Successfully attracting and retaining a diverse workforce has never been more important for businesses. Not only does it foster innovation, trust, and problem solving, it’s profitable too.
Arguably the most significant benefit is that diverse organisations are more successful at attracting the talent they need, particularly when it comes to attracting millennials.
So, the key question is what can your company do to promote diversity and inclusion? To tackle this, we firstly need to understand what diversity means, and how the term has evolved.
1. Transform what you already know about diversity
Diversity is more than what race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation your workforce consists of.
“It’s also about how different points of view are accepted and valued,” said Marta Steele, a workplace expert from PeopleResults, an HR consultancy firm. Steele raises a vital point that is often overlooked – increasingly, diversity can be seen as a collection of individuals with differing opinions, ideas, identities, political views, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
This shifting view of diversity, particularly amongst millennials, is known as ‘cognitive diversity’, according to research conducted by Deloitte.
It is therefore worthwhile reframing what diversity means to you by taking into consideration new, less obvious diversity considerations like the above.
2. Foster a collaborative and inclusive culture
To support diversity, a culture of trust, acceptance of differences, and open communication should be in place. If this doesn’t sound like your company culture, consider making changes in order to attract and retain diverse talent. If you don’t, it will make retaining new hires from varied backgrounds much more problematic.
This is especially true if you have an older workforce and want to bring younger people into your organisation. 83% of millennials report being actively engaged when their employer has invested in an inclusive work culture, according to Deloitte.
3. Educate the decision makers
The leaders and decision makers in your organisation will be key to ensuring your diversity efforts come to fruition.
Try to engage your company leadership in discussion about the topic, or even better, suggest that they participate in training sessions that involve discussion and strategy creation that aims to foster diversity throughout the company.
4. Ensure your strategy reaches the entire business
Your diversity strategy shouldn’t just be an HR or recruitment initiative. There needs to be a consistent focus and long-term commitment to incorporating a diverse culture, that reaches all elements and hierarchies of the business. Ultimately, once the key leaders of your organisation understand that diversity policies and investments are not just a tick-box exercise but increase the profitability of a business is when your strategy will gain true respect and success.
5. Record and report using an intelligent HR software solution
It’s imperative that you continually record relevant data relating to the diversity of your workforce. Youmanage can store vital information such as gender, ethnicity, age, and disability, allowing you to keep track of this valuable intelligence in a secure digital format.
Being able to report this information is also critical to ensuring you – and the leaders in your organisation – can understand how diverse your company is, and make informed decisions in order to improve. Youmanage can produce detailed graphic reports quickly and easily, allowing you to focus on the results rather than on time-consuming admin tasks.
People analytics such as this is not only important for your diversity strategy, but is also imperative to the overall business strategy.
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