The Importance of Diversity Equity & Inclusion in the Workplace

Why It Is Critical to Focus on Diversity Equity & Inclusion in your Business

Most revolutionary business leaders place a lot of emphasis on employee satisfaction and development in their leadership philosophies, and for good reason. The biggest, and by far the most important reason being the fact that employees are the driving force behind every business’s success, which translates to growth in revenue streams.

While this aspect usually goes unnoticed, the forward-thinking of such leadership brings to light just how closely related revenue growth is to the employees’ need for feeling valued and heard. And even this boils down to a number of factors, which include a work culture that embraces diversity, inclusion, and equity, among others.

Why diversity and inclusion are essential in revolutionizing your business

Simply put, diversity is the hiring of professionals with a wide variety of backgrounds, from gender to age, race, sexuality, economic status, among other factors.

However, inclusion is what plays the most important role in empowering all of these diverse talents and ideas, so much so, that it helps to enhance culture and innovation and eventually leads to overall growth.

All of this to say, that diversity is simply the vast point of view available in the company’s pool of employees, while inclusion is what brings out the best in those ideas, thus helping the company to focus on a wider and more comprehensive understanding of the global market.

This is what makes both diversity and inclusion so vital for a business. When a business is operating with these two aspects in tandem, you can expect some tremendously positive results.

Without equity and opportunities, the talents that exist across diverse peoples go to waste, and when that happens, the world suffers a great loss. A company cannot hope to realize its own full potential if it does not create equitable opportunities and set a seat at the table for a wider spectrum of people. Opportunity must be given in order to move forward, and inclusion is what plays the most critical role in empowering diverse talents and ideas. Inclusion and opportunity then enhance the culture of the company, kickstart innovation, and finally lead to overall growth.

Fitting into a global market

As the global marketplace evolves, many companies are focusing solely on quality, perhaps a differentiation of products, and then counting on their employees to deliver to create a successful business. Quality is critical, but focusing on employee retention and recruitment, and creating a safe and diverse atmosphere can take business leagues ahead. By focusing on creating a career path, competitive salaries, and a strong benefit model, a company is primed to draw in talented employees of all backgrounds.

The creation of a workplace culture of diversity and inclusion makes your company competitive in the global marketplace. Remember, the world today is much smaller than it was in the past. Information is available to people across the world at the click of a button. Goods and services can be shared across borders. But to communicate effectively, to create a product or finetune a service to appeal to different demographics, your workforce must be made of diverse backgrounds.

With prospects and clientele coming from a similarly wide variety of backgrounds, from culture to race, backgrounds, it is more important than ever that your employees represent this as well, creating more opportunities for your workforce to connect with the customer base of your company.

The proof is in the research

According to Diversity Best Practices, companies that drive innovation through leveraging several perspectives can achieve a product revenue target of up to 46%, with 47% more product launch dates than their counterparts.

Further, the Center for Talent Innovation reports that companies with skilled inclusive leadership have up to a 45% greater chance of increasing in market share, as well as up to 70% of higher chances of capturing new markets.

It is worth mentioning that these aspects have been shown to have a direct tie to employee satisfaction and retention, which is key to the company’s success in the long term. And this revolves around employee satisfaction, which, especially for the young generation, is not only based on high wages and benefits but also on a feeling of empowerment, a voice, and the ability to share ideas openly.