Diversity Hire: Creating an Inclusive Workplace
Businesses across the globe are rapidly learning that diversity works. In fact, companies with a diverse workforce produced 19 percent more revenue.
The primary reason behind the revenue disparity was innovation. Diverse work forces are more likely to develop and execute innovative ideas.
Your company can grow revenue and profit by creating an inclusive work environment. Hiring from a diverse pool of candidates is the most important step towards achieving an inclusive business model.
Read on to learn the importance of diversity hires. Explore what makes a diversity candidate and how these hires can help your business achieve an inclusive environment.
What Is a Diversity Candidate?
Many business owners have an extremely narrow view of the term diversity. They believe that diversity candidates are African American, Latino, or belong to other minority groups.
While this is true, it is just the tip of the iceberg for a diverse workforce. The truth is that diversity extends far beyond race.
The objective is to assemble a workforce with diversity of thought. People from different backgrounds approach problem-solving and innovation from other angles.
This means that diversity extends to gender and religion, among many other characteristics. For example, employees from various geographical locations can result in great innovation.
How to Improve Diversity Hiring?
It is time to perform an audit on your company’s diversity. Evaluate the entire workforce and determine the composition.
What percentage of your workforce is made up of women? Are there a significant number of different geographic regions represented?
This self-audit will help you improve diversity hiring. It will also allow your company to set diversity hiring goals.
For example, millennials currently consist of 10 percent of your workforce. This is determined to be a weakness and the company aims to increase this figure to 20 percent in the next two years.
What to Look for in the Hiring Process?
Hiring a diverse workforce is not cut and dry. In fact, you need to look beyond the standard bearers of qualification like education and employment history.
Many hiring managers make the mistake of looking for candidates with work experience in a same or similar industry. However, this approach does not lend towards diversity of thought.
Bringing in someone outside the box is likely to bring in new ideas and solutions. For innovation, leverage outside viewpoints is preferred over a group of like-minded individuals.
How to Create an Inclusive Environment?
Hiring a diverse workforce is merely the first step. Now, the question is how do you foster an inclusive and innovative environment?
The key to maximizing the capability of your workforce is empowerment. This involves creating processes and procedures that allow employees to collaborate and make impactful decisions. Empowering your employees to innovate is what maximizes the potential of your workforce.
A Recap of Diversity Hires
There are many misconceptions in the business world about diversity. With the knowledge acquired in this article, you are ready to promote diversity of thought in hiring. This will lead to innovation and additional revenues.
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