MK Coaching and currently working with The Dayspring as Bureau Chief-Washington, DC. She can be reached at [email protected].