What is Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

In today’s society, inclusion and diversity within the workplace are more important than ever. Over the past couple of years, even from a search perspective, we’ve seen the overall number of searches related to ‘workforce diversity’ increase by 89%, indicating that this has become a prevalent topic and conversation amongst hiring managers and talent acquisition specialists.  

What is diversity and inclusion in the workplace?

A diverse and inclusive workforce represents people within a wide range of cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. In terms of promoting diversity within the workplace, this typically explores characteristics from different backgrounds, including: 

• Gender 
• Ethnicity  
• Neurodiversity 
• Religious beliefs 
• Socioeconomic status  

What are the benefits of a diverse workplace? 

Research shows that businesses who hire more diverse teams benefit from a variety of skill sets and approaches to problems solving and increased effectiveness which helps the company’s bottom line thrive.

Some of the benefits of a diverse workforce include:  

• New Creative Ideas - Having a diverse workforce means new ideas are being brought to the table, which will help with evolving existing business strategies and help foster new strategies.   
• Higher Quality Candidates - Diversity naturally fosters the opportunity for your company to access a broader range of talent from a bigger talent pool. 
• Reduced employee turnover - A more diverse workforce, naturally reduces employee turnover. The talent hired will feel more valued and are, therefore more likely to stay with an employer.  
• Reduced Talent Acquisition Cost - As an HR department, you aren’t reactively searching for more new talent, saving you from paying higher recruitment fees.

How to promote diversity in the workplace? 

Multinational corporations are already aware of the importance of attracting and retaining a diverse workforce. While there are no set guidelines on how to ensure a company is taking a fair and balanced approach, there is general advice.

The first step is to avoid unconscious bias in the interview stage, this is shown when talent acquisition teams skew their hiring process to benefit those who are similar to them. This can be avoided by ensuring the recruitment process includes diverse opinions from people within the business.

It’s also important to ensure diversity is not seen as an add-on. Developing strategies early on ensure inclusive hiring becomes a part of the company’s culture and leads a broader talent pool and stronger talent pipeline.    

Our diversity planning service doesn’t just give you a pipeline of talent you may never have considered before, we take an in-depth dive into your industry to discover the current best practices and strategies used by your competitors. This allows you to benchmark and improves your business’ diversity initiatives, ensuring you’re going the extra mile to attract the best talent. 

If you would like to get in touch, contact our team of talent mapping and pipelining experts today.