How to Create a Stronger Team by Hiring for Diversity

Research has consistently shown that companies with a diverse workforce are more productive, have lower turnover and present a stronger brand.

When you bring a wide range of ideas, viewpoints, and communications styles to the workplace, you’re not only creating a diverse team, you’re engineering a diversity of thought that can be agile and responsive to many kinds of issues. We all have our own points of view that we offer, and a diverse workforce can reduce a company’s blind spots. Plus, diverse teams are more creative because staff members with various attitudes and experiences can create a laboratory for new ideas and innovation.

When your business supports diversity, you’re building a workplace that closely resembles the fabric of our country. Millennials are the most diverse generation in America yet and surveys have shown they actively try to find companies with diversity and inclusion programs.

If staff members realize that their business values diversity, then they feel more comfortable bringing their total identity to work, regardless of gender, race or sexuality. This leads to much higher levels of employee engagement and can turn your staff members into brand ambassadors for your business.

Diverse teams are also better situated to develop products or solutions for many different people across the country and around the world, which can have a far-reaching effect for a brand.

All of these small benefits add up to bigger profits. One recent study connected robust diversity in a company to 19-percent higher revenues. Clearly, there’s a big financial incentive for businesses who support diversity.

Creating a Diverse Team

Diversity within an organization generally doesn’t happen by accident. It requires a defined strategy to which a company makes a commitment.

A good diversity plan emphasizes an unbiased hiring process. Because we tend to make subconscious judgements about people if they have a name that gives away their race, religion or gender, one good approach is to have hiring managers adopt a name-blind approach to reviewing application materials.

A company can also attract a wider range of applicants by offering benefits that speak to different types of people. For instance, extending certain types of LGBTQ-specific health coverage can help to draw applicants from these communities.

It is also important for diversity to be represented at the very top of an organization. If people see that company leadership is comprised of different genders, ethnicities, ages and physical abilities, is sends a powerful message that the company isn’t exclusionary when it comes to power and influence.

Let Career Concepts Support Diversity in Your Organization

At Career Concepts, we are highly motivated to support our clients’ diversity efforts. If your company is currently looking to expand and diversify its workforce, please contact us today.