Importance of Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace
In today's scenario, everyone knows that diversity and inclusion are an integral part of their work. Despite this fact, people generally have a hard time believing just how vital workplace diversity and inclusion are to the organization. Whenever we talk about diversity and inclusion, the first thing you might focus on is the factors that categorize people into specific groups like gender, race, age, religion, and similar demographic designations. However, we all should expand our knowledge and learn more about diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
So, here in this article, we'll talk about what diversity and inclusion are and how they can prove beneficial for the workplace in the long run!
What are Diversity and Inclusion?
Diversity and inclusion in the workplace are combinations of words that you have most probably heard multiple times by now. This concept is continuously gaining popularity in the corporate world because its benefits are highly increasing. Let's have a closer look at each one of them!
Diversity
Diversity in the workplace refers to understanding, valuing, and accepting the differences between all the people working in an organization. This may involve people from different races, gender, ages, religion, sexual orientations, etc. In addition to this, it may include people, including the ones with differences in personalities, education, knowledge, experience, etc.
Inclusion
On the other hand, inclusion in the workplace is a supportive, respectful and collaborative environment that enhances all the employees' contribution and participation level working in an organization. Ideally, a perfect inclusion removes all the hurdles, including intolerance and discrimination. Whenever inclusion is welcomed in an organization, it is pretty natural for every employee to feel valued, supported, and included.
This was all about what diversity and inclusion are! Now, we will move further and learn more about how both these things are essential in a workplace.
6 Major Benefits of Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace
If we talk about the importance of diversity and inclusion in IT staffing, then it creates a sense of belongingness among all the employees. Additionally, it serves many more benefits. Have a look!
Broader Talent Pool
If you are not considering changing the structure of the recruitment process or IT staffing in your company, you will always end up getting the same type of employees. Having the same kind of employees in an organization might create problems in the long run because you will never have new or creative ideas from someone's end. Therefore, you must continually expand your recruitment process to more diverse candidates involving age, ethnicity, and background. This will surely help you widen the talent tool and increase the chances of recruiting the best candidate.
Enhanced Trust and Engagement of Employees
When employees in an organization feel included, they get more engaged. The highly engaged and satisfied employees are always ready to go the extra mile to help them achieve their goals. This enhanced engagement and trust has a direct positive impact on team morale, profitability, and retention. People who work in an inclusive workplace tend to have better mental and physical health and take fewer leaves than those working in a non-inclusive workplace. With diversity and inclusion, you can always expect high employee engagement and trust.
Quality Decision Making
It is always true that diverse employees make quality decisions. Most companies generally exclude their employees from the process of decision-making. As a result, they always make faulty decisions that don't prove fruitful in the long run. So, if you will incorporate diversity and inclusion in the workplace, involving diverse involves in decision-making will help you make quality decisions because you can gain new perspectives and ideas that can be much better than yours!
New Innovation and Perspectives
When you have a more inclusive and diverse group of employees in your workplace, there are higher chances that you will come up with innovative and creative ideas than before! The teams with various employees can perfectly identify the services and products that fit the requirements of the emerging customer base. Moreover, the diverse employees have come across multiple adversities' in their life. These adversities force them to develop their expertise and sharpen problem-solving skills. So, involve diversity and inclusion in your workplace now and come up with more creative and unique ideas like never before.
Improved Business Results and Profits
Diversity and inclusion in a workplace always open good doors for the business. As per multiple researches, it was found that more diverse and inclusive workplaces earn 19% higher revenue than the companies that don't give much importance to diversity and inclusion. Companies that are notably more open to diversity and inclusion are 35% more likely to stand out from their competitors, which helps the organization gain better business results and profits.
Better Employee Performance
As discussed above, diversity and inclusion help improve the business results and profits. The main reason behind this outcome it increased employee performance and productivity. Diversity is a competitive differentiator that helps recruit better employees in an organization. On the other hand, inclusion helps the employees to feel included and valued, due to which they deliver better performance and results. With diversity and inclusion in your workplace, you can easily capture new markets, which will yield better employee performance.
Last Few Words
People are complex and unique beings that offer multiple offerings and a combination of their experiences, personalities, background, and identities. By welcoming diversity and inclusion in your workplace, you will surely unlock an opportunity to explore a lockbox full of diverse insights and new perspectives. So, it's time for you to involve diversity and inclusion in your workplace and see the magic that it brings into your organization. Always remember- "Valued employees are always the happiest employees!"