Modern businesses are no longer bound by geographical and regional limits. In such a world where age, race, religion, nationality or sexuality are mere attributes, and not limitations, it is critical for businesses to focus on diversity at the workplace. As an organization, it is important to hire quality talent that improves output, employee satisfaction and revenue generation. A diverse workforce which transcends boundaries is the logical first step to achieve business objectives. Having great engagement and diversity at the workplace can boost a company’s market reputation and profitability. Modern business leaders are aware of the trends and don’t hesitate in creating policies or taking initiatives which foster workplace engagement and diversity. Let’s take a look at some ways in which a cultural shift towards diversity can drive business growth:
Inclusive not just diverse
In any conventional large business or organization, employees from different ethnic, religious or social backgrounds work together. However, more often than not, the mere presence of diversity is not capable of driving engagement and this is where inclusiveness gains prominence. The purpose of diversity is automatically defeated if the organization sets rules and processes that discourage diverse expressions. Thus, it is important to provide support to your employees in a way that they are encouraged to maintain individuality even while working towards common business goals. Removing language barriers, providing infrastructure that supports differently-abled employees or new mothers are some of the things that companies are doing to support diversity.
Celebrating religious and ethnic diversity
An organization has the same religion and ethnicity as each of its employees. Hence, an inclusive organization can boost employee experience and engagement by celebrating and honouring the diversity it has. For instance, you can celebrate different religious festivals or practices, create cafeteria menus that consider all sensibilities, etc. Employees working in organizations that identify and honour individual sensibilities are easier to retain.
Give everyone an equal voice and opportunity
No matter where your company is located or which group forms the majority of employees (assuming there is one such majority group), as a business leader, it is important to treat everyone equally and give them an equal opportunity to grow. Great companies let their employees know that they are valued, respected and are crucial to the organization’s plans irrespective of their diversity. Employee engagement in such organizations is boosted by the constant support and freedom given to them in terms of sharing inputs and feedback.
In many cases, employees from minority groups or genders become afraid of expressing their opinions or disagreements due to fears of persecution. They might be afraid of complaining against discrimination due to the fear of losing their jobs, thus, remaining disconnected and adversely affecting the engagement at workplace.
Age diversity
One of the common problems faced by modern businesses is the lack of age diversity. Being young and educated, start-up founders are well versed with the need to hire people from different ethnic, religious or regional groups. They also pay adequate attention to gender diversity and maintaining a healthy male/female ratio in the workplace. However, there may be a lack of focus on age diversity. More often than not, you will see that most employees of an organization belong to the same age bracket. While this might make interaction easier and more informal among the workforce, it also greatly diminishes the scope of insights and market understanding that age diversity can bring in. For instance, Generation X has different sensibilities than millennials and vice versa. Having a multi-generation workforce helps in creating different buyer personas based on the inputs from the teams, helping the company create better products and services.
Language diversity
The diversity of language is inextricably linked to cultural and regional diversity. People speaking different languages at the workplace automatically make the atmosphere conducive to engagement and broadening of cultural understanding as well as sensitization. Employees coming from different backgrounds get to better understand their colleagues from other communities, regions and nationalities and their needs. This cultivates mutual tolerance, respect and flexibility among the employees compared to organizations that lack such diversity.
How diversity benefits a business
There are numerous benefits of having a diverse workforce that go far beyond employee engagement and experience. For instance, a broader perspective and understanding of the target markets. Employees will have different opinions and inputs and can collectively help the business in understanding the customers and establishing a stronger rapport with them. A multi-lingual workforce could help in communicating with people from different states in their regional languages and delivering superior customer experience. This is something we have already seen in the telecom sector and other pan India service provider organizations. The superior audience connect helps in boosting brand loyalty and turnover for the organization.
In the post-pandemic world, inclusivity is the only way forward for businesses. Brands that adopt diversity to improve their workplace engagement will also succeed faster in the markets that they operate in.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vikas Bagaria is the Founder of Pee Safe, a leading personal hygiene and wellness brand. With over 24 years of extensive business experience, Vikas is a serial entrepreneur with popular brands like SafetyKart to his name. He has also been the Founder and Director for SRV Damage Preventions Pvt. Ltd – A conditional based monitoring business into Aerospace, Defense and Power Transformers.
