Diversity and inclusion are increasingly being viewed with a sense of importance by businesses, and the reasons are not purely altruistic. They are practical and focused on the bottom line. In a previous post, we discussed how diversity and inclusion can contribute to the bottom line by helping organizations understand and connect with the increasingly diverse American market, understand an increasingly global market with increasingly diverse and international sources of wealth, and bring in a wide range of perspectives and viewpoints.
Here, we’ll look at another very specific reason businesses pursue policies that promote diversity and inclusion: employees crave and expect it.
Employees Want Diversity …
An article by Valerie Bolden-Barrett for HR Dive cites some eye-opening statistics. First, employees crave diversity, in numbers that overshadow the diversity of employees or the general population: “A majority of employees (78%) say a workplace where people are treated equally—regardless of gender, sexual orientation, age, race, or religion— is important to them, according to the results of new Randstad US survey,” she writes.
… But, They Don’t See It in Their Workplace
Unfortunately, according to the same Randstad survey, more than half of both women (56%) and men (52%) believe their employers could do more to promote gender equality and diversity. A shocking 80% of women would switch employers for improved gender equality.
In a tight labor market, and in a labor market increasingly dependent on skilled and qualified labor, employers need to do everything they can to retain their top talent. According to survey results, the writing on the wall is clear: employees want diverse and inclusive workplaces. Both for themselves and others. What are you doing to respond to these needs?
Over two posts we’ve looked at the topic of diversity and inclusion in the workplace and how both are important to a business’s bottom line. First, we looked at how a diverse and inclusive workplace can help tap into diverse national and international markets and bring in new insights. Here we looked at how diversity and inclusion are increasingly important to employees. Hopefully, we’ve made a strong case that diversity and inclusion offer big benefits to a business’s bottom line.
In our third post on this topic, we’ll be looking at some strategies for building diversity and emphasizing inclusion in the workplace.